Action Research Project Completed!

Final Count Down....

Well, after changing my state...my district...my school...and my project, I have finally finished and am ready to tell you all about it! 

My new project dealt with increasing Reading Levels of 8th grade students at my current school. I chose 6 students on my team to participate in my my Action Research Project: 2 White Males, 1 White female, 2 Hispanic Males, and 1 African American male. Half of these students were Low Socioeconomic Status. I chose these students to try to represent the demographics of our school.  Our school had over 50% Low SES, as reported by the number of students on Free and Reduced Lunch. We also have a very high number of Caucasian students. 

Each student was assigned 2 non-fiction trade books to read each week and test on in the Renaissance Place Software System (known as AR tests). These books were selected based on the current topics we were studying in Science, Social Studies and Mathematics. The student had to read the book twice and then take the AR test. In order for the book to count, they had to score 80% or better. If they did not, the test was erased and they had to read it with myself or my co-teacher. 

After months of hard work...each student gained an average of a year's growth in their reading level! Yeah! I feel this supports my hypothesis that If students read more non-fiction books than they will increase their reading level because they will increase their academic vocabulary. I will admit that this was not a large enough sample size to consider it statistically significant, but it did help these students improve!