The Project and its Significance

I have learned in my language arts and reading classes at Auburn

University, that basal reading is not as meaningful to the students as reading
quality childrens literature. I was curious to know whether basal rereading or
reading supplemental childrens literature would have a greater impact on the
students numerical grades. I will go into a third grade classroom three to four
times a week during their language arts block. Here I will be a center during
reading rotations where I will read the students a childrens literature book that
supports the basal reading story that they are reading for the week. We will note
the similarities to reinforce the basal reading story; the students will only read the
basal story one time. The students will travel through the rotations in their
reading groups based on their reading level and abilities. I will have each group
for 15-20 minutes each visit. The students are given a quiz at the end of each
basal story and they will take a unit test after they have read all five of the stories.
At the end of the unit, I will compare the scores that the students made before I
came into the classroom where the students reread the basal story and the
scores they made while I was there and read supplemental childrens literature
that was based/had the same premise as the basal story. I hope to introduce the
students to new and interesting literature while increasing their numerical grade
in language arts.
Supporting Evidence and Rationale
I went into Mrs. Colemans classroom to observe on January 21, 2009. I
spent the whole day in hopes of finding something that sparked my interest and

that I would want to do my research on. I interned with Mrs. Coleman in the fall
of 2007. She loves childrens literature and tries to incorporate it wherever she
can. During my internship she did not use a basal series; instead she used
chapter books and other childrens literature. At the beginning of the 2008-2009
school year, the state of Alabama bought a new reading series, they do this every
seven years. The third grade at Ogletree Elementary decided on the Scott
Foresman Reading Street series. Due to No Child Left Behind and
accountability, the superintendents and principals are strongly encouraging and
checking up on teachers who are teaching the new reading series. Due to this,
Mrs. Coleman is teaching using the Reading Street basal. It is a big change for
her, however, she has still found a way to use chapter books with her students
because they crave the high quality literature. I noticed that she had her
students reread the basal story of the week during reading rotations and they
were quizzed on it at the end of the week. I took these observations and what I
had learned in my language arts and reading courses at Auburn University to
come up with a research question-Which yields better results: Basal rereading
or supplemental childrens literature?. After the initial observation day, I went in
the classroom, six times during the next two weeks. The students were finishing
up a reading unit. I was a center during reading rotations and I reread the stories
with them. This prepared the students and I for the project that was up ahead. I
plan on reading the students a childrens literature book based on and that
supports the basal reading story of the week. We will discuss the similarities
between the two, while relating everything back to the basal story and only

reading it once.
I thought that finding books related to the basal unit would be the easiest
part, I was wrong. I began by reading the stories in the unit. I took notes and
jotted down possible themes that could work. I searched the Internet as well as
the Jim Trelease Treasury for possible read-aloud books and ended up finding
some really great books but the local libraries (Lewis Cooper Jr. Memorial Library
in Opelika, Auburn Public Library, Ralph Brown Draughon Library and the
Learning Resources Center on the Auburn University campus) did not have them
in their collections so I had to continue searching and find books that were in
their collections. This was the most difficult and time consuming part of my
research.
I have found research articles that closely relate to my research topic
which serve as the rational for my objective.
Powell-Smith, K.A., Stoner, G., Shinn, M.R., & Good III, R.H. (2000). Parent
tutoring in

reading using literature and curriculum materials: Impact on student

reading

achievement. School Psychology Review, 29, 5-23.

The authors, all professors of psychology and education at major universities,

researched the effects of two parent tutoring programs that used childrens
literature and basal readers. They found that neither of the programs showed
significant or long-term gains. I hope to prove that childrens literature yields
better results in terms of numerical grades in my research.
Callendar, A. A., & McDaniel, M. A. (2009). The limited benefits of rereading
educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology. 34, 30-41.

The authors, both PhDs at a major university, tested the effects of rereading
educational literature in the classroom. They did four experiments where they
evaluated the effectiveness of a single reading and rereading of an educational
text. They found that rereading educational text had little or no benefit for
improving performance on summative assessments. I hope to prove the same
thing in my research.
Objective

The students will show gains in their numerical language arts grade.

Project Design
I will go into Mrs. Colemans classroom each day, as listed on the
calendar, during her language arts block and I will be a station during reading
rotations. There are 15 students in her class and they will travel in their reading
groups which are based on reading level and abilities. I will have each group of
students for 15-20 minutes. When they come to me, I will introduce and read the
childrens literature story for that day (see Activity Management section). When
we are finished I will ask them how the story related to the story that they read in
the Reading Street basal with Mrs. Coleman. I will do this four times during the
course of a day. The day before the basal story quiz I will review all of the stories
that I have read to them. We will summarize each story, including the basal
story, and recall the similarities to the basal story in detail. The students will take
a quiz on each story. I will do this for each of the five stories in unit four of the
Reading Street basal series. When the students are finished with all five stories

