Pip Findings-Nakialove-110169955

Nakia Love PIP Findings 110169955
The school where this inquiry project was undertaken is a small DECD site with 185
students. It is classified as a Category 2 disadvantaged school and has a high
proportion of EALD students, equalling around 50% of the school’s population. The
school is constantly challenged to provide a socially just curriculum for all students.
Not only is there an R – 7 primary school on the site, there is also a junior primary
special needs class, a child-care centre and a family day care which assists parents
in need to support their children. The year 6/7 classroom that this inquiry project was
completed in has been recently refurbished and now provides a flexible learning
approach. Each student has access 1-1 to a chrome book and the classroom has a
smart TV which can be used interactively.
The 6/7 class consisted of 28 students made up of 16 girls and 12 boys. The class
had extremely complex behaviours, there were 12 EALD students, 3 Aboriginal
students and 1 student on an NEP. The school has placed a large focus on improving
literacy and implementing a structured literacy curriculum. Students in the year 6/7
class are grouped based on their needs and move groups as their needs change over
the year. Groups rotate throughout the week and are taught by 3 different educators.
There is not usually any whole class teaching during literacy time. As the inquiry
project focused on guided reading, data collection happened approximately 3 times a
week with 3 different groups of children.
The focus of this inquiry project was to find whether explicitly teaching reading
comprehension strategies during guided reading would support and improve student
engagement. The same reading strategies were used over the period of the inquiry
project but the execution was modified depending on the group of children. I chose to
focus on reading comprehension strategies as guided reading and comprehension
were a large focus in the classroom. The reading strategies focused on during guided
reading would be then further developed during the student’s rotation of
comprehension strategies where they would engage with the text again and complete
work related to the comprehension strategies. The comprehension rotation would be
completed independently and then reviewed in the next guided reading session.
The behaviours in the placement class are extremely complex and many students
struggle to remain focused for periods longer than 10 minutes. As an educator, it was
important to learn how to create engaging learning experiences for all students. For
students to successfully complete the guided reading rotation and the reading
comprehension rotation, students would need to be engaged during their time with me
otherwise they would not work productively. My aim was to explicitly teach reading
comprehension strategies during guided reading to improve the engagement during
the session and make it interesting for students to partake in as guided reading can
often be lacklustre. Not only this, I also wanted to set students up for success, to learn
how to be self-managers and to display resilience during independent work.
Guided reading and reading comprehension strategies were an area that I had not
had much prior exposure to. Annandale, Bindon, Handley & Johnston (2004) explains
that to engage students during guided reading the educator must explicitly teach
students the strategies needed to engage with the text. Not only this, but educators
must explicitly teach students to use the strategy when working independently thus
meaning students need to begin employing the strategies from their repertoire.
1
Furthermore, this ensures students are able to successfully improve and achieve a
purpose when reading texts (Annandale et al 2004).
I needed to adjust and improve my practice to ensure that I was creating a socially just
curriculum in my classroom to cater for the diverse learners. Explicit teaching provides
extra support for students who may be at risk and allows these students to carry on
their learning into high school and beyond. This is important at year 7 as students are
transitioning to high school the following year (Lesaux & Kieffer 2010). Complimenting
reading comprehension strategies is the Four Resources Model of Reading by
McDonald (2013) which I kept in mind when planning and during sessions. My
students were being text participants and text analysts as we focused on explanation
texts and meaning behind them. They focused on literal and inferential meaning from
the text when comprehending and began learning to summarise. This was further
applied to other literacy work when writing responses and summarising a news article
(Winch 2015). This model allowed me to broaden the type of questions and work I
engaged the students in (McDonald 2013).
When beginning this inquiry project, I chose four texts; two being lower and two being
higher. Next, I planned the guided reading session surrounding those texts and
