The effectiveness of using I Read, I Think, I Wonder strategy in

enhancing critical thinking in reading comprehension lesson through

effective questioning scaffold among Year 4 students.














CHAPTER


CONTENT

CHAPTER 1 1.0 Background of the Study
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Reflection on Past Teaching and Learning Experience

CHAPTER 2 Literature Review
2.1 Research Issues
2,2 Reflection about the Research Issues

CHAPTER 3 3.0 Research Objective
3.1 Sample Population
3.2 Data collection
3.2.1 Observation
3.2.2 Task Sampling of Students Written Works
3.2.3 Questionnaires

CHAPTER 4 4.0 Recommended intervention

CHAPTER 5 5.0 Data Analysis
5.1 Observation
5.2 Questionnaires





1.0 Background of the study
1.1 Introduction
According to Bigge and Shermis (2004), the purpose of education is the
harmonious development of the mind, the will, and the conscience of each
individual so that he may use to the full of his intrinsic powers and shoulder
the responsibilities of citizenship. Education is an agent for change. Through
education, individuals can become knowledgeable, skilful and develop the
whole potentials of their life. In order to provide education, every country in
the world has certain ways to implement their education system. This might
be influenced by the state of political view, geographical or economical factor
not to forget the mentality and motivation of the citizen towards education.
All these contribute to the constitution of education that certain countries
have.
In Malaysia, the education policy is implemented based on the National
Education Philosophy (NEP). The NEP is aimed to develop the potential of
individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals
who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balance and
harmonious, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God (Ministry of
Education 2003:ii). The National Philosophy of Education (NPE) plays a
crucial foundation in forming the curriculum. This is due to the fact that NPE
is designed after considering a lot of factors that can influence the future of
Malaysia. With the curriculum formation, teachers are provided with a
guideline of work plan that they can apply, adapt and adopt in schools
(English 2000:22). It is intended to achieve certain objectives that will meet
the needs of students. On a bigger scope, I believe that, the intended
objectives are aimed based on the social, economic and political system or
background of the country.
In Malaysia, the terminal goal of the English language curriculum for schools
is to help learners acquire the language so that they experience it in their
everyday life, to further their studies, for work purposes. English is important,
parallel to globalization; Malaysians will need to be proficient in the language
and to communicate with people in other countries (Ministry of Education,
2011). From the early stage of schooling, Ministry of Education Malaysia
(MOE) places a great emphasis on the teaching and learning activities in the
classroom that foster students critical thinking as one of the educational
emphases outlined; critical and creative thinking skills are incorporated in
the learning standards to enable students to solve simple problems, make
decisions and express themselves emotionally in simple language (Ministry
of Education, 2011). This is also supported by Morzano et al (1988) who
assert that the goal of teaching critical thinking is to develop people who are
fair-minded, objective and committed to clarity and accuracy.
Teachers play a vital role in ensuring the lessons implemented in the
classroom are assimilated with cognitively challenging subject matters that
stimulate students critical thinking to tap into their mental faculties. Saw
(2012) proposes that in developing the cognitive aspects of individual
learners, much emphasis is placed in enhancing the higher order thinking
skills through the integration of multiple teaching and learning strategies in
the school curriculum. According to Saw, the teaching of English language in
the classroom should not only allow the students to learn the language but to
equip themselves to face the real world. The idea of infusing creative
thinking skills into the normal school curriculum is that it will enrich the
teaching and learning activities in the classroom (Wegerif, 2010). Through
the infusion of critical thinking in the classroom, students are able to respond
creatively to the real world challenges and responsibilities that they will face
outside the school. Fundamentally, the curriculum is devised to provoke
students mind into thinking and discussing logically, rationally and critically
that is infused during the teaching and learning process in order to achieve
high level thinking skills (Ministry of Education, 2003).
1.2 Reflection of My Past Teaching and Learning Experience
Teachers are widely known as reflective practitioners as they need to reflect
on their teaching abilities for future improvement. Through reflection,
teachers will involve in thinking process that helps them to develop a deeper
understanding of their teaching style (Ferraro, 2000). Learning from
experiences undeniably will enhance their effectiveness as a teacher. Thus,
it is important for teachers to be able to reflect, not just on what happens in
the classroom, but also when planning their lesson. In this part, I will reflect
on my experiences of my past teaching practicum experiences, which
involves two different schools.
The purpose of teaching practicum is to provide trainee teachers with
preparation before stepping into the real teaching job. It is one of the
fundamental components of student teachers professional development
course. Teachers Professional Development (TPD) is undoubtedly crucial to
enhance their professional career growth. Wandberg and Rohwer (2003)
assert that TPD activities enable teachers to learn new skills, generate new
insights into pedagogy and expose to new and advanced understanding of
contents and resources. In order to develop professionally, teachers have to
consider their own strengths and weaknesses.
