Explorations Outside the Classroom: Inspiring Primary Age Students Through Writing

Transcription

1 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 1 Explorations Outside the Classroom: Inspiring Primary Age Students Through Writing By: Laura Nussbaum and Stephanie O Donnell First and Second Grade Multiage Interns nussbaum.l.j@gmail.com seo5035@gmail.com

2 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 2 Table of Contents Title Page Page 1 Table of Contents Page 2 Description of Teaching Context Page 3-6 Wonderings and Questions Page 6 Main Question Page 7 Sub Question Page 7 Data Collection Page 7-9 Data Analysis Page 9-1 Explanation of Findings Page Claim 1 Page Claim 2 Page Claim 3 Page Reflection and Implications for Future Practice Page Appendix A. Inquiry Brief Page B. Annotated Bibliography Page C1. Intervention Survey Page 27 C2. Pre-Intervention Survey Results Page 28 C3. Mid-Intervention Survey Results Page 29 C4. Post-Intervention Survey Results Page 30 C5. Individual Question Comparison Analysis Page 31 D1. Interview Questions Page 32 D2. Interview Results Page E1. Systematic Observation Recording Sheet Page 36 E2. Off-Task Percentages Page F. Student Quotations Page 40 G1. February First Grade Writing Rubric Page 41 G2. February Second Grade Writing Rubric Page 42 G3. April First Grade Writing Rubric Page 43 G4. April Second Grade Writing Rubric Page 44 G5. Student Writing Assessment Results Page G6. Nature Book Work Samples Page 47

3 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 3 Description of Teaching Context: Laura s Classroom Laura is an intern in a first and second grade multiage classroom. In her classroom of twenty-one students, there are 3 first grade girls and 7 first grade boys; additionally, there are 5 second grade girls and 6 second grade boys. There is a wide range of writers in the classroom. The one first grader and two second graders who leave the classroom for Title 1 do not receive formal writing instruction in her classroom. Throughout the writing time, there are no writers who are extremely resistant to writing; all students will eventually write when asked. However, there is one second grade boy who has difficulty staying on task. Interventions (including a sticker chart and a timer) have been tried with this student but with limited success. One first grade boy began to write for the first time during the inquiry project. Until March, during writers workshop he drew pictures and the teacher scribed for him; in the middle of March, he started to began to sound spell. After taking the last writing assessments in February, two first grade students scored below basic, three first grade students scored basic, three second grade students scored basic, and the rest (14) of the students scored proficient. In the classroom, two second graders qualify for Title 1, and two first graders qualify for Title 1. Two first graders initially qualified for Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTII), but have now tested out of it. One first grader has been identified with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP); currently he receives learning support services for math, reading, and phonemic awareness. He also attends

4 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 4 occupational therapy and receives speech and language services. Another first grader has an IEP for reading and phonemic awareness. Socially, students in the classroom interact well with one another. The second grade girls tend to group themselves together; two of the three first grade girls associate themselves with the second graders. These girls all play well together during recess. The final third grade girl is a social outcast. While her behaviors have been improving throughout the year, she still has difficulty making friends and being truthful to others. The first and second grade boys often play with one another. They do not seem to discriminate against first or second grade in any way. There is one isolate that is in first grade; he is significantly below grade level, which in turn affects his interactions with his peers. While this student is friendly, his immaturity interferes with his ability to be accepted by others in the room. Stephanie s Classroom Stephanie is an intern in a first and second grade multiage classroom. In her classroom, there are 3 first grade girls and 4 first grade boys; in addition, there are 7 second grade girls and 6 second grade boys. In total there are 20 students. There is a wide range of writing abilities in the classroom. After given directions most of them will sit down and begin to write. There are students, in both grades, who write to meet the basic story requirements, while there are other students who will write beyond what is required of them. For example, there are second grade students who will write pages stories that are detailed and there are first grade students who will write more than five detailed events in one adventure story. Although the majority of students do enjoy writing and partake in it, there are a few students who struggle with writing and refuse to complete writing activities. These students

5 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 5 are mainly first graders and they receive additional one-on-one support from the teachers or paraprofessional in the classroom. One particular student who consistently refuses to write often gets frustrated because he does not know about what to write. After the teacher prompts him to work, he yells and/or shoves things off his desk. He then proceeds to crawl under his desk. When this occurs one of the classroom teacher notifies the school guidance counselor and she calms him down and he begins the writing process. In Stephanie s classroom there are two students who are in RTI, and one second grade student leaves daily for ESL instruction. Furthermore, three first grade students have met with the Instructional Support Teams (IST). Two of these students have educational plans for behavioral support, while the third has his for math support. One of the students who struggles with behavioral problems also has ADHD and is treated for that. Both students meet with the school counselor weekly. Lastly, one second grade student has Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) and takes medication for this. He also meets with the school counselor weekly. Although there is a large variety in student abilities and experiences, many of the students are able to talk, work, and play with one another. They often talk and laugh with peers at their desk sets. When it comes to free time, however, there is a split between boy and girl groups. Both first and second grade boys play nicely with each other at recess. Only a few of the first and second grade boys have had recent trouble socializing properly with one another. These specific boys have been showing immature behaviors, including smacking each other on the bottoms and consistently touching one another. There is only one first grade male who does not often socialize with the other boys. He prefers to play by himself or with the girls. As for the girls, there are two separate groups of friends. There is a group of four second grade girls who socialize with three of the first grade girls. Within this group there are often great disagreements