consulted the Teaching reading comprehension strategies: a practical classroom
guide by Sheena Camera (2009) for comprehension work which suited the session
and strategies I was explicitly teaching (Appendix 1). The strategies I focused on with
corresponding comprehension work were predicting, inferring, making connections
questioning and summarising (Appendix 2). I incorporated predicting, inferring, making
connections and summarising through the comprehension tasks and I used
questioning during the session to engage students. I began each session with a
discussion about reading comprehension strategies to activate students’ prior
knowledge and we identified the strategies we might use for the type of text. I modified
the session based on the students’ needs and usually this was wording questions
differently or asking different types of questions to get the students thinking.
I was able to see the changes I needed to make to my planning to improve my practice
and reflected on this in my self-evaluations (Appendix 3). My supervising teacher
would observe each guided reading session and following this, we would discuss what
worked and what needs to improve to further support student engagement (Appendix
4a). I collected data from my planning, my self-evaluations and my supervising
teachers’ observations. In addition, I had the students comment on my practice during
the first week of the inquiry project and in the last week of the inquiry project to
determine whether they felt I had improved as a practitioner and whether they felt
engagement levels had risen (Appendix 5a & 5b).
As a result of this inquiry project, I found that not only did the student engagement
increase but the quality of work that was produced by students increased as well. As
seen in the supervising teachers’ observation from the very first session (Appendix 4a)
the students were quiet and reluctant to join in. She mentions that the students
understood the comprehension work as the strategies I used (questioning, predicting,
making connections and summarising) were effective however they weren’t as
engaged as they did not contribute to the conversations. Similarly, as seen in appendix
6, graph 1 shows that the majority of students agreed the session was too quiet, that
I needed to make students contribute more and facilitate conversation. In graph 2, it
2
is shown that the level of engagement was rated a 6 by the supervising teacher and a
5 in my self-evaluation which meant that I needed to consider facilitating conversations
in the following sessions.
As I continued to run the guided reading sessions, we can see in appendix 6 graph 2
that student engagement began to rise steadily over time and this was evident in both
my self-evaluation rating and my supervising teachers rating. As seen in appendix 4a
and 4b, my supervising teacher comments on the effectiveness of the anticipation
guide and how this ensures students take some responsibility which then engages
and facilitates discussion amongst the group. During verbal discussions, students
acknowledged that I had taken their feedback into consideration and made changes
to make the session more engaging. As seen in appendix 7 graph 3, students agreed
that my practice had improved, and sessions were much more engaging than in week
6. They believed I had improved through asking more questions, facilitating
conversation, allowing students to share opinions and discuss this and assisting
students to comprehend the text. This correlates with results from my self-evaluations
and the supervising teacher observations. It was evident that explicitly teaching a small
amount of strategies improved student engagement during guided reading, during
their reading comprehension session and in their writing.
Reflecting on this inquiry project, I can see my confidence has increased in running a
guided reading session. It is also evident that explicit teaching of the reading
comprehension strategies such as questioning, inferring, predicting, making
connections, summarising and so forth is extremely important when engaging
students in guided reading. It is important to allow a third-party to observe you and
offer feedback which corresponds with my self-reflection. It is also important that my
students acknowledged I had taken on board their feedback and that their teacher was
ensuring to better themselves to ensure they are effectively teaching. Students,
especially at an older age, need to learn to read for purpose. Incorporating these
strategies and new techniques completely changed the way my students engaged with
guided reading and how they felt (Appendix 5b). I changed the way I ran the session
by adapting to the students’ needs, creating new work to engage students and the
techniques used such as different types of questioning. As the sessions went on, I
found I was using my planning less and I was able to think on my feet and adapt to
the needs of the group.
In conclusion, I believe that undertaking an inquiry project that is focusing on my own

