THE EFFECT OF SKILL-FOCUSED MINILESSONS ON STUDENTS’
INDEPENDENT USE OF READING SKILLS DURING LITERATURE CIRCLES
by
Gail Kennedy
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of
The College of Education
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Education
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
August 2010
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of so many people in so many ways. It is a pleasure to acknowledge those colleagues and friends who have contributed. First and foremost I want to thank Dr. Gail Burnaford, my doctoral advisor, who has been the most influential person in my growth throughout this long journey. Dr.
Burnaford has been there to help guide me through the challenges of this process and has expected nothing but the best. For this I am always grateful. I wish to express my appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Susanne Lapp, Dr. John D. Morris, and Dr.
Meredith Mountford whose guidance over the years has been invaluable.
Acknowledgements are in order to my principal, Gary Hagermann, and my colleagues who have supported me in many ways throughout this journey. A special thanks is extended to Carolyn Healy for your attention to details. I would like to thank my fifth grade class of 2009, for without your eagerness for learning, this study would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr. Janet Towell, Dr. Philomena
Marinaccio, Angie Jacques, and Sue Hannan for volunteering to be part of the expert panel.
Finally, I would like express my thanks to my family for always believing in me and never letting me give up. A very special thanks to the one person I owe everything I am today, my mother, Lisa Kennedy. Her unwavering faith and confidence in my abilities
iii and in me is what has shaped me to be the person I am today. To my husband Michael, who has every day for years been patient and supported me and allowed me the time I have needed to make this dream come true.
iv
ABSTRACT
Author: Gail Sigelakis
Title: The Effect of Skill-Focused Minilessons on Students’ Independent Use of Reading Skills During Literature Circle Discussions
Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Gail Burnaford
Degree: Doctor of Education
Year: 2010
Increased accountability in contemporary public elementary schools requires that teachers provide evidence they are using research-based strategies that reinforce skills assessed on standardized tests. There is a need to provide empirical evidence that literature circles can reinforce skills assessed on these tests. A literature circle is a research-based strategy that is common in language arts classrooms. This study investigates the connection between these skills and student discussion that takes place during literature circles.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of skill-focused minilessons on students’ independent use of reading skills. The study investigated whether application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles would have an effect on students’ independent use of reading skills within student discussions during literature circles. Sixteen students participated in the study. The study also investigated the impact
v that minilessons prior to literature circles had on students’ scores on the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in reading. Students were randomly assigned to the researcher’s fifth grade class in the 2008/2009 school year. All students read the same material and received the same treatment. During the course of the study, students first took the FCAT diagnostic in reading and then engaged in five literature circle meetings, each preceded by a minilesson. Students then engaged in five literature circles with a different book and without skill-focused minilessons, followed by the administration of the reading FCAT.
The data, which included content analyses of transcriptions of students’ discussion and the collection of FCAT scores, yielded several findings. The two skills most commonly used by students in independent literature circles were analyzing character and discussing plot. The two least commonly used skills were describing conflict and using context clues. Each skill was identified within student discussion. The way in which students transferred the use of these skills to literature circles not preceded by skill- focused minilessons varied. Multiple modes of transfer were identified for each skill. A dependent t-test for the FCAT scores did not indicate a statistically significant increase in the use of the five skills identified for this study when minilessons preceded literature circles.
vi
DEDICATION
To Layna: When mommy began this journey, I was not aware that by the end you would have entered my life. Thank you for giving so unselfishly of your time with me so that I might complete a dream. Let this inspire you to go for what you want in life and never give up.
iv
THE EFFECT OF SKILL-FOCUSED MINILESSONS ON STUDENTS’
INDEPENDENT USE OF READING SKILLS DURING LITERATURE CIRCLES
LIST OF TABLES...... xiii
Chapter I ...... 1
Statement of the Problem ...... 3
Standardized Assessments and Reading Skills...... 3
Literature Circles and Reading Skills...... 4
Purpose of the Study ...... 5
Significance of the Study...... 6
Research Questions...... 7
Definition of Terms ...... 7
Limitations and Delimitations ...... 11
Organization of the Study...... 11
Chapter II...... 13
Review of Related Literature...... 13
History of Literature-Based Instruction...... 14
History and Theoretical Background of Literature Circles ...... 16
Cooperative Learning ...... 20
Student-Led Discussion and Analysis ...... 22
Role of the Teacher…………..……………………………………………………...…...…23
Reading Instruction……………………………………..………………………….……….26
viii Reading Skills ...... 28
Discourse Analysis ...... 30
The Teacher as a Researcher ...... 32
Summary...... 36
Chapter III...... 36
Research Study Questions and Design ...... 36
Methodology...... 37
Pilot Study ...... 37
Design of Pilot Study...... 37
Pilot Study Procedures...... 38
Data Collection...... 39
Data Analysis...... 39
Stanzas as Units of Analysis...... 41
Process of Discourse Analysis...... 44
Research Study ...... 46
Design and Methods ...... 46
Participants ...... 47
Sample Descriptive Statistics ...... 47
Expert Panel...... 48
Procedures ...... 48
Discourse Analysis Interrater Reliability ...... 50
Materials………………………………………………………………………….………….52
ix Texts……..…………………………………………………………………………...……...52
Reading Assessment...... 52
Data Collection...... 53
Data Analysis...... 54
Chapter IV ...... 55
Purpose ...... 55
Research Questions...... 55
Results ...... 57
Research Question 1 ...... 57
Research Question 2 ...... 58
Research Question 3 ...... 60
Research Question 4 ...... 62
Analyzing Character...... 62
Discussing Plot ...... 65
Identifying Cause and Effect ...... 68
Describing Conflict...... 72
Using Context Clues...... 75
Summary...... 79
Chapter V...... 81
Discussion...... 81
Research Question 1 and 2 ...... 81
Implications for K-12 Educators from Research Questions 1 and 2 ...... 85
Research Question 3…………………………………..……………………………85
x Implications for Future Research from Research Question 3………….…………..88
Research Question 4 ...... 89
Implications for K-12 Educators from Research Question 4 ...... 94
Implications for Future Research from Research Question 4...... 96
Recommendations ...... 97
Future Studies Needed...... 98
Conclusion...... 100
Appendix A: Minilesson Format for Identifying Cause and Effect ...... 102
Appendix B: Minilesson Format for Using Context Clues ...... 103
Appendix C: Minilesson Format for Describing Conflict...... 104
Appendix D: Minilesson Format for Analyzing Character ...... 106
Appendix E: Minilesson Format for Discussing Plot...... 107
Appendix F: Child Assent Form...... 109
Appendix G: Parental Consent Form...... 110
Appendix H: School District Consent Form...... 112
Appendix I: Reading Skills and Sample Responses...... 113
Appendix J: Identifying Cause and Effect Matrix...... 115
Appendix K: Analyzing Character Matrix ...... 116
Appendix L: Describing Conflict Matrix ...... 117
Appendix M: Using Context Clues Matrix...... 118
Appendix N: Discussing Plot Matrix...... 120
Appendix O: Sample Coding of Transcript...... 122
xi Appendix P: Book Equivalency Chart……………………………………………..…….124
References…………………………………………………………………………………..125
xii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Types of Scientifically-Based Reading Instruction...... 27
Table 2. Classroom-Based Action Research Literacy Studies From 1996-2006 ...... 34
Table 3. Function Word List Used for Discourse Analysis of Literature Circle
Discussion Group Transcripts Focused on Independent Use of Five Reading
Skills ...... 43
Table 4. Analysis Questions for Task Building Prior to Analysis of Literature Circle
Transcriptions ...... 45
Table 5. Discourse Analysis Matrix for Interrater Reliability of Fifth Grade
Literature Circle Transcripts...... 51
Table 6. Occurrence of Skills in All Discussions...... 59
Table 7. Descriptive Statistics Summary of Skills Coded...... 60
Table 8. Paired Dependent t-test...... 61
Table 9. Word Count for Total Utterances Coded As Character for Fifth Grade
Literature Circles ...... 63
Table 10. Word Count for Total Utterances Coded As Discussing Plot for Fifth
Grade Literature Circles ...... 66
Table 11. Word Count for Total Utterances Coded As Identifying Cause and
Effect for Fifth Grade Literature Circles ...... 69
xiii Table 12. Word Count for Total Utterances Coded As Describing Conflict for
Fifth Grade Literature Circles...... 73
Table 13. Word Count for Total Utterances Coded As Using Context Clues for
Fifth Grade Literature Circles...... 76
Table 14. Summary of Skill Usage During Literature Circle Discussions...... 80
xiv
Chapter I
Education is constantly evolving in reaction to change; educators are continuously seeking new and exciting ways to engage more students in what they are reading.
Literature circles couple two potent ideas in education, independent reading and cooperative learning. Independent reading is done by an individual, in or outside the classroom, where the pace and purpose of the reading are not directly controlled by the teacher. Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.
The central goal during literature circles is to get students engaged in a group- discussion about a piece of literature after independent reading has taken place. Based on
Harvey Daniels’ (2002) definition of literature circles, the students first engage in free choice by selecting a piece of literature to read based on reading level and interest. Each student is then responsible for completing a certain task while reading independently.
These tasks may include looking for difficult words, identifying conflicts, or making connections. The task that the student completes will be used to guide group discussions following the independent reading. Once the group members have finished reading the
book, they decide on a way to share highlights with a wider community. The wider
community could include the entire class, school, or parent community. Little research
1 has been done to link specific reading objectives to the discussions that are taking place between students during literature circles.
Researchers Kathy Short, Jerome Harste, and Carolyn Burke (1996), and Karen
Smith (2000) have been credited with the development of literature circles, yet this type of activity stems from early educational theorists and critical thinkers. Literature circles embody much of John Dewey’s ideas in Democracy and Education (1916). In a sense, students learn by doing, they make their own reading choices, and learn how to become responsible members of a learning-living community. A learning-living community gives learners the opportunity to create their own experience as they experiment, inquire, and create. Dewey wanted a classroom where children could move about, form groups, plan and execute activities, and learn for themselves under the direction and guidance of the teacher.
One important component of literature circles is student-led discussion. Social constructivist theorists state that social interaction should not just occur between students, but communication with the teacher is an important component as well (Gavelek, 1986;
Tharp & Gallimore, 1988; Wertsch, 1985). These theorists also believe that students should be working cooperatively to help facilitate meaningful oral and written language.
In the case of literature circles, the students’ discussion is the oral component and the literature circle notes contribute to the written language.
For the purpose of this research study, discussion can be defined as engaging students in public talk. This talk should be in reference to something upon which the group seeks to improve its knowledge and understanding of a topic (Bridges, 1979). A
variety of research has been done to support the idea that high quality discussion and
2 exploration of ideas are central to developing the understanding of readers and writers
(Alvermann, Young, Weaver, Hinchman, Moore, Phelps, Thrash, & Zalewski, 1996; Eeds
& Wells, 1989; Gambrell & Almasi, 1996; Guthrie, Schafer, Wang, & Afflerbach, 1995).
The previous research indicates improvement in reading comprehension performance in classrooms where more authentic questions and open discussions were present.
With the ever-increasing accountability that has come from standardized assessments it is important that literature circle discussions be meaningful and relevant to the standards and objectives. This does not mean that personal conversation is not to take place, but that students and teachers should be aware of reading skills that will help the students succeed in the future. It should be evident to teachers that students are able to independently apply reading skills to what they are reading.
Statement of the Problem
Many educators are given basal readers to supplement instruction in the reading classroom. It is just as important to incorporate whole language and the use of high quality literature aside from basal readers. Data that support and defend the use of literature circles are scarce. Data are needed to provide teachers with the rationale they need to initiate literature circles as a means to practice and reinforce skills found on many standardized assessments.
Standardized Assessments and Reading Skills
Teachers are required to meet the objectives set forth in each state’s proposed standards. As of 2008, Florida adopted new reading standards proposing broad strands in the area of reading. Those five strands are: reading process, reading comprehension,
literary analysis, writing process, and communication. Within each strand there are a
3 number of benchmarks to be assessed. The focus in fifth grade is on the reading process and literary analysis. To be specific, the benchmarks that hold the most weight on the
Florida state assessment are: using context clues to determine the meaning of a word, identifying cause and effect relationships, locating and analyzing elements of plot, analyzing characters, and identifying conflicts. The state of Florida provides the appropriate instructional material that is necessary to teach these skills; however, teachers use supplementary instruction and activities outside of the textbook as well.
In the federal legislation No Child Left Behind (2001), it is required that teachers use research-based instructional strategies to facilitate learning in the classroom. One common supplemental instructional strategy is to engage the students in literature circles
(Daniels, 1994). Much research in the area of reading instruction states that literature circles provide the students with a chance to engage in collaborative work, change their attitudes toward reading, make text connections, and increase reading comprehension when involved in discussion (Carrison, 2005; Samway, Whang, Cade, Gamil, Lubandina,
& Phonmmachanh, 1991; Stien & Beed, 2004).
Literature Circles and Reading Skills
The current form of literature circles stems from the theory of holistic, or whole language education. Holistic education embodies the theories of John Dewey (Dewey,
1916) and Lev Vygotsky (Vygotsky, 1962) in that students learn by doing and create a learning-living community through taking on responsibilities, engaging in social interaction, and making their own reading choices. Reading skills and teacher instruction in this approach are not the main focus and therefore can easily be overlooked. It is
important to note that the purpose of this study does not suggest that the focus of
4 literature circles should be placed on reading skills and instruction. The current study purports to investigate what reading skills are taking place during literature circle discussions in order to provide the teacher with feedback to help inform future instruction.
As a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, educational practitioners have been called upon to use "scientifically-based research" to guide their decisions about which interventions to implement. The emphasis on scientifically based research supports the consistent use of instructional methods that have been proven effective. The No Child Left Behind Act provides a list of questions that educators can ask to distinguish research that confirms the effectiveness of an instructional practice.
These questions include the following: Has the study been published in a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts? Have the results of the study been replicated by other scientists? Is there consensus in the research community that the study's findings are supported by a critical mass of additional studies? This study provides some support for literature circle use in the classroom, and the findings contribute to the field of research-based practices in the area of reading instruction.
Literature circles have been linked to raising student comprehension (Long &
Gove, 2003); however, there is little research to suggest a direct connection between literature circles and the specific reading skills that are assessed on state standardized tests.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of skill-focused minilessons on the use of reading skills during literature circle discussions. Specifically, the goal is to
analyze the students’ independent use of five reading skills, which include the following: analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing 5 conflict, and using context clues during literature circle discussions. These reading skills are specifically assessed on the state of Florida’s standardized tests in grades 3-5. It is also the goal of this study to identify which skills are the least commonly and the most commonly used during literature circle discussions in order to inform educators about the skills possibly reinforced and independently applied by students in literature circles. With this knowledge, teachers will have a clear idea of what skills need to be reinforced through alternative strategies and activities. This study contributes to the research that has previously been done to identify the teacher’s role in literature circles.
Significance of the Study
The use of reading skills during literature circles is not widely researched; this indicates a gap in the research. Although there is research on literature circles, much of the research contributes to the field of the role of discussion in the classroom. In order to use literature circles in the classroom, it is important to also look at the teacher’s role and how this contributes to the students’ knowledge and use of reading skills in literature circles when the teacher is not leading the discussion.
The climate in many states encourages concentration on standardized assessment and outcomes of those assessments. As a result, many school districts have implemented packaged reading programs such as Macmillan or Scott Foresman. These reading programs provide the concrete resources that incorporate material that is assessed on standardized tests. Although these programs are designed to help students succeed on standardized assessments, they are not the only method for reading instruction and do not consistently provide activities that engage students in meaningful discussion about texts.
In order for literature circles to be added to a curriculum, school administrators
6 want to see evidence that the state standards and benchmarks are being taught and exhibited in the students’ work. In the case of literature circles, it is often difficult to have concrete evidence of this due to the large amount of student discourse that takes place.
This study provides the evidence that will indicate the specific reading skills that students are addressing while engaging in literature circle discussions.
Research Questions
1. What reading comprehension skills are the least commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
2. What reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
3. Does the application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test of target skills?
4. In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?
Definition of Terms
For the purpose of this study, the following definitions will be used.
Action Research: Action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, administrators, counselors, or others with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process, for the purpose of gathering data about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how students learn (Mills, 2003).
7 Cause and Effect: Cause and effect is defined as an inventive procedure in which content is generated by looking for causes or effects in a particular situation. It can also be a method of organization for a piece of discourse or for a paragraph within a text (Woodson, 1979).
Character: Character is defined as a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, and characterization is the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to the reader (Kemper, Sebranek, & Meyer, 2001).
Conflict: Conflict is defined as the struggle within the plot between opposing forces. The protagonist engages in the conflict with the antagonist, which may take the form of a character, society, nature, or an aspect of the protagonist’s personality (Kemper et al.,
2001).
Context Clues: Context clues are defined as words or phrases around a specific word to help with the understanding of that word.
Cooperative Learning: Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete the task (Kagan, 1994).
Discourse Analysis: Discourse analysis, as defined by Gee (2005), could fall under one of two categories: form-function analysis or language-context analysis. Form-function analysis focuses on a correlation between form (structure) and function (meaning) in
language. Language-context analysis focuses on the situated meaning within specific
8
contexts. The data for this study were analyzed using the language-context form of discourse analysis.
Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT): The FCAT is used to define what
Florida public school students should know and be able to do during each of four grade clusters that represent developmental levels: PreK-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. They describe the student achievement that the state will hold schools accountable for students learning in the subject areas of language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, music, visual arts, theatre, dance, health, physical education, and foreign languages (Florida Department of
Education, 2007). The reading skills used in this study were chosen from the Sunshine
State Standards.
Lexile: Lexile is a term based on the Lexile Framework developed by MetaMetrics. This
Lexile framework is a scientific approach to reading measurement that matches readers to text. The Lexile Framework measures both reader ability and text difficulty on the same scale, called the Lexile scale (MetaMetrics, 2008).
Literature Circles: Literature circles are small group, student-directed meetings in which students share the same book with peers through discussion of the literature. The topics are typically chosen by the students and guided and supported by the teacher. Each group member prepares to take specific responsibilities in the upcoming discussion, and everyone comes to the group with the notes needed to help perform that job (Daniels, 1994).
Metacognition: Metacognition is defined as taking conscious control of learning, planning and selecting strategies, monitoring the progress of learning, correcting errors, analyzing
9 the effectiveness of learning strategies, and changing learning behaviors and strategies when necessary (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992).
