Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/from-captive-to-captivated-using-action-research-to-improve-guided-reading/5017045/
Last year I was an overwhelmed graduate student incredibly excited about learning to be a teacher and equally daunted by everything that entailed. How I felt about myself as a teacher changed dramatically from day to day. Sometimes I’d come home beaming with a feeling of success, while other days I felt like a hopeless failure. I often obsessed about my shortcomings, but I wasn’t reflecting in a useful way about my classroom practice. One of the things looming over my head that semester was an action research project. Initially, contemplating this task left me anxious and intimidated. I was still very unsure of myself in the classroom and taking on something else while at school seemed impossible. Plunging into my project, however, actually reduced some of my feelings of stress. Instead of obsessing I used reflective research to produce positive changes helping me feel better about myself as a teacher, and my students feel better about themselves as learners.The research question
One of my responsibilities as a student teacher was to lead a first grade reading group. The typical format of a guided reading group was explained to me and I ...