Ac#on Research Project

BY: BRIAN RODGERS

Ac#on Research Ques#on

What ac'vi'es or techniques can I integrate
into my lessons in order to improve student's
abili'es to read and comprehend Social Studies
content readings and primary sources?

Issue Statement
In my class, I use reading and discussion almost every day. I use
readings to build up a student's base knowledge. I have no'ced that
many students have trouble comprehending some of
the readings. Students especially have trouble with primary source
documents. I have a number of students that read under grade
level. These students especially struggle with readings. With
common core, reading is becoming more of an emphasis in all
subjects. I want to make sure that I am doing everything in power to
help students and to demonstrate that I am able to teach reading
skills.

Annotated Bibliography (Source 1)

Fang, Z., & Pace, B. (2013). Teaching with Challenging Texts in the Disciplines: Text
Complexity and Close Reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(2),
104.
The article provides a critique of text complexity and close reading. It provides
ideas of how to deal with text complexity and how to implement close readings in
secondary content area classrooms. The authors are Barbara Pace associate
professor of English education at the University of Florida and Zhihui Fang a professor
of literacy and language education at the University of Florida. This source helps
answer my action research question because it provides information on some of the
challenges students face with complex texts. It also talks about Fang and
Schleppegrell's (2010) functional language analysis theory. It offers some techniques of
how to deal with complex text and offers an actionable technique of how to teach
students to approach complex content readings.

Annotated Bibliography (Source 2)

Massey, D. D., & Heafner, T. L., (2004). Promoting Reading Comprehension in Social
Studies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 58(1), 26-40.
The article focuses on improving student reading comprehension in middle
school and high school settings. The authors are Dixie Massey who teaches at North
Carolina A & T University in Greensboro and Tina Heafner who teaches at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The theory the article focuses on is the
Scaffolded Reading Experience Approach. The article outlines a step-by-step approach
of strategies or techniques that should be used during the pre-reading stage, during
reading and after reading. This source will be useful for my project because this offers
another approach that I can try in my placement. I believe the pre-reading activities will
be especially useful because this is an area that I need to improve upon with my
students.

Annotated Bibliography (Source 3)

Reisman, A., & Wineburg, S. (2008). Teaching the Skill of Contextualizing in History.
The Social Studies, 99(5), 202-207.
The purpose of the article is how to teach students to contextualize or put
historical readings in the proper context. The article is authored by Drs. Reisman and
Wineburg. Reisman is a Senior Researcher at UCLAs National Center for Research on
Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing. Wineburg is an Education chair at Stanford
University. Contextualization is a key skill to have for students to deeply understand a
reading. This article offers three solutions to help students to better contextualize (1)
providing background knowledge, (2) asking guiding questions, and (3) explicitly
modeling contextualized thinking. This source relates to my project because it has
implementable techniques that will help students better contextualize sources. Students
ability to properly contextualize will lead to a deeper understanding of the source and
more knowledge on the subject matter.

Annotated Bibliography (Source 4)

Reisman, A. & Wineburg, S. (2012). "'Text complexity' in the history classroom: teaching
to and beyond the common core." Social Studies Review, 51, 24+. Academic
OneFile.
This article aims to offer three suggestions for helping students benefit from more
complex texts. The article centers on theories around text complexity. Essentially
students who engage with richer, more complex documents are better off than
counterparts studying traditional textbooks. The authors aim to offer suggestions for
guiding students through complex texts, rather than simply having them struggle with
them. The article is authored by Drs. Reisman and Wineburg. Reisman is a Senior
Researcher at UCLAs National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, &
Student Testing. Wineburg is an Education chair at Stanford University. This source ties
into my topic as it offers concrete solutions for helping students use primary sources.
Reisman and Wineburg offer three suggestions: pose a central question, modify the
document, and provide multiple opportunities for practice.

