#seaccr Week 3 Essential Question, Annotated Bib, Reflection

#seaccr Week 3

What have others learned about my question?

Lenore's action research question:

Will using cross-curriculum content rich non-fiction, informational texts enhance the fluency and comprehension of 2nd grade students at McNeil?



This is a hot topic!  With the Common Core and Alaska Standards both necessitating the integration of 50/50 fiction/informational text, many articles have appeared about the subject. One of the best articles I have found comes from Educational Leadership: Common Core:  Now What?  According to the article, research suggests that the average juvenile reads less than 4 minutes per day of non-fiction text.   The article also states that juvenile fiction outsells informational text 4 to 1.   It goes on to say that low income juveniles read non-fiction even less, 1.9 minutes per day. Educational Leadership: Common Core:  Now What? states that is is not how much students read but what they read.  In order for students to succeed, they must read and comprehend informational texts as much as they do narrative texts. Researchers have noted another benefit of reading informational texts:  It is often the motivator to tapping into students' own personal interests.

In the Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences 13(2) Flowers and Flowers published the research paper:  Nonfiction int the Early Grades:  Making Reading and Writing Relevant for All Students.  The article gives the rational that emphasizing non-fiction in the primary grade curriculum, incorporates information from many different subject areas, including math, science, social studies, technology, art, music and writing.  Therefore, non-fiction promotes learning across the curriculum.  Educational researchers have found that little time is devoted to reading and writing non-fiction, even though it would seem primary grade teachers would devote significant instructional time to teaching non-fiction.  This group of researchers recommends that teachers participate in collaborative groups to coordinate and structure non-fiction reading and writing across the curriculum.  

Usborn books has published non-fiction, quality informational text for years.
They believe that providing quality non-fiction literature for children is the key to student success.  According to the Usborn books folks, students who read quality non-fiction books will write better because they have read good literature, maintain a higher level of vocabulary with tier two and three words, and because they read this type of text which has stimulated their minds while not dulling the mind like television and video games can do.

According to Capstone blogger Andrew, reading nonfiction texts is preparation for life itself.  He believes that non-fiction texts connect and prepare students to encounter the real world, to think logically, analyze information, evaluate and critically consider ideas. 

Scholastic published 6 reasons why students should be reading informational texts in primary education classes.  According to scholastic, non-fiction conveys information about the natural and social world in which we live.  It provides keys to success later on in school, it prepares students for real life experiences, it appeals to reluctant readers while addressing questions and interests, and it builds knowledge and vocabulary for the natural and social world.

The website Getting Boys to Read suggests that boys would tune into non-fiction, quality informational texts much more readily than fiction.  The Gurian Institute is another organization which encourages seeing reading through the lens of gender.  The institute believes that boys and girls learn differently and need gender specific strategies to positively affect the future in both academics and behavior of boys in school. Below is a graph that shows the Gurian Institute success for boys.  It includes increasing student engagement, teacher effectiveness, literacy based on informational text, STEM lessons, and teaching social-emotional skills.

It appears that quality informational non-fiction texts could have a huge impact on student learning, preparedness for life and readiness for all students.  Not only is it mandatory to teach with the Common Core and Alaska Standards, it appears that it is essential to higher level thinking and student success.  I am excited to see the impact of adding much more informational texts in my 2nd grade classroom across the curriculum.

References:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Nonfiction-Reading-Promotes-Student-Success.aspx.

http://www.clemson.edu/centers-institutes/houston/documents/nonfiction.pdf

http://www.usborne-books.com/nonfiction.htm

http://www.capstoneprep.com/news-and-events/the-importance-of-nonfiction-texts

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/6-reasons-use-informational-text-primary-grades

http://gettingboystoread.com/

http://gurianinstitute.com/




Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography:  Informational Text Integration

Duke, N., Armistead, V. (2003).  Six reasons to use informational text in primary grades. Reading & Writing Informational Text in the Primary Grades.  Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/6-reasons-use-informational-text-primary-grades

This article explains how informational text connects us to the natural and social worlds.  The article gives six succinct reasons to use informational text.  It includes references such as Venezky, 1982; Smith, (2000); and Anderson and Guthrie, 1999.  The article gives specific advantages and benefits to each of the six reasons.  This article will further my hypothesis that integrating more non-fiction, quality informational text will enhance student literacy and higher order thinking.

Flowers, T., & Flowers, L. (2009).  Nonfiction in the early grades:  Making reading and writing relevant for all students.  Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, 13(2), 40-50.

The purpose of this article is to outline the benefits of integrating informational text in primary grades.  The article contains resources and recommendations to assist teachers in teaching non-fiction reading and writing in the early grades.  This article transformed my thinking in what types of texts are quality informational texts such as periodicals, technology, directions, scientific information, field trip information, reading signs and historical markers, museum literature, and even musical programs.  The article includes a discussion about rational for emphasizing non-fiction in the early grades, which is an excellent match for my Action Research project.  The article includes ways to teach non-fiction across the curriculum that is useful and appropriate for teachers of early elementary school children.

Gewertz, C. (2013).  Dramatic increase in reading needed for Common Core, guides say.  Education Week Blog.  January.  Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2013/01/three_new_publications_from_ac.html

This article explains how the “action guides” in the Common Core standards are to help administrators put the standards into practice.  It explains by high school, seventy percent of reading will be informational text as opposed to fiction.  One of the challenges the article addresses is the need to ‘level’ text to differentiate between reading abilities.  For my classroom, this means I will need to find a variety of texts to supply students with appropriate materials for individual reading levels.

Goodwin, B., & Miller, K. (2012, December/2013, January).  Research says/nonfiction reading   promotes student success.  Educational Leadership, 70(4), 80-82.

