RM Winter 2017 FINAL

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Reading Matters
Research Matters
Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | |31|
the preservice teacher working with the specific student, and
classroom teacher). When entries were posted, they would
instantly sync with all devices logged in the OneNote notebook.
Figure 2. Pen pal book study figures.
For clarity of the project, we designed the same procedures for
each week, ensuring that third graders and preservice teachers
knew the expectations. During the week, third graders and
preservice teachers read one chapter independently. On Fridays,
third graders would respond to the corresponding chapter in
OneNote. The preservice teachers would read their pen pal’s entry
and respond in OneNote by the following Monday morning. Then
third graders would read their pen pal’s entry and type a “quick
write” response by Tuesday. We wanted the correspondence to feel
more like a conversation, so we gave the third graders both formal
(hand-written chapter responses) and informal (typed quick write
responses) opportunities to interact with the preservice teachers.
Participants and Preparing for
the Book Study Project
Preservice teacher participants were members of Winthrop
University’s IRA Student Council and successfully completed
the undergraduate Children’s Literature course. We wanted
preservice teachers who were active in promoting literacy and
who had experience examining children’s literature, learning
about the benefits of children’s literature, and exploring
the different ways children can respond to literature.
Prior to the start of the book study, we delivered a one-hour
training to the preservice teachers to go over the procedures for
the project and review key content covered during the Children’s
Literature course (e.g., characteristics of children’s literature, ways
to respond to literature). We wanted to provide preservice teachers
flexibility in terms of how they could engage with their pen pal, but
we also wanted to encourage them to make thoughtful decisions
about their responses. We asked students to analyze their partner’s
writing each week using the Student Writing Analysis form (see
Figure 3). We wanted preservice teachers to think critically about
the different types of entries they read, the reading and writing
ability of their pen pal, and their responses. The analysis consisted
of: categorizing the content of their pen pal’s response (when they
asked questions, summarized, predicted, identified story elements,
made a personal reflection, referred to the author’s purpose,
etc.); indicating whether or not their pen pal made any text-to-
text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections in their response
(providing specific evidence from the entry); selecting one of the
six traits of writing (providing a detailed description of the use
of the trait or need in that area); and finally, describing how they
would decide what to write about next based on their analysis.
The analysis forms were housed in a separate OneNote
notebook (organized in the same way as the pen pal responses),
and each tab was password protected. Only the preservice teachers
and university professors had access to the analysis to provide
the security that the preservice teachers were free to critique
writing without the possibility of other preservice teachers, the
third grader, or classroom teacher, seeing what he or she said.
Figure 3. Student Writing Analysis form.
To make the project more authentic and personable, we started
with brief video introductions. The classroom teacher individually
filmed each of her students introducing themselves to their
pen pal and sharing information about their favorite book. She
uploaded each video in the corresponding tab in OneNote. In
return, preservice teachers viewed and filmed their responses to
these introductions. Following the exchange of videos, the book
study began. When the pen pals finished the book, the preservice
teachers visited the elementary school to meet their pen pals in
person and celebrate the project. The preservice teachers brought
Pen pal book study figures 3
Figure 2.
Pen pal book study figures 4
Figure 3
Analyzing Student Writing
Your student will respond to you once each week. At the end of the week, please analyze your
student’s responses and complete the following:
Part 1: How would you categorize the content of the student’s responses? Mark (x) all that
apply.
___ Asking Questions - If yes, the questions were literal ___ inferential ___
___ Summarizing
___ Story Elements
___ Personal Reflection
___ Predicting
___ Author’s Purpose
___ Other: ____________________________
Part 2: Did your student make any of these connections? If you mark (x) in the Used in
Responses column, please provide evidence from the student’s response.
Type of
Response
Used in
Responses? Evidence from entries (if used):
Text to Text
Text to Self
Text to World
Part 3: Select one of the Six Traits of Writing (i.e., Ideas, Organization, Word Choice,
Voice, Conventions, Sentence fluency) and provide a description of your student’s use of
the trait or need in that area .
Trait Description
Part 4: Briefly describe how you will decide what to write about next.