6 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 6 because three of the second grade girls fight over the fourth second grade girl. The second group of girls consists of three second grade girls. They often play separately from the other girls at recess but still talk to them in the classroom setting. Wonderings and Questions: Throughout the last few months in the Professional Development School, we have been able to observe our students in a variety of settings. One area where we noticed that could use improvement for our students has been writing. In both classes there were certain students who struggled with developing ideas for the assigned writing piece. They often would say that they did not know what to include in their writing and took a significant amount of their writing time to brainstorm. Additionally, when students did begin to write, their writing was lacking detail and consisted of one or two sentences, while other students in the room were able to develop well-constructed writing pieces during the same allotted time. However, we did notice a strong improvement in our student writers when they were told that their pieces would be shared with others. For example, in family journals or writing pieces that would be shared at conferences, students seemed to take their time and have pride in their work. In our school, we are fortunate enough to have a grant that allows teachers to collaborate for a nature-based professional development once month, an initiative known as the Schoolyard Project. Fifth grade teachers have taken their time to develop a unique multi-genre project that takes students out of the classroom and into the schoolyard. Throughout the entire year, students work to create zines; these zines integrate Pennsylvania writing standards with nature-based learning. Furthermore, students have choice, as well as an audience for these zines, which helps to motivate even struggling student writers. For our inquiry, we wanted to see if we could do a

7 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 7 project similar to what the fifth grade does; can students at the primary level enjoy writing as much as they do in fifth grade? While we did not want to recreate the zine project, we wanted to inspire our students with nature-enhanced books. We were curious to see if student choice and writing for an audience helps the students to become more motivated, similar to the fifth grade students. These wonderings have helped to develop the follow question: How can we motivate student writers in the primary grades? As our inquiry developed, we also discovered the following sub-wonderings: 1. How will the use of nature journals motivate students writing in the primary grades? 2. How will writing in the nature journals change primary students attitudes towards writing? 3. How will knowing that they will be sharing their nature books motivate primary students writing? Data Collection Surveys We chose to conduct student interest surveys at three different points throughout our inquiry. Prior to any interventions, we asked students their opinions towards writing in general, their beliefs about themselves as writers, and their thoughts about writing in our classroom. We wanted to see if through our intervention students attitudes towards writing changed at all. The students were presented with three choices: no, sometimes, and yes; they also completed two short answer questions at the end of their surveys. These short answer questions asked students about what they liked to write and what their favorite writing project was in our classrooms. (See Appendix C1 for the Intervention Survey Administered; See Appendix C2 for the Pre- Intervention Survey Results)

8 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 8 We conducted the same survey again at the halfway point in our unit. At this time, students had just completed the poetry part of the nature books. This survey helped us to see if our interventions were working and allowed us to gauge if we needed to adjust our teaching techniques. (See Appendix C3 for the Mid-Intervention Survey results) Finally, we had our students complete the surveys at the end of the nature unit. We used these results to see how students feelings about writing changed over the month and a half period. The questions asked were the same questions that students had been asked throughout the entire inquiry. (See Appendix C4 for the Post-Intervention Survey results) Interviews After analyzing the survey results, we chose students with whom to complete interviews. We looked for students who seemed to be more engaged by the nature writing process. We wanted to see how the nature writing had changed their views on writing. In the interviews, we asked the students questions that were similar to those on the survey; however, we wanted the students to expand upon their answers in the interviews. The questions asked students their favorite topic about which to write, why they enjoyed going outside for writing, and if the nature book made them take their time with their writings. (See Appendix D1 for Student Interview Questions) Systematic Observations In order to see whether or not engagement increased during writing time, we conducted five-minute time sweeps. Time sweeps were conducted on a daily basis for two months in order to obtain accurate results. At each five-minute interval, we scanned our classrooms for off-task behaviors, including out of seat movement, bathroom use, playing (pencil, paper, toys, etc.), talking (unrelated to the activity), and miscellaneous off-task behavior. Afterwards we recorded

9 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 9 our data on our name charts. (See Appendix E1 for Systematic Observation Recording Sheet) The time sweep data provided us with evidence for our claims and data. Anecdotal Notes Throughout our nature book unit, we kept records of our students quotations. These quotations gave us insight about our students thoughts about the projects we were doing on a daily basis. Since students said these words during writing without being interviewed, we viewed them as their authentic feelings about what we were doing in our classrooms. (See Appendix F for Quotations) Artifacts Student writing samples were collected to determine the amount of motivation our students had during writing time. We compared a pre-inquiry writing assessment to a postinquiry assessment. Both assessments asked students to create a fictional piece; however, the post-inquiry assessment had students use their researched animal as their main character. We also made sure that we took writing samples that showed a variety of students writing levels and abilities. For the pre-inquiry writing assessment, we used the February first and second grade writing rubric in order to gauge where students writing abilities were. (See Appendix G1 and G2 for the First and Second Grade February Rubric) For the post-inquiry writing assessment, we used the April first and second grade writing rubrics in order to gauge how students abilities have changed. (See Appendix G3 and G4 for the First and Second Grade April Rubric) Data Analysis: Surveys