Plot: Plot is an author’s selection and arrangement of incidents in a story to shape the action and give the story a particular focus. Discussions of plot include not just what happens, but also how and why things happen the way they do. The first part is the rising action, in which complication creates some sort of conflict for the protagonist. The second part is the climax, the moment of greatest emotional tension in a narrative, usually marking a turning point in the plot at which the rising action reverses to become the falling action. The third part, the falling action (or resolution) is characterized by diminishing tensions and the resolution of the plot’s conflicts and complications (Kemper et al., 2001).
Reading Skills: Reading skills are defined as the five skills that fifth grade students will learn and practice throughout the year based on the Florida Sunshine State Standards.
These five skills include: analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues (Florida Department of Education,
2007).
Skill-Focused Minilessons: Skill-focused minilessons are defined as short lessons designed to get students thinking about some aspect of reading before they1 read individually (Hindley, 1996).
Whole Language: Whole language is defined as a philosophy of language development where language is a natural phenomenon and literacy is promoted through natural, purposeful language function (Goodman, 1986).
10 Limitations and Delimitations
The limitations for the study include:
1. This study only addresses five reading comprehension skills that can be found in
the third through fifth grade Florida State Standards.
2. This study has a sample size of 16 students assigned to the fifth grade class at the
beginning of the academic year by the school.
3. Students volunteered to participate in the study, although the population is limited
to students assigned to this fifth grade classroom.
The delimitations for the study include:
1. The study population was limited to the researcher’s own fifth grade class.
2. The reading comprehension skills that were analyzed were chosen from the
objectives by the researcher, based on state standards for fifth grade.
3. The researcher chose the selection of books to be used in the study based on
readability and designed the scripted minilesson to introduce each reading
strategy.
4. The study is a modified action research study in the researcher’s classroom. The
teacher’s practice is not the unit of analysis. The discussions of students in
literature circles in this classroom are the focus of the investigation.
Organization of the Study
Chapter 1 includes the introduction, problem statement, purpose, background information, significance of the study, research questions, definition of terms, delimitations, and limitations. Chapter 2 contains a review of literature and research
relevant to topics in the study. Chapter 3 provides the research methodology employed
11 and includes detailed information concerning the study design, development of evaluative instruments, data collection, procedure, and data analysis. Chapter 4 of the dissertation reports the analysis and results, and Chapter 5 presents discussion of findings, conclusions, and recommendations for further study and application of the findings.
12
Chapter II
Review of Related Literature
By reviewing the past two decades of the research literature in relation to literature circles, it is evident that interest in the practice of literature circles has expanded greatly.
Harvey Daniels (1994) defines literature circles as follows:
Small-group, student-directed meetings to share the same book with peers through discussion of the literature where the topics are chosen by the students and guided and supported by the teacher. Each group member prepares to take specific responsibilities in the upcoming discussion, and everyone comes to the group with the notes needed to help perform that job. (p. 13)
Researchers have found a plethora of benefits as a result of using literature circles, such as greater student to text connection, increased attitudes toward reading, better communication skills, and increased student comprehension (Daniels, 1994; Klinger, Vaughn, & Schumm,
1998; Spiegel, 1998). With the increased demands for teacher accountability, it is important that the strategies being used in the classroom are reinforcing skills that are addressed in the standards (National Council of Teachers of English, 1996).
The goal of literature circles should be to provide an opportunity for the students to practice the skills taught in an independent student-led activity. In 1996, the National
Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association released the national standards for English Language Arts. It is evident that these standards endorse a literature-based, collaborative approach where students take more responsibility for choosing their own reading material. With a greater emphasis on students taking more responsibility for their own reading, what kind of instruction, if any, is necessary to
promote students’ independent use of reading skills during their discussion, as described in the national standards. 13 As literature circles continue to grow in popularity, more research is being done to determine how best to implement this strategy. Of the research studies reviewed (Bradshaw,
2001; King, 2001; Raphael & McMahon, 1994; Short, Kaufman, Kaser, Kahn &
Crawford, 1999; Wiencek & O’Flahavan, 1994) on literature circles and/or student-led discussion, 14 of those studies were conducted using action research, 10 were done using some form of qualitative data collection, and one study used quantitative research methodology. The number of research studies utilizing action research as a methodology suggests its relevance and pertinence with respect to this study as a means to investigate literature circles and discussion in the classroom setting.
This literature review will identify a theoretical and historical framework for literature circles, discuss current research on reading skills, identify research to support the benefits of literature circles, discuss the teacher’s role in literature circles as well as the teaching of reading strategies, and describe how action research is used to systematically investigate classroom practices, strategies, and interventions such as literature circles.
History of Literature-Based Instruction Literature circles stem from the philosophy of holistic or whole language education, which is a closely interlocking set of ideas about teaching and learning. Holistic education has been described in the literature since the 1930’s and although the validity of this form of instruction has been debated, much research has been done to determine the effects of whole language on reading development (Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 2000; Olsen & Kagan, 1992; Thompson, 1971; Tunnell & Jacobs, 1989; Weaver, 1998). Thompson (1971) reviewed 40 studies that compared the effects of basal-oriented classrooms and literature-based (whole language) classrooms. From 1936 to 1970,
Thompson found that 24 of the 40 studies favored the use of literature-based reading, one favored basal oriented programs, and 15 showed no significant difference between the two types of programs. 14 In 1989, Tunnell and Jacobs explored the impact of literature-based reading programs over the previous 20 years. The results of their research indicated higher test scores in whole language classrooms. They also found that the increase was evident in classrooms with students learning English as a second language, students with special exceptionalities, and students coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Weaver’s 1998 research summary on literature-based and whole language instruction identified several characteristics of students who were taught in whole language classrooms. Children in whole language classrooms performed as well as or better than other students in traditional classrooms on standardized reading tests, and developed vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills. Students in whole language classrooms tended to read for meaning rather than just to identify words, developed more strategies for dealing with problems in reading, showed more independence as readers and writers, and developed a stronger sense of self as readers and writers. The current research study builds on the whole language research of Thompson (1971), Tunnell and Jacobs (1989), and Weaver (1998), in order to determine whether the use of literature circles can support students’ independent use of reading strategies taught.
Historical and Theoretical Background of Literature Circles
Although researchers such as Short et al. (1996), and Smith (2000) have been credited with the development of literature circles, the approach embodies John Dewey’s ideas in Democracy and Education (1916). Students learn by doing as they create a learning-living community in which they take on responsibilities and make their own reading choices. Dewey saw students as being self-regulators of their own learning. Self- regulated learners analyze tasks and determine the best way to accomplish them as well as
use motivational strategies to stay on task.
Literature circles place students in control of their own learning. Students are
15 given a selection of books to choose from that they would like to read. The books are chosen by the teacher and are based on the various reading levels of the class. Student-led groups are then formed based on reading interest. The teacher's role is to model and guide students through the process of how to read independently and then come together to discuss what was read in a meaningful way. A common practice during literature circles is to assign students to roles that they are held accountable for discussing with their groups after they complete independent reading. For example, one role may be a "discussion director," where the student is expected to develop questions from the story that will lead to a meaningful discussion. Another role may be a "word finder"; this student's job may be to locate challenging words in the story, use context clues to decipher the meaning, and then check the dictionary for accuracy.
After students are comfortable with the process of independent reading, and the roles assigned to them, they meet in small groups of 4-6 to engage in a discussion. The teacher's role is to facilitate discussion by circulating around the room and joining random groups to help keep the discussion on track or clarify any problems that may arise.
The idea of group discussion in the classroom stems from the Vygotskian notion that learning develops through social interaction. Bruner (1960) states that in order for teachers to develop intuitive thinkers, they need to foster student interest and give students a sense of discovery on their own. Mercer (1995) argues that there should be engagement of dialogue in which the ideas of participants are jointly, fairly, and constructively evaluated.
This will in turn contribute to the development of the student’s own command of a “critical, constructive rationality” (p. 6). These theorists suggest a need for less learning through the transmission of information directly from the teacher and more collaborative experiences
through interactions and relationships with others in the classroom.
16 One of the appealing aspects of literature circles to students is the freedom of choice to discuss important issues in small groups. A component of Harvey Daniels’ (1994) definition of literature circles states that “each group member prepares to take specific responsibilities in the upcoming discussion, and everyone comes to the group with the notes needed to help perform that job” (p. 13). Based on this component, the students are assigned a book to read and in the beginning are given job sheets to help guide their understanding of the type of discussion that is appropriate for literature circles. Once the students have become proficient at doing this, they can move away from the job sheets and write their own discussion notes. After each assigned independent reading, the students come together collaboratively to discuss the reading based on their role sheets or discussion notes. The significance of using literature circles in the classroom, aside from the fact that they provide students with the opportunity to make intimate personal connections with the text, is that skillful readers begin to take ownership for their own monitoring of text, making predictions, solving words and text level problems, and summarizing as they go (Brabham
& Villaume, 2000).
Researchers have concluded that literature circles contribute much to a classroom
(Brabham & Villaume, 2000; Burns, 1998; Halliday, 1985; Peralta-Nash & Dutch, 2000;
Tunnell & Jacobs, 1989). Halliday’s (1985) research indicates three opportunities to learn languages through literature circles; these opportunities include reading extensively, learning about language by reflecting on their literacy knowledge, and learning language through the use of literature as a stimulus for inquiry about the world. Literature circles support all three of Halliday’s opportunities to learn language. Implementing literature circles in the classroom provides the students with opportunities to read. The job sheets prompt the
students to reflect on what they have learned and what they might bring to the group
17 discussion inquiry questions that connect the book to the real world.
Burns (1998) states that literature circles allow students to engage in discussion that is more natural and predictable. In a meta-analysis of studies that support the success of literature-based instruction, Tunnell and Jacobs (1989) found that when students engaged in activities that involved whole language with rich literature, the students read more for meaning and showed a remarkable improvement in their attitude toward reading. Although the use of literature circles are not the only method to get students engaged and provide a positive classroom climate, this one activity provides many opportunities to enhance the classroom.
When students engage in literature circles they begin to build a stronger reader-text relationship. Past studies have found that readers who are successful and skillful not only read the words and understand the written language, but also associate their related life experiences with the characters and situations that occurred in the text (Brabham &
Villaume, 2000; Pertalta-Nash & Dutch, 2000). During literature circles, in groups, students create connections between the text and personal experiences as well as listen to others in their learning communities who may make different connections, which in turn deepens their own understanding and increases their enjoyment of the texts.
Literature circles promote a cooperative, responsible, and enjoyable classroom climate. Students who are exposed to classroom climates such as this begin to make decisions in accordance with their own needs and interests (Burns, 1998). By providing students with this opportunity to work with peers they learn to become better listeners and become more honest with those that make up their learning community. Since literature circles are led by the students and their own insights and inquiries, it is important to look at
what the students perceive to be doing during this discussion and how it relates to
18 reading instruction. There are several components of reading comprehension that are assessed at the fifth grade level, including, identifying author’s purpose, using context clues, making connections, discussing plot, and identifying main idea.
Much of the recent research on literature circles in the classroom corroborates what is already known about the effectiveness of engagement in deep literature discussions as a means of developing oral language skills (Daniels, 1994; Hanssen, 1990). With the increasing pressure of standardized assessments, it is beneficial for educators to provide students with activities that will enhance their knowledge and application of reading comprehension skills and have practice using those skills independently. There is
little research on how specific reading comprehension skills are evident in literature circles discussions.
Cooperative Learning One of the defining characteristics of whole language is the implementation of cooperative learning activities. Olsen and Kagan (1992) define cooperative learning as “a group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others" (p. 15). John Dewey was an American philosopher who believed that learning primarily took place through social interactions and exchange of language; learners do not learn in isolation. In other words, learning requires the interaction between the social construction of ideas, engaging the individual, the community, and the world.
There are several components that contribute to a successful cooperative learning community. These components include teaching students to cooperate, using the subject
and task to guide the type of group discussion, assigning students to heterogeneous
19 groups, giving students explicit instructions on their group activity to encourage cooperation, and holding each individual student accountable for participation and learning in group work settings (Kagan, 1994). By applying these components, students will be engaged in multiple tasks that will ultimately enhance higher order thinking skills.
In 2002, Johnson, Johnson, and Stanne conducted a meta-analysis of cooperative learning articles. The researchers analyzed 10 different methods of cooperative learning within 164 articles introduced in the mid 1960’s through late 1980’s, based on four issues:
Amount of validating research to support the method, evaluation of the method, effectiveness in maximizing student achievement, and characteristics of more effective methods. The analysis of the articles that were used consisted of a comparison of literature reviews, independent variables (method and classification on continuum of direct to conceptual), dependent variables, and effect size. When comparing cooperative lessons with competitive learning, the top three methods that had the greatest effect on achievement were Learning Together, Constructive Controversy, and Student Teams
Achievement Divisions (STAD). When comparing cooperative lessons with individualistic learning, the top three methods were Learning Together, Constructive
Controversy, and Group Investigation.
This meta-analysis by Johnson et al. (2002) suggests that although there are a number of different cooperative learning approaches, not all are appropriate for the same task. The researchers suggest that it is important for educators to understand the research behind the many approaches and then choose the most appropriate method for the set objectives. For example, a teacher may want to use the Team Accelerated Instruction in
math, Learning Together in science and language arts, and Group Investigations in
20 social studies.
Yamarik (2007) conducted a mixed method study consisting of surveys, pretests and posttests, and math assessments to identify whether cooperative learning improves student-learning outcomes. The participants consisted of five groups of students with no more than four group members in each group. Yamarik applied the group-learning method developed by Johnson and Johnson (1987) to the experimental group. After calculating the data, the students in the experimental groups scored 5 to 6 points higher on the exams than those in the control group. Yamarik attributed the increase to three factors common in cooperative learning. The students raised the student-instructor interaction; this factor was observed by the number of questions students felt comfortable asking during class. The second factor was that students increased group studying because they were more likely to form study groups. The third factor was that the novelty of working in small groups sparked greater interest in the material.
Student-Led Discussion and Analysis
One of the major components of literature circles is student-led discussion. Social constructivist theories tend to dominate in the area of reading instruction. Social constructivist theorists view reading as a social process (Gavelek, 1986; Tharp &
Gallimore, 1988; Wertsch, 1985). The social interaction should occur between both adults and peers. Students should be working in groups to help facilitate the development of meaningful oral and written language to better understand what was read.
Raphael and McMahon (1994) conducted a qualitative study on book clubs to identify a new framework for reading instruction. After this 2-year longitudinal study, the researchers found that students were able to hold discussions that were coherent, thematic,
and encouraged all members of the group to make meaningful contributions to the
21 discussion. After analyzing the dialogue of one particular group’s discussions, they found that diverse students participated actively and assumed leadership in discussions regardless of the challenges that the text presented for them. Maloch (2002) conducted a 6-month ethnographic study of teacher-student interactions. The researcher sought to investigate a teacher’s role in supporting students as they transitioned from teacher-led discussions to student-led discussions. Through various data collection techniques, field notes, observations, collection of artifacts, interviews, videotapes, and audiotapes, the teacher was able to narrow down and identify several themes. The themes identified were: the students’ difficulty in switching responsibility, the progression of teacher emphasis, and the responsive nature of the teacher’s interventions. The theme “teacher emphasis” involved the teacher moving away from an emphasis on the process of discussion to a focus on the content of discussion. The researcher stated that, “the metacognitive lens provided by the teacher enabled the students to better understand the discussion process and their role in it there by facilitating their more expert participation and engagement in the dialogue” (p. 21). From the data analysis, the researcher was able to identify several findings. The teacher has to intervene in order to help facilitate unfocused, unproductive student-led conversation. The teacher used several strategies to do so, including reconstructive recaps, elicitations, reinforcement, extending and refining. The theme “teacher emphasis” involved the teacher moving away from an emphasis on the process of discussion to a focus on the content of discussion. In relation to this research study, the teacher’s role was to emphasize the use of reading skills in student discussions through direct instruction. This idea is supported by Maloch’s (2002) findings in that the teacher has to intervene in order to help maintain and guide meaningful discussion.
22 Role of the Teacher John Flavell’s work (1979, 1981) in the area of metacognition and comprehension indicated that the role of the teacher prior to literature circles may be to engage in direct instruction that reinforces the use of metacognitive strategies. Flavell began looking at metacognition in the early 1970’s. Flavell defines metacognitive experiences as “any conscious cognitive or affective experience that accompany and pertain to any intellectual enterprise” (Flavell, 1979, p. 906). In essence, metacognition is thoughts about thoughts, knowledge about knowledge or reflections about actions. As a result of his findings (Flavell, 1979, 1981), Flavell concluded that metacognition plays an important role in the development of oral communication, oral comprehension, reading comprehension, language acquisition, memory, attention, and self-instruction. Flavell found that this type of direct instruction helped to develop better oral communication, reading comprehension, and self-instruction, which are all goals of literature circles. The literature circles used in the current study required the students to use post-it notes to take notes while reading. In order for the students to complete this task, they needed to be consciously thinking about their roles in the discussion while reading. Similarly, during the discussion, students were encouraged to be metacognitive about what they were learning and how they would translate their learning to their individual role sheet task. Livingston (1996) would call this "metacognitive regulation," which she defined as processes one uses to control cognitive activities and ensure that a cognitive goal is being met.
Certain strategies have been identified that help foster comprehension. Palincsar and
Brown (1984) have identified six metacognitive strategies: clarifying the purpose of reading to determine the appropriate reading strategy; activating relevant background
knowledge and linking it to the text; allocating attention to the important ideas;
evaluating content for internal consistency and compatibility with prior knowledge;
23 self-monitoring (e.g. by self-questioning) to verify comprehension; and drawing and testing inferences. It is the teacher’s role to help students identify these strategies.
Another method of increasing comprehension through metacognitive awareness that teachers can address relates to students; it is the idea of student regulated learning through the reciprocal teaching model (Palincsar & Brown, 1984). With this instructional model, the teacher models four reading strategies: Questioning, Summarizing, Clarifying, and
Predicting. The teacher begins by slowly guiding students towards participation to leading the students to direct the small group learning. The goal is to get the students proficient enough in reading to regulate their own use of comprehension and generate feedback from the group. This is similar to what is done in literature circles, in that the teacher begins by modeling and providing the students with role sheets, and then begins to gradually eliminate the modeling process and the role sheets so that students can conduct their own meaningful conversation about the book.
Studies have been done to examine the relationship between metacognition and reading comprehension. Paris and Myers (1981) interviewed 8- and 12-year-old children about reading and found that older children were more aware than younger children of the effects of many variables on reading and the utility of strategies for comprehension.
