Leslie Hernandez Brooklyn College CBSE 7202T Dr. Sharon Anne O’Connor- Petruso

1. How will designing literacy instruction based on gender preferences improve literacy comprehension for first grade students? Leslie Hernandez Brooklyn College CBSE 7202T Dr. Sharon Anne O’Connor-Petruso

2. Table of Contents • Abstract • Statement of the Problem • Review of Related Literature • Statement of the Hypothesis • Methods: Participants, Instruments, Experimental Design, Procedure • Threats to Internal Validity • Threats to External Validity • Data Analysis: Student Pre & Post Test Results • Data Analysis: Student Survey Results • Discussion and Implications • References

3. Abstract This action research focuses on designing literacy instruction based on gender preferences to improve literacy comprehension for first grade students. It proposes that students who have trouble comprehending literary texts will benefit from lesson plans that were created based on gender preferences. Choosing literacy texts based on gender preferences will increase engagement and motivation for both male and female first grade students from a public elementary school in Brooklyn, NY. In a quasi-experimental design, a single group of 22 students from a Brooklyn public school is pretested, exposed to a six week treatment, and post tested. The research will use pre and post test results, as well as pre and post surveys to measure interest and differences in literacy comprehension before and after treatment. The results imply that creating literacy lesson plans based on gender preferences does positively affect motivation and comprehension in reading for the first grade students who received treatment.

4. Statement of the Problem • I have been working with first grade students in a public school in Brooklyn, New York who are struggling with literacy comprehension. These students do not have difficulty with decoding words and fluency, but struggle to recall main ideas and connections with the texts studied in class. I have observed that these students remain inattentive and lack a motivation to read texts based on constant fidgeting during literacy lessons. Male students do not seem interested during literacy lessons, but female students are sometimes engaged at the fictional texts provided. I wonder if designing literacy instruction based on gender preferences will improve literacy comprehension for both male and female first grade students.

5. Review of Related Literature • Gender specific classrooms can be used to improve educational goals and that altering instruction based on the needs of students and differentiating instruction can help increase motivation and scores (M. McFarland, Benson, & B. McFarland, 2011). • Choosing text carefully, creating literature circles, setting clear purposes, and involving movement will certainly benefit both genders in literacy (Fries-Gaither, 2009). • According to Bolts (2007) what boys like to read springs naturally from their experiences and how their brains are wired. He asserts that boys’ brains engage in less cross-hemispheric activity than girls’; therefore they need an extra jolt of sound, color, motion or some physical stimulation to get their brains up to speed. This internal wiring explains boys’ preferences for sports, action, and adventure books, and also nonfiction titles that satisfy their innate desire to make sense of the universe and to test its boundaries (Boltz, 2007).

6. Statement of the Hypothesis • Hypothesis 1: Designing literacy instruction based on gender preferences will improve literacy comprehension for both male and female first grade students. • Hypothesis 2: Male students will become more motivated to read if teachers designed literacy lessons based on male preferences (nonfiction books).

7. Methods • Experimental Design:It is a Quasi-Experimental Design using the symbolic design: OX,O. A single group is pretested (O), exposed to a treatment (X), and post tested (O). • One-Group Pre-test-Post-test Design over a period of six weeks. • Twenty two students will be given a pre-test, treatment and a post-test, as well as surveys to complete. • First grade teachers from the same urban public school will be given surveys to complete. • Procedure: • Pre-test and survey • Treatment (6 weeks, twice a week, 2 hrs.) • Read Alouds • Class Work Activities • Open Discussion • Post-Test and Post-Survey Participants: • Twenty two first grade students from an elementary public school in Brooklyn, NY and two first grade teachers from the same school. Instruments: • Pre-Survey • Post-Survey • Pre-Test • Post-Test • Consent form • Classroom library

8. Threats to Internal Validity • History: Historical events can cause an internal validity threat. This action research project will be conducted over the course of six weeks. There is a possibility of natural disaster or bad weather that may cause schools in the area to close down, therefore delaying any progress in the research. Students may also lose focus if a change in weather occurs outside their windows during periods of research, therefore impacting their pre and post test treatments. • Maturation: Participants in the study could mature and/or have a change of mind about their feelings towards their teachers due to their adjustment into normal classroom routine. • Mortality: There is a very small chance that any of the students will be leaving school this late into the school year, unless a child is moving away to a different area in which they transfer out. • Statistical Regression:There will only be one survey per group (one survey per teacher, and one survey per student). Surveys are based on teachers and student’s feelings on the matter of literacy and their preferences, therefore numerical extremes will not exist. However, there is a possible statistical regression for the pre and post test aspect of the research project. • Selection-Maturation Interaction: There is a possibility that students will have different maturation rates. Some students are just entering school starting at first grade and may be scared and unfamiliar with the process of school, while other students are more experienced due to entering the education system in Pre-K or Kindergarten.

9. Threats to External Validity • Generalizable Conditions:It is likely that this study could be reproduced in another school setting and possibly improves literacy comprehension for students. • Multiple Treatment: Students will receive literacy treatment over a six week period twice a week for 2 hours a week. Literacy treatment done by their actual teacher outside of treatment for the research study may have an effect on results. • Experimenter Effects: The interaction the experimenter will have with the teachers in the study will be passing out of the surveys and permission to access their classrooms during literacy lessons twice a week. The experimenter’s gender and age compared to the student’s teacher may have an impact on how students feel about the experimenter. • Reactive Arrangements/Participants Effects:A number of factors concerning how the study was conducted, attitudes of subjects etc.: • Hawthorne Effect: The Hawthorne Effect is essentially when an individual’s behaviors is changed because they know that they are being studied. Students will be pre and post tested but may not change individual behaviors because they are accustomed to pre and post assessments. Unless, students observe me taking notes on them during literacy lessons, their behaviors are not likely to change. • Compensatory Rivalry Effect: There is no control or experimental groups in this research study, therefore there is no comparison group to compete with.

10. Data Analysis: Student Pre and Post Test Results • This graph demonstrates pre and post -test results of the students who participated in this research. According to the graph, students scores improved after the six week treatment. Particularly, 8 male students made improvements in scores. Note: On the Y-axis male is indicated by the letter M, and female by the letter F. • Pre -Test Class Mean: 64.54 • Post -Test Mean: 75.90

11. Data Analysis: Student Surveys Based on the data collected, students who enjoy reading generally enjoy ELA lessons at school. The way students feel about reading relates to how they feel about ELA lessons which can reflect how well they do in the subject. The correlation is a positive one with an rxy of 0.77

12. Discussion and Implications • Abundant research concurs that male students tend to become frustrated or uninterested in the reading material that is provided to them during literacy lessons. • Lack of engagement in reading can lead to lack of mastery in reading skills for students. • As an outcome of this action research project, results support the following ideologies: • Prior to treatment, students especially male students, felt negatively towards ELA lessons and their ability to read and comprehend materials provided. • The action research presumes that the low test results prior to treatment were due to low engagement in reading. • Designing literacy lessons based on gender preferences had a positive impact on the group used in this action research.

13. References • Boltz, R.H. (n.d.). What we want: Boys and girls talk about reading. (2007). American Association of School Librarians (AASL), 10. • Fries-Gaither, J. (2009, February). [Web log message]. Retrieved from • http://www.beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issue/arctic-and-anarctic-birds/strategies-to-engage-boys-in-reading-and -the-girls-too • McFarland, M., Benson, A., & McFarland, B.(n.d.). Comparing achievements scores of students in gender specific classrooms with students in traditional classrooms. (2011). International Journal of Psychology: A Bio psychological Approach, 10 (8), 99-114.