10 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 10 When we looked at the surveys, we first looked for changes in students attitudes towards writing. After analyzing data as a whole group, noting the numbers of yes, no, and sometimes, we grouped the surveys together for each student. For example, for student X we took his pre, middle, and post survey results and grouped them together in order to analyze them from start to finish. (See Appendix C1-C3 for Survey Results) We realized that studying the class as a whole would not be as valuable as looking at the student as an individual. Additionally, we decided to analyze just the pre-survey and the post-survey. These two surveys show how our students beliefs about writing changed during our intervention. Due to two students not completing all surveys in Stephanie s classroom, she found it necessary not to include their surveys in the individual analysis. Finally, we chose to focus on only four questions that helped us to gain insight on students thoughts. (See Appendix C4 for Individual Question Comparison Analysis) The first three were multiple-choice questions; the final question was a short answer question. The statements we chose are as follows: -I think writing is fun -I am a good writer -I write better when I know I will share it -My favorite writing activity this year was. The first two statements we analyzed helped to give us insights on students attitudes towards writing. Out of both classrooms, only three students views on writing being fun declined after the nature books. In fact, six students now found writing to be an enjoyable activity. Additionally, students self-efficacy about writing improved in three students. 76% of our students found that they were a good writer sometimes or all of the time. The next question we studied, I write better when I know I will share it, showed that

11 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 11 students valued the work that they do. Twenty-two of thirty-eight students responded that they write better if they know they will be sharing their writing with others. However, nine students views about writing and sharing declined after doing the nature activities. After evaluating these three questions, we also looked at students favorite writings in the school year. In Laura s classroom, thirteen of nineteen students responded that the nature book writing activities were their favorite. In Stephanie s classroom, nine out of seventeen students responded that the nature book writing activities were their favorite. Interviews After analyzing the survey results we thought it was necessary to make more meaning out of student responses, so we chose students with whom to complete interviews. In the interviews, we asked the students questions that were similar to those on the survey; however, we wanted the students to expand upon their answers in the interviews. The questions asked students their favorite topic about which to write, why they enjoyed going outside for writing, and if the nature book made them take their time with their writings. The results from our interviews led us to discover that out of nine students, three students said they did not like writing sometimes because they had trouble thinking of what they should write. In addition, eight out of nine of the students said that they make their nature book writing activities neater because they know their parents will see these books. Lastly, although choice was not a main focus of our inquiry, six out of nine students said that they enjoyed nature book activities because of the animal choices they were given for the research project section of the book. After analyzing our interview responses it was made clear to us that nature books have had a positive influence on student motivation and engagement. (See Appendix D2 for Student Interview Results)

12 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 12 Systematic Observation Using a five-minute time sweep, we were able to observe students engagement during writing. We decided that engagement correlates to motivation; if a student is working throughout the entire time period we believe that it shows their motivation to write. After noting whether students are talking (about a topic unrelated to writing), out of their seat, using the restroom, or doing something miscellaneous, we added up how many times students were offtask at any point during our writer s workshop. We divided this by the number of possible times students could be off task during writer s workshop. For example, if there were 20 students in class that day and we conducted five time sweeps then that would mean there was a potential of 100 times a student could be off task. If there were seven incidents of students being off task that day, our formula would look as follows: 7 incidents of being off task/100 times a student could be off task x 100 = 7% of the writer s workshop time spent off task Then, we grouped each of the days by the activity the students were doing: preintervention, poetry, animal research, or miscellaneous (designing cover, coloring, etc.). We found an off-task average for each of the categories. (See Appendix E2 for Off-Task Percentages) In our data, we noticed how students were off task the most during pre-intervention. Students during this time were off task an average of 16.74% of the time. Students were off-task 13.55% of the time during poetry writing. Next, students were off-task during miscellaneous activities 12.01% of the time. Finally, students were off-task only 6.19% of the time during research writing. Through this data, we are able to see that our intervention was successful for engaging students during writing time.

13 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 13 Anecdotal Notes Throughout the nature project, we took notes when our students shared comments about their writings. These quotations gave us insight to students feelings and attitudes towards the project. After we analyzed the quotations, we were able to see trends about our students before and after our intervention. Looking at these quotations, we discovered how students became more intrinsically motivated to write. Students were asking often to continue to work after the writing period was over. It is evident through these quotations that students intrinsic motivation and attitudes towards writing has increased. (See Appendix F for Student Quotations) Artifacts During the inquiry process we wanted to see whether or not nature-related writing activities were improving student motivation and student writing skills. In order to assess this wondering, we asked our students to write animal adventure stories about the animals they had researched for their nature books. After students had completed the stories we looked at the April benchmark criteria to assess each students writing level. We then took these assessments and compared them to February benchmark assessments. Students were given a rating based of below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced in content and conventions based on these rubrics. After comparing the February and April benchmark writing assessments we noticed that many of the students either stayed the same or increased in either conventions or content. Out of the eight students, three students kept the same writing levels for both conventions and content. In addition, four out of the eight students received better grades in the area of content. Furthermore, two out of eight of the students received better grades in the area of content. This data made us wonder if the animal adventure focus of the story made our students more