practice had provided me with the opportunity to look critically and deeply at the
decisions I make and how this affects myself and my students. Not only this, but it
provides better outcomes for students and enhanced practice for the future.
3
References
• Annandale, K., Bindon, R., Handley, K. & Johnston, A 2004 First Steps: reading map of
development, Port Melbourne : Harcourt
• Cameron, S 2009, Teaching reading comprehension strategies : a practical classroom

guide, Pearson, North Shore, N.Z.
• Lesaux, NK & Kieffer, MJ 2010, 'Exploring sources of reading comprehension

difficulties among language minority learners and their classmates in early
adolescence', American educational research journal, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 596 – 632
• McDonald, L 2013, A literature companion for teachers, PETAA, Newtown, NSW.
• Winch, G et al 2014, Literacy: reading, writing and children's literature, 5thedition,

Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria.
4
Appendix 1: Planning with accompanying texts and examples of

comprehension work
Planning with texts
Guided reading Making flat

glass
What strategies can we use when we come to a word we don’t know?
Make connections with similar Think about what Reread the sentence Read on and then
Purpose of
words would make sense reread the sentence

Session
Remind students of the Comprehension focus for the session

Self-monitoring Predicting Questioning Making connections
Visualizing Inferring Summarizing Synthesizing
Ask questions about the topic of the book to activate prior knowledge.
Prior Knowledge
- How do you feel about reading this text? Why?

& Text Intro
- What do you know about the NAPLaN texts? Have you read this text before?
- Identify the strategy students think they may use for this text.
Identify the reading strategy or comprehension strategy that students will be working on during the
session
Questioning, vocabulary, summarizing
Discuss the text type and make predictions.
Predictions
- Discuss the text type and make predictions (the heading, sub-headings – what content will the text cover?)
- Highlight unknown vocab (consuming, multi-phase, ingredients)
- What kind of text is this? What tells us this?
- What is the text about? How do we know this?
5
Students: Teacher:
Reading
Skim and scan to self for a few minutes Listens and observes
Group Reads aloud Monitors fluency
Provides strategy cue support
Gather information to alter next session
Questioning: here (literal), hidden (inferential) and head (response).
Questioning and Self-monitoring
Give students a sticky note to stick on their text near paragraph 1 & 2.
Read paragraph 1 as a group.
- Why is flat glass used?
- What does consuming mean? Use chrome books to find antonyms and synonyms.
- What has changed in the production of flat glass?
- What other words could replace cheaply and easily?
- What happening in 1959 to change the way glass was made?

- What does is mean by glass ingredient?
- What is a furnace? If you didn’t know what it meant, what word could help you work out what it meant?
- what do you think molten might mean? When else have you heard or seen this word?
- How is this paragraph different to the first paragraph?
Visualising
- How many steps does this paragraph describe?

- What is the main purpose of this paragraph?
- Which sentence explains what the tank is called?
- Why is molten tin used? Where would you find it?
- How is the thickness of the glass alterated?
6
Read paragraph 4 – 6 as a group.

- Why are there 3 separate paragraphs for this part of the text?
Self-monitoring
- What is a lehr?
- Why is there a comma after in the next phase and finally?
- What verbs found in the illustrations at the bottom of the page?
- Which stage in the illustration does the photograph relate to?
- Describe how the illustration and photograph impact on your understanding of the flat glass making
process?
Summarise
Summarisin
- In a few works tell the group what you think the text was about
- Who do you think the intended audience is?
- Why do you think this?
- What did you think of the text?
What is a takeaway point?
g
Independently OR as a group work through anticipation guide (prior) and double entry journal (post) to complete
PRIOR or AFTER
Extension / work
for lit circles.

This work is to be completed during lit circles sessions and will be discussed in sessions (before or after)
completed
session
7
8
Guided reading Salinity

Purpose of

Session

Prior Knowledge

& Text Intro
session
Predictions
- Discuss why there may be different font used in parts of the text.
- Highlight unknown vocab (salinity, hectares, deposits, extinction transpires)
Students: Teacher:
Reading
Group
Reads aloud Monitors fluency

9

- What is the title?
- What do you think is the authors point of view?
- What does salinity mean? Use chrome books to find out
- What is a hectare? Why have they used that terms as a measurement unit rather than km squared?
- What does environmental mean?
- When does salinity occur?
- Why do you think too much salt at the surface of the ground is a problem?
- How much does the author predict this problem will increase by?
-
- What does the author state is the main reason for Australias dryland salinity problem?
- How do trees prevent the watertable from rising? What is the evidence from the text that backs this fact
up?
- What is deposited across much of Australia?
- Use chrome book to describe by the watertable.
- When does the salt become harmful?