Kobasigawa, Ransom, and Holland (1980) asked 10- to 14-year-olds about skimming and found that all their subjects could describe skimming, but that only the oldest children could use skimming as a strategy. Paris and Myers (1981) compared good and poor readers matched for age, sex, and arithmetic achievement, and found that good readers knew more about reading strategies, detected errors more often while reading, and had
better recall of text information. While metacognition is not the main focus of the
24 proposed study, the research in this area does relate to how and when students elect to apply reading strategy discussion while they are in literature circles.
Cross and Paris (1988) examined the developing relation between metacognition and reading. Their research found that students who are were being taught using a program called Informed Strategies for Learning made significant gains in metacognition and the use of reading strategies compared with students who were in the control group.
The general trend found in their research was that metacognition and strategic reading become more congruent from 8-10 years of age.
Cross and Paris used a strategy called Informed Strategy Training (IST) first coined by Paris, Cross, and Lipson (1984). IST follows the idea that students who are informed of the goals and learning outcomes of particular strategies and activities will increase their reading comprehension abilities. Paris et al. (1984) found that children who were exposed to IST made larger gains than students who did not on cloze and error detection tasks.
Reading Instruction
Dole, Duffy, Roehler, and Pearson (1991) state that reading instruction in current
American classrooms is based on strong behavioral and task analytic notions about learning. Smith (2000) states that reading could be viewed as a skill that could be decomposed into a component set of subskills involved in both decoding and comprehension. Examples of these subskills include sequencing, identifying main idea, identifying conflicts, and making connections.
Much research had been done to look at the most effective way to teach students about reading comprehension and the skills that are necessary to comprehend text (Dole et
al., 1991; Flavell, 1981; Paris & Jacobs, 1984). Paris and Jacobs conducted a
longitudinal, mixed methods study to identify whether metacognitive researchers
25 found that students who were taught in a classroom where the reading skills were clearly defined and where students were instructed on how to use and identify these skills had a higher success rate on comprehension assessments (Gates-MacGinitie comprehension assessment, cloze activities, and error detection tasks). This study provides convincing experimental data that students who are exposed to explicit instruction about reading awareness show an increase in understanding and use of reading skills.
In 2000, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD) released its research-based findings in a report entitled “Teaching Children To Read.” Out of dozens of possible topics, they settled on five broad topics for intensive study: alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, teacher education and reading instruction, and computer technology and reading instruction. Reading instruction and comprehension were major themes in the panel report.
The panel report analyzed 203 reading studies in the area of text comprehension. Of those studies, eight types of reading instruction offered firm support of improved comprehension. The eight types of instruction are outlined in Table 1.
26 Table 1
Types of Scientifically Based Reading Instruction Focus of Instruction Description Comprehension During instruction, the reader learns how to be conscious of his or her monitoring understanding during reading and learns procedures to deal with problems in understanding as they arise. Cooperative learning The readers work together to learn strategies in the context of reading. Graphic/semantic Students learn to graphically represent the meanings and relationships organizer of the ideas that underlie the words in the text. Story structure The reader learns to ask and answer who, what, where, when, and why questions about the plot. Students can also map out the time line, characters, and events that arise in the story. Questioning The reader answers questions posed by the teacher and is given feedback on the correctness. Questioning The student generates his or her own questions about what, when, where, why, what will happen, and how events occur in the book. Summarizing The reader attempts to identify and write the main ideas that connect other ideas in the text to form a coherent whole. Multiple strategy The reader uses several of the procedures in interaction with the instruction teacher over the text. This is effective when it is used flexibly by the teacher, in a naturalistic context. Note. From Teaching Children To Read by the NICHHD (2000)
The empirical evidence reviewed in the NICHHD led to the conclusion that reading instruction should incorporate a variety of reading strategies. Incorporating a variety of strategies leads to increased learning of reading strategies and skills, specific transfer of learning, increased retention and understanding of new passages, and, in some cases, to general improvements in comprehension (NICHHD, 2003).
The current research study incorporated several of these types of instruction.
Cooperative learning is done during the group literature circle discussions. In relation to the skill-focused minilessons on plot and cause and effect, the students were instructed on how to complete a graphic organizer for the skill. During the minilessons, the teacher engaged the students through question and answer. The questions varied and involved
both the teacher posing questions to the students and the students posing questions to
27 the teacher. There were times during the minilessons where skills and strategies overlapped, similar to the process that occurs during multiple strategy instruction.
Reading Skills
The reading skills in this research study could also be referred to as reading comprehension skills. There are many skills associated with reading comprehension, among them, making connections, inferring, predicting, sequencing, and determining cause and effect. The five skills that were chosen for this study were due in part to the Florida State Standards for fifth grade students. The five skills chosen were the most commonly occurring on Florida standardized assessments. They are: Identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, identifying plot, and using context clues.
The International Reading Association (IRA) identified six comprehension strategies that research suggests are crucial in developing reading comprehension:
Prediction/prior knowledge, think-alouds, text-structure, visual representations, summarization, and questions/questioning. These strategies have also been identified as critical by the NICHHD (2000), a meta-analysis of thousands of research studies based on the five designated areas of reading: Alphabetics, fluency, comprehension, teacher education and reading instruction, and computer technology and reading instruction. The
NICHHD (2000) consisted of 14 leading scientists in the area of reading research, colleges of education, reading teachers, and educational administrators. The panel reported that in order to develop a successful reading program that encompasses all of these strategies, teachers must provide students with teacher-directed instruction and
modeling, group practice, and individual practice.
28 Fall, Webb, and Chudowsky (2000) conducted a study to identify the effect of group discussion on reading comprehension. The researchers carried out a large scale mixed methods study that compared student performance on a language arts assessment in which students were or were not able to discuss the story that was the focus of the assessment.
The researchers reported that performance on reading comprehension of short passages dramatically improved once students had even brief opportunities to discuss passages with peers. Several studies support the fact that students who are involved in reader response activities performed better on standardized assessments than those students who are involved in teacher-directed text-dominated activities (Swift, 1993).
Swift (1993) conducted a yearlong action research project in her classroom to determine if the reader response method would have an effect on reading comprehension skills. Swift used the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test to assess reading prior to the study, once the reader response method had begun, and at the end of the study. The researcher then ran a test-interval-interaction statistical analysis and a MANOVA to determine whether the change in test scores was significant. The researcher determined that although
all students benefited from the reader response method, those who were the weakest readers had the greatest increase in comprehension scores.
Swift goes on to address questions that the study raised. Would the reader response method be successful below sixth grade? Were the teacher’s minilessons a key component to the students' increase in comprehension? The current study contributes to responses to these questions.
29 Discourse Analysis
In studying language within different contexts, one common method is discourse analysis. Discourse analysis which began to take form in the 1960’s and early 1970’s
(McCarthy, 1991) is rooted in, linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology.
There are many models of discourse analysis that exist in educational research.
Maloch (2002) used a model of discourse analysis termed constant-comparative method to identify how teachers scaffold student talk during literature circle discussions. The discourse analysis in the current study focused on two components, scaffolding and construction of shared knowledge. This is similar to the current study in that two components, student discourse and reading skills, were the focus. Maloch focused on the teacher interventions within the context of the literature circle discussions and the student utterances preceding the interventions.
In order to ensure the trustworthiness of the discourse analysis and data collection,
Maloch used several techniques. Throughout the data collection, prolonged engagement of observations and videotaping occurred, as well as triangulation of methods (e.g., observations, interviews, and videotaping), negative case analysis, member checking, and exploring referential adequacy of materials used in literature circles. Similar to this research study, peer debriefing was utilized as a way to enhance the credibility of the findings. In contrast, the researcher for this research study used an expert panel comprised of reading professors at the university as well as expert teacher peers. The researcher’s peers engaged in regular discussion with the researcher and were given access to expanded field notes, artifacts, and videotapes. The use of an expert panel in this study was necessary in order to
provide credibility for the coding process.
30 Berne and Clark (2006) took a different approach to using discourse analysis to identify comprehension strategy use during peer-led book discussions. The steps for analysis included identifying comprehension strategies that might occur in pre-reading discussions, during reading discussions, and post-reading discussions, thoroughly reading and rereading transcripts along with the predetermined list of codes, situating the noted codes in the context of post reading discussions, identifying nonstrategic comprehension related talk as well as other talk, and finally coding the transcripts using all categories of talk that were developed.
In order to ensure the credibility of the coding process, the researchers coded the transcripts separately. Berne and Clark (2006) then convened with both sets of codes to determine a percentage of interrater reliability. The percent of accuracy in coding was 92%.
In addition, an independent rater coded 30% of the transcripts and achieved an agreement of
86%. The current study used similar methods for achieving interrater reliability.
Scharer and Peters (1996) used a method for analyzing transcripts called Question-
Response Units (QRU). The QRU method involves grouping discourse topically, beginning with the initiation of one topic and ending with the initiation of a different topic.
The researchers analyzed each QRU to determine patterns of ways topics were initiated, sustained, and terminated. Coding categories were developed through multiple rereadings.
These codes were used to identify, retrieve, group, compare, and discuss the words of the participants. This research study utilized similar units to the QRU called stanzas, which represented a group of lines about one important event, happening, or state of affairs at one time and place.
31 The Teacher as a Researcher For the purpose of the current study, the teacher acted as the researcher. Shulman (1986) refers to this paradigm for qualitative study as an investigation of “classroom ecology.” This type of inquiry draws from anthropology, sociology, and the traditions of qualitative, interpretive research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993). Cochran-Smith and Lytle propose, “ that current research on teaching within both process-product and interpretive paradigms constraint and even at times makes invisible teachers’ roles in the generalization of knowledge about teaching and learning in the classrooms” (p. 2).
Action research is a form of research that involves the teacher and an investigation of his or her own classroom. Action research was first introduced in the mid 1950’s (Corey,
1953) and became evident in the educational setting during the 1970’s and since then has begun to gain increasing popularity in the field of education. There are several different definitions for the term "action research." According to Mills (2003), action research can be defined as “any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, administrators, counselors, or others with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process, for the purpose of gathering data about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how students learn” (p. 401). Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993), refer to teacher research as “systematic and intentional inquiry carried out by teachers” (p. 3). Argyris and Schon (1989) define action research as “research that takes its cues- its questions, puzzles, and problems- from the perceptions of practitioners within particular, local practice contexts. It bounds episodes of research according to the boundaries of the local context itself, and tests them there through intervention experiments- that is, through experiments that bear the double burden of testing hypotheses and effecting some (putatively) desirable change in the situation” (p.
613). The Mills (2003) definition most accurately describes the current study.
For the current study, the teacher took an active role as the researcher with the support of an expert panel to code and analyze transcriptions of literature circle 32 discussions. The expert panel consisted of two veteran reading teachers and two university professors, one whose area of specialization is in discourse analysis, and the other in the area of reading instruction.
During an action research study, it is important to identify the positionality of the researcher, as the positionality will determine how the researcher frames the design of the study (Herr & Anderson, 2005). Positionality refers to the researchers’ relationship as researcher vis-à-vis research participant. The researcher can be an insider, an outsider, or both working collaboratively together. This research study was conducted from an insider position analyzing behaviors and outcomes in the classroom. This type of action research relies on more traditional qualitative methods of gathering data (Herr & Anderson).
Traditional qualitative data methods might include interviews, observations with field notes, documents, videotapes, and audiotapes.
A brief review of research studies focused on student literature discussion and/or literature circles is consistent with Herr and Anderson's observations (Table 2). All 10 studies reviewed involved qualitative methodology and 7 out of the 10 were conducted using action research, as based on the Mills (2003) definition. These studies provide a framework for the design of the current research study.
33 Table 2
Classroom-Based Action Research Literacy Studies from 1996 - 2006 Author and Title of Study Type of study Data Sources Publication Berne, J. I., & Comprehension strategy use Action Research Audiotaped literature Clark, K. F. during peer-led discussions of (two teacher researchers) discussions, coding (2006) text: Ninth graders tackle "The of transcriptions Lottery” Bond, T. F. Giving them free rein: Action Research (one Field notes, student (2001) Connections in student-led book teacher researcher) journal entries, groups audiotaped literature discussion Chinn, C. A., Patterns of Discourse in Two Qualitative Study by three Videotaped literature Anderson, Kinds of Literature Discussion university researchers discussions, focus R. C., & group, Waggoner, M. A. (2001) Keefer, M. Judging the quality of peer-led Qualitative study by two Videotaped literature W., Zeitz, C. student dialogues. university researchers discussions, graphic M., & analysis, pre- Resnick, determined coding of L. B. (2000) transcription King, C. “I like group reading because we Action Research (one Videotaping (2001) can share ideas”: The role of talk teacher researcher) literature discussion, within the literature circle individual student reflection, test scores to monitor progress Long, T. W., How engagement strategies and Action Research Audiotaped literature & Gove, literature circles discussions M. K. (2003) promote critical response in a fourth-grade, urban classroom Scharer, An exploration of literature Action Research (two Teacher interviews, P. L., & discussions conducted by two teacher researchers) audiotaped literature Peters, D. teachers moving toward discussion, pre- (1996) literature-based reading determined coding instruction Stien, D., & Bridging the gap between fiction Action Research (one Audiotaped literature Beed, P. L and nonfiction in the teacher researcher) discussions, video of (2004) literature circle setting teacher instruction, interview protocol
Short, K., Teacher-Watching”: Examining Qualitative study by Audiotaped literature Kaufman, G., Teacher Talk in Literature university researchers and discussions, expert Kaser, S., Circles Action Research by the panel, coding Kahn, L., & teacher researchers transcriptions Crawford, M. (1999) Triplett, C., Book Talk: Continuing to Rouse Action Research (two Field notes, student & Buchanan, Minds and Hearts to Life teacher researchers) interviews, teacher A. (2005) interviews, audio transcription
34 This study was an action research study using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Audiotaped and videotaped discussions were often used for analysis purposes in the studies reviewed in Table 2. Audiotaped discussion occurred within 5 of the
10 studies, while videotaped discussion occurred in 3 of the 10 studies.
Although the use of expert panels was only mentioned once, Galvan (2006) notes that one of the guidelines for evaluating qualitative research is to note whether outside experts were consulted. Galvan states, “consultation with one or more outside experts increases the confidence consumers of research can have in the research results obtained in a qualitative study” (p. 56). The use of outside experts is particularly important when there is just one researcher who is also the teacher.
Summary
This review of literature describes the use of literature circles as a cooperative learning technique to facilitate students’ reading of literature. There are several conclusions that can be drawn from the review of research. During literature circles, the students appear to build strong text-to-self relationships, increase reading comprehension, and ensure that students spend time reading authentic literature to read and learn through a natural process of questioning and discussion. There is little research that examines the use of specific reading skills during student-led discussions. In order to continue to use literature circles effectively, researchers need to identify the best role of the teacher to facilitate discussions that are meaningful and address the state mandated standards. The research methodology for this approach to analyzing the effect of skill-focused minilessons on the students’ independent use of reading skills is described in Chapter 3.
35
Chapter III
Research Study Questions and Design
This study addresses fifth grade students’ use of reading skills during literature circle discussions, prior to and after skill-focused minilessons. The research questions were:
1. What reading comprehension skills are the least commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
2. What reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
3. Does the application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test of target skills?
4. In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?
There has been very little attention paid in the research literature to students' independent use of reading skills during literature circles. Teachers need information about how to inform students’ independent reading and are looking for research-based methods to engage students in applying strategies. An analysis of literature circle discussions is one approach in which researchers can have some access to students’ thinking about text, as evident in the group discussions. This study can help teachers learn
more about how to better understand those discussions and ultimately how to better
36 support independent reading. The students in this study engaged in literature circles first with the presence of a skill-focused minilesson and then with the absence of the skill- focused minilesson to determine if they were able to use the reading skills independently when they read new texts. The transcripts from the audiotaped literature circle discussions were analyzed to identify the independent skills used.
Methodology
This research study is a case study design based on the definition of Yin (1994), who defines a case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context” (p. 27). This particular study could be classified as particularistic, meaning it focuses on a particular situation or event (Merriam, 1998); in this study, the event is the literature circle discussion. A case study of the particularistic nature can suggest to the reader what to do or what not to do in a similar situation, can examine a specific instance but illuminate a general problem, or may or may not be influenced by the author’s bias.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Qualitative methods included audio taping and transcribing and analyzing student discussion using a discourse analysis framework. A dependent t-test was used to determine the possible difference in student achievement on the FCAT diagnostic assessment and the FCAT for the academic year
2008-2009.
Pilot Study
Design of Pilot Study
A pilot study involving 8 fifth-grade students not included in the dissertation study
was implemented in the spring of 2008. A pilot study was necessary to gain a better
37 understanding of what to expect from student responses in order to accurately code the data in the dissertation study. A pilot study in research can also aid in correcting any logistical issues that may arise. Logistical issues for this study include the appropriateness of the books being used and the most efficient way to audiotape literature circle discussions. The pilot study also served the purpose of the development of a teacher script for each skill-focused minilesson (see Appendix A through E, Teacher Scripts).
There are reading skills that have been identified by the National Reading
Standards (NCTE, 1996) as well as the local school district that are assessed throughout the school year. Five of those skills were the targets of investigation for this study regarding literature circle discussions. Those five skills are: Identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues.
Pilot Study Procedures
The eight students in the pilot study represented a range of abilities and were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Their discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. The students were assigned to read Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994) and engage in literature circles. The students were assigned chapters to be read each night prior to meeting in literature circles. The independent reading consisted of three to four chapters at a time, depending on the length of the chapters. The students were required to use post-it notes to help guide discussion the following day. Prior to engaging in the study, the students became familiar with the process of literature circles and were provided with instruction and modeling of possible notes that could be taken during the reading process to help facilitate discussion during literature circles.
After each assigned reading and skill-focused minilesson, the students came
38 together in literature circles to discuss the reading. There were a total of five literature circle meetings and five minilessons. The minilessons were audiotaped in order to have a transcription in order to develop a script to be used during the dissertation study. The literature circle meetings lasted approximately 15 minutes each, for a total collection of
150 minutes of student discussion. Each of the minilessons lasted approximately 15 minutes as well. The main purpose of this pilot study was to develop a protocol to identify reading skills in the students’ discussion through a process of discourse analysis.
Data Collection
The material selected for the analysis was the transcription of the two randomly selected group discussions. For the purpose of the pilot study, the researcher recorded a detailed transcript, which included all of the student discourse that took place during the discussions. The entire discussion was used in the analysis. One group was audiotaped while the second group was videotaped to determine which process would be most effective for transcribing data in the dissertation study. Based on this process, the data for the dissertation study was audiotaped using a tape recorder with an external microphone.
Data Analysis
Once the literature circles had been completed, the researcher transcribed the audiotaped discussions. Titscher, Meyer, Wodak, and Vetter (2000) state there are three decisions to be made when deciding what material should be used for analysis. A researcher should determine from what material to make the selection, from that selection of material, what parts should be analyzed, and what unit of analysis will be used.