14 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 14 motivated to do better with their writing. (See Appendix G5 for Student Writing Assessment Results) Explanations of Findings: Claim 1: When students enjoy about what they are writing, they are more on task and produce better work. To discover a way to motivate our students to want to write, we chose to incorporate blank books into our writing curriculum. Students first went outside and explored the schoolyard. Then, they came back inside and completed a variety of poetry based on their observations. As they finished a poem, they edited the poem with a teacher and placed the final copy into their blank book. Students then transitioned into working on animal research reports. These reports were put into their books as well. To gauge how the nature journals motivated our students, we conducted systematic observations, as well as analyzed student artifacts. We decided that students who were motivated would be more engaged during writing, which in turn should result in better writing. It is evident through the systematic observations that students were on task more during nature writing. In our survey, we asked students what their favorite writing piece has been throughout the year; the results showed that 22 of the 36 students stated that the nature projects have been the most enjoyable for them. When students were writing, the talking in the classroom subsided. Students time on task increased 3.19% of time for poetry and 10.55% of the time for animal research from the pre-intervention. It is evident that during the work in the nature books, students were more engaged.

15 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 15 Students also produced better work as a result of being more engaged. We chose four students from each class to analyze how their writing has changed over the course of the project. To accurately evaluate their work, we used students February writing assessments, a creative writing assignment, and rated it against the February standards for each grade. We repeated the process with a similar prompt for the April assessment; however, we had students write stories about their animal that they researched. We evaluated each of the students to the April standards. In Laura s class, all of the students improved in at least one area with the exception of one student who stayed at advanced for both February and April. One student, who had his story scribed for him during the February assessment, wrote a full page for the April assessment. In Stephanie s class, two of the students improved in at least one area with the exception of one or two students who had remained advanced in both areas. Since students have been engaged during writing, their writing has greatly improved over the last two months. Claim 2: Some students are motivated to write better when they know that they will be sharing their nature books with their parents, while others are not. At the beginning of the inquiry process, we thought about a variety of factors that could potentially influence primary students writing motivation. One factor that we thought might influence our students writing motivation was the idea of sharing. In particular, we wondered if sharing their nature books with their parents would make them more motivated and if it would make them take their time with writing. At this point, we decided that we would have our students participate in a Nature Night, where parents would come in and the students will share their nature books at the end of the year. After introducing Nature Books, we told our students that their parents would be seeing their books at an event called Nature Night in hopes that it would motivate them.

16 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 16 In order to generate claims about how sharing work samples affects primary students motivation towards writing, we collected and analyzed data through surveys and interviews. After examining the pre-surveys we discovered that less or about half of students, in each classroom, write better when they know they will be sharing their work. For example, 10 out of 19 of Laura s students said they write better when they know they will be sharing their works and only 6 out of Stephanie s 17 students said they work better when they will be sharing their work. Similarly, when looking at the post-surveys we discovered that only 5 out of 19 of Laura s students said that they try hard with writing when they know they will be sharing it with others and only 3 out of Stephanie s 17 students said that they try harder when they know they will be sharing. Overall, both survey results showed us that about less than half of the students in each of our classes related writing better with sharing their work. Since we found students responses to be varying in great amounts we decided to go back through our data and personalize it even further. We looked at student responses to see whether or not each student had changed their survey answers from start to finish and whether those changes had been positive or negative. Although survey results showed us that about half of our students wrote better when their work was being shared, we found that over the course of the survey 5 out of our total 36 students had given answers that had improved from either no to sometimes or from sometimes to yes. While our survey data showed that many students were not totally motivated to write better when knowing their work would be shared, the interview data shows otherwise. We both chose four or five students to interview, so we ended up with a total of 9 student interviews. During the interviews we asked each student if writing in their nature books made them take more time with their writing and if so why? From our interviews we found out that seven out of

17 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 17 the nine students interviewed do take more time with their writing when the work will be going in their nature books. One of Stephanie s first grade students told her that, sometimes I feel like I just want to rush through it to get done, and sometimes because I am going to put it in my nature book I do the best work I can do. She later alluded to the fact that this was because her parents would be seeing the books. In addition, one of Laura s 1st grade students told her that he takes his time in his nature book because he does not want his parents to see messy scribbles in the book. Overall, our responses showed us that while some students are motivated to write better when they know they will be sharing their work with their parents or others, some students are not motivated by this factor. Claim 3: Students attitudes toward writing have improved as a result of the nature books. As our inquiry progressed, we decided that we wanted to focus on the improvement of our students attitudes towards writing as a result of writing in the nature books. We felt that since they were writing in something tangible that they would be able to take home and say was theirs, they may think that writing is more fun. We looked at two survey questions, as well as anecdotal notes and student interviews in order to generate this claim. After analyzing our data, we realized that students self-efficacy did not significantly improve as a result of our project. In fact, 22% of the students views about themselves as writers declined in our post survey. However, we did notice a trend that students enjoyed writing significantly more as a result of the project. Out of thirty-six students, only four did not find writing to be fun. In Laura s classroom, one student was unable to write (and was usually frustrated during writing) prior to starting the intervention. During one of the final intervention

