Research Project

ACTION RESEARCH ANALYSIS PROJECTWRITING BEHAVIORS

COLLEGE GARDENS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLROTATION 1/ KINDERGARTEN

RESEARCH QUESTION

If 15-minute interventions are regularlyscheduled at least three times a week

for five weeks, will the four students in the

Kindergarten class who are performing below grade

level in writing improve in five key areas?

FIVE WRITING BEHAVIORS

1. Use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence.

2. Leave spaces between words. 3. Use punctuation at the end of a

sentence. 4. Use lowercase letters. 5. Reread each sentence to check if it

makes sense.

DATA WAS COLLECTED

Upper Case Letter at the Beginning

Lowercase Letters Throughout

Spaces between Each Word

Used Sounds when Sounding Out

Has Compiled Words in a Sentence

Uses End Punctuation

The Sentence Makes Sense

0 4 8 12 16 20 24

Whole Class

Pre-Assessment 1/29

Number of Students Demonstrating

FOCUS GROUP DATA SHOWED NEED FOR INTERVENTION IN 5 KEY AREAS








0 1 2 3 4

Intervention Group

Pre-Assessment Data 1/29


INTERVENTIONS-WEEK 1 Goal: Writing Conventions Mini lesson: Good writers start sentences with a capital

letter. That is the rule in the English language.Day 1 Direct: The teacher will read a big book to the students.

The teacher will point out capital letters throughout the story.

Day 2 Guided: The teacher will have a story prepared that has

missing capital letters. The students will share the pen with the teacher and fix all the sentences without capital letters.

Day 3 Independent: The students will reread a piece of their

own writing and fix all their sentences to start with a capital letter.

INTERVENTIONS-WEEK 2Goal: Writing Conventions Mini Lesson: Writers remember to use a period at the

end of a sentence. Periods help the reader know where to stop as they read.

Day 1 Direct: The teacher will read a story aloud,

highlighting each time the author used a period. Day 2 Guided: The teacher will write sentences on a large

sheet of paper. The students will share the pen to add missing periods.

Day 3 Independent: Using sentence strips, the students will

write sentences that include capital letters at the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end.

WORK SAMPLES-WEEK 2

INTERVENTIONS-WEEK 3Goal: Writing Conventions Mini lesson: Good writers use spaces between words. When

we leave spaces, it makes it our writing easy to read. Day 1 Direct: The teacher will read the students a book.

Throughout the book, the teacher will show the spaces between the words. The teacher will have a prepared written piece without spaces. The teacher will demonstrate how difficult it is to read the piece without spaces.

Day 2 Guided: Students will be given sentence strips with

sentences without spaces between words. Together, the teacher and students will cut apart strips and glue them onto a large sheet to add spaces to the written piece.

Day 3 Independent: Looking at their writing from the previous

week, students will copy it and include spaces.

WORK SAMPLES-WEEK 3

INTERVENTIONS-WEEK 4Goal: Writing Conventions Mini Lesson: Good writers do not write capital letters in the middle of words.

Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence or a name. Day 1 Direct: The teacher will read the students a story she has created. Throughout

the story, there will be capital letters mixed in the middle of words. The teacher will identify three of the capital letters in the story. The teacher will circle the capital letters with a blue colored pencil. Using a sticky note, she will demonstrate the correct form of the letter

Day 2 Guided: Using a prepared story, students will circle capital letters that appear

in the middle of words. Students will share the pen to circle capital letters in the middle of words, and to correct them using sticky notes.

Day 3 Independent: The students will look at their own writing. They will each get a

blue colored pencil. When they are rereading their writing, they will circle any capital letters that are in the middle of a word. They will then copy their sentences using the four writing behaviors. Use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence. Leave spaces between words. Use punctuation at the end of a sentence. Use lowercase letters.

WORK SAMPLES-WEEK 4

INTERVENTIONS-WEEK 5Goal: Writing Conventions Mini Lesson: We will focus on content. Good writers reread their

writing to fix up the parts that don’t make sense. This helps us improve our writing.

Day 1 Direct: The teacher will share a written piece with the students

that she has already written up on large chart paper. The teacher will read the story and demonstrate how to check for mistakes using a writing checklist, similar to the grading rubric, but in child-friendly terms.

Day 2 Independent: The student will write a new sentence about their

animal, and use the writing checklist to re-read their work and fix parts that don’t make sense.

Day 3 Assessment: Students will write two sentences about their animal

for research. They will use a writers’ checklist to check their work. These sentences will be used to assess their progress.

WRITING CHECKLIST-WEEK 5

DATA COLLECTION A work sample was collected each week and scored for the five

key areas.

THE DATA WAS COMPARED Pre Assessment

Post Assessment Final Assessment 3/7/14 Natalie Patrick Alyson Tristan

Use uppercase at the beginning of a sentence. x x x x

Leave spaces between words. ** x x x

Use punctuation at the end of a sentence. ** x x x

Use lower-case letters. ** x x x

Reread each sentence to check if it makes sense. ** x x x

KeyDemonstrates behavior xDoes not demonstrate behavior Taught during intervention

** Demonstrated in previous assessment during intervention

Pre- Assessment Natalie Patrick Alyson Tristan

Use uppercase at the beginning of a sentence

Leave spaces between words. x

Use punctuation at the end of a sentence.

Use lowercase letters.

Reread each sentence to check if it makes sense.

Key

Demonstrates behavior x

Does not demonstrate behavior

Taught during intervention








0 1 2 3 4

Intervention Group

Pre-Assessment Data 1/29

Post-Assessment Data 3/7


THE DATA SHOWED AN IMPROVEMENT IN EVERY AREA OF INTERVENTION

Pre

Asses

smen

t

Wee

k 1

Wee

k 2

Wee

k 3

Wee

k 4

Wee

k 5

Poat

ass

essm

ent

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Individual Results

NataliePatrickAlysonTristan

#of

wri

ting b

ehaiv

ors

OVERALL, STUDENTS BENEFITED FROM THE INTERVENTION . ONE STUDENT WAS RECOMMENDED FOR AN RTI* BASED ON FINDINGS

*response to intervention/ Data collection

THE DATA SHOWED AN IMPROVEMENT IN EVERY AREA OF INTERVENTION Side-By-Side comparison Measurable Results

All of my intervention subjects’ writing have gone from an illegible stream of letters to a readable written sentence with punctuation and spacing.

Education

Research Project