- In this paragraph it is implied that salinity affects what?
- What does it mean by extinction? What is going to become extinct?
- Why is the city of WAGGA WAGGA mentioned in this paragraph?
- What does this paragraph predict might happen in the future?
- How do you feel about this prediction and why?
Visualising

- What is a solution to the salinity problem?
- What does it mean by introduced plants?
10

- What are the consequences that the author is referring to in this paragraph?
- What does the author mean by the effect were not immediately obvious?
- What practices is the author suggesting need to change?
- Why should the practices change if they effects won’t be seen for decades?
- What does this section of text suggest about Australian society?
Illustrations
- What does it mean by transpires & emitted?
Self-monitoring
- What is the purpose of the brackets?

- Which paragraph does the figure 1 relate to?
- What does figure 1 show?
- What else does figure 2 show affects the water table as well as rain?
- What else could have been included in this text to influence the reader?
Summarise
Summarising
- What is a takeaway point?
PRIOR or AFTER
Extension / work
for lit circles.

completed
session
11
12
Guided reading Wave-driven

Generator
Purpose
Session

Of the

Prior Knowledge

& Text Intro
session
Predictions
- Highlight unknown vocab (captured, generating, consumption, transferred, submerged, buoys)
Students: Teacher:
Reading
Group

13

- What is energy?
- Where do we hear energy used in everyday life?
- What does it mean by generating electricity?
- Why do they remove the salt content of water?
- What was the one example of a machine?
- What does the machine do?
Read paragraph 2,3,4 as a group.

- How are the waves caused?
- What do they strike?
- What happens when they strike?
- Do you think the concrete is curved in paragraph 2?
- Why do you think the walls are up to 40 metres wide?
- What does chamber mean? Use chrome book to search.
- Can you identify the chamber on the illustration?
- How do you know number 4 is the airflow without reading the title or reading the paragraph?
Read paragraph 5,6 as a group.

- What is an air turbine?
- Can you see it on the illustration?
Visualising
- What does the generator create?

- Where might we find wave-drive generators?
- Do we have wave-driven generators in Australia?
- How big do you think this might be in real life?
- How else do we get electricity?
14
Read paragraph 7, 8 as a group.

- What does buoys mean?
monitoring
- Have you ever seen one?
- Use chrome book to search a bouy.
Self-
- What is similar about the bouys and the wave-drive generator?
Summarise
Summarisin
What is a takeaway point?
g
PRIOR or AFTER
Extension / work
for lit circles.

completed
session
15
16
Guided reading Coding

systems
Purpose of

Session

Prior Knowledge &

- What do you know about coding?
Text Intro
- Do you think this text may be similar to our previous guided reading text?
session
Questioning, predicting, inferring, summarizing
Predictions
- Highlight unknown vocab (comprehend, communicating, binary)
Students: Teacher:
Reading
Group

17

- Have you worked with coding?
- What is coding?
- Who can understand coding?
- What is a coding system usually used for?
- What electronics have coding in them?
- Where have you seen coding before?
- Use chrome book to look at coding.

- Do we have coding in our bodies?
- What would be our coding program?
- What is binary code?
- Use chrome book to search binary.
- Have you heard of binary code before?
- Do you notice any binary code on the sheet of paper?

- What will happen if you click on a music icon?
Visualising
- Can you think of something else that works like that? Example?
- What happens when you connect your cd player to the computer?
- What else might you connect to a computer that will require instructions?
18
Read paragraph 4, 5 as a group.

- What else might there be coding for in our computers?
- What about our phones?
Self-monitoring
- How many codes do you think might be in a computer?
- Use chrome book to search the amount of codes in a computer.
- What are codes?
- Do you think coding is in every electronic?
- Would it be in other things too?
- Give examples of things we may not think has coding (washing machine, etc).
Summarise
Summarising

- What is a takeaway point?
PRIOR or AFTER
Extension / work
for lit circles.

