Data Analysis

Conferencing Sheets

I conferenced with each student at least once per week. At the beginning of the study, many goals I had for students were based on conventions. I wanted students to work on adding capital letters after punctuation and ending complete thoughts with punctuation. As I continued conferencing, I noticed that some students were ready to move on and work on other areas. Conferencing helped me to narrow down the specific needs of each of my students.

Writing Checklists

Along with conferencing, I also implemented a writer's checklist into our daily writing routine. The checklist was located in their writing folders for them to refer back to once finished with their writing. The checklist highlighted conventional items to check off including capitals, punctuation, finger spaces, and lowercase letters. This helped the students to build independence and self-awareness in their writing. I also took the checklist and used it as a guide for conferencing. I went through the checklist with the student and checked whether or not they had those four items in their writing. At the end of the study, I asked students whether or not they liked using the writer's checklist. A majority of students did indicate that they liked it and it helped them with their writing.

Scored Writing

of students increased their convention score by 1 or more points

52%

At the beginning of my action research, I conducted a pre-test to see where my students were in their writing. After grading and assessing their writing using my district writing rubric, I noticed that many of my students struggled in the area of sentence fluency and conventions. I knew this was an area I wanted to focus on in whole group instruction as well as in individual conferencing. At the end of my action research, I conducted a post-test to see if my students grew in the area of sentence fluency and conventions. Looking at the post-test, I noticed that over half of my students were proficient in that area. Overall, the students made great growth as writers. I will continue to utilize conferencing and work at getting all of my students in the proficient range in all areas of writing.