According to this article juveniles spend few minutes per day reading quality non-fiction informational text.  This article is explicit in describing the average minutes per day students read informational text.  It addresses the new Common Core standards and the emphasis on integrating 50/50 fiction/nonfiction reading materials.  It cites articles references such as Milliot, 2012; Duke, 2000; and Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010, which clearly explain the importance of why we need an emphasis on non-fiction and the fact that what students read really does matter.  The article is closely related to my Action Research question and provides a wealth of current information to align with my own findings.

Harris, C. (2013).  Why non-fiction is important to reading & learning!  Usborne Publishing.  Retrieved from http://www.usborne-books.com/nonfiction.htm

Usborne publishing website has an excellent article about the importance of reading and learning non-fiction texts.  The publishing company has been publishing quality informational texts since 1974.  In theory, according to the article, children take bits of information and store them.  This occurs through their adolescent years.  In later teens, this information is sorted, critically considered, analyzed, and used to draw new conclusions.  This concept is one of the foundations of my Action Research paper.  It explains why the Common Core standards are moving toward more non-fiction, and higher order thinking.  This article describes the two as inseparable.

Harvey, S. (1998).  Nonfiction matters:  Reading, writing and research in grades 3-8.  Portland, ME:  Stenhouse Publishers.

This book is an excellent tool for teachers to help students explore informational text and connect it to the world they live in.  The book is full of practical ways to help teachers bring non-fiction texts into the classroom in a positive and relevant way.  According to the book, students can explore literacy through their own passion and curiosity.  This book is an excellent resource for teachers integrating more informational text into their classrooms.

Importance of Nonfiction Texts (The).  (2012). The Standard Articles Column.  Retrieved from http://www.capstoneprep.com/news-and-events/the-importance-of-nonfiction-texts

Capstone prep founder believes that reading non-fiction text is preparation for life.  The article states that quality informational text prepares students to think logically, analyze data, discuss complex issues followed by formulating their new information.  This blog type article surmises that students must be taught informational texts and that the Common Core standards include both non-fiction and higher order thinking skills.  This is precisely the type of information that I will use to create an action plan based on my Action Research project.

Pike, K., & Mumper, J. (2004).  Making nonfiction and other informational texts come alive:  A practical approach to reading, writing and using nonfiction and other information texts across the curriculum.  Boston:  Allyn and Bacon.

Although this book is nearly a decade old, the contents are relative for today’s Common Core standards.  This book is full of great ideas and usable suggestions for teaching nonfiction texts.  The quality ideas and models ignite imaginations while teaching content literacy.  This book will be useful to help me integrate quality informational text across curriculum in a methodical and intentional way.

Reflection on Week 3

This week was challenging in several ways. First, remembering how to make an Annotated Bibliography in APA style required some tedious thinking. However, I did learn how to effectively make a hanging sentence using the tools on my computer. Secondly, narrowing down the resource list to a usable size was difficult. Once I did reduce the number of resources, my question began to take shape and narrow to a specific idea. Thirdly, trying to work on the bibliography at both school and home caused more frustration, until I uploaded the document to a Google Doc accessible anywhere.

The Tweet sessions were more specific to a few classmates. I helped the best I could and added comments when appropriate. All of us together shaped and encouraged those classmates until they finally reached a valid and quality research question. The Tuesday tweet was full of information on "How to" accomplish the needed tasks. I helped several classmates by directing them to appropriate locations and reminding them to add specific details such as #seaccr to all tweets. This week I shared a great website on the 15 best education apps for comprehension (from teachthought.com). I shared the website "Getting Boys to Read" http://gettingboystoread.com/ and the "Best of Twitter" for educators: http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/09/23/13-twitter-chats-for-educators.aspx?=FETCLN as well as: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2013/09/daily-education-and-technology-news-for_25.html which is a great blog for technology use in education. I began the process of collaboration with Amber. I also re-tweeted a classmates blog URL and added our class hashtag. I also sent Leslie an article for tech tips - shortcuts for 1st graders. I gave Hallie some ideas for speaking and listening that can be used in PE and Music class, as well as other possible speaking and listening opportunities such as school announcements, or classroom morning announcements. I suggested some ideas for helping classmates collect resource literature such as Googling various combinations of words and ideas, and checking references of articles I found useful for possible connections to other articles.

Helping the struggling students come up with a quality question during the Thursday Tweet session was rewarding both for us, collaborators working toward one end, but proved to be helpful to the students as they honed in on a good question.  Helping students with technical assistance such as RT with correct hashtags was intended to remind the classmate and make others aware of her post.  I don't know if this was successful. The websites were intended for classmates to look at and use in their own research if applicable.  The coolcatteacher site was a resource I hope all classmates will read as it applies to all of us in #seaccr.  Tech tips for 1st graders was intended to assist  Leslie with ideas for her research.  The ideas I passed on to Hallie were specific speaking and listening activities that she can consider for her class. Several of the classmates responded with thanks and said they planned to use some of the information for research and to improve their teaching.

One thing I plan to do differently next week is read and re-read the directions of Week 4 to not miss anything.  I also plan to continue to gather data and begin to form an action plan.  I hope to connect with Amber to collaborate about our two research projects and how they might crossover.

I check Twitter each evening and look over all of the articles and resources that classmates have posted.  David and Fred have posted many resources that will be useful in my research and improving my teaching.  One I particular liked was http://bookriot.com/2013/09/27/possible-read-much/.  It made me think about myself and my addiction to learning via reading.  I think the only instance where one could read too much is if all the reading was done without any action, then it would only be head knowledge.