Next Steps
My goal for phase two was to put the responsibility of finding images that interested the students on them instead of me. This proved to be too difficult of a task for kindergarteners. They would rather invent something in their head than look through their books for pictures. I think the pictures in their books were not of interest to them unless they were passionate about reading. Due to their developmental age, the students did not fully understand that they could use the pictures to invent their own stories. Most of the writing about the pictures in books was about the plot of the book. They were not inventing stories like I was hoping they would do or like we were doing as a group on the carpet during our modeled writing time. I believe that phase 2 seemed to reveal that most of the time students were going to choose to write about their own topics regardless of what I had provided. This helped to reveal that students need more help in making their sentences and topics more detailed and less instruction on topic choice.
In analysis of the results of phase two and in reviewing results from phase one, I believe that the focus of the expansion on writing should have been on more detailed and longer sentences rather than on different topic choices. When the students were not writing about the pictures I provided or the pictures in their books, their stories consistently were about animals, their family, school or their friends. These are all things that they love or that they are passionate about. Regardless of what I provided, when they were writing on their own, their topics always came back to these topics.
I also noticed that the sentences the students were coming up with on the carpet as a group after completing the chart were exponentially better than the sentences they chose to write in their journals. They also demonstrated a passion of stating what they had seen, what they thought the characters were feeling and what they may have heard. I believe that this was one of the limitations of my action research. I initially thought that the brainstorming would automatically help the students come up with sentences, but the sentences that they provided during the modeled writing time rarely captured anything we wrote on the chart paper. I needed to model how to use the brainstorming ideas to construct sentences and then after modeling, release responsibility to them and have them create sentences based on our ideas on the chart paper.
It is for this reason that I believe the next steps in this AR investigation, or a phase three, should focus on encouraging students to use more detailed and complex sentences. I believe this could be accomplished by providing students with a graphic organizer that followed the same pattern of the chart created during modeled writing time. In order to collect data for phase three, I would move away from noting topic choice. I believe that the focus should be the expansion of sentences, adding more detail and using more complex vocabulary. I will use their current writing as a baseline measure and then analyze their writing for verbs, vocabulary and if they are incorporating the “see, feel, and hear model” as provided in their graphic organizer. I will also continue to collect samples of their writing and record informal observations of the students during the writing time.
Nevertheless, the students writing did advance dramatically since this Action Research investigation was started. I also believe, and the evidence seems to support, that the kindergarten students are developmentally capable of completing their own brainstorming chart prior to writing. Kindergarteners are extremely capable of being independent and passionate writers. It is up to the teacher to elicit this passion and create an excitement for writing from the beginning of their educational journey.
In analysis of the results of phase two and in reviewing results from phase one, I believe that the focus of the expansion on writing should have been on more detailed and longer sentences rather than on different topic choices. When the students were not writing about the pictures I provided or the pictures in their books, their stories consistently were about animals, their family, school or their friends. These are all things that they love or that they are passionate about. Regardless of what I provided, when they were writing on their own, their topics always came back to these topics.
I also noticed that the sentences the students were coming up with on the carpet as a group after completing the chart were exponentially better than the sentences they chose to write in their journals. They also demonstrated a passion of stating what they had seen, what they thought the characters were feeling and what they may have heard. I believe that this was one of the limitations of my action research. I initially thought that the brainstorming would automatically help the students come up with sentences, but the sentences that they provided during the modeled writing time rarely captured anything we wrote on the chart paper. I needed to model how to use the brainstorming ideas to construct sentences and then after modeling, release responsibility to them and have them create sentences based on our ideas on the chart paper.
It is for this reason that I believe the next steps in this AR investigation, or a phase three, should focus on encouraging students to use more detailed and complex sentences. I believe this could be accomplished by providing students with a graphic organizer that followed the same pattern of the chart created during modeled writing time. In order to collect data for phase three, I would move away from noting topic choice. I believe that the focus should be the expansion of sentences, adding more detail and using more complex vocabulary. I will use their current writing as a baseline measure and then analyze their writing for verbs, vocabulary and if they are incorporating the “see, feel, and hear model” as provided in their graphic organizer. I will also continue to collect samples of their writing and record informal observations of the students during the writing time.
Nevertheless, the students writing did advance dramatically since this Action Research investigation was started. I also believe, and the evidence seems to support, that the kindergarten students are developmentally capable of completing their own brainstorming chart prior to writing. Kindergarteners are extremely capable of being independent and passionate writers. It is up to the teacher to elicit this passion and create an excitement for writing from the beginning of their educational journey.