Discourse analysis based on an approach from Gee (2005) was used to analyze the
data. The researcher analyzed the language students’ used in the context of
39 independent group discussion focused on literature. These independent group discussions occurred within the larger context of classroom talk and prior teacher-directed lessons focused on the piece of literature students were assigned to read for homework.
To keep the anonymity of the students, the researcher assigned an identification code for each student. The first letter identified the student’s ethnicity, the second letter identified the student’s gender, and the number represented randomly how many students of that gender were in the study. For example, if a student was identified BM1, that would mean that the student was the first black male to be identified in the study.
There were five predetermined categories to code the data (identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues).
Each literature circle discussion in its entirety was transcribed for the purpose of analysis.
The researcher identified specific words that related to the five different reading skills, identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues. For example, in the following quote (an utterance of students using context clues), it was clear to the researcher that the words “I looked it up in the dictionary” and “Page 73, right here what do you think it means,” were associated with the skill using context clues based on the information that the teacher gave during the skill-focused minilesson and the context of the discussion.
Quote 1.
Sample utterance of students using context clues in a literature circle discussion
HSF1: Page 73, right here what do you think it means? BM1: I think it means like flunking or something, I don’t know, boring book. WF1: Like they are running away from something because it says, “I saw the Indians thunking away”--oh wait, no no no, like partying away or something HSF1: It said, “We went to the Pikestone National Monument and saw Indians thunking away at the quarry.” BM1: Uh, I guess they are having a celebration or dance or something. 40 HSF1: But, I looked it up in the dictionary and I couldn’t find it so I just left it there. And then my second word is “quarry” in the same paragraph and page.
Stanzas as Units of Analysis
Stanzas are “clumps” of tone units that deal with a unitary topic or perspective and which appear to have been planned together (Gee, 2005 p. 107). The students may individually represent a unit of information or several students may constitute a single unitary larger block of information. In the case of this study, each stanza is a group of lines about one important theme (a particular one of five targeted reading skills). In certain cases, one student may start the line that then causes other students to build from what was said; therefore, the group as a whole is engaged in one unit or stanza. An example of multiple students making up one stanza for character development follows in
Quote 2.
Sample utterance of students analyzing character in a literature circle discussion
WM2: If Mrs. Cadaver was here what would you do? WF2: I would be scared of her. WM1: Me too. Teacher: Why? WF2: Because a lot of people think she killed her husband. WM1: And she is crazy. Teacher: But has she really done anything crazy? WM2: No. Teacher: She may have weird hair but so do a lot of people, she does lawn work, but so do a lot of people. WM2: And she buys axes. WF2: Yeah that is a little weird. If she was doing lawn work then she could be burying his people.
A stanza shows the number of students that connect their structure, thoughts, and meanings. The way in which the researcher identifies and articulates these stanzas
represents his or her construction of how meaning is shaped in the discussion.
41 The pilot study also provided the researcher with “function words” that students use in literature discussions that reflect the use of the target reading skills. These
“function” words are associated with one of the five reading skills; identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues.
For example, if there were any commonly occurring words that continuously showed up in the transcript from the student talk during the minilesson for context clues, those words would be named “function words for context clues.” These words helped the researcher to identify how the words in each stanza relate to each other and how many different ways students apply the skills, using different function words during literature circle discussions. In order to identify the “function words,” an analysis of student talk during the minilessons that focused on the five skills was done during the pilot study. Students came to the discussion with different prior experiences, which in turn reflected a difference in “function words” to represent the discrete reading skills (Table 3). The discourse analysis in the pilot study permitted the researcher to study these situated meanings brought by individual students within the context of independent group literature discussion. This Function Word List served as an aid in the coding process of the dissertation study.
42 Table 3
Function Word List Derived from Pilot Study Used for Discourse Analysis of Literature Circle Discussion Group Transcripts Focused on Independent Use of Five Reading Skills FUNCTION WORD LIST Cause and Effect Context Clues • Cause • I don’t have the definition for it • Effect • What do you think the word means • I think she acted that way because • Student rereading a sentence to • Because determine the word • Cause like what caused something to • The definition as used by the passage happen and the effect like how it is happened • Synonyms or antonyms • The cause is the like the problem and • Definition the effect is like the solution. • Words that are around it • Because • In the sentence • Because of it • The sentence after or before • How it happened • Why or so • Now Character Development Conflict • Would you want to become Sal’s friend • Character versus Character if she sat right next to? • Problem • Would you want to be friends with • A fight Phoebe if she was here? • A war • Do you think ______has some • Battle issues? • Difference of opinion • Just because of her name you shouldn’t • Between two kids judge her • Can be laws or customs of society • A person • A person in the story with another • A person in the story person in the story • Characteristics • That characters versing itself by • like actions, traits: Responsibility, trying to change something curiosity, Potential, smart, selfish, • Survival and nature if you get • Personality stranded somewhere • Character verse nature • Problem between character and something in nature when you have Plot • Climax • Problem • Element of the Plot • Falling Action • Rising Action • Asking questions about what happened in the story
43 Process of Discourse Analysis
In order for the researcher to become situated in the social languages of the students involved in the discussions, there was a set of seven questions that were answered for each set of data collected from each group (Table 4). Gee calls these seven categories “building tasks.” The seven categories are: Significance, activities, identities, relationships, politics, connections, and significance of sign systems and knowledge. As
Gee (2005) states, “It is important to note that very often social languages are not ‘pure’, but rather people mix them in complex ways for specific purposes” (p. 105). It is difficult to know whether someone is switching from one social language to another, or mixing two of them in a given context. In order to recognize this, the researcher used the following format to analyze each set of transcripts collected from each group.
44 Table 4
Analysis Questions for Task Building Prior to Analysis of Literature Circle Transcriptions Analysis Questions for Task Building Literature Circle Literature Circle Group 1 Group 2 Significance What are the situated meanings of some of the words and phrases that seem important in the situation? Activities What is the larger or main activity (or set of activities) going on in the situation? Identities What identities (roles, positions), with their concomitant personal, social, and cultural knowledge and beliefs, feelings, and values, seem to be relevant to, taken for granted in or under construction in the situation? Relationships What sorts of social relationships seem to be relevant to, take for granted in, or under construction in the situation?
Politics What social goods (e.g., status, power, aspects of gender, race, and class, are more narrowly defined social networks and identities) are relevant in this situation? Connections What sorts of connection-looking backward and/or forward- are made within and across utterances and large stretches of the interaction? Significance for sign systems/knowledge What sign systems are relevant (or irrelevant) in the situation (e.g., speech, writing, images, and gestures)? How are they made relevant/irrelevant and in what ways? Note. Adapted from An Introduction to Discourse Analysis, by J. Gee, 2005
It was necessary to do this for each set of data collected, due to the different
minilessons that were given prior to the group discussion as well as the difference in
content from chapter to chapter that the students were reading and discussing. During
45 the dissertation study, the group numbers in Table 4 changed from 2 to 4 as the number of participants doubled, but the questions remained the same.
Research Study
Design and Methods
This study utilized quantitative methods to address research questions 1 and 2, which identified the least and most commonly used skills during literature circle discussions. Quantitative methods were also used to address research question 3, which identified an increase in student achievement on the fifth grade FCAT. Qualitative methods were used to address research question 4, which identified ways in which students independently transferred skills across texts.
Qualitative methods used in this study were the production and analysis of audiotaped transcriptions and the use of discourse analysis to collect and analyze data related to research question four, “In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?” A dependent t- test was used to address research question 3 in order to compare the data from the first
FCAT diagnostic taken prior to literature circles preceded by the minilesson, and the
FCAT scores taken after students engaged in literature circles preceded by a minilesson in order to address research question 3. The quantitative data were used to answer research questions 1 and 2, which related to the reading comprehension skills that are most and least commonly used by students. After coding data for each of the five reading strategies, based on the categories developed through the pilot study, frequencies were tabulated in order to address research questions 1 and 2.
46 Participants
This study was conducted at an elementary school that serves grades K-5, located in the southwestern region of a large city in a state in the Southeast. The school was selected due to the fact that the researcher had access to her classroom. School district approval was granted to conduct the study. The student composition of the elementary school was 54%
White Non-Hispanic, 27% Hispanic, 8% African-American, 11% Asian, Indian, and multiracial. The free and reduced lunch rate is 40% at this school.
Sample Descriptive Statistics
Initially, 18 students were randomly assigned to the researchers’ fifth grade classroom in which the study was conducted. Of the original 18 students, 16 who returned the parent consent form completed the study. Institutional Review Board approval was gained prior to engaging in data collection. The students signed assent forms and the parents signed consent forms (see Appendix F-H, Child Assent and Parent Consent
Forms). The study occurred over a two-and-a-half month period in which all students remained in the study.
The participants were members of the researcher’s fifth grade classroom and ranged in age from 10-12. Eight (50%) of the participants were females. The remaining 8
(50%) of the 16 participants were males. Data about the ethnicities of the participants were collected from the student records. They were denoted as follows: W, B, and HS.
For the purpose of this study, these symbols were attributed the following labels: W =
Caucasian, B = African American, and HS = Hispanic. The demographics for ethnicity of the sample are as follows: 7 (43.75%) Caucasian, 3 (18.75%) African American, and 6
(37.5%) Hispanic.
47 Expert Panel In order to ensure the reliability of the process of discourse analysis, an expert panel was constructed. The expert panel consisted of two reading teachers and two volunteer university reading professors. The experienced teachers each had at least 10 years of experience teaching reading, with a master’s degree or more. Once teachers with this qualification had been identified, an invitation to participate was distributed and two teachers were chosen randomly from among the willing volunteers. The university professors were invited by the researcher to participate based on their areas of specialization (reading) and their willingness to volunteer. Once professors who met the criteria had been identified, an invitation to participate was distributed and two professors were randomly chosen from those willing to participate. The researcher met with each of the panel members to present the study. The expert panel was given a list of the sample student responses (see Appendix I) for each reading skill that was collected in the pilot study. In order for the researcher to continue the coding process, the researcher’s coding of skills and the expert panel’s coding had to be at an 85% match. Procedures
In order to lessen the likelihood of an order-effect taking place from the students’ practice over time, the students were exposed to literature circles for 2 months prior to data collection. An order-effect is a phenomenon in which the final result is significantly affected by the temporal order of the information presentation (Wang, Johnson, & Zhang,
2006). Exposing students to literature circles before the data collection ensures that the students’ responses are not due to the learning process of engaging in literature circles.
These prior literature circles did not include skill-focused minilessons with respect
to specific reading skills that were included in this study. The teacher’s focus was on getting students accustomed to the practice of discussing literature by modeling how 48 cooperative group discussion works. For this, the teacher addressed issues such as whole group participation, responsibility for independent reading, and how to disagree with others and still be respectful with the class in a whole group format. The class developed a list of rules that should be followed while the students work in groups. For example, one rule may be to respect the opinions of others. The teacher modeled the use of literature circles through mock discussions with select students in front of the class. The purpose of this previous work was to habituate students to the common use of literature circle discussions without minilessons so that when skill-focused minilessons were added for the first time, the impact would easily be seen within the first few discussions.
Data collection for the research study began in January of 2009 and proceeded over a 4-month period. There were 5 literature circle meetings per book, totaling 10 altogether. The students were randomly assigned to one of the four literature circle groups. The students read the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997) and engaged in literature circles. Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997) was used first due to the fact that it is a higher Lexile level, which would ensure that it was not the difficulty of the text reflecting the discussion. This ensured that it was not the difficulty in text that contributed to differences in the second set of literature circles. Prior to each literature discussion, the teacher engaged in a minilesson (see Appendix A through E) on each of the five reading skills selected for the study. The students’ discussions were audiotaped and transcribed for coding and data analysis. The coding protocol from the pilot study was used for the analysis process. After the students completed reading the first book, they engaged in a second round of literature circles with the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994). Skill-focused minilessons did not precede this group of literature circle meetings. The students were then assigned chapters to read and came together to discuss the reading. These discussions were also audiotaped and transcribed for coding and data analysis. The 49 information gained when students did not engage in skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles for the second book, contributed to the response for research question 4, do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?
Discourse Analysis Interrater Reliability
In order for the researcher to code the data with validity and reliability, it was necessary to collaborate with an expert panel. In line with the researcher’s design, three transcripted literature circle discussions were provided to four independent experts in reading and teaching, two university professors, and two elementary reading teachers with reading endorsements. The researcher and coders analyzed the transcripts to identify the five skills within the student discussion. Each skill was associated with a specific color.
When the researcher or coders identified a skill, that stanza was highlighted with the corresponding color (see Appendix O, Sample Coded Transcript). The matrices are intended to investigate the degree to which the researcher’s coding of the five reading skills as expressed through fifth grade literature circle discussion is sufficiently reliable
(see Appendix J-N, Coder Matrix for all five skills). Once reliability had been confirmed, the researcher continued with coding 40 transcribed literature circle discussions in order to track and analyze the students’ application of the five skill areas in their discussion.
The matrix in Table 5 outlines the matches made between the researcher and the expert panel to determine the validity of the coding process. The skill using context clues, had the greatest interrater reliability at 99%. The skill discussing plot had the weakest interrater reliability at only 73%. This is due in part to an outlier among the expert panel.
50 Coder three did not identify any occurrences of plot in all of transcript one (see Appendix
N, Plot Matrix). Overall, four of the five skills were coded with an accuracy of 80% or above.
Table 5
Discourse Analysis Matrix for Interrater Reliability of Fifth Grade Literature Circle Transcripts Skill Transcript 1 Transcript 2 Transcript 3 Total Percentage Using Total matches 33 40 64 Context to researcher Clues Total possible 36 40 64 matches to researcher Percentage 92% 100% 100% 99%
Discussing Total matches 36 24 39 Plot to researcher Total possible 52 36 48 Percentage 70% 67% 81% 73%
Identifying Total matches 40 16 17 Cause and to researcher Effect Total possible 48 20 20 matches to researcher Percentage 83% 80% 85% 83%
Describing Total matches 31 35 44 Conflict to researcher Total possible 32 40 44 matches to researcher Percentage 97% 88% 100% 90%
Analyzing Total Matches 10 7 26 Character to researcher Total possible 12 8 36 matches to researcher Percentage 83% 88% 72% 81%
51 Materials The following section discusses the materials that were necessary to conduct this research study. The assessments that were chosen are described in detail. Literature circles require the use of a text to engage in discussion. A description of how the texts were chosen is presented in this chapter. Texts
Due to the fact that all students in the class engaged in both groups of literature circles, with minilesson and without minilessons, two different novels were necessary to record data for both literature circles. To ensure that the books were equivalent and to reduce the chance of the books causing a change in discussion, several criteria were set that the two books met in order to be classified “equivalent.” Using the criteria developed by Kasten, Kristo, and McClure (2005), six elements of a fiction book were used to identify equivalence. Those criteria included: similar overall theme, characters with similar character traits, similar writing style, point of view, and plot. Due to the fact that the books had to meet an appropriate reading level, they had to also be within the Lexile level of 650 – 850 (see Appendix P, Book Equivalency Chart).
Reading Assessment
The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) in Reading is part of
Florida’s plan to increase student achievement by implementing higher standards. The
FCAT is administered to students in Grades 3-11, and contains two basic components: criterion-referenced tests (CRT), measuring selected Reading benchmarks from the
Sunshine State Standards (SSS); and norm-referenced tests (NRT) in Reading and measuring individual student performance against national norms. For the purpose of this
study, the researcher administered the FCAT Diagnostic in reading in early December,
52 and then the students took the FCAT in late March. Originally, the students were to take the first FCAT diagnostic in September and then the second FCAT diagnostic in
November. The original timeline for the study was not met; therefore, the students ended up taking the November FCAT diagnostic and the March FCAT. Both FCAT scores will answer research question 3, Does application of skills focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test of target skills?
The four components on the fifth grade reading FCAT are as follows: Word
Phrases, Main Idea, Comprehension, and Reference and Researcher. The scores for each component are reported in the form of percentages. These scores were used to run a dependent t-test to answer research question 3.
The FCAT diagnostic that was administered in December of 2008 was used to determine students’ baseline knowledge of reading skills prior to engagement in literature circles. The FCAT that was administered in late March of 2009 was used to answer research question 3, does application of skills focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test of target skills?
Data Collection
The material selected for the analysis was the transcription of four groups’ discussions. For the purpose of the pilot study, the researcher recorded a detailed transcript. The entire discussion was then used in the analysis. The unit of analysis to record utterances of student talk was stanzas that represent students using one of the five
reading skills (identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict,
53 discussing plot, and using context clues). The protocol from the pilot study, which identified function words from each skill, was then used to identify stanzas. The researcher then analyzed the transcripts for frequency and type of utterances throughout the transcription to answer research questions 1, 2, and 4 in the dissertation study.
Data Analysis
The seven questions from Table 3 were addressed by the researcher for the first set of data collected from each of the four groups in order to situate the researcher in the context of the groups. The researcher used the protocol that contains the function words to identify stanzas that represent the five reading skills (identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues). The expert panel was given the protocol of function words to use in their coding process. After the three transcripts had been coded by both the researcher and the expert panel members, the transcripts were checked for interrater reliability. There had to be 85% accuracy in coding between the expert panel’s identification of stanzas and the researcher’s. Once there was an accuracy match of 85%, the researcher continued to collect the data and analyze it for identification of the reading skills in the remaining 36 transcripts. Using these data, the number of occurrences for each of the five skills (identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues) was used to determine the percent of occurrence.
54
Chapter IV
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ independent use of reading skills during literature circle discussions with or without minilessons. The least and most commonly occurring reading skills were identified. The fifth grade reading FCAT scores were analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles and students’ achievement scores. Lastly, students’ discussions during literature circles were analyzed to identify the ways in which students transfer readings skills across texts.
Research Questions
This study investigated the effect of skill-focused minilessons on students’ independent use of reading skills during literature circle discussions. The four research questions were as follows:
1. What reading comprehension skills are the least commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
2. What reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used by fifth grade students during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
3. Does the application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test of target skills?
55 4. In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions by fifth grade students transfer to new texts?
The summarized data for the first research question, What reading comprehension skills are least commonly used during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons, appear in Tables 6 and 7. Table 6 outlines the total utterances for each skill across the class as a whole for the first five literature circles preceded by a minilesson.
Table 7 outlines each group’s individual use of the five skills for the first five literature circles preceded by minilessons.
