Site Supervisor Conf. 1

I spoke with my principal last week about potential ideas for research. I had 3 in mind, but she had another idea. At first I was hesitant. I liked my ideas. Eventually I agreed simply because she is my boss. I thought about going back to her to attempt to persuade her to agree to one of my own ideas. This caused me to dig deeper into my own ideas as well as her suggestion. Naturally, this allowed me to see that she was right. My action research study will allow me to collaborate with the four members of the first grade team as they implement a modification to the traditional Balanced Literacy approach. The aspect that will be modified is the way in which classes are divided into groups. Traditionally, each classroom divides itself into 5-7 groups of 4-5 students. These are homogeneous groups categorized along a continuum of low to high performing in reading. The groups then work through a series of learning stations designed to reinforce concepts of literacy while the teacher conducts Guided Reading lessons with each group. What frequently happens in classrooms is that the teacher spends the majority of his/her time reading with low groups while high groups are only worked with a couple of times per week. Also, many teachers have difficulty offering enough differentiation in the stations to meet the full needs of learners. The questions then arose, "How might each group benefit if they were in a room of similar performing groups?", "What if the teacher were able to tailor whole group lessons to more efficiently meet the needs of the whole group?", "Would our high performing students increase their performance if provided more challenging curriculum?" and "Will the struggling students show increased improvement with more time for individualized instruction?"
In order to answer these questions, the first grade teachers have divided the entire grade level into ability groups. The students are told that they will get to switch classes for Literacy. They have a homeroom teacher, a literacy teacher, and a math teacher. The homeroom teacher and math teacher are the same, but it still helps with the feel of changing classes like the older kids. Each teacher is then assigned groups of students with similar abilities. Struggling readers are provided targeted whole group lessons and Guided Reading. Advanced readers are provided with strategies more appropriate to their skill level. Some logistic details are still being worked out. The effectiveness of this experiment will be evaluated through TPRI and Observation Survey data collected at the beginning of year, middle of year, and again at the end of the year.