Improving reading levels of third grade students

Your year-long project is designed to increase the reading level of students in third grade. You are collecting monthly data and find that after 3 months, reading speed is up 15% but reading comprehension has moved only 2%. Your end-of-year goal was to have a 25% increase in reading speed and a 15% increase in reading comprehension. What might you do given these results? Hendricks refers to data analysis as two distinct processes: analyzing key issues and experiences; and categorizing and coding (2008, pp 118-119). Determine which process would be the next step for the reading teacher.

One mentioned the readings reference to coding. In the reading one the interesting points was coding different types of data. Observational and inquiry data must be coded for later use so that a summary of the findings can be developed. The only way to analyze the data is to have a system to explain what the data means or represents specifically qualitative data.

Furthermore, according to Hendricks (2009), data collection and the intervention must align with a study’s research questions. In the above scenario, two possibilities exist- either (1) something in the implemented intervention for addressing problems related to reading comprehension must not have been effective or (2) the process of collecting or recording reading comprehension data was executed incorrectly .

Hendricks has a number of suggestions regarding categories for coding (2009, p.144). After reviewing these categories, which specific ones might be applicable in the reading the above comprehension scenario?

Bogdan and Bilken (2003) provide a number of coding category examples, including
the following:

â–  Setting/context: Provides descriptive information on aspects of the research setting
â–  Participants’ perspectives: Describes what participants think about certain issues
â–  Definition of situation: Illustrates participants’ understanding of setting and context
â–  Ways of thinking: Describes participants’ understanding of self and/or others
â–  Processes: Explains patterns of behavior over time
â–  Activities: Illustrates recurring, typical behaviors
â–  Events: Describes specific or particular nonrecurring, meaningful events
â–  Strategies: Describes methods used by participants to accomplish certain tasks
â–  Relationships: Defines social roles and typical behavioral patterns among or between
people

This list is not meant to be exhaustive. You may find many of these categories in your own data, but categories not listed may emerge as well. Several examples of coded textual data will be presented in this section. Keep in mind
that the examples are based on excerpts from much larger textual documents. They are provided to show the ways in which codes are constructed and themes are established from codes Hendricks 2009) .