The data used to address the second research question, What reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used during literature circle discussions after skill-focused minilessons? appear in Tables 6 and 7. The data sources for the third research question, Does application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) of target skills? are the scores from the fifth grade FCAT pretest and posttest. A paired dependent t-test was used to determine if the change in scores was significant (Table 8). The data used to answer the fourth question, In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts? were the coded transcripts of 10 literature circle group discussions.
The literature circle discussions for each of the four groups were taped, transcribed, and then coded for utterances of comprehension skills. The 16 students were randomly assigned to groups for the purpose of small group discussion in literature
circles. A random number was used to represent each group in order to distinguish
56 between the different groups’ transcribed discussions. The stanzas that represented the five different skills (identifying cause and effect, analyzing characters, describing conflict, discussing plot, and using context clues) were then isolated. Each comprehension skill area was then compared and analyzed within each group to determine what general differences were visible when minilessons were used or not used prior to literature circles.
For the purpose of analysis, transcripts were coded by groups first and then by skill area.
Regardless of group, analysis also included a word count for each group. The word count indicates how often coded utterances could be linked to a particular skill during literature circle discussions.
Results
Research Question 1: What reading comprehension skills are the least commonly used during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
The 16 students who participated in the study engaged in five literature circle discussions after application of skill-focused minilessons. Using the coding process, the researcher identified the number of times each comprehension skill was used during a discussion. The utterance of each skill was then tallied to determine the frequency of comprehension skills during each group’s discussion and then as a whole class. Table 6 presents the number of utterances for each comprehension skill cumulated for all groups.
The comprehension skill using context clues was discussed 24 times within the discussions, making using context clues the least commonly used skill. The comprehension skill describing conflict was uttered 27 times, making it the second least commonly used skill.
Table 7 represents the total utterances for each individual group. Three out of
57 four groups had similar findings to the cumulative data (Table 6) from all four groups across the five literature circle meetings post minilesson. Groups 2, 3, and 4 all used context clues and described conflict least often. Group 2 used context clues six times during the five discussions and described conflict six times as well. Group 3 used context clues four times and described conflict five times out of the five discussions. Group 4 used context clues four times and described conflict eight times out of the five discussion groups. Group 1 described conflict and identified cause and effect the least often during their five discussions after the minilesson. Group 1 identified cause and effect five times and described conflict eight times.
Research Question 2: What reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used during literature circle discussion after skill-focused minilessons?
The two comprehension skills with the highest frequency across the class as a whole were analyzing character and discussing plot (Table 6). The use of analyzing character was identified 43 times throughout the discussions, making it the most commonly used skill. The use of discussing plot was identified 42 times, so it was the second most commonly used skill.
58 Table 6
Occurrence of Skills in All Group Discussions of Walk Two Moons
Skill Total Occurrences After Application of Minilesson
Analyzing Character 43 (25%)
Discussing Plot 42 (24%)
Identifying Cause and Effect 36 (21%)
Describing Conflict 27 (16%)
Using Context Clues 24 (14%)
Table 7 represents the total utterances for each individual group. Groups 1 and 2 both analyzed character and discussed plot most often during the five literature circles after the minilesson. Group 1 analyzed character 13 times and discussed plot 12 times.
Group 2 analyzed character 19 times and discussed plot 9 times. Group 3 discussed plot most often, with 13 utterances, and the second most often used skill was identifying cause and effect, with 11 utterances. Group 4 analyzed character and identified cause and effect most often, with 12 utterances of both comprehension skills
59 Table 7
Descriptive Statistics Summary of Skills Coded for Literature Circle Groups from the Book Walk Two Moons Group Comprehension Skills Total Utterances of Comprehension Skills Group 1 Character 13 (27%) Plot 12 (25%) Cause and Effect 5 (10%) Conflict 8 (17%) Context Clues 10 (21%)
Group 2 Character 19 (40%) Plot 9 (19%) Cause and Effect 8 (16%) Conflict 6 (12.5%) Context clues 6 (12.5%)
Group 3 Character 10 (23%) Plot 13 (30%) Cause and Effect 11 (26%) Conflict 5 (12%) Context Clues 4 (9%)
Group 4 Character 12 (27%) Plot 8 (18%) Cause and Effect 12 (27%) Conflict 8 (18%) Context Clues 4 (9%)
Research Question 3: Does application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test of target skills?
Prior to the application of skill-focused minilessons, the 16 students involved in the study took the FCAT Diagnostic Assessment in reading. After having been exposed to the skill-focused minilessons and then engaging in literature circles, the students then took
the FCAT in reading. The FCAT divides reading results into four categories,
60 Comprehension, Word Phrases, Research and Reference, and Main Idea. For the purpose of this study, two of the four categories assessed on the FCAT were used to address research question 3. The four skills describing conflict, identifying cause and effect, discussing plot, and analyzing character are assessed on the FCAT in the comprehension category, while the skill using context clues is assessed by the word phrases category of the FCAT. A paired dependent t-test was used to identify statistically significant gains among the different categories of the fifth grade FCAT from pretest prior to treatment of skill-focused minilessons to posttest after treatment. The dependent variables were the fifth grade FCAT diagnostic (pretest) and the fifth grade FCAT (posttest), and the independent variable was the skill-focused minilesson. The results for each of the paired dependent t-tests are provided in Table 8.
Table 8
Paired Dependent t-Test After Pretest Treatment Source Mean SD Mean SD t df p
Comprehension 66.75 16.85 70.38 15.91 -.798 15 .437
Word Phrases 61.38 24.87 71.38 19.52 -.2.089 15 .054
Results from the paired dependent t-test indicate no statistically significant difference in gain when minilessons are present prior to literature circle discussions on the fifth grade FCAT.
61 Research Question 4: In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?
The following sections address each skill area by comparing students within literature circle groups with respect to the application of skill-focused minilesson or without the minilessons. Skills were identified within student discussions as stanzas. Each stanza is a unit of talk that reflects one of the five comprehension skills (analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues). Stanzas are represented to demonstrate common ways in which fifth grade students demonstrate the use of skills from the first text (Chasing Red Bird [Creech,
1997]) to the second text (Walk Two Moons [Creech, 1997]). In order to compare the use of comprehension skills across texts, stanzas for each skill were analyzed for each group by comparing both discussions preceded by a minilesson while reading Chasing Redbird
(Creech, 1997), and discussions without exposure to a minilesson while reading Walk Two
Moons (Creech, 1994). For each skill, a word count was provided to represent the language used within each utterance of the corresponding skill being analyzed.
Analyzing character. The stanzas that represent the skill analyzing character were isolated and analyzed to identify general differences in the way students analyze characters in assigned texts with or without minilessons. The word count for analyzing character accumulated for both discussions, “with minilessons” and “without minilessons” follows in Table 9.
62 Table 9
Word Count for Total Utterances Coded as Analyzing Character for Fifth Grade Literature Circles Group With Minilessons Without Minilessons
1 307 122
2 347 140
3 348 184
4 390 160 ______
Of the 15 utterances that represent the students using the skill analyzing character,
4 utterances demonstrated students asking why a character acted a certain way or what they thought a character would do in a certain situation. The idea of discussing actions and feelings was represented in both the literature circle preceded by the minilesson and the literature circle without the minilesson in Quote 3.
Quote 3
Group discussion sample of analyzing character after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WM4: Why do you think Zinny’s grandpa is so weird? WF3: You mean uncle? WM4: Yeah, I mean uncle. WF3: ‘Cause he chases a ghost but there is nothing there. BF2: And he misses his red bird so much.
Group discussion sample of analyzing character without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM4: What do you think will happen at Sal’s house when they find out? BF2: They will cry and be very sad. HSM2: She will probably be kind of upset and kind of happy ‘cause she also said that she doesn’t want a sister. WM4: She could still be sad ‘cause she said that she didn’t want a sister and she feels bad that she said that.
63 In the stanzas in Quote 4, it is evident that the skill analyzing character is demonstrated in the text discussion without a minilesson when students talk about differentiating between characters and self-correcting any misconceptions. The students in the literature discussion preceded by a minilesson are discussing whether a character is a sister or a cousin. The students in the literature discussion without a minilesson are discussing characters and differentiating between last names. This type of discussion was identified in 4 utterances out of the 14 utterances that represent analyzing character.
Quote 4
Group discussion sample of analyzing character after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WM4: Zinny is Roses sister? WF3: No, cousin. WM4: Which one was she? HSM2: Cousin. BF2: Why was Zinny regretting that she had gone on the trip? WM4: Because she saw the ghost she didn’t want to think that she was crazy.
Group discussion sample of analyzing character without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM3: I think Sal’s father is her husband. WF1: That could be too, and if the last name is not the same, then we would know cause then Sal would have to change her last name too. WF2: Yeah, but then wouldn’t that mean that the lady would be her mom? And her mom wouldn’t be missing anyway? WF1: No, but that’s her step-mom.
Of the 14 utterances that represent analyzing character, 3 demonstrate discussion centered on the relationship of two characters. Quote 5 displays this type of discussion. In both stanzas, the students reference characters with respect to how they like one another.
The discussion preceded by the minilesson referred to why one character likes the
64 other. In the discussion without the minilesson, students made reference to a connection that two characters made together in the text.
Quote 5
Group discussion sample of analyzing character after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WM1: Why does Jake like Zinny and not May? BF1: ‘Cause May gets jealous too much.
Group discussion sample of analyzing character without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM2: Maybe Sal's mom is Phoebe’s mom. WM1: Why are Ben and Sal's pictures the same? WM2: Great minds think alike. WM1: Or because they are actually linked together. WM2: Well, he did try to kiss her a couple of times and they keep missing.
With respect to analyzing character, the researcher identified three ways in which students demonstrated this comprehension skill across two texts. Students discussed how or what characters thought about a certain event, differentiated between certain characters, and discussed relationships between characters in the text.
Discussing plot.The stanzas that represent the skill discussing plot were isolated and analyzed to identify general differences in the way students demonstrate discussing plot from one text to the next with or without minilessons. The word count per group for the skill conflict accumulated for both discussions, “with minilessons” and “without minilessons” follows in Table 10.
65 Table 10
Word Count for Total Utterances Coded as Discussing Plot for Fifth Grade Literature Circles Group With Minilessons Without Minilessons ___
1 536 224
2 386 282
3 685 254
4 371 127
In Quote 6, the students are exhibiting a typical start to a discussion. In the stanza preceded by the minilesson, student BF1 is asking a question about the assigned reading from the night before and the other students in the group are responding. In the stanza without the minilesson, the student WM1 is also beginning the discussion with a question from the previous night’s reading and the group is responding to that question. Of the 15 utterances that reflected the students using the skill discussing plot, 8 of the utterances represent the students beginning a discussion about what happened in the previous night’s reading.
Quote 6
Group1 discussion sample of discussing plot after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
BF1: What proof was Uncle Nate talking about? WM1: The proof was that Aunt Jessie was really there. WM2: It was a picture. HSF1: Of Aunt Jessie really being there.
Group 1 discussion sample of discussing plot without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM1: My second question is why is she changing the story about Pandora’s Box. BF1: I don’t think she is. WM1: Yeah she is, instead of all the stuff that came out of the box, she put in 66 all the stuff she didn’t like. BF1: Like murderers killers, pregnant people. WM1: Yeah and cholesterol, but it just it shouldn’t be like that--it is supposed to be spirits. BF1: She is just thinking about all the things that could have happened.
In Quote 7, students are clarifying parts of the story they have forgotten about.
This type of discussion occurred in 4 out of the 15 utterances using the skill discussing plot. For example, in the stanza preceded by a minilesson, student HSM1 had forgotten what a character did and student WF1 is reminding student HSM1 and discussing the object that was found by the character in the story. In the second stanza, student HSM1 is asking the group what the characters are doing and the other group members are responding.
Quote 7
Group 2 discussion sample of discussing plot after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
HSM1: I forgot, did she look in the drawers? WF1: Yeah, she did and she found a whole bunch of things Rose’s stuff and hers, and then there were two of both of their dolls, and there were coins in them--those two little coins.
Group 2 discussion sample of discussing plot without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
HSM1: Are they still trying to find their mother? WM3: Yeah, pretty much. WF1: They are still trying to find their mother.
In Quote 8, the students are discussing part of the plot and are attempting to come to a conclusion about what happened. Of the 15 utterances representing discussing plot, 3 utterances reflected the students coming to a conclusion about what happened in the text.
In the stanza preceded by the minilesson, student WM4 introduced a controversial
67 topic and the other two group members addressed what their perception of the event was.
In the stanza without the minilesson, student HSM2 introduced a question about the previous night’s reading and the other group members shared their recollection of what happened in the reading.
Quote 8
Group 3 discussion sample of discussing plot after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WM4: That’s not what you do, okay, what happened was Uncle Nate tried to kill himself to be with his redbird. HSM2: No, he almost died. WF3: And he tried to stop it but he didn’t really stop it. Jake came and started calling Zinny’s name and she remembered in her childhood that she’d seen the metal lion before.
Group 3 discussion sample of discussing plot without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
HSM2: I didn’t get to ask mine, what did Sal draw as her soul.? BF2: She drew a circle and leaves or something. HSM2: No, not the soul, there was another one in the book. BF2: Oh, she drew a tree, and a girl, and a rope around her neck. WF3: I think it is her mom.
With respect to discussing plot, the researcher identified three ways in which students demonstrated discussing plot in the new text. The students asked questions related to the plot, clarified parts of the plot, and discussed their interpretation of what happened in the reading.
Identifying cause and effect. The stanzas that represent the skill identifying cause and effect were isolated and analyzed to identify general differences in the way students transfer identifying cause and effect from one text to the next with or without minilessons.
The word count for identifying cause and effect follows in Table 11.
68 Table 11
Word Count for Total Utterances Coded as Identifying Cause and Effect for Fifth Grade Literature Circles Group With Minilessons Without Minilessons
1 329 136
2 490 125
3 454 501
4 502 126 ______
The two stanzas in Quote 9 represent an occurrence of identifying cause and effect from the same group members. There were a total of 17 utterances that reflected the use of cause and effect. Of those 17 utterances, 12 reflected the students using the actual verbiage “cause” and “effect” in the stanza preceded by a minilesson, as well as the stanza without the minilesson. The students in the stanza with the minilesson asked and answered a “why” question implying cause and effect. In the stanza without the minilesson, the question the student is asking suggests a cause and effect relationship between the question student WM1 asked and the answer student BF1 gave.
Quote 9
Group 1 discussion sample of identifying cause and effect after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
BF1: One of my cause and effects was ‘cause maybe Uncle Nate went back to the place it caused him to have a blackout. WM1: Yeah, keep going. BF1: Cause all the things that happened in his life.
Group 1 discussion sample of identifying cause and effect without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM1: Why is Phoebe being such a jerk?
69 BF1: ‘Cause her mom left and she feels horrible.
In Quote 10, each student in the stanza preceded by the minilesson listed a cause and effect event that occurred in the book. In the second stanza the students are referring to an event in the book (the cause) and then discussing the results of that cause (the effect). The students are using comprehension and their own personal judgment in response to the book instead of just listing one cause and one effect in the sessions not preceded by minilessons.
Quote 10
Group 2 discussion sample of identifying cause and effect after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WF2: Cause Jake stole a car the effect would be he got chased down or went to jail. WF1: ‘Cause Rose was doing the old lady Zinny started doing it with her. WF2: ‘Cause Rose did the old lady and died, the effect would be that Aunt Jessie did not want Zinny to do it again.
Group 2 discussion sample of identifying cause and effect without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994) WF1: I think she acted that way because she is feeling weird about her mom leaving. WM3: What do you think Hunter? HSM1: Same thing, without her mom she kind of got lost in her own mind. WF2: She doesn’t feel right anymore.
In Quote 11, both discussions focus on a cause and effect, although it is not specified in the actual discussion. Of the 17 utterances that represented the use of identifying cause and effect, 8 utterances reflect the students using “why” questions that prompt the students to have more of a natural back-and-forth discussion in the stanza with the minilesson. The idea of asking cause and effect questions in the form of “why”
questions was represented in the second text discussion.
70 Quote 11
Group 3 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
BF1: Why did Zinny put the pillow in Uncle Nates face? WM1: ‘Cause he was sweating like crazy, I guess then again how does that help. HSF1: I don’t know maybe to calm him down. BF1: When I was reading, it also said that Uncle Nate grabbed her face after that and grabbed her wrist. HSF1: Maybe he was dreaming ‘cause he said Rose, and then oh, I knew it was you Zinny.
Group 3 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech,1994)
HSF1: Where do you think Phoebe’s mom went and why? WM1: She probably felt underappreciated ‘cause you know how like no one really appreciated her. WM2: Maybe she went to visit Sal’s mom. WM1: Or maybe she went to visit the lunatic. WM2: Maybe she went to visit Zinny, this is probably not going to happen. WM1: Oh yeah ‘cause they were close to each other.
Of the 12 utterances using the skill identifying cause and effect, 8 represented students discussing why a character was worried or what caused them to feel a certain way. In Quote 12, the stanza preceded by a minilesson represents the student HSF3 asking a question about why a character was worried about someone, and the group discussing the possible reasons for the character’s feelings. In the stanza without the minilesson, the student WM4 asked why a character didn't want to move and the group discussed the possible causes for the character not wanting to move.
Quote 12
Group 4 discussion sample with minilesson for the book Chasing Redbird (1997)
HSF3: Why was Zinny worried about Jake? HSF2: ‘Cause he stole the red car. BM1: And the sheriff was after him.
HSM3: And she likes him. 71
Group 4 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WM4: Why does she not want to move? HSF2: Because wait, do you mean from Bybanks? WM4: No across country. HSF2: Cause she is afraid her grandparents might crash cars. BM1: She doesn’t want to leave because. What do you mean from Bybanks? HSF2: Because she was going to miss her grass and her farm and animals. WM4: What grass? BM1: When she was in Bybanks she said she was going to miss all that stuff.
With respect to identifying cause and effect, the researcher identified four ways in which students demonstrated this comprehension skill in their literature circles focused on the new text. Students demonstrated the use of identifying cause and effect across texts by using the actual verbiage “cause” and “effect” within their discussions, referring to certain events in the story and discussing the results of that event, using “why” questions to prompt discussion that references a cause and effect situation, and discussing reasons for a character’s feelings or reaction to certain events.
Describing conflict. The stanzas that represent the skill describing conflict were isolated and analyzed to identify general differences in the way students demonstrate describing conflict from one text to the next, with or without minilessons. The word count per group for the skill conflict accumulated from both discussions, “with minilesson” and without minilesson,” follows in Table 12.
