Collaborative Instructional Strategies Inquiry Final Project Conducted by Ashley Kelly With the help of mary stavig Third grade teachers at christa mcauliffe elementary school

Who was Involved? 3rd Grade Teachers: Ashley Kelly and Mary Stavig 47 third grade students

Collaborative Inquiry Question What is the impact of teaching students to use graphic organizers to plan realistic fiction stories that are sequential, detailed and have a clear beginning, middle and end?

Rationale & Purpose Students are easily overwhelmed by writing tasks Students need strategies to develop their ideas both sequentially and with detail The purpose of this inquiry is to determine what types of instructional strategies can be used to build students’ proficiency in using graphic organizers to write interesting and complete realistic fiction texts.

Theory of Action Identify current and specific student needs through pre-assessment Develop a rubric and learning targets Select graphic organizers that support writing goals Model (as a writer and as a reader) and explicitly teach how graphic organizers are used and lead to quality writing Meet regularly to share student progress, analyze student work and collaborate to design new strategies or new lessons to better support our writers

Actions Taken Direct Instruction, Modeling, Think Aloud Planning Structured Tasks Provide Timely and Specific Feedback Provide Opportunities for Revision Cooperative Collaboration Promote Positive Independence

Findings PRE-ASSESSMENT POST-ASSESSMENT 27 out of 47 students included a clear beginning, middle and ending 46 out of 47 students included a clear beginning, middle and ending (+19) 20 out of 47 students’ stories developed realistically All 47 students’ stories developed realistically (+27) 15 out of 47 students’ stories made sense 40 out of 47 stories made sense (+25) 1 out of 47 students’ stories included 3 trials before the character solved their problem 45 out of 47 students’ stories included 3 trials before the character solved their problem (+44) 23 out of 47 students’ stories included descriptions of their character’s actions, thoughts and feelings 44 out of 47 students’ stories include descriptions of their character’s actions, thoughts and feelings (+21) 5 out of 47 students' stories included relevant and meaningful details 40 out of 47 students' stories included relevant and meaningful details (+35) 9 out of 47 students’ stories included a satisfying ending 45 out of 47 students’ stories included a satisfying ending (+36) 31 out of 47 students’ stories were realistic fiction All 47 students’ stories were realistic fiction (+16)

Findings Pre-Assessment Data Post-Assessment Data

Conclusions Using graphic organizers is an effective strategy for teaching elementary students how to write complete, sequential and detailed realistic fiction stories. 100% of students received higher scores with the help of graphic organizers 64% of students improved the quality of graphic organizers after receiving feedback from the teacher and peers The story mountain graphic organizers took the most amount of time and required the most support 96% of students agreed that the graphic organizers helped them write more sequential stories and allowed them to focus on style, rather than content and organization while they drafted their stories Using graphic organizers is an effective strategy for teaching elementary students how to write complete, sequential and detailed realistic fiction stories. 100% of students received higher scores after writing realistic fiction stories that were supported by the use of graphic organizer pre-writes rather than without. In addition to using graphic organizers, the opportunity to receive and reflect on timely and specific feedback from teachers and peers allowed 64% of students to increase the quality of graphic organizers that led to a more complete and organized draft. The story mountain graphic organizers took the most amount of time and focus for student writers and required the most amount of support. Though student writers showed a bit of frustration with the time and effort the graphic organizers took to fill out accurately, 96% of students agreed that the graphic organizers helped them write more sequential stories and allowed them to focus on style, rather than content and organization while they drafted their stories.

Next Steps THIS YEAR: Let students drive instruction and pacing NEXT YEAR: Continue to implement direct instruction/modeling, structured tasks, feedback, revision opportunities, cooperative collaboration, promote positive independence Implement common graphic organizers earlier in the school year Start kids off working on their story mountain graphic organizer with a partner, rather than independently to begin Work with the class to develop a realistic story plot Pull more small strategy groups to provide reteaching Something that we could do to deal with this is to stay the course and let our kids drive our instruction. They continue to communicate to us through their work what they understand, so we will build on their abilities as they are ready for them rather than rush them through the process. We will continue to implement the “teacher actions” described above, but we have learned some things to change for next year. We think it would be valuable to include common graphic organizers earlier in the school year during our writing and reading lessons to improve student comfort and familiarity with the purpose of these documents. We also would like to start kids off working on their story mountain graphic organizer with a partner, rather than independently to begin. We would pair students up in heterogeneous pairs and have the stronger writer work on their story mountain first with their partner. This way, the stronger writer will model the process for their partner and give their partner a bit more processing time before they complete their own. Once it is their turn, they’ll have a strong writer with them to help them complete their mountain. Another thing we will change next year, is rather than have a story already prepared to model in front of the class, we will work with the class to develop a realistic story plot and have the students help with the modeling/direct instruction process. Finally, instead of working with struggling writers one on one, we will pull more small strategy groups to provide reteaching lessons.