- This work is to be completed during lit circles sessions and will be discussed in sessions (before or after)
completed
session
19
20
Appendix 2: Examples of comprehension

work
Anticipation guide taken from Sheena Camera (2009) which allows students to predict and
infer.
21
Example of a double entry journal where students are making

connections
22
Example of a Tic-Tac-Toe summarising sheet where students use

key words to learn to summarise
23
Appendix 3: example of self-reflection
24
Appendix 4a: Supervising teacher feedback
25
Appendix 4b: Supervising teacher feedback
26
Appendix 5a: example of student feedback in the

first week of the inquiry project
27
Appendix 5b: example of student feedback in the

last week of inquiry project
28
Appendix 6: graphs of results

Results were taken from data found through the student feedback, self-evaluations and supervising teacher
evaluations.
Graph 1: Student feedback at the beginning of the inquiry project
How to improve sessions

Strategies to improve
More time to work

engagement
More reading
More conversation
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Amount of students
Graph 2: rating of engagement
Scale of 1-10 rating engagement level

15
(1 being low, 10 being high)
Level of engagement each
10
5
session
0
Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5
Sessions
Supervising teacher evaluation Self evaluation
Graph 3: student feedback at the end of the inquiry project
How the sessions improved

Reasons for engagement
asking questions
comprehending the text
conversations
sharing opinions
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Amount of student responses
29

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Nakia Love PIP Findings 110169955

In conclusion, I believe that undertaking an inquiry project that is focusing on my own

• Cameron, S 2009, Teaching reading comprehension strategies : a practical classroom

• Lesaux, NK & Kieffer, MJ 2010, 'Exploring sources of reading comprehension

• McDonald, L 2013, A literature companion for teachers, PETAA, Newtown, NSW.

• Winch, G et al 2014, Literacy: reading, writing and children's literature, 5thedition,

Appendix 1: Planning with accompanying texts and examples of

Guided reading Making flat

words would make sense reread the sentence

Remind students of the Comprehension focus for the session

- How do you feel about reading this text? Why?

Read paragraph 2 as a group.

- How many steps does this paragraph describe?

Read paragraph 4 – 6 as a group.

for lit circles.

Guided reading Salinity

words would make sense reread the sentence

Remind students of the Comprehension focus for the session

- How do you feel about reading this text? Why?

Reads aloud Monitors fluency

Questioning: here (literal), hidden (inferential) and head (response).

Read paragraph 3 as a group.

Read paragraph 4 as a group.

Read paragraph 5 as a group.

- What is the purpose of the brackets?

for lit circles.

Guided reading Wave-driven

Remind students of the Comprehension focus for the session

Self-monitoring Predicting Questioning Making connections

- How do you feel about reading this text? Why?

Reads aloud Monitors fluency

Questioning: here (literal), hidden (inferential) and head (response).

Read paragraph 2,3,4 as a group.

Read paragraph 5,6 as a group.

- What does the generator create?

Read paragraph 7, 8 as a group.

- What is similar about the bouys and the wave-drive generator?

for lit circles.

Guided reading Coding

words would make sense reread the sentence

Remind students of the Comprehension focus for the session

- How do you feel about reading this text? Why?

Reads aloud Monitors fluency

Questioning: here (literal), hidden (inferential) and head (response).

Read paragraph 2 as a group.

Read paragraph 3 as a group.

Read paragraph 4, 5 as a group.

- Who do you think the intended audience is?

for lit circles.

Appendix 2: Examples of comprehension

Example of a double entry journal where students are making

Example of a Tic-Tac-Toe summarising sheet where students use

Appendix 3: example of self-reflection

Appendix 4a: Supervising teacher feedback

Appendix 4b: Supervising teacher feedback

Appendix 5a: example of student feedback in the

Appendix 5b: example of student feedback in the

Appendix 6: graphs of results

Graph 1: Student feedback at the beginning of the inquiry project

How to improve sessions

More time to work

Graph 2: rating of engagement

Scale of 1-10 rating engagement level