72 Table 12
Word Count for Total Utterances Coded as Describing Conflict for Fifth Grade Literature Circle Group With Minilessons Without Minilessons
1 549 226
2 564 224
3 415 295
4 756 326 ______
One way in which students demonstrated the skill describing conflict was that students used the terminology that is associated with types of conflicts discussed in the minilesson (see Appendix D for the minilesson focused on conflict). This occurred in 4 out of the 15 utterances focused on describing conflict. For example, in Quote 13 the student BF1 refers to her conflict as a “person versus person” conflict. The student WM1 also refers to his conflict as a “person versus person” conflict.
Quote 13
Group 1 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
BF1: My conflict was Jake stole the ring and that was a person versus law. WM1: Well, mine was when Zinny wants to… BF1: Mine was a person versus person conflict. WM1: How? BF1: ‘Cause he stole his great grandma’s ring. HSF1: Mine was Jake gave Zinny a ring with real gold and a gem that would be, I’m not sure. WM1: Mine was person versus person because mine was when Zinny wanted to give back the ring. HSF1: Wait, so was mine, I’m Carina. WM2: Mine is person versus person also ‘cause mine was when Zinny threw the box at Jake. HSF1: That was person versus person.
73 Group 1 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
HSF1: What was your conflict? WM1: I guess mine was person versus person. HSF1: So was mine. WM1: Marlynn, was your conflict person versus person? BF1: My conflict was …. HSF1: Eeewww. WM1: Oh, another color. HSF1: Mine was, why are you talking to me. WM2: What kind of conflict did you have? HSF1: A person versus person.
In Quote 14, students in both the literature circle preceded by the minilesson and without the minilesson listed conflicts that occurred. Of the 15 utterances that reflected the use of describing conflicts, 6 utterances demonstrated students listing conflicts in this manner.
Quote 14
Group 3 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
BF2: List a conflict. HSM2: Two hunters were running through Zinny’s camp. WF3: She was scared ‘cause she couldn’t figure out where Uncle Nate went. BF2: Ok, my conflict that occurred was that a bear almost ate Zinny. WF3: That’s true. HSM2: One conflict that Brandon had was that Jake stole something. HSM2: One conflict that I had was that two hunters went rummaging through Zinny’s camp and they were drunk.
Group 3 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WF3: List a conflict that occurred. It was so hot, hotter than South Dakota. HSM1: Sal’s uncle died all three of them. WM4: Mine is it was really hot outside. BF2: Sal missed her mom even more than she does now.
Quote 15 represents the use of describing conflict, though it is not specified in
74 the actual discussion. Of the 15 utterances that reflect describing conflict, 3 of those utterances demonstrate this type of discussion. The students in the stanza preceded by a minilesson discussed how the character could get out of a particular “conflict,” that being getting away from the bear. The students in the stanza without the minilesson discussed how one character coped with an internal “conflict” with another character in the text.
Quote 15
Group 2 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WM3: How did Zinny stay away from the bear? WF2: She climbed up the tree and she stayed near the river. WF1: How was being near the river going to help her? WM3: She could run out in the water away from the bear.
Group 2 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
HSM1: Well, like Sal really didn’t like Mrs. Cadaver. WF1: Yeah, she wanted to get her to leave her father alone. WF2: But she really wasn’t a bad person. HSM1: It took Sal a long time to figure that out.
With respect to describing conflict, the researcher identified three ways in which students demonstrated the use of this comprehension skill from one text to the other. The students transferred the skill across text by using terminology associated with describing conflict, speaking consciously about what conflicts occurred in the text, and discussing how characters could deal with or get out of certain conflicts in the text.
Using context clues.The stanzas that represent the skill using context clues being used were isolated and analyzed to identify general differences in the way students transfer context clues from one text to the next, with or without minilessons. The word
count per group for the skill using context clues accumulated for both discussions,
75 “with minilessons,” and “without minilessons” follows in Table 13.
Table 13
Word Count for Total Utterances Coded as Using Context Clues for Fifth Grade Literature Circles Group With Minilessons Without Minilessons
1 532 217
2 658 110
3 257 254
4 353 133 ______
In Quote 16, the students in the group discussion sample are using their own knowledge of the word to discover the meaning through context clues. Using prior knowledge of words to discover the meaning occurred in 6 out of the 13 utterances that represented using context clues. In the stanza preceded by the minilesson, the students read that the word makeshift was in relation to a campsite and based on the content of the book, judged that it might be a campsite that is easily moved. The students in the stanza without the minilesson attempted to determine the meaning of the word ruination. Student
WF1 gave her opinion about what the word means and then student WF2 read the sentence in the book to determine the context.
Quote 16
Group discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
HSF1: Now I have to find the word makeshift. On the way back to my makeshift camp site I collected wood for the fire and decided what I would eat. BF1: Oh, makeshift campsite, it’s like the campsite in the jungle or forest I don’t know. HSF1: Ok jungle, forest, makeshift.
76 BF1: Oh, maybe it is like she doesn’t stay here for a while, she moves every time she stops.
Group discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
WF1: Like ruination, like something is going to be bad happening. WF2: That’s what I thought, what do you think? WM3: I think you should give me back my book. WF2: Ok so, what do you think it means? Oh, I already said that. It means to spoil or destroy and the definition as used by this passage. Is she the one who said , “I would be your ruination” and then one sentence using the word, “he was ruination for the class” My second word is mussed page 43 paragraph 5.
In Quote 17 there is evidence that in the literature circle discussion preceded by a minilesson, students referred back to the book to discuss words they did not know. The students went back to read the sentence that contained the word(s) in question. Once they reread the sentence, two students then said what they thought the word meant. In the stanza without the minilesson, the students referred back to the page the word was found, to clarify what the unknown word was. This type of interaction occurred in 6 out of the 13 utterances representing using context clues.
Quote 17
Group 2 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
WF1: Mine is ruffled on page 207 and let’s use context clues to figure out what it means. Let’s go to the page, it says “a warm breeze ruffled my hair.” HSM1: I think it is like go through. WF1: Yeah like breeze through and hit her hair. And umm, what was your word? HSM1: Brambles on page 219. WF1: Read the sentence to us. HSM1: “I was cold and hungry covered in brambles and scratches and scared out of my wits.” WF2: Maybe cuts. WM3: Like scars.
Group 2 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons
(Creech, 1994) 77 WM2: Is it mumbled or murdered like to kill? WM3: Murmured. WF2: Why did you write the definition? Wait, what’s the word? WM3: Go to page 174. Ok paragraph 4, the sentence is “hold in a box with sickness and kidnapping and murder.” WM2: Murder like to kill someone.
Students mistook a last name or acronym for a word they did not know in 2 out of the 13 utterances representing using context clues. In Quote 18, the student in the stanza preceded by a minilesson thought the acronym “TNWM” was a word. The other students in that group corrected the misunderstanding. The student in the stanza without the minilesson thought that a character’s last name “Winterbottom” was a word they did not know the meaning of. Similar to the first stanza, the other students corrected the misunderstanding.
Quote 18
Group 4 discussion sample after minilesson using the book Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997)
HSF2: Knitting on page 112. I thought it was to sew or something. My other word is TNWM. HSF3: No, it is the initials that were on the medallion. HSF2: Yeah, but what does it stand for? HSF3: It was in the book. HSF2: Oh, it was what page? HSF3: I don’t remember but I think it was something like tomorrow.
Group 4 discussion sample without minilesson using the book Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994)
HSF3: My second word was Winterbottom on page 19. BM1: I think it is a season. HSF3: (reading the book ) HSF2: Oh, I think it is her last name. HSF3: Maybe.
With respect to using context clues, the researcher identified three ways in
78 which students demonstrated the use of the skill using context clues in the new text. The students demonstrated the skill across text by using prior knowledge, referring back to the text and specific page numbers, and self-correcting each other on last names and acronyms to discover word meanings.
Summary
This chapter presented the summary of results for each research question, with examples from the transcripts for clarification. The results for ensuring interrater reliability were outlined and discussed. Each question and the findings were presented. Of the five skills (analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues), the most commonly used skills during literature circles were analyzing character and discussing plot. The least commonly used skills were describing conflict and using context clues.
There were no statistically significant differences when comparing the use or nonuse of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles and student performance on the FCAT.
This analysis of the data indicated several ways in which the five comprehension skills (analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues) were demonstrated from one text to the next during literature circle discussions. Table 14 outlines the different ways in which the students demonstrated the five skills.
79 Table 14
Summary of Skill Usage During Literature Circle Discussions Skill Modes of comprehension skill transfer in literature circle discussion groups Identifying Cause and Students use the actual verbiage “cause” and “effect” when Effect referring to certain situations (Figure 3). Students refer to an event in the book (the cause) and then discuss the results of that cause (the effect), implying the use of comprehension and their own personal judgment (Figure 4). Students asked questions that reflected a cause and elicited the effect of that cause as an answer (Figure 5). Students asked questions about why a character felt a certain way and the cause for the character’s feelings (Figure 6). Analyzing Character Students discussed how characters would feel in certain situations (Figure 7). Students self correct each other and discuss who certain characters are and the role they play in the story (Figure 8). The students discuss relationships between characters and how the characters feel about one another (Figure 9). Describing Conflict Transfer of terminology (Figure 10). Listing actual conflicts that occurred in the text (Figure 11). Described ways in which characters got out of or handled a particular conflict in the book (Figure 12). Discussing Plot Students typically started the literature circle discussion by asking questions about the plot of the previous night’s reading (Figure 13). Some group members clarified part of the story that other members had forgotten (Figure 14). Students sometimes had varying opinions about what happened in the story. A discussion would take place to come to a conclusion about what took place in the story (Figure 15). Using Context Clues The students used their own knowledge of the word to discover the meaning through context clues (Figure 16). The students went back to the book to read the sentence from which the word came to discover the meaning of the word (Figure 17). Some of the group members clarified for other members of their group certain words such as acronyms or names of characters (Figure 18).
80
Chapter V
Literature circles are a common reading strategy used in upper elementary school classrooms. With an ever-increasing need to document and provide research-based evidence to support classroom practices, it is essential that the discussion that takes place during literature circles be analyzed. Chapter 4 presented the data resulting from each of the research questions for this study. This chapter provides summaries of the procedures, purposes, and findings as well as the researcher’s speculations, conclusions, and implications based on the results obtained from the quantitative and qualitative analysis.
In addition, this chapter addresses contributions to the field, the limitations to the study, and recommendations for future research.
Discussion
Research Questions 1 and 2: What reading comprehension skills are the least commonly used during literature circle discussions after skill-focused minilessons and what reading comprehension skills are the most commonly used during literature circle discussions?
The results of the study indicate that there are two least commonly used skills during literature circle discussions. Describing conflict and using context clues were least likely to occur. Describing conflict accounted for 16% of student responses and using context clues accounted for 14% of student responses. The results also indicated that there are two skills most commonly used during literature circle discussions. Those two skills
are analyzing character and discussing plot. The skill analyzing character accounted
81 for 25% of the student responses and discussing plot accounted for 24% of the student responses. The fifth skill, identifying cause and effect, was used moderately throughout the literature circle discussions, accounting for 21% of student responses.
These results were from an average of the four groups’ combined utterances.
Analyzing data from the class as a whole provided an indication of which skills were the least and most commonly used during literature circle discussions across four groups.
However, these results were not consistent within individual groups.
When these whole group results were compared to an individual group’s use of skills, a few patterns emerged. The four groups most frequently analyzed character and discussed plot during literature circle discussions. Three out of the four groups analyzed character most often, followed by discussing plot. The third group discussed plot most often, followed by analysis of character. However, with respect to the least commonly used skills, three out of the four groups described conflicts and used context clues least often. One of the four groups identified cause and effect and described conflict least often.
With respect to the two least commonly used skills, describing conflict and using context clues, there are several explanations and questions that emerged. The skill describing conflict is part of the larger skill plot. Due to the fact that the researcher coded the transcripts using a discourse analysis framework that was designed for this study, it is possible that the skill describing conflict was coded as discussing plot. The same explanation could account for the lack of occurrence of using context clues. In order for a unit of talk (stanza) to represent the skill using context clues, the students’ discussion should have been focused around the unknown word and using the context clues to
determine the definition. In many instances, students simply stated their unknown
82 word and read the definition they looked up at home. This type of vocabulary reference would not have been coded as using context clues. Therefore, it is possible that the signifiers are not clear enough to note that students are utilizing these skills in a novel.
This possibility suggests the need for more specific research to explicitly identify signifiers.
With respect to the most commonly used skill, analyzing character, during literature circles, students created connections between the text and their personal experiences. Research conducted by Brabham and Vallaume (2000), indicates that readers who are successful and skillful not only can read the words and understand written language, but associate their life experiences with the characters and situations that occur in the text. It is possible that analyzing character and discussing plot were the most commonly used skills due to students becoming personally connected with the characters in the text. In turn, this led to greater discussion about the plot and events the characters were going through. This may provide justification for the selection of literature in classrooms that is highly relevant to the lives of students.
The work of Kasten, Kristo, and McClure (2005) was used to evaluate the two novels read in the study for equivalency. One element of the evaluation was that the book contained well-developed characters. In the case of Chasing Redbird (Creech, 1997) and
Walk Two Moons (Creech, 1994), both characters were very strong female quotes, age 13.
The strong development of these characters and the supporting characters throughout the books could have led to an increase in discussion focused around the characters in the book. If novels were chosen with less developed characters, it is possible that the amount
of discussion regarding character may have decreased. Studies utilizing a variety of
83 texts across multiple literature circles in multiple grades would confirm this aspect of discussion analysis more fully. The nature of the text itself may contribute substantially to the analysis of skills in studies such as this one.
The researcher identified the reading skills that were used in the study based on national and state reading standards. Identifying cause and effect, using context clues, discussing plot, and analyzing character have specific definitions that correlate to the terminology. After careful consideration of the skills that were analyzed, the skill of discussing plot appears to be a broad skill that contains skills within the definition of plot.
Within the definition of plot several terms appear that could be analyzed individually. For example, conflict is a part of the plot of a story. With this in mind, it is possible that plot was coded too frequently within the transcripts while the skill describing conflict was occasionally coded as “plot” rather than as a separate category in the analysis. This would account for describing conflict being one of the least commonly used skills, as well as discussing plot being one of the most commonly used skill.
Using the Function Word List that was developed from the pilot study, the researcher coded the transcripts for utterances of each skill. The skill discussing plot in the Function Word List had 6 indicators while other skills such as analyzing character and identifying cause and effect had 9 and 11 indicators respectively. The skill describing conflict had the most indicators, yet was identified as one of the least commonly used skills in the study. Future studies could enhance and amplify the Function Word List, thus making it more useful as a tool for analysis.
84 Implications for K-12 Educators from Research Questions 1 and 2
While this study included a small sample, the findings may have implications for literature circle use in the K-12 classroom. Knowing what skills are the most and least commonly used during a literature circle discussion can help to guide a teacher’s instruction. Having an awareness of students’ limited discussion of conflict and context clues while students engage in literature circles would indicate there is a need to provide supplemental instruction in these two areas. As teachers listen to students during literature circles, they can help contribute to the discussion by guiding students to answer questions pertaining to conflict. While teachers monitor student discussions they can also engage in modeling how to use context clues to discover the meaning of words, using the text that students are reading.
Educators are required to keep detailed lesson plans and to support instructional strategies in the classroom. This study adds to the research base by providing the much needed support that literature circles can incorporate skills assessed on standardized tests.
Continued research on literature circles will only strengthen the knowledge base and further promote the use of literature circles as an aid in teaching skills assessed on standardized assessments.
Research Question 3: Does application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions help to increase student achievement on the fifth grade Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test of target skills?
The application of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions and student achievement on the fifth grade FCAT was not statistically significant. The
two categories that are assessed on the FCAT are comprehension and word phrases.
85 The four skills analyzing character, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, and describing conflict are assessed under the FCAT category “comprehension” and the skill using context clues is assessed under the FCAT category “word phrases.”
Traditionally, literature circles promote student discussion about text content and individual thoughts and opinions about the text. According to Fall, Webb, and
Chudowsksy (2000), even brief opportunities to discuss reading with peers increased reading comprehension. Similar findings from Swift (1993) indicate that students who are involved in reader response activities perform better on standardized assessments. There is a current research base to support the use of literature circles as an aid to increase student achievement. Although the current study did not show a direct relationship between use of reading skills in literature circles and subsequent improvement on the
FCAT, similar studies have found direct relationships between standardized assessments and the use of literature circles.
The FCAT analyzes comprehension from a broad perspective. The five skills that were assessed in this study fall under the broad category of comprehension identified on the FCAT. This broad category includes four of the five skills analyzed in this research study and other comprehension skills not analyzed in this study. The FCAT results do not indicate conclusive evidence that there was no impact by using literature circles. Students may have done well on a skill from this study, but not so well on the whole set of skills tested on the FCAT. It is possible that if students had taken an assessment that analyzed their abilities in specific areas of reading comprehension, the results may have indicated an increase in the more specific skills denoted in this study.
86 Further, the FCAT is a form of high stakes standardized assessment for the state of
Florida. Students know the impact that this type of assessment has on their educational future and therefore, some students react negatively towards the testing situation. Perhaps more of an authentic form of assessment would have demonstrated applications of the target reading skills beyond their use in the literature circles.
Although the focus of this study was on literature circle use in the classroom, the teacher did use supplemental material from both the basal textbook and outside resources.
It is not clear whether these resources had significant practical impact on students’ use of the reading strategies in their literature circles, nor was this variable easily isolated in an authentic classroom environment.
Prior to engaging in literature circles, the students took the FCAT diagnostic assessment. After engaging in literature circles with skill-focused minilessons, the students then took the FCAT. Although the two assessments are parallel, it would be ideal for students to take two diagnostics as an indicator of student achievement rather than one diagnostic and the FCAT, which was the case in this study. The FCAT diagnostic in reading is used to assess students’ use of reading skills as well as to predict how well students will do on the FCAT. The FCAT directly assesses students’ use of reading skills, assigns students a score of 1-5, and provides a developmental scale score. A diagnostic assessment is conducted prior to and during teaching to determine what existing knowledge and skills students have. The FCAT diagnostic assessments provide a baseline for understanding how much learning has taken place after the learning activity is completed; in this case, increased achievement on the FCAT diagnostic after application
of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles.
87 Implications for Future Research from Research Question 3
Although for both of the two FCAT categories, comprehension and word phrases, the differences in results between the first diagnostic (pre-application of skill-focused minilessons) and the second diagnostic (post-application of skill-focused minilessons) were not significant, the results for word phrases was approaching significance. The p- value for word phrases was .054. For there to be a statistical significance the p-value had to be less than 0.05. The fact that word phrases was approaching significance indicates that there might be a need to look into the connection between literature circles and the use of context clues which were assessed under the category word phrases. Due to the fact that the dependent t-test gives inferential results that generalize for this particular population (16 students), it would be necessary to do similar studies with larger populations in order to increase the chance of significance and the power of the results.