Garret et al. (2001) explain that when teachers professional development
activities are able to connect to the teaching experiences, they are more
likely to transform their instructional practices to improve teaching strategies.
With the knowledge and skills gained through the teaching practicum,
teachers can help the government to create quality education as intended by
the Ministry of Education (SEAMEO Innotech, 2008, as cited in Effandi & Md
Yusoff, 2009). Based on my experiences on the first two teaching
practicums, I have gained many valuable lessons that help me to improve
my teaching skills.
The first phase of my teaching practicum began on 1
st
April 2013 to 26
th
April
2013. I went to Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Bersatu, Simpang Pulai, Perak.
My initial expectation of the school was quite high since it is located in the
urban area but then it was quite misleading because the students English
language proficiency level is rather not so good. Nevertheless, I took the
unwelcoming anticipation positively knowing that there is far more
challenging endeavours that I would face in future. I took this as a challenge
that I have to face and will try to do my best in teaching.
Knowing that I have to teach Year 4 students honestly was not a welcoming
feeling. From what I have been told and the reading that I have done, with
younger students, teachers have to modify their language, be animated in
demonstrating actions as well as be patient in dealing with their mischievous
attitudes. Liuoliene and Metiuniene (2006:97) explain that learning
motivation is a driving force in learning a second language (L2) If pupils
have low motivation, it definitely can create a challenging environment as it
affects their language learning. Some of the reasons that lead to this
problem are pupils inadequacy in language proficiency (Hess 2001:34),
course books and materials that do not appeal to pupils interest (Campbell
and Kryszewska 1992:5) and teachers incompetency in teaching skills.
In this school, I notice that some of the students come from the low socio-
economic families that have low awareness towards the importance of
education. Osman Rani and Rajah (2011) in their study on poverty and
student performance in Malaysia clarify that due to constraints of financial
resources, available time, and parental educational skills, low income
parents often have difficulty becoming active partners in their childrens
education. In addition, nearly all-empirical studies of measured learning
achievements agree that home background accounts for most of the
explainable variation in learning outcomes (World Bank, 2003). Conclusively,
half or more of the variation in performance across schools was due to
variation in students socioeconomic status, not to factors under school
control.
This means that even though they send their children to the school, they
have a lack of follow-ups activities once the children back at home. The
families may have less encouragement towards their children to study at
home by spending time with them checking on what they have learned at
school. This is linear to Banduras Social Cognitive theory that emphasises
on how environmental determinists explain how environmental influences
change behaviour and attitude towards learning. Bigge and Shermis (1957)
further note that awareness is a powerful facilitative factor and a sufficient
condition for behavioural change. I believe that if there is a constant
encouragement and continuous process of learning, which is not just at
school provided by parents, children will be a successful learner.
Having said about the students familial upbringing, such an environment
gives so much impact towards students learning attitude in the classroom.
Some of the lessons carried out in the classroom were quite active because
they showed interest. Somehow, there are pupils who act like they
understand the lesson. They just follow their friends. This may be due to
their lack of background knowledge as I mentioned earlier. Morzano et al
(1988) explain that existing schemata help to allocate attention by focusing
on what is pertinent and important in newly presented materials. From an
observation conducted, the students seemed perplexed even when I asked
simple questions from the topic From The Sea such as creatures that they
can see in the ocean besides fish.
It shows that students did not have any previous knowledge of the subject
matter even though they were familiar with it. In my opinion, students were
supposed to have an innate theory of various aspects of their surroundings.
Students theories about the world help them organise and make sense of
personal experiences, classroom subject matter, and other new information
(Reiner, Slotta, Chi, & Resnick, 2000; Wellman & Gelman, 1998). Childrens
early homegrown theories seem to emerge with little or no guidance from
more knowledgeable individuals, (i.e. parents and family members) (Ormrod,
2008).
On 15
th
July 2013 to 20
th
September 2013, I went for my second phase of
teaching practicum at Sekolah Kebangsaan Syed Idrus, Chemor, Ipoh,
Perak. Unlike the first phase, the second phase required us to teach in the
school for two months.
Personally, I was more mentally and physically prepared to teach even
though I was placed in different school. This due to I have gathered many
valuable experiences and competencies from my previous teaching practice.
Learning from past experiences undeniably helps to identify my own
strengths and weaknesses to improvise my teaching skills. Chitravelu,
Sithamparam, Teh (2005:275), A competent teacher has at his disposal a
range of skills which he can draw from to effectively teach students in a
classroom. Given the opportunity to experience teaching practicum in two
different schools and to teach in an actual classroom, I was able to observe
how learners actually learn. This will help teacher to plan more effectively
(Chitravelu et al, 2005).
At the school, I was fortunate to be assigned to teach Year 5 pupils. I take
this as a challenge for me as had taught year 4 pupils before. These pupils
