Action Research Project: Making Inferences

Focus and Rationale for Research Rose Hill Middle School LA/SS 6thGraders About ½ of the group struggle to apply reading strategies without guidance Many are dependent readers who need support analyzing text and drawing conclusions

Observation Students leave sections of assessments blank that require analytical thinking Students do not use evidence to support an idea Students do not go into detail and explain an idea Students stare at me blankly when I ask a question

Source of the Problem Lack of modeling inferential thinking and text analysis Lack of explicit and direct instruction that shows the step by step process of inferential thinking and text analysis Lack of scaffolding to support readers who are unable to apply reading strategies independently

Research Findings “Using Literature to Teach Inference across the Curriculum” (Bintz, 2012) Inference making is the heart of meaning construction Scaffold using two column graphic organizer Column 1: what the text says Column 2: what text means

Research Findings “The Main Idea Strategy” (Boudah, 2014) Help students go beyond literal meaning with a close read Prompt students to find words that seem important Use details from the text to infer meaning Pretest and Post-test Comprehension Questions

Research Findings “Searching For Evidence” (Gormley, 2015) Develop close read strategies Problem solve while rereading and taking notes Uncover layers of meaning by examining text for central ideas What is the author saying? How does the author prove it?

Research Findings “Detective Question” (Jimenez- Fernandez, 2015) How do students deduce information that does not appear explicitly in the text? Poor vocabulary #1 deficit to reading comprehension Students circle hidden clues Provide explicit instruction

Research Findings “Making Inferences from Texts: It’s Vocabulary that Matters” (Lucas, 2015) Decoding and language skills predict reading comprehension skills Text-inferencing ability intimately associated with oral language skills Interventions for children with reading deficits should target vocabulary knowledge

Putting Theory into Action How can teachers support struggling readers, so they can be more skilled at effectively analyzing text-based evidence? Good readers are analytical readers and actively think about the text they are reading Struggling readers need to see explicit examples of how the thinking process works

Putting Theory into Action Displayed a poster that said: I can cite text evidence to support my inferential thinking and analysis Created vocabulary graphic organizer for the words: evidence, analysis, and inference Students searched for synonyms and drew visuals

Putting Theory into Action Designed baseline assessment that asked for text evidence and analysis on ancient India How do you know the ancient Indians’ lives were similar to the lives of the Mesopotamians? Provided rubric that measures students’ ability to cite and analyze text evidence

Putting Theory into Action

Data Analysis of Student Work # of students % of students proficient or higher % of student s not proficient % of high Level 2s % of level 1s and 2s 23 60% 40% 27% 13%

Reading Strategy Intervention Scaffold the learning Model, coach, and guide Find direct quotes from the novel Wednesday Wars that answers the question and record the quote word for word using quotation marks and the page number Next to the quote record your thoughts and analysis of the quote.

Reading Strategy Intervention Students struggled to provide detailed evidence and analysis Use details to make inferences graphic organizer Explicit definition of inference Explicit example of inference Write two details and your logical inference in each row of boxes

Learning Impact and Growth Post test using same pretest graphic organizer and rubric Record topic sentence in one box Record text evidence in another box Synthesize the parts into a coherent piece of writing.

Learning Impact and Growth # of students % of students proficient or higher % of student s not proficient % of high Level 2s % of level 1s and 2s 23 82% 17% 0%

Moving Forward What does it mean to teach comprehension strategies explicitly and directly? Model the reading strategy Show students steps involved in making an inference Give students opportunities to try strategy without coaching and support

Moving Forward Develop skills to find meaning of unknown words Develop skills to understand implied meanings of characters words Develop skills to identify characters beliefs and motivations Develop skills to explain ideas and events of the text

Moving Forward Develop skills to understand the author’s world view and be able to recognize author’s biases Develop skills to be able to relate what is happening in the text to their own knowledge of the world Develop skills to use facts to draw conclusions