The question posed in my action research paper was the
question of whether or not students would perform better in reading while
participating in nontraditional reading activities compared to participating in
traditional reading activities. As the
program manager of afterschool programs in our district, I have an opportunity
to implement a variety of supplemental academic activities afterschool. The answer to this question would help me in
providing activities for students that maximize on their learning.
In general,
traditional reading is somewhat common in our regular school day so I wanted to
find out if a nontraditional approach would help students increase their
reading skills. Reading is an area that
sought attention in our middle school.
The data for Houston Middle showed that all students were not performing
at passing rates. Our students are not
reading books afterschool. Instead they are
reading and writing text, reading information from the internet, and face
booking one another.
Although these are not the traditional means of reading,
they do involve forms of reading. The
same applies for some online gaming activities such as Kids College. Our students who use Kids College are
actually performing reading activities in a nontraditional way by reading on
the computer. In scrapbooking
activities, students are reading and writing.
In art, students are reading and writing. All of these are different ways of providing
reading activities to students. The
action research report showed that those students that participated in such
activities performed better in reading at a rate 30% higher than those students
who did not participate in these nontraditional reading activities.
The action research was a great opportunity for me to see that
ordinary individuals could do something to make an impact on learning by asking
simple questions. Based on my research,
the afterschool programs have included some type of nontraditional reading
activity on all of our afterschool campuses.
