Student Observation

It is 8:30 and my first group of students are ready to get started. This group is made up of six second graders, four girls and two boys. Only three of the students in this group returned consent forms and are part of my focal group. I worked with two of the three focal group students in first grade and have developed a strong student-teacher relationship with them. Kate is one of those students. She is very quiet and shy. I pick up these students from their classrooms each morning and walk them back to my trailer. Most of the students usually complain about the weather, except for Kate. She rarely has anything to say and only offers minimal responses when asked to share a story or experience with the group.

Kate is wearing a large bow in her hair that matches the purple sparkly dress and boots. She immediately sits down at the kidney-shaped table when we enter the room. She sits in the same spot everyday, which is the chair immediately to my left. Kate sits with her head propped up on her arm and remains quiet throughout the lesson. Students have opened their reading books to the lesson of the day and are ready to read. One student begins reading and the students rotate around the circle with each of them reading one sentence. Occasionally, I interrupt with questions to check for comprehension.  Kate begins her turn and misses the word "don't" by reading do not. When I correct Kate, she rereads the entire sentence. I immediately follow up with a question about what the dog said and Kate replies by reciting the sentence verbatim. On the next reading, Kate makes several errors. She seems frustrated and starts to read the sentence again. As other students read, Kate follows along with her finger. She begins reading immediately after the student next to her finishes. The other students in the group get distracted when another adult enters to the trailer. Kate doesn't look up, she continues to read. Again, she is able to answer the comprehension question correctly and uses the words from the text.
At the end of the passage, the students giggle about the silly picture of the dog. Kate doesn't show any emotion and doesn't interact with the other students. I ask the students to get out their writing notebooks. Kate immediately follows directions and moves to the basket of supplies. The other students  move slowly and chat about the story. While she is standing at the basket another student compliments Kate's dress. She does not respond but gives a kind smile as she turns to walk back to the table. I direct students to turn to the lesson and begin to give directions. Another student interrupts and shares that she went to the UK game this weekend. Usually on Monday mornings I allow students to share about their weekend. Not only does this give me a chance to get to know my students, but it also allows them to build verbal expression skills and get to know each other. Since I started the lesson this morning without letting students share, I hold off on the independent work and let the child finish. All of the students take turns sharing about the events of their weekend and listening to others. Some went to the movies or shopping, while others played video games. Kate doesn't share at first, but when asked what she did she responds.
Kate said, "I went to the dentist." She doesn't offer any other details.
I prompt, "Did you have cavities?" Kate nods her head.
Again, I prompt, "Did you want to share anything else about the weekend?" Kate shakes her head and looks down at her paper.
After all of the students have taken a turn, I begin with the directions for independent work. Kate completes her work slowly, but correctly. She is the last student to finish. Afterwards, she places her book in front of me to be checked and then moves her sticker chart in my direction. Kate earns a sticker for participation and effort. Kate shows no emotion when I place the sticker on her chart even though it is the last sticker she needs to receive a treat from the treasure box. Kate reaches for the box, chooses a reward and lines up by the door.


Until this observation, I hadn't noticed the extreme quietness and lack of emotion that Kate exhibits. She has always been quiet, but a direct observation brought up some concerns in social behaviors. I will continue to monitor this behavior. I am also wondering if Kate interacts with other in her class?  I am pleased with Kate's comprehension and participation. She requires a lot of prompting for additional details. I am not sure if this is her character or if there is more to it. Kate shouldn't feel uncomfortable since she has been in the group for almost two years. Her lack of interaction with other students is also evident in the observation.

So…  I started thinking about fluency and what my students think of their own reading. After giving the surveys I realized that my students weren’t really aware of what fluent reading means even though we talk about it ALL the time. I have wrestled with the thought for a while now, but really didn’t know what to do about it. Today in the middle of my lesson the simplest idea struck me. I will have students assess their own fluency during the popcorn reading portion of our lesson. I explained to the group that I wanted them to give me thumbs up after they read a sentence, if they thought they read fluently. If not, then they could reread the sentence. Below is a list of the things I saw during the activity and some reflections on my teaching (and research).