indeed are likely to have moderate English Language proficiency. They are
most likely love English for the games activities.
Based on my experience teaching in this school, the pupils of year 5 are less
confident to speak in English. There is a few who can use the language. This
school is located at a rural area. The school is just a small school that have
only three blocks. The pupils background is slightly affects the English
proficiency of the pupils in this school. Most of the pupils live in the village
area near to the school.
Teaching reading and writing is a tough challenge for me. This is simply
because they just learn English in school and did not have practice them in
their particular homes. This will lead lack of confident and ability to use the
language very well in their daily lives. While I am teaching reading, there is a
few pupils who cannot understand the passage or text. They are really good
in reading yet, they cannot understand what the content of the passage or
text is. They just can read blindly without knowing the real meaning of the
passage or text.
2.0 What is the Focus of My Study?
2.1 What is My Research Issue?
According to Day and Jeong-suk (2005) reading comprehension is the
process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through
interaction and involvement with written language. Thorndike (1971) also
explains understanding a paragraph is like solving a problem in
mathematics. It consists in selecting the elements of the situation and putting
them together in the relations, and also with right amount of weight or
influence or force for each. In other words, reading is reasoning. The ability
to infer from a text provides students with a deeper insight of one particular
paragraph that enlightens their mind. In addition, it enables students to go
beyond available information to identify what reasonably may be sensible to
their mind (Morzano et. al, 1988).
From my own experience of teaching reading comprehension, in setting
tasks to students, I notice that after drilling them to recognise words by using
pictures or reading texts, they actually can perform certain task as they have
remembered the words with their pictures or recall the words from the
stimulus provided. Paulston and Bruder (1976) as cited in Brown (2007)
certain drilling exercises have only one correct response from students, and
have no implied connection with reality. In some tasks, the students are
able to complete them as they have already been familiarized with the
format such as matching, tracing, and filling in the blanks. Consequently,
they were able to complete the task but they actually did not understand
what they were doing. This is demonstrated by Bloom (1956) who asserts
that it is not always possible to know whether a student answered a
particular question by using a high level cognitive process. Hence such tasks
and exercises are not capable of reflecting the development of their mental
capacity.
A task from my understanding is the platform to measure what students
have learned in a lesson and also to enforce their comprehension of certain
language areas. According to Saw (2012), learning tasks should be
incorporated in meaningful contexts and promote problem solving in order
that learners can actively construct their own knowledge. However, what I
noticed is the result of drilling where the students perform certain tasks for
the sake of completing them without having a deeper understanding that
provides an opportunity for them to utilize and exploit their metacognitive
ability to stimulate critical thinking. Researchers consistently posit that
metacognition plays an important role in reading. OMalley et al (1983) state
that students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners
without direction or opportunity to review their progress, accomplishments
and future directions. This is supported by Fernandez (2009) who proposes
that reading comprehension activities should result in increased acquisition
of information as the result of reading.
Based on my experience during practicum, I have encountered an issue
where employing tasks to students does not actually result in meaningful
learning but students merely use their superficial cognitive ability in
completing the tasks executed. I have always been overthrown to come out
with tasks that would be able to tap into students thinking realm to infuse
higher order thinking skills during teaching and learning activities.
Classroom experiences that engage students at higher levels of thinking
should become common practice (Saw, 2012).
Besides, the practice of implementing reading comprehension lessons is still
revolving around the typical norm in which teaching of reading in the
language classroom is a routine task where students are passively sponged
answers or are drilled to answer comprehension questions. This in turn
results in common practice where more time is spent teaching students to
complete worksheets and training students to achieve a success in final
exams than to focus on preparing students to be real thinkers (Nurliza,
2002).
Based on the discussion provided above, it clearly illuminates that most
tasks employed in checking students understanding in teaching and learning
activities particularly in reading comprehension lesson do not actually open
the possibility for students to foster critical thinking that could retain the
knowledge better which in turn results in meaningful learning.
2.2 What Have I Learnt About My Research Issue?
Sometimes I wonder why there are topics in the syllabus that are quite
similar to each other. For instance, they have to learn about animals and
then again one topic on pets and another topic in the textbook, Four
Friends also touches on animals. I do agree that repetition is very important
for younger kids as it helps them to remember more and thus provides them
with meaningful prior knowledge for different topics. Harmer (2007) asserts
that if students think about what they are repeating and try to organise it in
their heads, they stand a better chance of remembering what they are
