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 11.0 Background of the Study

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Reflection on Past Teaching and Learning Experience

CHAPTER 2Literature Review

2.1 Research Issues

2,2 Reflection about the Research Issues

CHAPTER 33.0 Research Objective

3.1 Sample Population

3.2 Data collection3.2.1 Observation3.2.2 Task Sampling of Students Written Works3.2.3 Questionnaires

CHAPTER 44.0 Recommended intervention

CHAPTER 55.0 Data Analysis5.1 Observation5.2 Questionnaires

1.0 Background of the study1.1 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 ExperienceTeachers 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 1st April 2013 to 26th 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 15th July 2013 to 20th 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 ObservationThe 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 WorkThe 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 QuestionnairesLastly, 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 strategyMaterials: highlighters, sticky notesProcedures: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 students6. 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 FormNoNameQ2Q3

1Student A

2Student B

3Student C

4Student D

5Student E

6Student F

7Student G

8Student H

9Student I

10Student J

Elaboration of observation (example):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.

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._____________________________________________________________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.