18 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 18 activities, nature adventure stories, the student sat and sound spelled for the entire half hour. He ran over to Laura and remarked, Miss Nussbaum, this is actually fun! I can write! Quotations like these show how students attitudes have changed as a result of our inquiry. Additionally, we as teachers have heard our students make remarks that show that they are becoming more intrinsically motivated to write. Can I fill up this whole page with haikus? asked one student. Another student remarked, Can we do this project again for a different animal? Finally, we had multiple students ask us, Can I work on my book during recess? These quotations show how our students have become motivated to want to write. Reflections and Implications for Future Practice: Both of us really enjoyed the inquiry process, and we think our students did as well. When we began this inquiry, we realized how little our students seemed to be enjoying writing. We noticed how talkative students were and how often they were out of their seats. However, through the questioning and wondering that we did, we were able to devise an inquiry that really helped our students to become more motivated during writing. As a result, we recognize how important inquiry is to our future practice as elementary teachers. We learned that we do not need to be afraid to take our students outside and just let them explore. Students really seemed to be more motivated by the fact that they were not limited in their topic. Additionally, we have come to value the importance of giving students ownership in their writing; allowing them to use the nature books made them so excited to write every day and gave them something in which to take pride. Each and every day we saw our students doing their personal best in writing, something we had not been seeing previously. This inquiry has helped us to realize that doing the same activities day in and day out is not beneficial to our students. We were able to question

19 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 19 our practice as teachers and change the way we were teaching. Coming up with creative writing ideas has changed our attitude and our students attitude toward writing. We have also been able to generate some future wonderings that we have if we were to repeat this inquiry again. One area where we were initially wondering about was student choice; however, upon analyzing our data, we realized that we did not provide as much choice as we wanted. While students were able to choose about what they were writing, they did not have any freedom beyond that. Students could pick the topic of their poems and their animal research, but we dictated to them the type of poem they needed to complete, what to research about their animal, and what each page of the book should look like. We did not feel that we could generate a claim based on what we did for our inquiry. Through our data collection, however, we did discover that students value choice in their writing. Thirty-five of thirty-six students responded sometimes or yes when asked if they like to have a choice about what they write. Also, four out of seven students mentioned in their interviews how much they enjoyed the animal research because they got to choose their animals. If we were to revise this project, we would be curious to see how using a menu of choices would impact the students motivation to write. Would their interest in writing increase more if we increased the amount of choice they were given? As we analyzed our data we began to reflect in my depth about one our forms of data collection, surveys. After looking at survey results we found that pre-survey and post-survey results varied a great amount. We began to wonder if students results varied due to peer influence, due to their mood on the specific day, or due to how we worded the questions. If we were to implement these surveys in the future, we would make sure that our students understood the importance of these surveys and took their time in filling them out. We are also curious

20 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 20 about the fact that student self-efficacy declined as a result of the project. We are unsure why this happened as a result of our project, and therefore, it is one of our wonderings. One final area that we reflected on in more depth was the idea of students sharing their nature books. Due to time constraints of the inquiry, we decided that we would wait until the end of the year to have students share their nature books with their parents. We felt that this would give students plenty of time to complete both writing activities and miscellaneous activities that make up the nature book. We did however wonder how pushing this event back would affect our data results as well as our second claim. Would the data support or protest the idea that student sharing motivates primary writers? Also, would sharing the books with peers rather than parents impact the results of our project? Although we do not currently know the answers to these question, we will eventually be able to use nature night data to answer this wondering.

21 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 21 Appendix A- Inquiry Brief Timeline: Data Collection February Week 1 Feb. 8th - Feb. 11th - Begin collecting pre-data by completing systematic observations, student interest surveys, and anecdotal notes - Complete student interviews (based off of survey responses) - Collect student writing work samples *We will begin taking anecdotal notes this week and will continue until April. Week 2 Feb. 14th - Feb 18th Week 3 Feb. 21st - Feb. 25th Week 4 Feb. 28th - March 4st - Continue with systematic observations/anecdotal notes - Continue with student interviews - Begin poetry writing (2/16) - Inquiry Brief/Annotated Bibliography Due (2/18) - Continue with systematic observations/anecdotal notes - Take photos of students writing - Continue poetry writing - Put poetry into nature books for SLAM fair (2/25) Revised draft on Inquiry Brief/Annotated Bibliography Due (3/2) - Continue Anecdotal Notes and Systematic Observations - Continue Poetry - Discuss/choose Wetlands animals to research March Week 5 SPRING BREAK Week 6 March 14th - March 18th - Mentors will begin animal research with students - Compile and organize data from poetry unit and prior. - Collect current student writing samples (Mid-point) - Continue with Anecdotal Notes/Systematic Observations - Continue with animal research writing

22 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 22 Week 7 March 21st - March 25th Week 8 March 28th - April 1st - Continue with Anecdotal Notes/Systematic Observations - Complete round two of student Interviews - Continue with animal research writing - Work on Inquiry Draft - Continue with Anecdotal Notes/Systematic Observations - Complete student interest surveys - Continue with animal research writing - Analyze data and complete inquiry draft April Week 9 April 4th - April 8th Week 10 April 11th - April 15th Week 11 April 18th - April 22nd Week 12 April 25th - April 29th April 30th Inquiry Draft Due (4/8) - Add table of contents, about the author, dedication page, decorate cover to nature books - Take photos of students working - Finishing touches to the nature books - Revise draft - Prepare for presentation - Revise draft - Prepare for presentation Practice Inquiry Presentation (4/28) Inquiry MNMS (9:00 a.m.) Before During After Student Interest Survey We will give students a survey that will gauge their general interest in writing Systematic Observations We will continue to make systematic observations of how on-task our Student Interest Survey We will give students a survey to see how their interest in writing has changed after completing the