learning than if they merely repeat it without thought. Morzano et al (1988)
further elaborate that textbooks geared to establishing the right answers
with little opportunity to consider ambiguity or levels of meaning may not
foster thinking. Thus, it defeats the purpose of moulding students to become
holistic in every aspects of their life particularly in infusing critical thinking to
face the real world outside school.
Saidi (2005) argues the quest to complete the syllabus and to prepare
learners to excel academically have short-changed the development of
higher or thinking skills in the classroom and it constitutes the major problem
in the creation of effective thinkers. Although a few decades have passed,
this can be due to our current education system that is still bound in teaching
to fulfil examination requirements where it is geared more towards
regurgitation of facts and figures hence most tasks given to students in
classroom emphasise more recalling of superficial knowledge rather than
providing students the opportunity to orientate them to make choices, to
evaluate and to make judgments resulting in multiple and conflicting
solutions to reflect real life choices (De La Rosa, 2008). Teachers should
realise the importance of getting students to answer higher order thinking
skills questions motivates students to think deeper, elicit deeper processing
of information and stimulate more advanced learning to occur in the learning
process (Ng and Chan, 1989 as cited in Saw, 2012). Thus it goes without
saying that teachers should not only focus on imparting knowledge for the
sake of completing the stipulated syllabus but to implement lessons that
allow students to become creative and critical thinkers.
As I mentioned earlier, handing out cognitively challenging tasks has not
actually been a practice in teaching and learning activities. As for this study,
I will narrow down the prospect of the research to reading comprehension
lessons. For the past few decades, theories and models of reading have
changed, from seeing reading primarily receptive processes from text to
reader to interactive processes between the reader and the text (Adams,
1990; Eskey and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; Samuels, 1994; Stanovich,
1992; and Swaffar, 1988). Day and Jeong-suk (2005) note that reading
activity involves one or more purposes, some operations to process the text
at hand, the consequences of performing the activity. In my opinion, such an
issue arises because worksheets and tasks given do not provide a specific
framework in attempting to enliven students higher order thinking skills.
Nutall (1996) says frames in worksheets provide students with a loose
structure that allows them to interact with discipline.
Bloom (1956) in his taxonomy of educational objectives elaborates there are
six domains namely Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis,
Synthesis and Evaluation. Bloom also explains the analysis, synthesis and
evaluation levels are said to have higher mental processes where learners
are in conscious control as how to obtain information, what to use, what to
believe, plans to make and actions to take. Typically, tasks set to students
are limited only to applying basic knowledge of the subject matter hence it
does not constitute the higher domains of the taxonomy. In contrast,
comprehension questions in the textbook are mostly in the category of lower
order thinking levels. Cloze passage activity for instance depends chiefly on
what might be called the local redundancy of a passage (Carroll, 1972).
Anthony and Richard (1974) as cited in Nutall (1996) also posit there is no
clear evidence that cloze scores can measure the ability to comprehend or
learn the major ideas or concepts that run through a discourse. Concisely,
there is no attempt to tap such murky mental processes as making
inferences from what it given, evaluating the thought content, and drawing
conclusions. Consequently, students in the language classroom are not
taught higher order thinking skills resulting in a sizeable proportion of
practically false beginners even at tertiary level (Philip and Tan, 2006).
The idea behind reading comprehension approach to instruction is that
reading comprehension can be improved by teaching students to use
specific strategies or to reason strategically when they encounter barriers to
comprehension when reading (Farstrup and Samuels, 2005). Nutall (1996)
in her Reading Taxonomy theory proposes that readers are active
processors of information with the ability to use reading strategies
appropriately to accomplish the reading purpose. Therefore, with sufficient
scaffolding by teachers, reading activities should elicit students to use their
own cognitive abilities and knowledge along with information from the text to
draw their own conclusions and not just completing mundane
comprehension activities that does not provoke the application of higher
order thinking skills
As I am focusing on reading comprehension activities, I have devised a
solution to intervene the problems discussed called I Read, I Think, I
Wonder to enhance critical thinking through effective questioning scaffold
strategies. I believe this technique is suitable in aiming to promote students
critical thinking. Farstrup and Samuels (2005) allot that proficient reading
involves much more that using individual strategies; it involves a constant,
on-going adaptation of many cognitive processes. In my opinion, it is crucial
that teachers play their role in facilitating students create meaning in
teaching and learning activities.
In a study of first grade teachers, Pressley, Wharton, McDonald, Allington,
Block, Morrow, Tracey, Baker, Brooks, Cronin, Nelson and Woo (2001) as
cited in Day and Jeong-suk (2005) found that exemplary first-great teachers
had their students actively engaged in actual reading and writing through
activities that involved reading, writing, and doing things with the text. This
active involvement contrasted sharply with other classrooms where the
students engagement was passive. In addition, they have observed well-
developed comprehension questions help their students to think critically
