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My Inspiration: Where it all started...

​Essential Question: Does the use of multiple digital platforms/tools build emerging reader comprehension?

In the very beginning....
The reason that I chose my topic on 'Emerging Readers Growth' was out of need.  Half of the third grade students at my school site were Below Basic readers in phonics and reading comprehension and they needed some major intervention to catch up to be even close to grade level by the end of the school year. I just wanted to make one year's growth in one year's time, but these students hadn't done that for many years.  I had never had so many BR (Beginning Readers) in one grade level after three years of formalized schooling. 
I questioned why it was becoming a more and more frequent occurrence over the five years that I had been at the school site.  There was a trend developing and the literacy deficit was becoming more and more of a gap each year.  As the Intervention Specialist, I needed to look for a cure. ​​
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Literature Review
An examination regarding goal setting revealed the following two umbrella themes: growth mindset, motivation and grit  were one main theme and teacher feedback (Fisher, Frey, Hattie, 2017)  was the other.  When it comes to Theme 1: growth mindset, motivation and grit, Dweck, McMillan & Reed, and Pueschel are experts in their field of research. As for Theme 2, teacher feedback, John Hattie, Cabral-Marquez, and numerous other authors dominate the field when motivating students who have low academic self-esteem. When third grade students have not learned to read in their fourth year of schooling they come to school defeated (McMillan & Reed, 2010) and sad from hearing from those around them that they are “bad readers” or their siblings telling them that they weren’t good readers.

Carol Dweck is a leading Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and has a passion for researching the implicit theories of intelligence (Dweck, 2006).  She is most known for her work on ideologies of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. A growth mindset allows a person to live a more successful life in learning to love challenges and thrive on finding solutions (Dweck, 2006). When it comes to reading and motivation, Dweck’s research has been paramount in setting the jumping off point to some of the most current powerhouses on instilling motivation and grit in students.  The long term effects include intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation (McMillan & Reed, 2010), setting students up to have personal drive, and to be lifelong learners when it comes to reading or any subject.

According to John Hattie there are many influences or approaches to learning in micro-teaching that can offer upwards of a year or two of growth by using effective strategies (Fisher, Frey, and Hattie, 2017). Teachers who engage in feedback conversations with their students, have the ability to enhance the learning environment by creating open, honest, and supportive lines of communication ( Conroy, Sutherland, Snyder, & Hendawi, 2009; Marrs, Zumbrunn, McBride, & Stringer, 2016; Zumbrunn, Marrs, & Mewborn, 2016).  Making self-goals increases self-efficacy and self-motivation.

Also, Andrew Pueschel was a key literary mind when researching ‘grit’ alongside ‘growth mindset’ in much support of the Dweck ideologies.  These two academic leaders in the motivation and mindset community have inspired the research of motivating struggling readers to find more creative ways to become self-motivated and mindful readers in their reading progress.

According to these authors goal setting builds confidence and strength while also building self-efficacy in students for their own goals (Fisher, Frey and Hattie, 2012). Writing goals down and reading them daily keep the focus of their personal reading goals and helps students make a personal commitment (Clear, 2018). The researcher, Cabral-Marquez interviewed students in 2015 individually and that was a powerful way to connect with students and show support to their individualized reading goals. Setting goals for themselves helped learners to self regulate and set challenging goals for themselves as learners (Zimmerman, Bandura, Martinez-Ponz, 1992). Goal setting one-on-one with the teacher reinforced the support and motivation (Cabral-Marquez, 2015) of the student pursuing literacy goals. Two main themes prevailed. One around growth mindset, motivation, and grit and the other on the importance of teacher feedback. These prior researchers lead to the influence on goal setting one-on-one with a mentor teacher. ​
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INTRODUCTION
There is a growing gap among non-Hispanic students and Hispanic students when it comes to reading at grade level [California Department of Education, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Results, 2018]. Data shows that when an English as a Second Language (ESL) student arrives knowing Spanish as their primary language, those ESL students have a challenging time catching up to grade level material (Foster & Miller, 2017).  The purpose of this research is to study the impact of one-on-one goal setting with students who are struggling readers. Researchers agree that feedback, when coupled with goal setting, can further support student achievement (Hattie, Fisher, & Frey, 2016; Koenig, Eckert, & Hier, 2016). Goals and action plans were set with students and read daily to reinforce the goals. The result at the end of the study was that students who set goals compared with those that did not, had almost double the score on their Reading Inventory when measuring comprehension. The results showed that goal setting with a mentor teacher’s individualized feedback was a great success. 
BACKGROUND AND NEED
Of 434 third grade students in California,193  students who took the test and received a score and more than half did not meet the state proficiency standard in Language Arts [California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Results, 2018]. Over 51% did not pass the Language Arts section across the state. So more than half of the third grade students are failing in Language Arts throughout the state of California. The state is failing by more than half (51% below Proficiency) and the local school is failing by 63% (below proficiency) in Language Arts at the third grade level.
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Local Context
165 students tested at the study school in Northern California and those students were placed in the 33 percentile for English proficiency, compared to the overall state average of 49%.  The achievement gap is large between the Hispanic population and the non-Hispanic population. The non-Hispanic students, who make up 54% of the school population, score 52% proficiency when the state average is 64%; however, the Hispanic population is 40% of the students tested and they score 15% proficiency which is significantly below the state average of 37% who  score proficient (California Department of Education, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Results, 2018). There is clearly an achievement gap at this site when when comparing students in the low income and Hispanic subgroups (California Department of Education, California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) Results, 2018).  ​
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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ​
There is an increasing achievement gap between ethnicities in schools (Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students). Some students begin Kindergarten as second language learners and consistently fail to make growth as shown by their inability to exit the summative ELPAC (California English Language Development Test) testing (Foster & Miller, 2007).  Goal setting and feedback is a positive way to start to set a growth mindset in academics to support their progress (Dweck, 2006). Writing goals to become better readers to close the achievement gap in reading can be used in all areas of education to raise the test scores and learning capacity for all students to succeed.
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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose and intent of this study was to determine if goal setting with third graders improves their success as readers.  The results were measured with a pre and post test on the Reading Inventory assessment in comprehension. If the results were in agreement with the research questions, then we would see the comprehension scores improve more than an average of 60 lexile points per student. ​
Goal Setting:  Time spent one-on-one with the teacher for goal setting makes a difference in Language Arts performance. Goals were set collaboratively with a teacher and third grade students. Goals were read daily to keep their focus on the goal and remind them of their action plan to accomplish their goals. Students took a baseline comprehension test and then retested after 12 weeks of working towards their goals.  The goal setters almost doubled the non-goal setters’ average score in comprehension. An unexpected result of seventy-five percent of the below grade level readers admitted to having trouble focusing on reading.
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Full Action Research Paper Link
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Click here to read my blog along the way.
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Research
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Design Process
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Support and Next Steps