Multiple factors affect the classroom setting. Literature circles are not meant to be the only form of instruction or practice of skills in a reading classroom. Basal textbooks play a major role in reading instruction, as well as supplemental resources and teachable moments. With this in mind, it is hard to focus on just the impact of literature circles in isolation.
Literature circles are essentially collaborative group discussions. It takes a group of students to discuss and draw on reading skills that were taught through the basal textbook lessons as well as skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circles. The FCAT is a standardized measure of individual, independent application. Literature circles do not promote independent use of reading skills. It is a challenge to find assessments that do
draw on the collaborative use of reading skills as opposed to individualized
88 assessments. Research Question 4: In what ways do skill-focused minilessons followed by application of skills in literature circle discussions transfer to new texts?
Each of the five skills (analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues) was analyzed within the context of group discussion. Several modes of transfer to new text were identified for each skill.
When students analyze character in literature circle discussions they also demonstrate the skill across texts in several ways. Discussing how or what characters thought about a certain event, differentiating between certain characters, and discussing relationships between characters appeared frequently throughout the data. See quotes 3, 4, and 5 for sample utterances of students analyzing character. Analyzing character was one of the most commonly used skills during literature circle discussions. As mentioned previously, the work of Brabham and Vallaume (2000) indicates that students begin to associate their related life experiences with the characters and situations that occur in literature. The students appeared to be most interested in talking about relationships between characters. Fifth grade is a very social year for students. They may have made the most connections to the characters in the book by connecting the experiences of the characters with their own lives.
When students discuss plot in literature circle discussions, they demonstrate the skill across text by asking questions relating to the plot, clarifying parts of the plot, and discussing their interpretation of what happened. Discussing plot was one of the most commonly used skills within literature circle discussions. The skill discussing plot can be broken down into separate components: conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution. With its many components, plot may have been identified more frequently
89 than other skills. The way in which the students applied the skill across texts appeared to be unconscious forms of discussion. The students rarely used the terminology associated with plot; however, their discussion exhibited elements of the plot. Students often restated events from the story and when incorrect, the other students in the group made corrective statements. See quotes 6, 7, and 8 for examples of students discussing plot. With this in mind, the skill discussing plot should most likely have been broken down into smaller components in order to determine how students use the different parts of plot within their discussion during literature circles.
When identifying cause and effect in discussions, students demonstrated the skill across texts in several ways. Listing consecutive cause and effect situations, asking “why” questions that imply cause and effect situations, and discussing why characters from the text reacted or felt a certain way demonstrated students’ ability to apply the skill identifying cause and effect. See quotes 9, 10, 11, and 12 for sample utterances of students identifying cause and effect. Analysis of the skills identifying cause and effect, discussing plot, and analyzing character indicates that students often times ask “why” questions to elicit responses from group members within literature circle discussions. “Why” questions are broad questions, as opposed to focused questions, and are used to initiate discussion. Research conducted by Palincsar and Brown (1984) indicates that students do have the ability to identify deficits in their own knowledge and ask questions that serve to remedy those deficits, if only given the chance. When students are given the ability to engage in discussion and are encouraged to ask good questions, their ability to comprehend and remember material is enhanced.
90 In many instances throughout the study, it was evident that students used a natural flow of conversation that did not include words from the Function Word List (Table 4).
This type of discussion is one of the positive effects that literature circles can have, according to research findings from Burns (1998). In particular, this type of natural conversational flow occurred in this study when identifying cause and effect. In some instances, students simply listed a cause and effect, but in other instances students were discussing relationships without specifically using the words cause and effect. They were able to extend the application of the skill without relying on the specific terms introduced by the teacher.
Still, students often simply listed cause and effects or conflicts during the discussions. This type of listing would be considered one of the basic cognitive behaviors according to Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). It is the intention of literature circles that students begin to think critically about texts and move beyond this basic listing in the discussions.
When students describe conflict in literature circle discussions they also demonstrate the skill across text by using terminology associated with conflict, speaking consciously about what conflicts occurred in the text, and discussing how characters could deal with certain conflicts in the text. There are several types of conflicts that occur in literature. Person versus person, person versus self, person versus nature, and person versus law are the four types of conflicts that were taught in the minilesson focused on identifying conflict. It was evident that the minilesson had an impact on student discussion when students frequently used the terminology associated with the different
types of conflict within their discussions. See quotes 13, 14, and 15 for student
91 utterances that exhibited this type of discussion.
One of the ways in which students used conflict was when the discussion led to how characters dealt with or removed themselves from certain conflicts. Although describing conflict was one of the least commonly used skills, analyzing character was one of the most commonly used skills. It appears that students were able to analyze characters simultaneously while describing conflicts. It is possible that some utterances that reflected describing conflict involved certain situations regarding two characters and were coded as analyzing character.
When students used context clues in literature circle discussions, they demonstrated the skill across texts by using their own prior knowledge of the word to decipher the meaning, rereading sentences from the text to determine the meaning, and correcting each other on the meanings of last names or acronyms. See quotes 16, 17, and
18 for sample student utterances of using context clues. When thinking about context clues and how it is taught, typically it is common not to find it associated with last names and acronyms. It was interesting that the students often mentioned names of characters or acronyms that were used in the text as unfamiliar words they did not know the meaning of. This would seem to indicate that the students did not comprehend the text if they could not differentiate between characters and vocabulary words. However, the fact that the other students in the group helped to clarify the misunderstanding would indicate that students who corrected did comprehend the text.
A word count for each skill was identified. The word count was used to show each group’s quantity of discussion that contributed to each of the five skills. One anomaly that
appeared was the difference in the quantity of words spoken during literature circles
92 preceded by a minilesson and the literature circles without a minilesson. In most cases, there was an impressive increase in student discussion during the literature circles preceded by minilessons. In some cases, there were half as many words spoken in literature circles without the minilesson as in literature circles preceded by the minilesson.
This indicates that minilessons do have a direct effect on students’ independent use of reading skill during literature circle discussions. It could be that by having the teacher give a minilesson prior to students engaging in literature circles, students are more easily able to access the new information and then use it within their discussions.
The goal of incorporating a minilesson prior to students engaging in literature circles in this study was to promote the use or identification of the five reading skills
(analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues) within students’ discussions. The results of this study indicated that the use of skill-focused minilessons prior to literature circle discussions led to greater independent use of reading skills during discussion.
The word count also indicated that some groups used certain skills more than others. For example, Group 3 had large word counts during literature circles preceded by the minilesson on all five reading skills. What is it about this group that caused them to use all five skills frequently within their discussions? It is possible that the reading levels of students in the group may have contributed to the use of all reading skills. Conversely,
Group 1 often had lower word counts on the five skills during literature circles preceded by a minilesson.
When analyzing the word counts, it would appear that there was no relation to
word count and the least commonly and most commonly used skills. For instance, the
93 skill analyzing character was one of the most commonly used skills, yet the word counts for all four groups during literature circles preceded by a minilesson were in the range of
300. The skill describing conflict was one of the least commonly used skills and the groups’ word counts during literature circles preceded by a minilesson ranged from 400-
700. The most likely explanation is that the stanzas for each utterance of the skill describing conflict contained more dialogue than a stanza representing the skill analyzing character.
Implications for K-12 Educators from Results of Research Question 4
The purpose of this research question was to determine how students transfer skills across text; therefore, the transcripts were analyzed to look for specific use of skills within student discussions. As indicated by Mercer (2000), by engaging students in dialogues in which the ideas of participants are jointly, fairly, and constructively evaluated, the development of the students’ own command of a “critical, constructive rationality” (p. 6) in this case the reading skill, is further enhanced. In many instances when the students use the verbiage associated with a particular skill, they are consciously evaluating the text as well as each other’s answers and questions. This in turn contributes to increased comprehension.
In the stanzas used to evaluate student discussion, it is evident that students were learning about the text by reflecting on their own reading skills (analyzing characters, discussing plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues) that were initiated by making inquiries about the text while they read and discussed. This type of learning aligns with Halliday’s (1985) research that indicates three ways to learn
language through literature circles: reading extensively, learning about language by
94 reflecting on reading strategies and literacy knowledge, and learning language through the use of literature as a stimulus for inquiry about the world. In this study, the students read extensively the night prior to engaging in literature circles, enhanced their language by discussing the previous night’s reading, and used the novel as a stimulus to ask questions and engage in discussion. This type of evidenciary discussion is worth noting. Students often referred directly back to the text to discuss characters or events from previous readings. Does this type of discussion represent a deeper level of comprehension than just discussing a character or event? One goal that teachers have for students is that they are able to refer to passages on standardized assessments to answer comprehension questions. That is evident during literature circles when students refer directly to the text during discussion.
With respect to using context clues, it is important for teachers to take into consideration that names and acronyms in literature can sometimes be misleading for students. Educators need to incorporate an awareness of characters’ names throughout their instruction when working with literature. Teachers may find it beneficial to guide students in using a character chart to keep track of new characters introduced. In the book Chasing
Redbird, an acronym played a major role in the development of the story. More than one student did not comprehend the meaning of the acronym while reading the text. Educators need to be more aware of how students comprehend and then apply knowledge after instruction.
Teaching for transfer helps students take knowledge gained from classroom subjects and then apply that knowledge to a variety of contexts both inside the classroom and outside the classroom. For students to succeed on a specific transfer task, the learner must possess the knowledge and processing capabilities required for that task (McKeough, Lupart, &
Marini, 1995). For students to transfer knowledge learned, it is necessary for educators to design instruction so that the learners emerge with the necessary resources to do so. 95 This requires a clear understand of the students’ prior knowledge and the requirements of the targeted task.
The word “transfer” was used to describe students using the skill across two different texts. This may not be the most appropriate term. Perhaps, a movement away from the word “transfer” and towards more of a complete notion of transformation is needed. Piaget’s essential term for learning is “adaptation.” Two components that contribute to adaptation are assimilation and accommodation (Piaget, 1951). With respect to this research study, students are not simply assimilating the information from the second text to fit into their previously developed schema, but actually accommodating an old schema to the new material from the second text. This idea implies that students are independently applying what they have learned in a new setting and in a new way with new context from the second text.
This study provides some the evidence that literature circles can promote students’ independent application of readings skills. In this age of accountability, teachers are often afraid to veer from the normal path of instruction based on a basal reader, lest students’ tests scores be adequate and results negatively reflect on their teaching abilities. This study suggests the value of incorporating research-based practices such as literature circles into classroom reading instruction. This study suggests that if a proper minilesson is applied prior to students engaging in literature circles, the use of reading skills will be evident within their discussions.
Implications for Future Research from Research Question 4
It is evident from the data that students do independently use reading skills and
apply them across different texts. There were, however, certain groups that demonstrated more meaningful discussion as well as more occurrences of skill use than others. In the 96 field of reading research, one topic that is often analyzed is how best to group students. That topic is of interest in relation to this study. The word count for each skill was used to show the amount of discussion about each skill for each of the four groups. Why did certain groups use some of the skills more often than others? For example, Group 3 demonstrated identifying cause and effect 13 times, while group Group 1 only demonstrated this skill 5 times. Why did certain groups have more meaningful discussion? Could it have been the social makeup of that particular group or possibly gender or race played a role in the discussion that occurred within groups? Researchers could also build on the literature with respect to transfer and examine how students apply, repeat, rephrase, or redesign skills that teachers teach in lessons when they are asked to use those same skills independently.
Recommendations
The researcher conducted this study in her own classroom with students she worked with on a daily basis. The minilessons and recording of the literature circle discussions were audiotaped by the researcher. This study involved the teacher as the researcher engaging in systematic inquiry for the purpose of gathering data about how students independently use reading skills in literature circle discussions. According to
Mills (2003), this is indicative of action research. While a larger sample size would have provided more reliable results, a single classroom design allows the depth of discourse analysis and controlled environment in which minilessons and literature circles could be investigated. It would be beneficial for other teachers to replicate this study as action research.
Typically, literature circles involve the students coming together after having read
a particular section of the text to discuss the reading. It can only be assumed that the
97 students did the actual reading and were prepared to engage in discussion. Students who did not read the text prior to discussion would not have been prepared to discuss the book and this would have affected the word count and possibly the skill count for that particular group. A more effective way to monitor student reading would make the results more reliable in future studies.
The researcher used the expert panel to code three randomly selected transcripts to analyze. After the three transcripts were coded and the researcher checked for interrater reliability, the researcher then coded the rest of the transcripts. Having multiple codes for all transcripts would help to increase the reliability that the utterances were correctly coded for each of the five skills.
The researcher chose the five skills analyzed in this study. The researcher used national and state reading standards as well as the FCAT to identify standards that were most relevant. After the data had been collected and analyzed, it was evident that the skill of discussing plot could have been deconstructed and skills within the broad category of plot used for analysis. The skill describing conflict is one of the components of plot, thereby possibly confusing the categorizing of students’ comments.
Future Studies Needed
Literature circles are commonly used in the reading classroom to facilitate group learning and discussion. With this in mind, future studies may include or incorporate the following suggestions:
1) It would benefit the reading research community to understand how different
ethnicities, genders, and or developmental levels affect the use of reading skills
during literature circle discussions. With this information, educators would
98 have a better understanding of how to group students to best facilitate meaningful
discussions.
2) The sample size of this study was 16 fifth grade students. A larger sample size
would lead to a wider range of discussion to analyze as well as more power in the
statistical results of the dependent t-tests.
3) It would be interesting to look at the effects of different teaching formats for the
minilessons that best contribute to students using reading skills during the
literature circle discussions. Different types of instruction, resources used to
augment literature circles, as well as different measures of feedback to students in
literature circles would be different pathways for research.
4) The FCAT score reports indicate four skill areas, comprehension, reference and
research, word phrases, and main idea. This study utilized a scheme for
investigating comprehension based on five skills; Analyzing character, discussing
plot, identifying cause and effect, describing conflict, and using context clues. A
different assessment that focuses on only comprehension skills would possibly
produce more accurate results. Or perhaps, accuracy would be increased if the
areas studied more closely aligned with FCAT areas.
5) The word count in the case of this study was used to inform the discourse analysis
process. It would be beneficial to look at the connection between word count and
skill use within literature circles. Do groups who engage in a large amount of
discussion use skills more frequently? Does word count suggest understanding or
comprehension?
99 6) The content of the skill-focused minilessons and the notion of transfer or
application from teacher-led to independent reading contexts were not analyzed in
this study. Teaching and student transfer of knowledge directly related to literature
circles would benefit reading research.
7) This study used similar novels by the same author that were rated for equivalency
on character, theme, plot, and writing style. It would add to the field of study to
examine the impact of literature circles with different types of texts with different
strengths and emphases.
8) The discourse analysis in this study was used to help analyze students’
independent use of comprehension skills. This type of analysis provides an in-
depth perspective on what students say and how their different conversations can
represent different elements of reading comprehension. There are few assessments
that take into consideration that students can represent text comprehension through
discussion. More studies that analyze the connection between discourse and
comprehension are needed.
Conclusion
Given the fact that literature circles are a commonly used research-based practice in reading classrooms, it is important to continue to reevaluate what is and is not being discussed among students during literature circle discussions. The increased demand on teachers to use practices and strategies in the classroom that will yield increases on standardized assessments means that educators need to provide documentation that demonstrates students’ ability to use the skills assessed. This research contributes to the
documentation of how literature circles engage students in discussions that reinforce
100 reading skills assessed on standardized assessments.
The findings of this study suggest that not only do students use the assessed skills when minilessons are taught, but they also, demonstrate some potential to use skills with a different text without a minilesson. Being aware of how students use readings skills in conversations with peers can help teachers to become more aware of the various ways in which these skills can be taught, practiced, and reinforced. This research also identified the frequency in which the five readings skills were used during literature circle discussions. It is important for educators to know what is being reinforced during literature circles so that supplemental material can be provided to support the development of the skills applied less often. Based on the findings of this study, literature circles can provide students with a way to engage in meaningful discussion and reinforce the skills taught in minilessons.
101
Appendix A
Minilesson Format for Identifying Cause and Effect
INTRODUCTION • Introduce the skill cause and effect to the class. • Activate prior knowledge about the skill by asking students about what words or thoughts first comes to their mind when they here that skill name. • The teacher writes these thoughts or words on the board
INSTRUCTION • The teacher will display the definition for the skill A cause is something that makes something else happen. Out of two events, it is the event that happens first. To determine the cause, ask the question "Why Did it Happen?" An effect is what happens as a result of the cause. Of two related events, it’s the one that happens second or last. To determine the effect, ask the question "What Happened?" • The teacher will give examples of instances that the skill might appear in reading EXAMPLES: CAUSE: The boy kicked the ball EFFECT: The ball rolled The girl teased the cat The cat growled Joe became really tired Joe went to bed early • The teacher will use the novel that the students are reading and choose a selection for the text that exhibits the particular skill (the teacher should have previewed past readings to identify any appropriate passage to read prior to minilesson)
CLOSURE • Teacher prompts students to give examples of when they have exhibited use of the skill in their own reading experience • Review expectations of literature circles Come prepared with notes and having read the appropriate part of the text Ask questions to better understand Respect each other’s opinions Wait for the speaker to finish Stay on topic • Review expectations for using notes to guide discussion Notes should be take throughout the reading to mark certain places in the text that will help guide a discussion on various topics.
102
Appendix B
Minilesson Format for Using Context Clues
INTRODUCTION • Introduce the skill context clues to the class. • Activate prior knowledge about the skill by asking students about what words or thoughts first comes to their mind when they here that skill name. • The teacher writes these thoughts or words on the board
INSTRUCTION • The teacher will display the definition for the skill Context clues are words or phrases to help with the understanding of a new word. • The teacher will give examples of how to use context clues EXAMPLE 1: I ate a portion of everything on my plate when I ate a small piece of meat, a small piece of bread, and a small piece of chocolate pie. The teacher will walk students through how to identify the word portion
EXAMPLE 2: I meandered through the woods and did not win the race. The teacher will walk students through how to identify the word meandered • The teacher will use the novel that the students are reading and choose a selection for the text that exhibits the particular skill (the teacher should have previewed past readings to identify any appropriate passage to read prior to minilesson)
CLOSURE • Teacher prompts students to give examples of when they have exhibited use of the skill in their own reading experience • Review expectations of literature circles Come prepared with notes and having read the appropriate part of the text Ask questions to better understand Respect each other’s opinions Wait for the speaker to finish Stay on topic • Review expectations for using notes to guide discussion Notes should be take throughout the reading to mark certain places in the text that will help guide a discussion on various topics.