23 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 23 Systematic Observation We will make systematic observations every three minutes of our class to monitor how on-task students are; it will be noted if students are out of their seats, talking unrelated to their work, playing with objects around them, or miscellaneous Interviews After completing the surveys, we will interview students on their general interest in writing. We will choose students whose answers to the surveys may have surprised us Artifacts We will be photocopying the February writing samples as data on how students write when given no choice students are Anecdotal Notes We will make anecdotal notes about what our students are doing during writing Photos We will take photos of our students work/explorations in nature nature books Interviews We will interview students on their interest after completing the nature books Artifacts After completing our inquiry, we will have the nature journals

24 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 24 Appendix B - Annotated Bibliography Broda, Herbert W. (2007). Schoolyard-enhanced learning: Using the outdoors as an instructional tool, K-8. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. In his book, Broda discusses the importance of outdoor learning. He focuses on the use of schoolyards/grounds as a powerful extension of classroom classroom. He gives a variety of helpful tips for bringing students outside and also describes a variety of ways that the schoolyard and nature can be incorporated into core subject areas. We particularly liked his school-yard nature poems, See What I Found?, because it integrates poetry with nature and outdoors. We plan to have our students choose an item, within our own school-yard, and create See What I Found? poems modeled after Broda s. Ediger, M. (1996). Pupils, nature, and writing. This resource models a project that is similar to the one we are conducting. The student teacher in this article explored the benefits of taking her students outside to write poetry. The article furthers discusses why taking students into the schoolyard improves their writing. We plan to use this resource to help us come up with ideas for poetry. It also helps us to confirm the results of our inquiry. Growing up WILD: Exploring nature with young children. (2009). Houston, TX: Council for Environmental Education. We want to use the lessons in this resource to help get our students outside and hopefully motivate them as writers. Each lesson in this guide comes with ideas on how to make the lesson cross-curricular; for example, measurement can be incorporated by taking the students outside to mark the jumps of a grasshopper and then coming back inside and writing about what the students learned. For the purpose of our inquiry, we will use this resource to help plan our nature walks and observations. Students can use their Nature Books to record answers to the observation questions with which we present them. Hubbard, R. (1985). Second graders answer the question "why publish?". The Reading Teacher, 38(7), This article discusses the idea of having students format their work and then share it with others. Students quotes, from the article, show the motivating benefits that publishing and/or sharing writing can have on younger students. The author noted that as teachers it is our job to be a primary audience, but that we also need to provide opportunities for students to have additional audiences. This article helped us to mold our thinking about how an audience may or

25 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 25 may not increase our own students motivation to write better. It also led us to our planning of Nature Night; a night when students will present their finished nature books to their parents. Kaspar, Rachel. (July 18, 2008). I Hate Writing: Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Writers. In PCI Education. Retrieved March 5, 2011, from This website provides tips for motivating reluctant writers. In our classrooms, we have noticed how our students seem to have a hard time getting started on their work. This website has a variety of strategies that we plan to try to incorporate into our unit. The website explains how writing needs to be relevant and fun, something we are working to achieve with our writing project. Kirkland, J. (2008). Take a wetlands walk. Lionville, PA: Stillwater Pub. This resource provides a variety of information and lesson ideas that involve wetlands. Once we begin the research portion of our Nature Books, we still want to be able to take students outside to help activate prior knowledge. We want to use this resource to help us come up with lessons that involve the students exploring the wetlands, the focus of their research reports. We really liked the field guides that can help the students identify plants and animals that they may see on a wetlands nature walk. The extra information in this book may be valuable to our more advanced readers. Project learning tree environmental education activity guide. (2006). Washington D.C.: American Forest Foundation. This guide provides a multitude of lesson ideas for students in the schoolyard. It provides the teacher with a guide for a lesson to do that gets the students outside and then provides a follow up lesson once the students are in the classroom. For our inquiry, we will be focusing on using the activities for poetry. It gives examples of cinquain, shape, and acrostic poems. These poems will be the focus of the first half of the inquiry in which students take nature walks and write poems based on their observations. Leslie, C.W., & Roth, C. E. (2000). Keeping a nature journal: Discover a whole new way of seeing the world around you. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing. Leslie and Roth s book provides a variety of creative writing and art activities that can be included in a student s nature journal. The author s group these different art and writing activities by how they relate to the seasons. Example activities they have added to their book include technical drawings of spring birds as well as technical drawings of leaf that also include

26 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 26 observations and measurements. This text influenced our thinking when we were planning Nature Book activities for our own students. In particular, we had our students create their own technical drawings of the animals they researched and on occasion we brought them outside to make seasonal observations for their books. Staley, R. R., & Staley, F. A. (1988). Using the outdoors to teach language arts. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, Staley and Staley believe that students need language arts experiences that are authentic and meaningful and that the outdoors is a tool that can make languages art meaningful. They believe that the outdoors is concrete, relevant, and motivational for students in relation to writing. This article is useful because not only do the authors describe an instructional model that they use with outdoor language arts, but they also supply a list of read-alouds and text that can be used to hook students before they begin their outdoor observing and writing. We hope to use aspects of their instructional model along with read-alouds to enhance our nature writing lessons. Street, C. (2006). A reluctant writer's entry into a community of writers. International Reading Association, 48(8), The author of this article allowed his students of his remedial college English course to have free choice about what they chose to write. He noticed that by the end of the course, students were able to say that they felt like writers. One of the questions on the survey asks about self image for our student writers. This article explains how student choice in writing will, in turn, add confidence to the students. We are curious to see how having choice in what our students write will affect their motivation to write. This article demonstrates how beneficial choice in writing can be to reluctant writers.