and intelligently. Hence, teachers need the play their role to implement
reading activities that are meaningful and create a reason and purpose for
reading through reading comprehension that learners cognitive skills can
be developed (Ali and Gill, 2003) Curriculum Development Centre, Ministry
of Education.
The I Read, I Think, I Wonder, strategy is really suitable for reading activity
for young learners. This is because it provides students a more specific
clearer prospect to answer the comprehension questions given hence I have
selected this strategy as my intervention approach. This strategy contradicts
the typical reading comprehension instruments which commonly do not
attempt to provide students with an understanding of reasoning and mental
processes involved in reading strategically (Duffy and Roehler, 1986). As
this I intent to associate the implementation of the strategy through effective
questioning scaffold, I think it will provide students with an explicit-strategy
instruction towards building higher order thinking skills in reading even at
elementary level in executing purposive activities (Pressly and Allington,
1999). Contrary to popular belief, Griffith and Ruan (2005) elaborate even
though higher level cognitive operations and processes are generally found
in more mature and older students, there is evidence that young children can
benefit greatly of give higher order thinking skills training and develop into
problem solvers and independent reader.
Fundamentally, the questions scaffold in the technique subtly serves the
purpose of enabling students to think within or beyond their own mental
framework or Zones of Proximal Development (ZPD) where the dynamic
zone of sensitivity within which learning and cognitive development occur
(Bigge and Shermis, 2005). They further explain that with proper input, a
given student can be expected to perform much more capably than the
childs current level indicates. This is validated by Vygotsky (1978) who
outlines in most settings, teachers and students should work together to
bring each student up from a students initial level of mastery gradually to the
most advanced of independent activity that each student can achieve.
Hence, I need to plan the activity and scaffold the students to answer the
questions with effective questioning strategies so that students are explicitly
aware that they are thinking and they are utilising different thinking strategies
for different problems. Effective questioning in the reading classroom will
stimulate more advanced learning and assists in bringing substance to the
language classroom (Strother, 1989).
3.0 What is My Research Objective?
The objective of this research is to study the effectiveness of using I Read, I
Think, I Wonder strategy in enhancing critical thinking in reading
comprehension lesson through effective questioning scaffold among Year 4
students.
3.1 Who Will My Research Participants Be?
The participants of my research will be the Year 4 students of Sekolah
Kebangsaan King Edward VII (1) Taiping, Perak. Most students come from
working class families of middle class society with sufficient follow-ups
activities such as tuition classes. Moreover, the students have a fairly above
average level of proficiency of English thus my research is aptly appropriate
to be executed among the selected students. The reason why I intent to
implement this research to Year 4 students is because they are of KSSR
students from the beginning of their schooling years hence they are familiar
to formative assessment. Besides, I will only select about 10 students to
become my respondents of my research. By having a small number of
respondents, I will be able to focus more in assisting them to complete the
instruments that will be used since this strategy requires me to scaffold them
with effective questioning techniques so that students are able answers the
questions given within the framework outlined.
3.2 How Will I Collect My Data?
The action research process lends itself to a spiral of cycles, with the
researcher reflecting on each stage of the process (Kennedy, 2010). In
implementing this research, I have sought out a number of interventions
relevant to the students particular context and the individual needs of them
as mentioned earlier. The process of mu research will depend on the nature
of your research question and the context of my study. For instance, my
research is to study the impact one self-devised teaching approach namely I
Read, I Think, I Wonder, in reading comprehension, I will gather any
relevant information to study the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The
information gained will lead me to refine the question with a different focus
(Schmuck, 1997). In this research, I will collect my data through multiple
methods namely, observation, written tests, and written questionnaires.
3.2.1 Observation
The first method is I will collect my data through observation. In my opinion,
through observation, I will obtain empirical evidence of intended research. In
collecting the data through observation, I will prepare a list of my
respondents names in a column and while executing the case study, I will
put a tick against his or her name each time a student responds critically and
creatively to my verbal questions. Through this method, it allows me to
actually see what is happening during the teaching learning activities as well
as provides full view of the classroom at time of observation.
3,2,2 Task Sampling of Students Written Work
The next instrument of my data collection method is task sampling of
students written work. According to Koshy (2005) this source can often
provide a useful background and context for the project and also can be very
illuminating, especially when you are comparing what is claimed and what
has happened in practice. In addition, students written work and portfolios
can help the researcher to note progress over time (Koshy, 2005). The task
sampling will consist collection of both traditional teachings worksheets as
well as my proposed strategys worksheets. It serves the purpose of