Observations and Reflections

1. WHY DIDN”T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE?????? This was such a simple idea and super easy to implement. I am actually kind of mad that I didn’t think of this earlier in my research or earlier in the year!

2. Students were very engaged. Even my distractible kids were right with me. They followed along and rated their own reading throughout the entire passage.

3. Students were honest. All students rated the reading honestly. If the reading wasn’t fluent they looked up at me and gestured or asked to read again. After stopping to decode two words in one sentence, Tyler said, “I need to read that again. I can do better.” I agreed with the ratings of each student. I also loved seeing the smile and the thumbs up when students heard themselves read fluently.

4. I loved teaching today! Occasionally I find that the redundancy of my instruction weighs me down. I basically do the same thing with the same kids every day and progress is slow. About twice a year (always once in February), I get in a funk and can’t seem to clear the fog. Then all of the sudden the sun shines, a kid makes me laugh hysterically or I see the “light bulb” go on and I am back to normal. That happened today! This probably isn’t what teachers are supposed to say, but it’s honest.

5. Based on the comprehension questions I asked during and after the lesson students comprehended what they read and made thoughtful connections. Sarah said, “If I were that bug, I’d puke!” Another student added, “Yeah, being in a bouncing ball would be way worse than a roller coaster. You would go up, down, up, down.”

6. We were so absorbed in learning that I forgot to send students back to class. OOPS!

From Thin to Thick

Observation- Mike
2/20/13 @ 12:50

 

Mike is part of a 5th grade reading group. The group meets in the small area of my classroom (trailer). The trailer has been moved in to accommodate the growing student population at the school. Mike is an ESL student and receives decoding instruction. The students are seated at a kidney shaped table and have their materials out and ready to finish the lesson we started the day before. Mike asks if he can tell Jake what happened yesterday, since he was absent. Mike gives as many details as possible from the part of the story we have already read. The students are very engaged in this series of passages in our SRA Decoding book. The students pick up on the paragraph after deciding who read last. Most of this is done with little direction from me. Mike is sitting up in his chair and has one leg crossed over the other. He is fiddling with his shoestring.
Mike begins reading before it is his turn. The students quickly stop him and Hayden takes his turn by re-reads the sentence. Mike is next. His reading is broken and lacks fluency, but he tries to use expression. The voice sounds forced and could be taking away meaning from his peers that are listening. At the next pause, I addressed the issue with the whole group by asking them not to focus so much on the voices, but instead focus on the words they read.
At the end of the paragraph the group pauses for oral comprehension checks. Mike raises his hand for all questions and continues to play with the shoestring. I have called on another student, but Mike interrupts and asks to make a prediction. He says, "I think what Salt is gonna do is give Mrs. Higgins some treasure if she will let him pass." Making predictions is one of the skills we have practiced during our fluency based lessons. I am very pleased to see that students are thinking about what they are reading.
As part of the comprehension check, I ask Mike if he knows about customs. Mike begins talking about Mexico and how his family travels back and forth a lot when school is out. He doesn't specifically discuss the vocabulary word. The group stops to check understanding of the term and I explain what Mrs. Higgins, the customs officer, is doing. When we begin reading again the group argues over whose turn it is. The students do not usually argue and I have to choose someone to read. I ask Mike to read again. He misses several words and other students offer to help when he struggles to decode. Mike's miscues are mainly vowel errors. He attempts a word several times, each time replacing the vowel sound until he figures out the word. Mike follows along while the others read and is extremely focused, but continues to pull at the string. I don't think the string was distracting because he was able to correctly answer each comprehension question he was asked throughout the lesson.
At the end of the story, I ask students to think about their predictions. Mike quickly interjects and explains that his prediction was wrong. Mike said, "No, Mrs. Higgins didn't have to be bribed. They just explained they found it. They weren't in trouble. They were famous." Again, I could see that Mike was beginning to think deeply about the text.
The students begin their workbook page while I read with individual students. Mike worked quickly and was finished after I read with just two other students. His work was messy, but he answered all parts correctly except for the prefix suffix section. The students are supposed to remove the endings or beginnings and write the root word. Mike wrote the words ending in "e" without the final vowel. I need to work with the ESL teacher to better understand the mistakes that are language related.