and have taken a quiz on each, they will take a unit test over all five stories. At
this time, I will compare unit three quizzes and unit test scores with unit four
quizzes and unit test scores to see if the students show gains in their language
arts grades when using supplemental childrens literature. In the end, I hope to
prove that reading supplemental childrens literature yields, in terms of the
students language arts grade, better results than rereading the basal stories. I
hope to find out from the students survey that they prefer reading the childrens
literature stories instead of rereading the basal stories. I also hope to learn that
my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Coleman, could see herself using this in her
classroom as an alternative teaching method.
Activity Management
The Scott Foresman Reading Street basal is comprised of units. I will be
working with Unit Four: One of a Kind. It is comprised of five stories:
Wings by Christopher Myers
Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins
Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst
Americas Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle by David A. Adler
Fly, Eagle, Fly! An African Tale retold by Christopher Gregorowski
Mrs. Coleman (my cooperating teacher) will read the basal story with the
students, typically on Mondays. I will come in on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays and read childrens literature books. The students will take a quiz on
the basal story of the week on Thursdays or Fridays. When the students have
finished the five stories they will take a unit test. Generally, each story takes one
week and the unit takes five to six weeks.
This is a list of the childrens literature that I will read each week based on the
basal stories:
January 21, 2009
January 27, 2009
January 28, 2009
January 29, 2009
February 3, 2009

Observation Day
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story

February 4, 2009
February 5, 2009

Reread basal story

Reread basal story

Basal Story: Wings by Christopher Myers

February 9, 2009 Read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
February 10, 2009 Read The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
February 11, 2009 Read Crow Boy by Yashima and Otis by Janie Bynum
February 12, 2009 Read I Wish I Were A Butterfly by James Howe
Basal Story: Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins
February 17, 2009 Read The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest
by Steve Jenkins
February 18, 2009 Read If Frogs Made the Weather by Marion Dane
Bauer
February 19, 2009 Read The Waterfall by Jonathan London
Basal Story: Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst
February 24, 2009 Read Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression by
Kate Lied
February 25, 2009 Read Saving Strawberry Farm by Deborah Hopkinson
February 26, 2009 Read The Storytellers Candle by Lucia M. Gonzalez
Basal Story: Americas Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle by David A.
Adler
March 2, 2009
Read Mighty Jackie: The Strike Out Queen by
Marissa Moss
March 4, 2009
Read Brave Harriet: The First Woman to Fly the
English Channel by Marissa Moss
March 5, 2009
Read Wilma Unlimited : How Wilma Rudolph
Became the World's Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull
Basal Story: Fly, Eagle, Fly! An African Tale retold by Christopher
Gregorowski
March 9, 2009
Read Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West
African Tale by Verna Aardema
March 10, 2009
Read Why the Sky is Far Away: A Nigerian Folktale by
Mary-Joan Gerson
March 11, 2009
Read Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky: An
African Folktale by Niki Daly
March 12, 2009
Read Why the Crab has no Head: An African Tale by
Barbara Knutson
March 24, 2009
March 25, 2009
March 26, 2009
March 30, 2009
March 31, 2009
April 1, 2009

Review for Unit Test

Review for Unit Test
Review for Unit Test
SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature
SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature
SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature

April 2, 2009
April 7, 2009
April 8, 2009
April 9, 2009
April 14, 2009
April 15, 2009
April 16, 2009
April 20, 2009
April 21, 2009
April 22, 2009
April 23, 2009

SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature

SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature
SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature
SAT-10/ Read Oregon Trail Childrens Literature
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story
Reread basal story

Resources

Trelease, J. (2006). The read-aloud handbook. New York, New

York: Penguin. - Jim Trelease, an award-winning journalist, uses his
experiences as a parent and school volunteer to write this book.
This book contains two parts: the ways to raise a reader and the
reasons why as well as The Treasury which is an annotated
bibliography of almost 1000 books that make good read-alouds.
He teaches his readers that it is important to share their love of
reading, which is the greatest gift of all, through read-alouds with
children. I will use The Treasury as a source of finding good readaloud titles.
Scott Foresman Reading Street basal reading series student and
teacher edition- The reading series includes the stories the
students will read, in addition, the teachers edition includes the
story quizzes and unit tests which are the basis for the evaluation.
Local libraries- The local libraries are used for sources for checking
out the childrens literature that I read to the students.
Lewis Cooper Jr. Memorial Library
200 South 6th Street
Opelika, AL 36801
(334) 705-5380
http://catalog.opelika.org/polaris/Search/default.aspx?
ctx=3.1033.0.0.2
Auburn Public Library
749 East Thatch Avenue
Auburn, AL 36830
(334) 501-3190
http://www.auburnalabama.org/LIBRARY/
Ralph Brown Draughon Library
231 Mell Street
Auburn University, AL 36849
(334) 844-4500
http://www.lib.auburn.edu/

Learning Resources Center

3402 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849
(334) 844- 4420
http://lrccollection.auburn.edu:200/webopac/main?siteid=1
Evaluation
When the students are finished with all five stories and have taken a quiz
on each, they will take a unit test over all five stories. At this time, I will compare
unit three quizzes and unit test scores with unit four quizzes and unit test scores
to see if the students show gains in their language arts grade. I chose to
compare unit three and unit four because I know that during unit three the
students only reread the text. Unit three served as my control and the childrens
literature books are my variables. I will know if I am successful if the students
grades on the story quizzes and unit tests increased when using supplemental
childrens literature in unit four. Unit four story quizzes and unit test are attached.
I have attached a student interest survey and teacher survey that serve as my
artifacts.