comparing and gathering to study to what extent does the objective of my
research will be achieved. I will carry out a lesson and introduce the method
proposed. Then, using the reading text in the lesson I will hand out the I
Read, I Think, I Wonder question framework to assess students. I will first
explain the expectation from the task. Through effective questioning
techniques, the strategy works as a language scaffold, in which the teachers
role is to assist students to transform their ideas into words and share them
with the whole class.
3.2.3 Questionnaires
Lastly, I will design written questionnaires to obtain sensible information of
my research that will be handed out to students after employing the
mentioned strategy. Questionnaires are useful for collecting information from
respondents and many questions can be asked about a given area (Wilson,
2009). Harmer (2007) further allots this method provides an opportunity for
actively contributing the way the class works. Concisely, by considering
students responses based on the items drawn in the instrument, I will be
able to reflect on my own strategy in order to improvise my technique better
to be used in future.
4.0 What is My Recommended Intervention?
My research will take place for about two to three weeks. In order to carry
out the research, I will implement the I Read, I Think, I wonder strategy in
the teaching and learning activity. The focus will be on the reading
comprehension lesson.
The action plan will be staggered into a few stages. Prior to employing my
suggested method, I will first carry out a teacher centered or conventional
chalk and talk approach during the teaching and learning activity. It aims to
observe how such a strategy would promote students participation in giving
their response, particularly enables them to think and articulate responses
that reflect their critical cognitive. This teaching binds itself to the typical
teaching strategy. I will monopolize the teaching and learning activity
throughout the transition of the lesson. At the end of the lesson I will
distribute as task sheet to each student. The task sheet requires them to fill
in the blanks with the correct answer. I will then collect the task sheet to
collect plausible data of my study. The data collected will be compared to my
proposed method. This will this distinguish how one particular method differs
from one another.
Meanwhile for the first teaching and learning activity of the proposed
approach, the students will be first introduced to the I Read, I Think, I
Wonder, strategy. I will be teaching the lesson using the strategy mentioned
above. The reading text will be presented using spreadsheet. I will then
explain the strategy that is required to be adopted during the lesson. I will
demonstrate how they are supposed to apply the strategy during the lesson.
Simultaneously, I will probe some questions pertaining to the text to scaffold
students to answer and provide relevant response verbally. I will also
provide a wait-time to students to let them think before answering my
questions.
As I pace through the lesson, I will divide the students into pairs. I will use
collaborative learning strategy to create an interactive learning environment
among students. According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), children are
motivated to learn when other children around them. Thus, cooperative
learning can be beneficial for young learners as it allows them to form a
greater comprehension that leads them to understand a topic. When they
work together, they may argue with their friends whereby they will internalize
ideas and able to look certain issues from multiple angles. Through this
process, they may use the target language and may acquire or learn new
vocabulary from their friends.
Ten minutes before the lesson ends, I will distribute a work sheet to
students. Students are required to answer the comprehension questions
using I Read, I Think, I Wonder strategy. I will walk around the classroom to
observe students in completing the task given. From the observation I will
gather any relevant information of my research to analyse my data. The
observation will take place throughout the lesson and will be recorded in a
form of an observation checklist to be illustrated into a narration. At the end
of the lesson, I will collect the task sheet to be sampled in my report as
evident.
After the lesson, I will call upon 5 students to answer the questionnaires
provided. The selection of the students will be based on my observation
throughout the lesson. The questionnaires will let them justify the
effectiveness of the strategy employed in the lesson. The strategy will be
implemented in two different sessions. By the end of the research, I will
conduct another lesson to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy
proposed in order to gather empirical evident to my research. I will again
collect the students work to be used as sample in analysing my data that will
be appended in my research report.
Activity Steps:
Activity 1: Interpreting reading text through I read,
I think, I wonder strategy
Materials: highlighters, sticky notes
Procedures:
1. Teacher reads aloud the reading from the story
with expressions.
2. Teachers asks students to read the reading text
silently
3. Teacher let the students read it loudly.
4. After that, teacher checks students
understanding of the text by asking them to say
any words they do not understand. Teacher may
need to give brief explanation of what is the
situation from the excerpt.
5. Teacher distributes the reading text to students
6. Teacher gives instructions:
Students need to work individually
Teacher will briefly explain what I read, I
think, I wonder strategy is
Teacher will provide highlighter pens and
sticky notes to students
Students are allowed to collaborate with
their friends
Collaboratively, students are required to
discuss and analyse the excerpt using the
strategy
Students will highlight any important points
in the reading text and transfer their ideas
of what they have understood about the
excerpt on the sticky notes.