Thinking about the data...

I am a few weeks in to my data collection and have started looking for some patterns and themes in the quantitative and qualitative data. The ideas below are just thoughts and reflections that I have noted during the research. I have not conducted any analysis at this point and there is still more data to collect. 

Qualitative themes:

In several of my observations I write about distractibility. Many of my students are easily distracted in small group settings and conversations with classroom teachers reveals that the same students are also distracted during large group instruction. As I continue to observe these students, I am going to look for the triggers to their distractions. The information won't necessarily aid in my research findings but it could be helpful in planning instruction in the future and be good information to share teachers. I have also noticed that many of the students with 'distractions' noted in the observations are also students that struggle with comprehension. I wonder if the distractibility or the fluency is the main contributor in the lack of comprehension. 

Thoughts on quantitative data:

As I enter my data each week, I have noticed that the second grade students in my focal group that are reading fewer words than peers are having a harder time on the comprehension assessment. The correlation between fluency and comprehension seems much stronger with the younger students. On the other hand, 3rd and 4th grade students that read fewer words than their peers do not necessarily struggle with comprehension. Is there a certain point at which the number of words read matters or is background knowledge/ real life experience that makes up for the lack of fluency in the older students?  Students reading fewer than 20-25 words per minute are answering less than 50% of the comprehension questions correctly. All students read the entire passage after the one minute fluency assessment, but I still see large discrepancies from student to student on the comprehension activity. 

Thick Description 2

Gabby is a 3rd grade student that struggles with fluency and comprehension. She is in a SRA decoding group with six other third graders. The group occurs during Eagle Intervention time (1:30-2), which is our school wide intervention block. All students in the school receive a reading intervention during this 30 min block.

Gabby is the first to enter. She sits down at the kidney shaped table in the chair closest to me. Gabby asks three questions before I have a chance to respond. She asks if she can help me with something, wants to know where our high school helper is, and then asks what we are doing today. She is very energetic and doesn't pause between questions. She doesn't seem to notice or care that I haven't responded. The group has just left recess and students come in one by one. We are supposed to start at 1:30. At 1:34 all students are settled and ready to begin the lesson. Gabby asks another question after the students arrive. Again she asks, "What are we doing today?" I respond this time and let the group know we will be completing a written probe. Gabby gets distracted by the snow while I am talking and doesn't seem to listen.
 (The writing probes are part of the district RTI requirements. All students in tier 3 for reading are also monitored in written expression. The data is used if students are referred to special education)

I hand out the writing notebooks and have students turn to the next uncompleted sentence starter. Gabby asks to read the prompt aloud. She laughs after finishing.
The prompt: Toby and his friends were walking through their neighborhood. They passed a yellow dog that first began to talk to them and then...
Gabby really seems to like the prompt and is eager to begin. I create a model for the students and remind them of the expectations to write 5 complete sentences using correct punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Students are then asked to think about what they want to write for one minute. After thinking, I ask students to begin writing. I start the timer for five minutes.
Gabby and the other students begin writing. Gabby writes for the entire five minutes and is engaged for the entire time. When the timer goes off she asks to complete the sentence she has started. I give the students a few more seconds. Gabby asks to read her story aloud to the class. She has never asked to share in the past. Her spelling is correct and their are few punctuation errors. Gabby has written an entire page, which is much more than she typically writes. She reads her own story with expression and fluency. I am not sure if the positive and engaged behavior is due to her interests in dogs or the humor in the unrealistic sentence starter. Her story is funny and clearly expresses her ideas. The other students clap and laugh at the end. Another student then asks to share her story. Gabby doesn't seem to be paying attention to the reading. She is looking at her own paper and smiling while the other student reads. When the student is finished, Gabby looks up and starts clapping.