103
Appendix C
Minilesson Format for Describing Conflict
INTRODUCTION • Introduce the skill conflict to the class. • Activate prior knowledge about the skill by asking students about what words or thoughts first comes to their mind when they here that skill name. • The teacher writes these thoughts or words on the board
INSTRUCTION • The teacher will display the definition for the skill Conflict- The struggle between opposite forces that build the storyline of a piece of literature. • The teacher will give examples of how to identify conflicts. Four Types of Conflict (using students from the class as examples) person versus person- Conflict that puts one person against another Example: when a student is being bothered by a bully person versus self - an internal conflict Example: When you have to decide between right and wrong person versus nature – a run in with the forces of nature Example: You are out camping and a storm rolls in. You need to hunker down in your tent for protection from a force of nature. person versus society – the values or customs by which a person or society is being challenged Example: Our laws state that we must not steal, but some people go against society and steal anyway. • The teacher will use the novel that the students are reading and choose a selection for the text that exhibits the particular skill (the teacher should have previewed past readings to identify any appropriate passage to read prior to minilesson)
CLOSURE • Teacher prompts students to give examples of when they have exhibited use of the skill in their own reading experience • Review expectations of literature circles Come prepared with notes and having read the appropriate part of the text Ask questions to better understand Respect each other’s opinions Wait for the speaker to finish Stay on topic
104 Appendix C (continued)
• Review expectations for using notes to guide discussion Notes should be take throughout the reading to mark certain places in the text that will help guide a discussion on various topics.
105
Appendix D
Minilesson Format For Analyzing Character
INTRODUCTION • Introduce the skill character to the class. • Activate prior knowledge about the skill by asking students about what words or thoughts first comes to their mind when they here that skill name. • The teacher writes these thoughts or words on the board
INSTRUCTION • The teacher will display the definition for the skill character Character – All the feature or traits that form the nature of an individual person or thing • The teacher will give examples of how to identify conflicts Identify traits of a character in the book. For example, ask yourself if the person is adventurous, sneaky, kind, or even trustworthy. These are just a few examples of possible character traits. What might the character look like. Ask yourself what clues the author has given to signify the appearance of a character. Identify characters thoughts and opinions. Ask yourself, what might this character feel about a certain situation or how they would react. You can also look at how they have reacted to a certain situation and discuss why they reacted they way they did. • The teacher will use the novel that the students are reading and choose a selection for the text that exhibits the particular skill (the teacher should have previewed past readings to identify any appropriate passage to read prior to minilesson)
CLOSURE • Teacher prompts students to give examples of when they have exhibited use of the skill in their own reading experience • Review expectations of literature circles Come prepared with notes and having read the appropriate part of the text Ask questions to better understand Respect each other’s opinions Wait for the speaker to finish Stay on topic • Review expectations for using notes to guide discussion Notes should be take throughout the reading to mark certain places in the text that will help guide a discussion on various topics.
106
Appendix E
Minilesson Format for Discussing Plot
INTRODUCTION • Introduce the skill plot to the class. • Activate prior knowledge about the skill by asking students about what words or thoughts first comes to their mind when they here that skill name. • The teacher writes these thoughts or words on the board
INSTRUCTION • The teacher will display the definition for the skill plot. Plot – A structured format for which a story is written. This format includes: Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution • The teacher will give examples of how to identify parts of the plot using Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Exposition- The introductory material which gives the setting, presents the characters, and presents other facts necessary to understanding the story In Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we know that it takes place somewhere in the woods and Goldilocks finds a house in the woods and in the house three bowls of porridge. Rising Action - A series of events that builds from the exposition. Goldilocks tasted each bowl of porridge. The first was too hot, the second was too cold, but the third was just right and she ate it all up. This series of steps repeated with three chairs and three beds until Goldilocks fell asleep. Climax - The climax is the result of the crisis. It is the high point of the story for the reader. Frequently, it is the moment of the highest interest and greatest emotion. The climax of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is when the Bears enter the house and realize that Goldilocks had been there. They suddenly find her sleeping in their bed. Resolution- Rounds out and concludes the action. Goldilocks sees the bears, Screamed for help, and runs out of the house. She never returned to the bear’s house again. • The teacher will use the novel that the students are reading and choose a selection for the text that exhibits the particular skill (the teacher should have previewed past readings to identify any appropriate passage to read prior to minilesson)
107 Appendix E (continued)
CLOSURE • Teacher prompts students to give examples of when they have exhibited use of the skill in their own reading experience • Review expectations of literature circles Come prepared with notes and having read the appropriate part of the text Ask questions to better understand Respect each other’s opinions Wait for the speaker to finish Stay on topic • Review expectations for using notes to guide discussion Notes should be take throughout the reading to mark certain places in the text that will help guide a discussion on various topics.
108
Appendix F
Child Assent
Title of Project: The Effect of Skills Focused Minilessons on Students’ Independent Use of Reading Skills
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University Department of Education are trying to learn about the effect of skills focused minilessons on the students’ independent use of reading skills during literature circles. You have been asked to participate because you are in Gail Kennedy’s class and she is the investigator. Each time you engage in a literature circle discussions through out the months of November to February, the discussions will be audiotaped. Each meeting will last approximately 15-20 minutes and there will be a total of 10 meetings that are audiotaped. If you decide to participate in this study your discussions will be audiotaped for research purposes. This study will take place in room 12-210.
The researchers hope this study will help teachers understand the effect of skills focused minilessons on the students’ independent use of reading skills during discussion groups.
You do not have to be in this study if you don’t want to and you can quit the study at any time. If you don’t like a question, you don’t have to answer it and, if you ask, your answers will not be used in the study. No one will get mad at you if you decide you don’t want to participate.
Other than the researchers, no one will have access to the audiotapes, including the principal, or other teachers. If you have any questions, just ask the teacher.
This research study has been explained to me and I agree to be in this study.
______Subject’s Signature for Assent Date
Check which applies (to be completed by person conducting assent discussion):
The subject is capable of reading and understanding the assent form and has signed above as documentation of assent to take part in this study.
The subject is not capable of reading the assent form, however, the information was explained verbally to the subject who signed above to acknowledge the verbal explanation and his/her assent to take part in this study.
Name of Person Obtaining Assent
109
Appendix G
PARENTAL CONSENT FORM
1) Title of Research Study: The Effect of Skills Focused Minilessons on Students’ Independent Use of Reading Skills During Literature Circle Discussions.
2) Investigator(s): Gail Kennedy (Doctoral Student) and Gail Burnaford, Dissertation Chair and Principal Investigator
3) Purpose: The objective for this research project is to analyze students’ discussion during literature circle groups to identify if skills focused minilessons have an effect on the students’ independent use of reading skills during discussion. This project is relevant in determining what skills are reinforced and practiced during literature circles and identifying the impact of direct instruction.
4) Procedures: Participation in this study will require your child to engage in literature circle discussions in classroom 12-210 to determine the effect of skills focused minilessons on the use of reading skills. Each time we use Literature Circles in the classroom throughout the months of November thru February, the literature circle discussion will be audiotaped to provide data for the researcher to identify the students’ use of reading skills. Each literature circle meeting will last approximately 15-20 minutes. There will be a total of 10 meetings that will be audio-taped and transcribed.
5) Risks: The risks involved with participation in this study are no more than your child would experience in regular daily activities. It is unlikely your child will experience any harm or discomfort.
6) Benefits: Your child will experience the use of novels in the reading classroom to engage the students in the reading process. The results of the study will be used to improve the use of literature circles and reading instruction in the classroom.
7) Data Collection & Storage: Any information collected about your child will be kept confidential and secure and only the people working with the study will see your child’s data, unless required by law. The data will be kept for three (3) years and then destroyed.
110 Appendix G (continued)
8) Contact Information: *For questions or problems regarding your child’s rights as a research subject, you can contact the Florida Atlantic University Division of Research at (561) 297-0777. For other questions about the study, you should call the principal investigator, ___Gail Kennedy__at_(561)477-2100_ext.15345
9) Consent Statement:
*I have read, or had read to me, the information describing this study. All of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. I allow my child to take part in this study. My child can stop participating at any time without giving any reason and without penalty. I can ask to have the information related to my child returned to me, removed from the research records, or destroyed. I have received a copy of this consent form.
Signature of Parent or Guardian:______Date: ______
Signature of Investigator: ______Date: ______
111
Appendix H
School District Consent Form
112
Appendix I
Reading Skills and Sample Responses
Cause and Effect is defined as the relationship between two things when one thing makes something else happen.
Example of student response: Teacher: Well, that is an effect, but what would be the cause of that? WF2: Probably because she thinks she can’t take care of her child Teacher: Okay, and what would make her think that? WM2: Because they are all acting like they don’t need her. Teacher: Right, that is like the root cause of it all, we don’t know if that is true or not.
Context Clues is defined as words or phrases around a specific word to help with the understanding of that word.
Example of student response: WF3: The first word is hacking pag117, paragraph 4 the description is to chop down something. I wrote the sentence, my dad taught me about hacking trees. WM2: What does that mean hacking? WF2: Chopping down trees. WF2: What the heck is a hacking? WM2: Like hacking into a computer? WF3: I just said what it was.
Plot is defined by the action or sequence of events in a story usually consisting of four parts, the conflict, rising action, climax, and outcome.
Example of student response: HSF1: The climax is that Sal’s mother is lost. BM1: No, that is the problem. HSF1: Oh, that they are in…. HSM1: What do you think is going to happen at the end of the story? HSF1: Sal’s mother is going to die. WF1: Sal is looking for her mother and almost found her. Teacher: Did you talk about every element of the plot? BM1: No, we only talked about one part. Teacher: Then you all still have discussion to do. BM1: Falling action.
113 Appendix I (continued)
Teacher: Did you talk about the rising action already? BM1: We didn’t talk about rising, we talked about the climax. Teacher: I know you might have an idea of what it is and someone else might not. Do you all agree? WF1: What is the rising action?
Characterization is defined as a process of developing and portraying a character in fiction, drama, or poetry.
Example of student response: WM2:If Mrs. Cadaver was here what would you do? WF2: I would be scared of her. WM1: Me too. Teacher: Why? WF2: Because a lot of people think she killed her husband. WM1: And she is crazy. Teacher: But has she really done anything crazy? WM2: No. Teacher: She may have weird hair but so do a lot of people, she does lawn work, but so do a lot of people. WM2: And she buys axes. WF2: Yeah that is a little weird. If she was doing lawn work than she could be burying his people.
Conflict is defined as the opposition of forces, which ties one incident to another and makes the plot move.
Example of student response: BM1: Me, I will start with character. When Sal had a huge argument with Phoebe about when Mrs. Cadaver is lying about Pheobe’s mother calling. My second one it is character verses herself. When Sal’s mother is finding who she really is because she thinks she doesn’t know who she is anymore. HF1: I want to say something but I don’t know if it is in the right chapter. (searching) BM1: Character verses herself, like when phoebes mother probably thinks she is not useful anymore, maybe that is why she left.
114
Appendix J
Identifying Cause and Effect Matrix
Transcript Skills identified and coded by line number
Researcher Coder Coder 2 Coder Coder 4 1 3 1 23 X X X 3 24 X 1 25 X 1 26 X X X 3 99 X X X X 4 100 X X X X 4 101 X X X X 4 102 X X X X 4 103 X X X X 4 104 X X X X 4 105 X X X X 4 106 X X X X 4 Total matches 40 Total possible matches 48 Percentage 83%
2 9 X X 2 10 x X 2 67 X X X X 4 68 X X X X 4 69 X X X X 4 Total 16 Total possible matches 20 Percentage 80%
3 101 X X 2 102 X X X 3 103 X X X X 4 104 X X X X 4 105 X X X X 4 Total 17 Total possible matches 20 Percentage 85%
115
Appendix K
Analyzing Character Matrix
Transcript Skills identified and coded by line number
Researcher Coder 1 Coder 2 Coder 3 Coder 4
1 10 X X 2 30 X X X X 4 31 X X X X 4 Total 10 Total possible 12 matches Percentage 83%
2 62 X X X 3 63 X X X X 4 Total 7 Total possible 8 matches Percentage 88%
3 11 X X X X 4 12 X X X X 4 13 X X X 3 28 X 1 29 X 1 91 X X 2 92 X X 2 93 X X X 3 94 X X X 3 3 Total 26 Total possible 36 matches Percentage 72%
116
Appendix L
Describing Conflict Matrix
Transcript Skills identified and coded by line number Researcher Coder 1 Coder 2 Coder 3 Coder 4
1 71 X X X 3 72 X X X X 4 73 X X X X 4 74 X X X X 4 75 X X X X 4 76 X X X X 4 77 X X X X 4 84 X X X X 4 Total 31 Total possible matches 32 Percentage 97%
2 24 X X 2 25 X X 2 41 X X X 3 42 X X X X 4 43 X X X X 4 44 X X X X 4 45 X X X X 4 46 X X X X 4 47 X X X X 4 48 X X X X 4 Total 35 Total Possible Matches 40 Percentage 88% 3 66 X X X X 67 X X X X 68 X X X X 69 X X X X 70 X X X X 71 X X X X 72 X X X X 73 X X X X 74 X X X X 75 X X X X 76 X X X X Total 44 Total possible matches 44 Percentage 100%
117
Appendix M
Using Context Clues Matrix
Transcript Skills by Coder Coder2 Coder3 Coder4 Tot line 1 al Researcher mat che s 1 56 X X X X 4 57 X X X X 4 66 X X X X 4 67 X X X X 4 68 X X X X 4 69 X X X 3 80 X X X 3 81 X X X X 4 82 X X X 3 Total 33 Total possible matches 36 Percentage 92 %
2 29 X X X X 4 30 X X X X 4 31 X X X X 4 32 X X X X 4 33 X X X X 4 34 X X X X 4 35 X X X X 4 36 X X X X 4 37 X X X X 4 38 X X X X 4 Total 40 Total possible Matches 40 Percentage 100 %
3 44 X X X X 4 45 X X X X 4 46 X X X X 4 47 X X X X 4 48 X X X X 4 49 X X X X 4 50 X X X X 4 51 X X X X 4 52 X X X X 4 118 53 X X X X 4 54 X X X X 4 55 X X X X 4 59 X X X X 4 60 X X X X 4 61 X X X X 4 62 X X X X 4 Total 64 Total possible matches 64 Percentage 100 %
119
Appendix N
Discussing Plot Matrix
Transcript Skills identified and coded by line number Total matches Researcher Coder 1 Coder 2 Coder 3 Coder 4 1 1 X X X 3 2 X X X 3 3 X X X 3 4 X X X 3 5 X X X 3 6 X X 2 7 X X X 3 8 X X X 3 9 X X X 3 28 X 1 40 X X X 3 41 X X X 3 42 X X X 3 Total 36 Total possible 52 matches Percentage 70%
2 1 X X X X 4 2 X X X X 4 3 X X X X 4 4 X X X X 4 5 X X X X 4 20 X 1 21 X 1 22 X 1 23 X 1 Total 24 Total possible 36 matches Percentage 67%
3 1 X X X 3
120 2 X X X 3
3 X X X 3
22 X X X 23 X X X X 4 24 X X X X 4 25 X X X X 4 26 X X X 3 27 X X X 3 31 X X X 3 32 X X X 3 33 X X X 3 Total 39 Total possible 48 matches Percentage 81%
121
Appendix O
Sample Coding of Transcript by Researcher
Cause and Effect Plot Context Clues Character Development Conflict
WM4: I think that’s not it ‘cause Aunt Jessie when she was alive, when they first saw the trail, aunt Jessie didn’t want them to go on the trail when she was alive. She couldn’t know she was dying and go back and put stuff on the trail. BF2: I think Uncle Nate was hiding another wife up there probably. WM4: Hopefully not, he loved his redbird too much. BF2: Then why was he so mysterious about going up there? HSM2: Why did Zinny say she wanted Jake with her on the trail? WM4: No, Zinny didn’t want Jake to come on the trail, Jake wanted to come. HSM2: In the part in chaper 27 she said she wished Jake was there. WM4: No Jake wanted to go with her and she finally said yes. HSM2: No in chapter 27… BF2: ‘Cause she couldn’t open the can of beans and she wanted to eat them so bad my… HSM2: And she thought Jake could make fires too. Why did Gretchen flick off her computer? BF2: Because there was a password that needed to be broken and she couldn’t figure it out. WM4: So she got frustrated? WF3: But that’s not really important so why would she just be mad? BF2: ‘Cause her computer didn’t work, you would be mad if yours didn’t work either. WM4: The word from Jena. WF3: Knitting on page 112. I thought it was to sew or something. My other word is TNWM. BF2: No, it is the initials that were on the medallion. WF3: Yeah, but what does it stand for? BF2: It was in the book. WF3: Oh, it was what page. BF2: I don’t remember but I think it was something like tomorrow …. My word is muley page 152 and antsy from 150. HSM2: Oh, I put that one too. What does it mean? WF3: I think it is like a big ant. WM4: My word is whimper which is to cry, and attention is to to give someone cooperation. HSM2: I also put trowel and antys. I think antsy is a big ant and trowl is this tool to dig. WF3: Ok, what conflicts occurred? I put that she forgot her can opener at home. She said she could handle it.
122 Appendix O (continued)
WM4: My conflict was Zinny wanted Jake to come on the trail with her so that he could open the can of beans. HSM2: Zinny forgot to bring a can opener. WF3: Ok, my connection is that I have a can opener. BF2: I was terrified when I was on the haunted mansion and Splash Mountain in Disney world. WM4: That was scary. HSM2: Sometimes I can do whatever I want like what zinny can do on the trail
123
Appendix P
Book Equivalency Chart
Book Title Walk Two Moons Chasing Redbird Sharon Creech Sharon Creech Theme Acceptance and Learning to handle new change in life, emotions, changes in life, relationships, death Jealousy Main Character Sal is a thirteen-year- Zinny is a thirteen year old girl old girl who has been who is on a quest to discover moved away from her herself, her family, and Aunt home. She Jessie’s death Plot The main character The conflict of this book exists struggles with the between Zinny and all the people issue of a lost mother. in her life that cause her The story unfolds on a unhappiness. These people and road trip to visit her instances make up the story mother. The climax leading to an unexpected ending. occurs during the last three chapters. The resolution is not predictable. Point of View A young thirteen year- A young thirteen year-old girl old girl named Sal named Zinny Setting Bybanks, Kentucky Bybanks, Kentucky and a road trip across the country Writing Style Use of much figurative Use of much figurative language language (per book reviews) Lexile reading level for 770L 850L book
124
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