They are also allowed to create their own
codes or symbols such as light bulb to
represent I think and they will draw the
symbol on the sticky notes when they find
anything relevant to the lesson. (Teacher
will provide some examples of the symbols
that can be used).
While students are analysing the text,
teacher will ask some simple questions
and they need to give the answers in their
own words
Then, teacher will discuss the text with the
students. They will share what they have
learned through the excerpt by giving
response using I read, I think, I wonder
strategy.
Teacher demonstrates how they should
give their respond during the discussion:
I read Where The Wild Things Are story. I
think the Max is running away from
something. I wonder what will happen to
him if he is lost in the jungle.
After the discussion, teacher will distribute
task sheet to the students.
By using the same strategy, students need
to transfers their ideas and answer the
questions in complete sentences.
During closure stage, teacher asks
students to reflect what they have learned
from the excerpt.
This activity is intended for students to develop their own understanding of
the reading text. The I read, I think, I wonder strategy can be a useful way
to show their understanding. It will promote their critical thinking in term of
inferring skill on the issue faced by the character in the story, as they will be
cognitively challenged to analyse the reading text based on their own
interpretation. In addition, I believe that the activity designed can promote
collaborative learning. This approach allows students to form a greater
comprehension of certain tasks and provides scaffolding for one another
(Ormrod 2008: 482).
In the activity, students need to work together with their friends to infer and
make their own judgment of the situation given. This allows them to play an
active role in learning where they can learn from one another regardless of
learning ability. Besides, collaborative learning also provides pupils with a
platform to communicate actively (Brown, 2007: 53). Williams (1998: 42)
also asserts that children learn in an interactive process where language is
widely used. Although the language produced by them will not be the same
as the native language learners but it still contributes to their language
development. They will interrupt, hesitate, rephrase and repeat themselves
to justify their ideas. This means, they will use their linguistic resources as
much as they can into interaction to convey their explanation.



