Analyzing Data Part 2- The Literacy Teacher's Playbook Book Study

The analyzing data section was a long and informative section, so we did half last Tuesday and we are finishing this section today! Last week we talked about analyzing data through:

1. Engagement Inventories

2. Book Logs

3. Reading Interest Inventories

4. Writing about Reading

5. Responses to a whoke book comprehension assessment

6. Fluency assessments

7. Running Records

This is a lot of ways to analyze data for literacy and just think the author has more for us to use!!!

This week we are analyzing through:

1. Conversation

2. discoveries from narrative writing

3. studying writing engagement

4. making discoveries from informational writing

5. making discoveries from opinion writing

Analyzing conversation: you are thinking about two things when you analyze conversations. The stude ts speaking and listening skills as well as their ability to talk about the text. Can they explain what they are thinking articulately? Do they participate freely in the conversation? Can they build on the thoughts of others? How do they react and what do they do if someone has and shares a differing idea?

Narrative Writing: First one has to know what narrative writing is. Narrative writing is when a story is attempted. The writer has a sequence of events. Did the writer focus on the important event or moment? Is this focus maintained? Do they use details to support this focus? How strong is the beginning and the end? Is the story easy to follow and are the sequence of events understandable? Are the story elements evident? Is the spelling, sentence structure and punctuation understood by the writer?

Studying writing engagement: Here we are analyzing the behavior of the writer. Do they have a process? How much do they write? Are they engaged when writing? 

Making Discoveries from informational writing: This is a more difficult form of writing for some students. The narrative is just telling a story. This is where there may need to be some research involved in order to write an informational piece. The focus of the piece is on the topic and is it a broad or narrow topic. Does the writer stay on topic? Does the piece have an introduction, body and a conclusion? Is each section organized and structured? Is vocabulary used and how precise is it? How well do they use details and facts?

Making discoveries from Opinion Writing: I love opinion writing!!! The students get to express their feelings. For younger students, opinion writing could be a persuasion letter. A great activity is to have your students listen to the story I Wanna Iguana. Then have them choose an animal they would want for a pet and have them write a letter to their families trying to persuade them to allow them to have this pet. Mail these home! My kids loved this assignment!

Here is a link to the book:

Here are a couple of templates for your kiddos to use when writing this letter:

Basically, this piece is similar to an informational piece. There is an introduction, body and conclusion. Does the writer provide a detailed opinions and doe they have facts to support their opinion? Is it clear and logical? Are there examples?

Two more great books to do opinion writing with are:

What if you had animal teeth?

What if you had animal hair?

This was an awesome and informative section! I loved it1 Thanks for visiting. Please go visit the other blogs below to see what these amazing educators had to share!!!

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