August/September:

As I began the school year with my first grade students, my expectations for
reading were all over the board. I was aware that reading would be a large factor of
learning in first grade and that reading levels were likely to vary among students. I
had high hopes for the reading instruction that would take place and hoped to be
able to incorporate varying types of instructional strategies during this time.
Although I was excited to begin teaching reading, I was also worried about the
amount of time that I would have to put into my reading instruction. With reading
being such a vital component for this age group, I knew that I would have to devote
much of my time to guided reading or reading independently with students.
Additionally, I wanted students to have the chance to participate in reading
activities that allowed them to be more self-sufficient learners. All of these thoughts
later built upon the passion that I have for my research topic.
Once my initial reading instruction and assessment began, I became
increasingly aware of the varying ability levels that I have in my classroom. My
readers ranged from early literacy readers, in the early emergent stage, to readers
on a second grade level. Because of my students varying ability levels,
differentiation is vital. I began more closely observing the type of reading that
occurred during independent reading time and how this was helping students
become better readers. Students were allowed the freedom to read on their own but
were not given direct and specific ways to fill their learning time. I began noticing
that students would often be off-task or reading books that were not at the right
level for them. It was apparent that I had not given enough practice for students to

be successful during independent reading time and needed to provide some type of
support for students to improve their abilities during this time. I wanted students to
be able to make choices regarding the type of learning that they were doing, but I
also planned to provide specifically differentiated activities for students to get the
most out of this time. I would later come up with strategies and activities that
incorporated independent learning/reading time with more specific learning
objectives.
October/November

As my interest in the reading growth of my students continued, I decided it

would be beneficial to hear more insight from my students about their feelings
toward the subject. I became more interested in how my students were feeling
during independent reading time and what they thought they were truthfully
getting out of this time. On October 17, I conferenced with a few students that were
reading independently. One conversation with Aliya was very telling in terms of the
work ethic that was being put into this essentially free reading time.

Me: What book are you reading?

Aliya: Piggy Wiggy. Its a book about a pig that does a bunch of funny things.

Me: That sounds great. Are you enjoying reading the book?

Aliya: Yeah, but I cant really read it that well. But Ive been looking at a lot
of the pictures.
Me: What made you choose this book if its a hard book for you to read?
Aliya: I like the way the pictures pop up and you can pull the pages apart. Its
fun to play with.

This conversation showed me that students clearly needed more practice

choosing Just Right books and working on skills that are at their level. Although we
had discussed picking Just Right books at the beginning of the year, students
needed more practice and modeling to be able to do this on their own. I knew that
the opportunity for one-on-one instruction would help students to secure these
skills, and a strategy that resembled centers would give me the opportunity for
more modeling and individual practicing. In order to employ this idea, I retaught the
skill of picking Just Right books, but did this reteaching in small groups rather than
whole class. I divided groups based on the level at which they were reading. Each
group helped to create an anchor chart about picking Just Right books and
participated as fellow students and I modeled opening a book to the middle, reading
a page, and counting the number of unknown words on that page. If the reader does
not know more than five words, then that book is too hard. If they know all of the
words and can easily and quickly read them without much thinking, that book is
too easy. If the reader has less than 5 unknown words on the page, but it does not
take away from the understanding of the book, that book is just right.
Groups then had an opportunity to practice doing this independently and
with my feedback. This small group lesson proved to be very effective as students
continued reading independently in class. Because of this, I knew that small group
work was going to be a factor that I included in my research.
I also realized that if students were not picking books that they were able to
read, there was no way that they could be practicing other skills that they need to
grow as readers. Small groups give more opportunity to specifically address the

skills that students need support in, then to model and practice these skills with
more one-on-one attention. I wondered if giving students too much time to read
independently was actually hurting their reading growth, rather than improving it. I
realized the importance of implementing something during this time that would
give students a chance to actually practice specific, necessary skills, rather than
open time to attempt reading on their own.

