With these flaws in mind, there is still interesting data here...

Wrapping up Picture Book Month has been a longer and more difficult process than I anticipated, each time I look at statistics I see an additional step I should take or connected reflection that I should go back to the students with. Case in point: all month long, the students in grade three through five were marking their progress toward their writing challenge goal, as in the form above. There were several flaws in my approach, which, if I do this next year I will change. 

Flaw number one: I didn't leave enough time during library visits to allow for this. 

Flaw number two: the form itself caused confusion for students - were the numbers meant to be cumulative or not? 

Flaw number three: the location of the sheets was not conducive to remembering to fill out the form.  

With these flaws in mind, there is still interesting data here and I am sorely tempted to go back to the students one more time and ask why they think the data from class-to-class and participation varied as much as it did. I have a few theories, but they are just theories or suppositions without their voices.

Theory number one: The students were more engaged and read more when there was broader class engagement and participation.

Theory number two: The decision to keep this a physical form (as opposed to a virtual one where the students would not see each other's challenge numbers and progress) was a good one.

There are conclusions that I can state from the data.

Conclusion number one: A majority of students reached or read beyond their challenge.

Conclusion number two: Location of the form on the door had no relation to participation - the form in the lowest position that required the students to kneel down was one of the best participating classes.

Conclusion number three: The data is not clear enough to draw any other conclusions - there are too many independent variables. (*humor from a former analyst*).

Take a look at the forms below and tell me what you see and what you conclude. I have removed students' names and the homerooms on purpose as my intent is not to celebrate or demonize any particular class. 

I did run more circulation statistics and below the forms, you will see classroom and individual data. It follows that the classrooms with the highest circulation statistics had the students with the highest circulation statistics, but since I know which classrooms match the numbers above, I can also tell you that many students were reading from home and classroom libraries as well and therefore these statistics do not represent the whole picture.

And... enough...it is Saturday...thank you for taking the time to read this and comment!