The circles above represent each of my seventeen students. At the beginning and end of my Capstone project, I gave my students an attitude survey. Students were asked to respond to the statement, "I enjoy writing" using a Likert scale. Students were given the options I : strongly agree, agree, am neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree that I enjoy writing. The representations above show my students' attitude toward writing at the beginning of the project compared to at the end. The data shows that my students' positive attitudes toward writing increased from the beginning to the end of the Capstone project.
I believe that the reason my students' attitudes toward writing increased was due to the purpose set for writing each day as well as through the use of guided practice. With a specific purpose and mentor text examples provided, my students were given enough guidance to confidently write independently. The guidance and examples increased students' attitudes toward writing due to their increase in confidence. |
At the beginning and end of the Capstone project, students were asked to write a personal narrative. On the rubric, students were scored in six areas: focus/ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentences, and conventions. The highest students could score in each category was advanced and the lowest, beginning. As you can see from the graphs above, the number of students who scored advanced (pink) increased in most categories from the pre-test to the post-test. Consequently, the number of students scoring at a progressing level (orange) generally decreased.
Per the pre-test data, there were zero students who scored advanced in the areas of focus/ideas, voice, and word choice. However, to my surprise, student overall performance on the pre-test was high in the areas of organization and conventions. Noting a high number of advanced and proficient scores in those two categories, they were not addressed during this project, instead, I focused on focus/ideas, voice, and word choice. After looking at anecdotal notes taken during conferences and comparing it to student on task data along with post-test data, it is apparent why these three areas displayed increasing scores. Many anecdotal notes focused on narrowing down topics, really focusing on one small moment as well as adding dialogue to develop student voice throughout their writing. Mini-lessons were focused on word choice and adding detail to show rather than tell. I believe that the reason I saw such tremendous growth in the areas of focus/ideas, voice, and word choice is because those were areas low to begin with and skills we focused our attention on during mini lessons. I believe that the reason I did not see overall growth in the areas of organization and conventions is because we focused no attention on these areas and skills throughout this project and therefore, those areas suffered. |
Prior to beginning my Capstone project, I collected baseline data of students time spent on task. Throughout my project, I collected data during student independent writing time, three times within a thirty minute time frame, once a week. The baseline data pictured on the left of the graph above shows a one day snapshot of student time on task. The graph on the right portrays the accumulation of student data throughout the duration of the project. The pie charts above shows that my students time on task increased by 21% from the beginning to the end.
I believe that the reason my students' time on task increased was due to the expectations set during independent writing time as well as the overall structure of the workshop model. Students knew what was expected of them and knew what needed to get done and therefore, they were able to take more ownership, working independently to build their stamina. |
Anecdotal notes allowed me to keep a running record of each individual student. As I conferenced, students were given a compliment, a teaching point, and a goal was set for the next conference. I found that students who progressed from the pre-test to the post-test really learned to transfer the skills discussed one-on-one to other areas of their writing. I found that students who did not progress often struggled to generalize the skills discussed after conferencing. |
Interviews
Triangulating Data
Throughout the duration of my study, students time on task, attitude, and academic progressed increased. Because of the structured model, students were able to be more independent as writers, allowing more learning to take place, and increasing the positivity and eagerness to write. From student interviews I was able to see how accommodations such as iPad apps increased students' attitude toward writing. In addition I was able to see how much of an impact conferencing had on students by allowing me to hear what they had worked so hard to create.