After the previous conversation with Aliya, my thoughts led me to survey the

entirety of my class about their independent reading habits. I questioned students

about their general feeling about their reading abilities, their feelings during
independent reading time, their feelings about their work ethic during independent
reading, and their thoughts on the implementation of cooperative work during
reading time. Answers, of course, varied between students, but gave me great
insight into students thoughts toward the reading that we had been doing. For the
majority of students, independent reading time did not bring out their greatest work
ethic, and therefore was not helping them become better readers. Additionally, that
large majority of students felt as though working together during their reading time
would be beneficial. Specifically, out of 15 total students, 4 felt great about their
reading skills, 3 felt neutral about their reading skills, and 9 felt not so great.
Likewise, 5 out of 15 students said that they feel great when they are reading, 4 said
that they feel neutral, and 7 answered that they felt not so great about their skills. In
terms of work ethic, a shocking 2 out of 15 students felt that they worked great
during independent reading time, 1 felt medium about how they were working, and
12 students felt not great about how well they were working during independent

reading time. Contrastingly, 11 of these students felt great about working together
during reading time, while 3 felt neutral about it and only 1 felt not great about
working together during reading.

12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Great
Middle
How do you
How do you
feel about your feel when you
reading skills? are reading
independently?

How well do
How would
you think you you feel about
work during
working
indpendent
together
reading?
during reading
time?

Not Great

Figure 2. Students responses to survey about independent reading

This survey illustrated that 73%, or 11 out of 15 students felt strongly about
the benefits of implementing cooperative work during reading time. The importance
of cooperative learning during reading, rather than just independent reading,
became very obvious. Students wanted the opportunity to learn from and with one
another, and to communicate with peers about their struggles and accomplishments
in reading. The basis for my research continued to build on the idea that students
would benefit from a cooperative learning structure during their reading time.
In November, I began noting further observations of student reading in my
inquiry notebook. On October 16, I wrote,

There is such a large gap between my high readers and low readers. I know
that I need to create some type of system that can allow me to further
individualize reading instruction based on levels. I need to decide what this
system will be and how I can effectively implement it in order to help students
grow.
I knew that I needed to find a specific instructional strategy to aid in the
improvement of my students reading. I wanted to implement strategies that
included both independent and cooperative learning. This is what led to my
question: What happens when I implement differentiated reading centers in my first
grade classroom? My intent for implementing centers was for students to have an
opportunity to work on their reading on their own, and also have more specific
skills to practice through center activities and working with other students. This
also clearly tied in the need for cooperative learning. During centers, students are
expected to work together in their groups to complete tasks or perform in a skill-
based game. Students have to take responsibility for their own work, while also
ensuring that each member of their group is held accountable for participating. This
allows for students to help one another, learn from one another, and challenge each
other to be better learners.
I had researched the many advantages of allowing students to work on their
own activities with a group while the teacher facilitates, and began to look further
into how this could benefit my students reading. Of course, before centers could be
fully implemented in my classroom, a foundation for this strategy had to be built.
Factors such as grouping, procedures, expectations, and the actual creating of the

centers had to first be taken into account. All of these factors were researched and
discussed with colleagues, specifically on how they would work for my exact group
of students, and later were woven into the introduction of centers. One of the initial
elements that I found most important was grouping my students in a way that
would allow for an effective cooperative learning structure.
My school is very invested in guided reading and I do this with my students
every day. My students are divided into guided reading groups according to their
reading level, identified through the use of an online assessment that we use called
STAR. I also use my one one-on-one assessment results, from running records, in
order to determine these groups. I place students in homogeneous groups so that I
can differentiate their reading practice accordingly. I thought that it would be
beneficial to keep students in these groups while they do reading centers. I decided
that this would allow my students to work cooperatively on similar skills and get the
extra practice they need depending on where their abilities lie. This also led to an
important subquestion in my research: What happens when I use guided reading to
improve the effectiveness of reading centers for first grade students? My guided
reading time is precious and fleeting and is an opportune time to learn more about
the reading growth of my students. However, it can also be a great way to introduce
various reading skills that can be practiced through individualized centers for those
groups later on. On November 20, I wrote in my Inquiry Notebook, When you begin
introducing centers, create activities that can be taught during guided reading and
continued on as a new center. What students discuss at guided reading needs to go
beyond the guided reading table.

 I hoped that my guided reading time would help me identify the reading
skills that students needed the most support with, and I could then implement
centers accordingly. My journal entry continued, stating, Have centers prepared for
specific groups. Identify what skills certain groups need to work on and use that to
choose their centers. I wanted to be able to cater to the needs of individual groups
of students, while also giving them direct instruction on the specifics of center
activities when I met with them. I knew that my plans for the implementation of
centers needed to be very procedural, so that eventually they would flow smoothly
throughout our reading time. I also planned on staying informed on the thoughts
that students had about centers in order to adjust them accordingly. Once I felt as
though my plans were set in place to introduce centers, I would have a great
opportunity to observe students and their progress.