Reading Rooms - Carson Scholars Fund

The Carson Reading Room
Gwynns Falls Elementary School
Shawyn Jenkins PhD
Reading Room Coordinator • dr.shawyn.jenkins@gmail.com•May, 31, 2013
Dr. Jenkins • gfescarsonroom.weebly.com • Gwynns Falls Elementary School
Carson Reading Room
Gwynns Falls Elementary School 2013
I. COMPREHENSION & VOCABULARY
To increase student comprehension, The
Carson Reading Room created grade
level book clubs. January -May 2013, The
Carson Reading Room had 100 (k-5th)
regular Book Club participants. In
groups of 3-5 participants, these students
read books, discussed the texts and used
technology (IPAD and/or Smartboard)
to research topics, locate author
information, and watch related videos.
Assessment Results
Gwynns Falls Elementary School assesses student reading comprehension using the Baltimore
City Benchmarks at the beginning, middle and end of each school year. Beginning of the year
reading assessments indicate, 53 of the 100 students scored as “non-readers”, “far below”, or
“below” their reading grade level, while 37 scored “proficient” or “above” grade level (10
students were not assessed).
The Book Clubs began during the mid-year assessments and concluded during the end-of-year
assessments. An analysis of the middle and end-of-year assessments reveals, 81 of the 100
students increased their reading comprehension scores, (18 students did not show growth and 2
students have not completed the assessments).
Based upon the school-wide assessments, The Carson Reading Room appears to serve as one
‘ingredient’ within effective school-wide literacy instruction.
Dr. Jenkins • gfescarsonroom.weebly.com • Gwynns Falls Elementary School
Carson Reading Room
Gwynns Falls Elementary School 2013
II. PARTICIPATION & BEHAVIOR
In the past, The Carson Reading Room
has been used primarily as a reward
for well-behaved and/or high
performing students. We felt that
students with below grade level
reading scores and behavior referrals
would greatly benefit from the Book
Club activities, quiet time, and leisure
reading opportunities afforded to
Reading Room Participants.
Therefore, in January 2013, the
Reading Room was regularly used by students who received reading intervention services and
students with behavior referral histories. For several weeks the Carson Reading Room was used
as the center of daily intervention instruction. The intervention included guided reading
instruction, interactive word study, literacy games, websites and apps.
Behavior Referrals
Throughout the beginning and middle of the school year, 5 of the 100 Book Club participants,
were referred to the main office based upon misbehavior. Collectively, these students received
20 referrals. From mid-year until the end of the school year; collectively, the behavior referrals
dropped to less than 5. Based upon the referral data, The Carson Reading Room has positively
contributed to students’ classroom behavior and the correlation between Reading Room use and
student behavior should be further studied.
Dr. Jenkins • gfescarsonroom.weebly.com • Gwynns Falls Elementary School
Carson Reading Room
Gwynns Falls Elementary School 2013
IV. TECHNOLOGY USE, CREATIVITY & COLLABORATION
”Wow, we get to use the IPADs, today!”
It is impossible to over emphasize how much students enjoy using technology to read, play
literacy games, research topics, and learn more about authors. The students describe IPADS as,
“more fun and less boring” than a traditional book. Instead of pitting the two types of text (books
vs IPADs) against each other, we emphasized the similarities and created ibooks as our final
Reading Room project. For several weeks the students selected book topics, wrote text, recorded
themselves, and incorporated photos and videos into their ibooks. Once completed, the books
will be added to our IPAD libraries, linked to the Carson Reading Room blog, and uploaded to
the ibooks library, for anyone in the world to read.
The students expressed interest in both fiction and non-fiction texts and used the IPADs to
continue learning about topics read. For instance, after reading a book club selection about
lemon sharks, the students immediately searched online, found the Discovery Channel’s Shark
Week archives to watch videos, researched facts about sharks, explored new vocabulary and
asked more questions, which lead to more research. This process of reading a book, asking
questions about the book, researching the book/topic/author online, asking more questions,
and researching answers online, was typical for our Book Club activities. Therefore, we should
find ways to connect Book Club topics and topics discussed in the regular classroom.
Dr. Jenkins • gfescarsonroom.weebly.com • Gwynns Falls Elementary School
Carson Reading Room
Gwynns Falls Elementary School 2013
V. RECOMMENDATIONS
Many students’ reading experiences
comprise of: 1) finding the one correct
answer, 2) following an instructor driven
lesson plan, and 3) preparing for high
stakes testing. These pressures
discourage many students from
discovering the joys of leisure reading.
The Carson Reading Room provides a
comfortable place for students to leisure
read.
Recommendations for Next Year
Create an online library: The Carson Reading Room is well stocked with interesting subject
matter; therefore, the IPAD, Kindle and Smartboard online libraries should be stocked in a
similar manner.
Extension activities and projects: The Carson Reading Room is an ideal place to reinforce
classroom instruction by assisting students with research projects, extension activities and
tutorials.
Data collection & assessments: The assessments administered and data collected by the school
and the Reading Room complement each other; therefore, an effort should be made to integrate
and streamline the processes.
Dr. Jenkins • gfescarsonroom.weebly.com • Gwynns Falls Elementary School