27 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 27 Appendix C1 - Intervention Survey ½ Multiage Inquiry Survey Name: 1. Writing is my favorite subject: Yes Sometimes No 2. Writing is fun: Yes Sometimes No 3. I think I am a good writer: Yes Sometimes No 4. I have a hard time thinking about what I should write: Yes Sometimes No 5. I like to share my writing with others: Yes Sometimes No 6. I think I have choice in my writing: Yes Sometimes No 7. I write better when I know I will be sharing it with others: Yes Sometimes No 8. I like to choose what I will be writing about: Yes Sometimes No 9. My favorite thing to write about is: 10. My favorite writing activity we have done this year is:

28 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 28 Laura s Classroom/Stephanie s Classroom Appendix C2 - Pre-Intervention Survey Results Statement Yes Sometimes No Writing is my favorite subject Writing is fun I think I am a good writer I have a hard time thinking about what I should write I like to share my writing with others I think I have choice in my writing I write better when I know I will be sharing it with others I like to choose what I will be writing about

29 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 29 Laura s Classroom/Stephanie s Classroom Appendix C3 - Mid-Intervention Survey Results Statement Yes Sometimes No Writing is my favorite subject Writing is fun I think I am a good writer I have a hard time thinking about what I should write I like to share my writing with others I think I have choice in my writing I write better when I know I will be sharing it with others I like to choose what I will be writing about

30 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 30 Laura s Classroom/Stephanie s Classroom Appendix C4 - Post-Intervention Statement Yes Sometimes No Writing is my favorite subject Writing is fun I think I am a good writer I have a hard time thinking about what I should write I like to share my writing with others I think I have choice in my writing I write better when I know I will be sharing it with others I like to choose what I will be writing about

31 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 31 Appendix C5 - Individual Question Comparison Analysis Laura s Classroom-Stephanie s Classroom Statement Yes on both surveys Sometimes on both surveys No on both surveys Improved from Pre to Post Declined from Pre to Post Writing is fun I think I am a good writer I write better when I will share it Survey Open-Ended Responses Mentioned animals and nature BEFORE survey Mentioned animal research, nature, or nature books AFTER survey My favorite writing activity we ve done this year is

32 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 32 D1: Student Interview Questions Why do you like/dislike writing? Is writing fun to you? If so, why? Why is your favorite topic to write about? How have you liked going outside for writing? Has writing in your own Nature Book made you take more time with your writing? If so, why? Do you feel like you have more choice now that you have been picking nature topics to write about in your Nature Book? Do you think you are a better writer now?

33 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 33 D2: Student Interview Results Student Is writing fun? Why do you like writing? Did you like going outside for writing? Has writing in your nature book made you take more time? Do you enjoy having a choice of topic? Do you think you are a better writer now? A Yes It is fun to make up things; I like to be creative B Yes You get to come up with your ideas Yes Yes, sometimes N/a Yes Yes Yes Yes N/a C Yes When I am done, I can free write Yes Yes, my parents will think I rushed if I scribble Yes N/a D Yes Because I sound out the words and I can write them Yes, I like to write about nature Yes Yes Yes E Yes I like to share my writing with other people Yes Yes, I like to take my time Yes Yes, I have learned more

34 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 34 Student Is writing fun? Why do you like writing? Did you like going outside for writing? Has writing in your nature book made you take more time? Do you enjoy having a choice of topic? Do you think you are a better writer now? A Yes Because you make fun activities like flyaway kite and monsters Yes Yes because sometimes I feel like I want to just rush through it to get done, and sometimes I know I am going to put it in my nature journal so I do the best work I can No, but the activities I don t really care because the activities you pick are fun. N/A B Sometimes Because sometimes I get to write short stories and it is quick I like to walk around while I am writing Yes because sometimes I get to fill in the blanks and because I get to pick my own animal Sometimes N/A C Yes Because you get to write what you think (be creative) Yeah I liked it Yes, especially the pictures because it made us into artists we didn t think we could be Sometimes, like animal research was chosen for us but we got to pick animals N/A

35 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 35 D Sometimes Sometimes because we get to write about nature and animals Yes. I liked the pine tree poem Yes Yes because I got to pick my animal for the animal research Grown to like writing more because he gets to write funner things in his nature book

36 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 36 E1: Systematic Observation Recording Sheet

37 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 37 Appendix E2 - Off Task Percentages Stephanie s Data Date % off task Activity % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Miscellaneous % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing

38 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM Miscellaneous Miscellaneous Averages: Pre-Intervention: % off-task Poetry Research: % off-task Animal Research: 7.806% off-task Miscellaneous Research: % off-task Laura s Classroom Date % off task Activity % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Pre-Intervention % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Poetry Writing % Animal Research % Animal Research

39 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Animal Research % Miscellaneous % Miscellaneous % Miscellaneous % Miscellaneous % Miscellaneous Averages of Laura s Classroom Pre-Intevention: 20.62% off-task Poetry: 9.12% off-task Animal Research: 6.12% off-task Miscellaneous: 12.22% off-task Average of Steph and Laura s Classrooms: Pre-Intervention: 16.74% off-task Poetry: 13.55% off-task Animal Research: 6.19% off-task Miscellaneous: 12.01%

40 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 40 Appendix F- Student Quotations: Pre-Intervention: I hate writing. It s boring. Going outside is not fun at all Post-Intervention: Writing outside is more fun. Can I write another poem for my nature book? Can I fill up this whole page with haikus? Can I work on this during recess? You may free write Miss Nussbaum, can I write nonfiction? Are we working in our nature books?! I love nature books! I m not finished though! (time for writing to end and for computers to go away) Can we share our animal pictures?! Can we write riddles about more than one animal? Miss O Donnell, did you know that monkeys... (sharing information) Can we do this again with a different animal? Post Intervention: During writing assessment on nature animal adventure (from previous non-writing student): Miss Nussbaum, this is actually fun! I can write! I never thought I would be able to, but I can write! Can I re-write my animal adventure story in my green journal because I really like it?

41 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 41 Appendix G1- February: First Grade Writing Rubric Child stretches stories to have a beginning and/or end with characters, setting, & middle that has at least 2 logically sequenced events Child has several informational sentences that are related to a topic & make sense Child maintains focus on a single idea Child uses complete sentences Child uses descriptive words & begins to use action verbs Child revises by adding details or missing information so order is logical Child spells all current benchmark words correctly Child has strategies for spelling unfamiliar words using common spelling patterns Child uses a capital letter for pronoun I Child uses capital letters for names of people most of the time Child uses capital letters at beginning of sentences most of the time Child demonstrates interest by approximating use of punctuation more accurately

42 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 42 Appendix G2 February: Second Grade Writing Rubric Child has a narrative with a beginning & end, characters, setting, & middle with at least 3 logically sequenced events Child has an expository with a topic sentence & at least one supporting detail in an order that makes sense Child maintains focus on a single idea, purpose & audience Child uses sentences of differing lengths & complexities more consistently to enhance writing Child uses descriptive words & action verbs that begin to show, not tell Child revises to improve detail & order by identifying missing information & determining whether ideas follow logically Child spells all current benchmark words correctly Child has strategies for spelling unfamiliar words using common spelling patterns Child uses capital letters at beginning of sentences Child uses capital letters for the names of people Child uses capital letters for proper nouns Child uses capital letter for pronoun I Child uses end punctuation correctly

43 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 43 Appendix G3-April First Grade Writing Rubric Child has a beginning and end with characters, setting, & middle that has at least 2 logically sequenced events Child has a series of informational sentences in an order that makes sense & are related to a topic Child maintains focus on a single idea Child uses complete sentences Child uses descriptive words action verbs Child revises by adding details or missing information so order is logical Child spells all current benchmark words correctly Child has strategies for spelling unfamiliar words using common spelling patterns Child uses a capital letter for pronoun I Child uses capital letters for names of people Child uses capital letters at beginning of sentences Child uses end punctuation correctly

44 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 44 Appendix G4 - April Second Grade Writing Rubric Child has a narrative with a beginning & end, characters, setting, & middle with at least 3 logically sequenced events Child has an expository with a topic sentence with multiple supporting details in an order that makes sense Child maintains focus on a single idea, purpose & specific audience Child uses sentences of differing lengths & complexities more consistently to enhance writing Child uses descriptive words & action verbs to show, not tell Child revises to improve detail & order by identifying missing information & determining whether ideas follow logically Child spells all current benchmark words correctly Child has strategies for spelling unfamiliar words using common spelling patterns Child uses capital letters at beginning of sentences Child uses capital letters for the names of people Child uses capital letters for proper nouns Child uses capital letter for pronoun I Child uses end punctuation correctly

45 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 45 February Assessment Piece Appendix G5 - Student Artifacts: Student Content Conventions H.C. (1st grade) Basic Below Basic J.A. (1st grade) Basic Basic C.M. (2nd grade) Proficient Basic J.C. (2nd grade) Advanced Advanced B.N. (2nd grade) Advanced Advanced A (1 st grade) Basic Basic S.M. (1st grade) Proficient Proficient J.V. (1st grade) Basic Basic April Assessment Piece Student Content Conventions H.C. (1st grade) Basic Basic J.A. (1st grade) Proficient Basic C.M. (2nd grade) Proficient Proficient J.C. (2nd grade) Advanced Advanced B.N. (2nd grade) Advanced Advanced A. (1 st grade) Proficient Basic S.M. (1st grade) Advanced/Proficient Proficient J.V. (1st grade) Proficient Basic

46 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 46 This is a first grade students animal adventure story. In the top right corner you can see that he was marked as proficient in context and basic in conventions, based on first grade benchmark standards.

47 EXPLORING OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 47 Appendix G6: Images from our students nature books