Gabby was distracted when the attention wasn't on her, but appeared engaged during the writing.

Observation Notes

Thick Description 1

Bobby mopes into the room and takes a seat. The group is made up of four fifth grade boys. They come to the reading group immediately after lunch. Mike and Jake enter the room laughing and grab their materials from the white book shelf that holds their basket. Each group has a basket that holds all of the materials we use daily. Bobby stays in his seat and mumbles a thank you when Mike hands him a book and his folder. The boys haven't spoken to Bobby and Bobby hasn't spoken to anyone in the room.
I tell the group that we will begin our lesson as soon as Eric comes in. Mike and Jake nod. Bobby puts his head down on the table and groans.
Eric comes in and takes his seat. The other boys have already laid his materials at the open space. Bobby is still laying on the table. Eric asks him what is wrong. He is the first to acknowledge Bobby's behavior. Bobby answers, "I don't feel well." Another student (either Mike or Jake) comments, "You're always sick, Bobby!"
The boys seem to be annoyed by Bobby's consistent complaints. He often comes in with a headache, stomach ache or sore throat. His classroom teacher notices the same behavior. I have chosen not to give the situation any attention unless Bobby looks ill or asks to see the nurse.

I interrupt and ask the group to open their student book to lesson 56. We are picking up from where we left off on Friday. The group begins oral reading after a brief argument over who goes first. Bobby raises his head and follows along as different students read. He reads when it is his turn, but doesn't stop at the punctuation mark. The reading is choppy and his voice is low. Another student stops him and points out the period. Bobby waits for his next turn. He lost his place when it was time to read and asked another students to show him where to read. Bobby reads the sentence with nice expression and appropriate speed. Again, he ignores the punctuation. I ask each student a comprehension question at the end of the paragraph. Bobby was asked how much the treasure was worth. He couldn't remember, but looked back at the story. He is now sitting up and seems to be feeling fine. Bobby's fluency is better than some of the other group members, but he struggles to answer literal questions from the text.
Students finish the story and begin workbook page. The students pair up and re-read the first paragraph to one another (first reading). Bobby takes longer to complete the workbook page than the other group members. His partner, Jake, waits to complete the partner reading. Bobby answers all of the questions correctly and followed directions on both parts. The other students skipped activity #1 because they did not read the directions carefully.
Bobby and Jake read together. Bobby's partner reports that he had one error and shows him the mistake. He lets me know that he is ready to begin his timed reading (second reading). I begin the timer when Bobby reads the first word and ask him to stop after 1 minute. He reads at a normal rate with appropriate expression. Bobby reads much louder than others, even though the general tone of the room is low and there is very little background noise.

Observations

This is a typed version of my observation notes on Ryan from February 4th. Ryan is a focal student for my research project and is a second grader. He has been in one reading group or another since first grade. Ryan struggles with fluency and comprehension skills. Please look over the choppy sentences and disconnected comments. The observation occurred during a Direct Instruction lesson from SRA Reading Mastery and lasted for approximately 15 minutes.

Ryan--

It is 8:30 and my group of 5 is ready to begin. Ryan entered the group and had a seat with others. He immediately stood up and gathered the materials everyone. The rest of the group waited for directions from me. Orion sits down and chats with the student next to him. He says to the group, "Crazy Hair... After this I am going to that lady."

I asked the group to open their storybooks to page 77. Ryan spends some time randomly looking for the page. He doesn't use the numbers to guide him in the right direction. "I can't find it", he says as he looks up at me. Another student leans over and finds the page for him.

For the first part of the lesson the students review words that will be in the story. Before the first word, Ryan says, "Look at my hair... yep, