Results from Master's of Education Capstone Project

Technically, I guess, what I have been working on this last year isn't a thesis because the n size is too small or something. It's an action research project. Semantics. For me, it's a thesis. The results are interesting to me and I thought maybe they would be interesting for other people to read about. I'm just copying and pasting straight from my capstone project draft so if you have more questions about the project, write a comment.

Background: This project was studying the effect of using dialogue journals (two way written journals between the students and myself) by introverted students (only five in this project--two girls, three boys) on my ability to assess their reading comprehension during guided reading (small group reading).

Also, please remember that this hasn't been submitted yet, nor is this my final draft of the paper. But I was excited by the results and wanted to share them.

Here it goes...

Results

The purpose of this project was to determine if and how the use of dialogue journals by introverted students increased the teacher’s ability to assess those students’ reading comprehension during guided reading in a third grade classroom.  This chapter will present the findings for each student from the data, including the number of sentences in the dialogue journals, the journal entry scale scores, and the scores from guided reading anecdotal notes. Additionally, the data from the journals will be compared with the guided reading anecdotal notes from November 3 to January 21.

The journal information and guided reading scores for each week is organized by the week of the year (e.g. the week of November 3, 2014 is written as week 45 in the table). Children in the study have a designated letter corresponding to their work to maintain anonymity. No guided reading score was given for week 48 because no guided reading groups met.

Group Data

Looking at the data overall, I needed to convert the GR Comp scores into a numerical scale so that they could be analyzed. As such, a *=0, P=1, A=2, and an E=3. Over a week timeframe, during which two scores were given, these would be the amounts each child could receive: *P=1, PP=2, AP=3, AA=4, AE=5, EE=6.  This data, then, for the whole group showed that on average the mean number of sentences per entry was 1.5 sentences per entry, and the average GR Comp score was 3.7 for the group. 

Table 6

Introverted Group’s Dialogue Journal Data and Guided Reading Comprehension Scores

Weeks	Average of Average # Sentences per Entry per Week	Average of Guided Reading Comprehension Score
2014	1.50952381	3.733333333
45	1.3	4
46	1.8	4
47	1.516666667	3.2
48	1.6
49	2.25	3.6
50	1.1	4
51	1	3.6
2015	1.5	3.066666667
2	2.2	3.8
3	1.2	3
4	1.1	2.4
Grand Total	1.506666667	3.511111111

This information becomes even clearer when shown graphically (see Figure 1). Over time, the average number of sentences that were written by the group in their dialogue journals decreased, and so did their average GR Comp scores. While there are weeks when the average number of sentences increased, the GR Comp scores did not always follow the same pattern of rising and falling.

Figure 1

Graph of Introverted Group’s Dialogue Journal Data and GR Comprehension Scores

An interesting finding that surfaced as the data was being analyzed was the differences in the boys’ and girls’ entries and number of sentences.

            Table 7

Introverted Group’s Dialogue Journal Data Organized by Gender

Student	Average of # Sentences per Entry per Week	# of Entries	Total # of Sentences
Boy	1.666666667	30	50
Girl	2.231884058	69	154
Grand Total	2.060606061	99	204

While I had recognized the differences between the boys’ and girls’ journals in length of their entries and the number of entries as I was going through them, seeing the average number of sentences per entry being around double the amount for the girls. Plus, the girls wrote more than double the amount of entries that the boys wrote.

Additionally, when the GR Comp scores are combined with the data by gender, the differences between the two groups is startling. The mean was taken from the average number of sentences per entry per week so that it could be compared with the averages of the GR Comp scores by week.