Annotated Bibliography (Source 5)

Wineburg, S. & Martin, D. "Tampering with History: Adapting Primary Sources for
Struggling Readers." Social Education, 58(4), 212-216.
This article suggests educators tamper with primary sources in order to make them
more accessible to students. The article is by Drs. Wineburg and Martin. Wineburg is an
Education chair at Stanford University and Martin co-directs the Stanford History Education
Group and the National History Education Clearinghouse. By that, they recommend actually
altering the spelling, syntax, vocabulary, sentence structure, and more to remove the
comprehension barriers that can come from original sources. They urge focusing in on the most
important part of the texts, simplifying language/syntax to modern usage, and presenting in an
easy to read format. The source provides steps I can take to alter primary sources to make
them less daunting to students.

Ac#on Research Plan

Three Part Ac'onable Plan
Modify a primary source document to make it easier for students to read
I chose the Emancipa'on Proclama'on to edit
Provide students with a guiding ques9on to guide their reading
Used a primary source document on the BaIle of Shiloh demonstra'ng a northern
soldiers experience versus a southern soldiers experience.
How were the experiences similar or dierent? Complete a Venn Diagram to note
similari'es or dierences.
Create a reading guide with pre-reading, during readings and post-reading ac9vi9es
I created a guide that goes along with the textbook chapter The Na'on Divides

Ac#on Research Plan Data Evalua#on

oThree Data Evalua'on Methods
oStudent Feedback
oMentor Qualita've Feedback
oMy Observa'ons of the Lessons

Data Analysis (Student Response)

Modifying Primary Sources
80% of students surveyed said this made it easier to read
Overall, student feedback was very posi've as the syntax and vocabulary edits made
the document easier to read
An9cipa9on/Reac9on Guide
54% of students surveyed said this made it easier to read
Some students felt this approach to reading was boring
This approach requires a lot of thinking and wri'ng by the student
Using a Guiding Ques9on
87% of students surveyed said it made it easier to read
Students liked using the Venn Diagram to keep notes while reading.

Data Analysis (Mentor Interviews)

Modifying Primary Sources
My mentor teacher thought that the reading was successful
He felt that modifying a primary source no longer made it a primary source
He thought that it was a good modica'on for kids with lower reading levels but not for
the whole class
An9cipa9on/Reac9on Guide
My mentor teacher thought the guide worked well and the class was engaged
Using a Guiding Ques9on
My mentor teacher thought this was an excellent technique especially using the graphic
organizer (Venn diagram).
He told me he believes it is important to establish an objec've for reading before
student reading

Data Analysis (My Observa#ons)

I observed during these ac2vi2es especially focusing on kids that read at lower grade levels:
Modifying Primary Sources
There can be the tendency to give up with dicult primary sources but I saw kids staying engaged and
trying to gure it out.
The emancipa'on proclama'on is a dicult document and I was impressed by the amount of material
the kids were able to pull out.
An9cipa9on/Reac9on Guide
I had students work in pairs while comple'ng the An'cipa'on/Reac'on guide, they were engaged
during the ac'vity
Per my forma've assessment, I found that students learned the material they read using this guide.
Using a Guiding Ques9on
This was a very engaging reading about the war and students were able to pull out the key informa'on.
I believe the approach of the Venn Diagram made this easier for students to organize their thoughts.

Final Reec#on
This project I believe is the most prac'cal and useful project that I have worked on in my
graduate courses during this year. From this process, I have found that it is fairly simple to
improve instruc'on if you are willing to put in the 'me. The educa'on research is available and
provides many prac'cal ideas on how to improve instruc'on. This ac'vity expanded my toolbox
on how to teach Social Studies content readings and it was far less 'me consuming than I would
have thought.
Going forward I plan to use all three of the strategies in my teaching that were developed based
on this project. I believe these strategies would be especially useful in an urban educa'on
segng where a large por'on of the students struggle with reading. In my current segng, the vast
majority of students read at grade level or above but this approach helped all students but
especially those who read below grade level. Based on this project, I believe that more teachers
should try modifying primary sources. I do believe this technique is used by many teachers but I
believe it should be. Overall, it was an excellent project.