Action Plan

 Goal: My students will become better equipped to handle difficult reading assignments and, in the process, become more successful at learning the substance of what they are reading, by learning paraphrasing techniques.

Objective 1: Students will complete a teacher guided reading instruction through one entire Biology chapter in 5 school days using a graphic organizer to identify new vocabulary words and main ideas with a modified Cornell Note format.

Objective 2: Students will complete a teacher facilitated reading instruction through an entire Biology chapter in 5 school days using a graphic organizer to identify new vocabulary words and main ideas with a modified Cornell Note format.

Objective 3: Students will independently complete a reading instruction through an entire Biology chapter in 5 school days using a graphic organizer to identify new vocabulary words and main ideas with a modified Cornell Note format.

Objective 3: Students will show an improvement in reading comprehension and the substance of what they are learning by reducing the overall student fail rate by 10% from the previous grading ending period.

Activities: Over a three week period students will have modeling and guided practice with learning to use a modified Cornell Note formatted graphic organizer to learn new vocabulary words and identify main points. The first week will be a guided activity. In the second week students will be asked to complete the reading activity with questions being answered by the teacher during the reading time. By the third week of reading assignments students will be asked to complete the graphic organizer independently.

Resources and research tools: This activity will require the creation of a modified Cornell Note style graphic organizer, student textbooks, and writing utensils.

Timeline: Three weeks are needed to complete this research based inquiry as described below:

     Week 1: Teacher guided reading activity to model how to read for understanding by

                   identifying unknown vocabulary words and main points of the passage.

     Week 2: Teacher facilitated reading activity to assist students who are reading a

                   passage to identify unknown vocabulary words and main points.

     Week 3: Students will work independently in the reading assignment to identify

                   unknown vocabulary words and main points of the passage.

Responsible Party: Kim Davis (teacher) is responsible for implementation.

Process for monitoring the achievement: Students’ ability to work independently to complete the task and a fail rate reduction of 10% in six week grades.

Assessment instrument(s): Correct, independently completed graphic organizer and six week grades will be used to assess efficacy of this action research study.