Table 8

Introverted Group’s Dialogue Journal Data Organized by Gender with GR Comp Scores

Row Labels	Average of Average # Sentences per Entry per Week	Average of Guided Reading Comprehension Score
Boy	0.994444444	3.259259259
45	0.666666667	4
46	1.166666667	4
47	1.111111111	2.666666667
48	1
49	2.333333333	3.333333333
50	0.666666667	4
51	0.416666667	3.333333333
2	2.25	4
3	0.333333333	2.333333333
4	0	1.666666667
Girl	2.275	3.888888889
45	2.25	4
46	2.75	4
47	2.125	4
48	2.5
49	2.125	4
50	1.75	4
51	1.875	4
2	2.125	3.5
3	2.5	4
4	2.75	3.5
Grand Total	1.506666667	3.511111111

Summary of Results

From the information in this chapter, we see that for Students A, C, and D there is a pattern between the average number of sentences and their GR Comp score. While for Students B and E, there seems to be no pattern at all between what they wrote or did not write in their dialogue journals and their GR Comp score. For the group as a whole, it appears that over the course of the ten weeks writing in their dialogue journals, that the average number of sentences decreased, as did the GR Comp scores of the group.  Additionally, an interesting note was made about the differences in writing between the boys and girls amount of writing in their dialogue journals and their GR Comp scores.

Group Data. The data from looking at the introverted group as a whole provides a much clearer answer to the research question than the results from the individual students’ data.  From the group’s results, the trend lines for both the average number of sentences per entry per week and the average of GR Comp scores is decreasing. So while there are weeks when the average sentences per entry increased, and there are weeks when the average guided reading comprehension score increased, the summation of this project shows that the effectiveness of my ability to assess these five students reading comprehension in guided reading decreased.

It should be noted that while the trend line for the mean of the average number of sentences per entry is decreasing, it is a slight decrease; it almost remains at a constant 1.5 for the entirety of this project.  This finding is very interesting to consider, especially in the context of looking for evidence that the research question is being met: Since the average number of sentences per entry is almost at a constant 1.5 for the ten weeks of this project, it shows me that the students were not becoming excited about or connected to their reading choices and wanting to write about them. 

With the interest level in reading being low, it is easy to conclude that their comprehension of their reading was not as high as it could have been because they weren’t engaged with their reading. Perhaps they were reading because they were being forced to read a certain book for guided reading or a book club and they would never have chosen that book to read on their own. Perhaps they were not selecting books of interest to them to read. Or perhaps they were not connecting their personal reading with the reading comprehension questions that were posed each day for their dialogue journal writing, maybe they only considered the reading that was done as a class assignment to be of value to me as their teacher when they decided on which book to write.

Gender Data. Additionally the results regarding gender and the group were interesting for me to consider. On average, the girls wrote double the amount of sentences per entry per week that the boys wrote. Also, the two girls wrote 69 entries, compared to the three boys combined total of 30 entries over the ten weeks.  That disparity is astounding! Those two girls wrote more than double the amount of three boys. Furthermore, when this information is compounded with the results from the average of the GR Comp scores by gender, it provides the opposite conclusion that comes by looking at the group data: the boys wrote less by half on average in their dialogue journals than the girls and their average GR Comp score was about a 3.26, while the girls’ average GR Comp score was 3.89. 

Therefore, when answering the research question looking at the data in terms of gender, my ability to assess the reading comprehension of my introverted students increased when they used their dialogue journals.  Since the group data is skewed a bit because of the huge gap between how frequently the girls wrote and how much less the boys wrote—even though the quality was generally good when they did write—perhaps this conclusion is the most accurate for this project. 

Limitations of the Project

An obvious limitation of this project is the size of the population that was studied.  If more students were involved in this project, the effectiveness of using dialogue journals would have been clearer to determine and more accurate when generalizing the results.  As it stands, since the group that was studied was only five students—three boys and two girls, with no IEPs and no EL students—no generalizations can be made.

Another limitation to this project was the length of the project and the months when it was conducted.  If it had been a longer study, with more guided reading comprehension scores recorded, perhaps more information could be gleaned from these students showing their growth and change throughout the school year. Also, since it was conducted around two major holidays and break times, the results could be skewed because of excitement for a break decreasing writing or the desire to do better in school as a New Year’s goal increasing writing. However, these holidays may have inflated or deflated the amount and length of journal responses and the quality of their responses and interactions during guided reading.