Question-Answer Relationship
Student Growth
Students were separated into different reading groups based on their instructional reading level. Each week the students would do a running record that had comprehension questions. The graph below shows the growth each student made from pretest to posttest.
When looking at the data, you can see student's growth from the pretest to week 2. In these weeks, the students were learning how to use the "In the Book" question category. This category was easier for the students to understand because they could find a concrete answer, many of the answers were words for words in the text. When we reach weeks 3 and 4 we can see a significant drop in all four students' scores. In these weeks, we were learning how to use the "In My Head" question category which requires abstract thinking which was a struggle for the students. Then for the Posttest, there is an increase in scores. I believe this to be because we had more days of instruction and it had multiple questions from each category.
Click on the link to view the T-Test results.
Exit Tickets
Exit Tickets were given after each subcategory of QAR was introduced. The students would fill out an exit ticket at the end of the lesson to demonstrate their knowledge of how to utilize the strategy. If all four students were able to answer correctly I felt confident in moving onto the next lesson of practicing the strategy. If one or more students missed a question on the exit ticket that told me there were misconceptions. I would look at the exit ticket to see what they answered and address the misconception in the moment. Then the next day, I would review with the whole group until I felt confident each student had a strong grasp of the concept. The graphics below show how many students could correctly answer the question on the exit ticket.
3 out of 4 students answered correctly
4 out of 4 students answered correctly
3 out of 4 students answered correctly
3 out of 4 students answered correctly
Triangulation of Data
Triangulation of Data was used to show student learning throughout the six weeks. A pretest and posttest were used to show student growth over the course of the study. Running Records were used weekly as an assessment to show comprehension of the text and utilization of the QAR strategy. Exit tickets were used to show understanding of new categories after they were introduced. All three data points were crucial in determining instructional decisions and growth daily, weekly, and over the course of six weeks.
Conclusions
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All students showed growth from start to finish.
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QAR can be adapted and implemented to a group of students with diverse learning needs.
Remaining Questions
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Was enough time spent on each QAR question category?
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I feel like each category of QAR has many different components. I wonder if we had more time on each category if students could gain a deeper understanding?
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Were Running Records a reliable data collection method to obtain weekly scores?
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Running Records were used because they correlate with their guided reading books. I wonder if data would be different if we used the comprehension quizzes that correlates with the books instead?
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Did alternating fiction and nonfiction texts influence comprehension scores?
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Many of my students favor nonfiction texts. I wonder if I would have seen drops in data if I used nonfiction books based on their interests?
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