5.0 How Will I Analyse My Data?
5.1 Observation
The data analysis of this method will emphasise on empirical evident that I
will gather through the implementation of my research. Through observation,
it is easier to record changes in the attitudes and behaviours of a small
group of children in the form of a case study (Koshy, 2005). As I have
prepared a set of checklist of my observation as mentioned in the earlier part
of the research, I will attach the findings of my data collection in my report.
Table 2 shows the example of data analysis using observation:
Observation Form
No Name Q2 Q3
1 Student A
2 Student B
3 Student C
4 Student D
5 Student E
6 Student F
7 Student G
8 Student H
9 Student I
10 Student J
Elaboration of observation (example):

5.2 Questionnaires
To gather a more profound evidence of my research, questionnaires will also
be used in the process of carrying out the study.
Table 3 shows the example of mean scores collected based on the research
that will be carried out.
_____________________________________________________________
No Item Means Difference
Before After
1. I can understand the lesson 3.1 3.5 0.4
better when I am allowed to
give my own opinions about
the reading text.

2. The strategy used by the 3.4 3.6 0.2
teacher allows me to
express my own ideas to
answer the questions based
on the reading text.

3. The oral questions asked by 3.5 3.7 0.2
the teacher in helping me to
answer the questions in the
activity helps me to write the
answers in the task sheet given.
_____________________________________________________________
Most students were so eager to respond when I asks the questions. My
questions seemed to guide them to transfer their ideas into written form
better since they were probed with questions to let them stop for a
minute and think of any possible answers to the questions. Since there
is no right or wrong answer to any of the question asked, students
showed understanding and demonstrated critical thinking in
transforming their ideas into words.
The table illuminates the fabricated data that will be collected using
questionnaires. The questionnaires session will involve similar respondents
as mentioned earlier. It will be carried out before and after the
implementation of I Read, I Think, I Wonder strategy.
For the first item of the questionnaires, assuming the made up mean of
traditional teaching approach is 3.1. Meanwhile, the mean of my proposed
strategy is 3.5. The difference of both means is 0.4. This will illustrate that
the proposed strategy is effective to promote students critical thinking
parallel to the research objective.
Similar to the first item, the mean also shows a slight difference between
traditional teaching strategy and I Read, I Think, I Wonder strategy. By
looking at the devised data in the item, it can be concluded that the
difference would show how does students autonomy in the classroom will
create a more meaningful learning activity compared to chalk and talk
approach.
As for the third item, the mean of the strategy prior to implementing the I
Read, I Think, I Wonder strategy is 3.5. After executing the strategy, the
mean shows an increment to 3.7, which numerates the difference of both
means of 0.2. This difference will show that the question scaffold will
facilitate students to answer the question and the cognitive ability will be
demonstrated in written form.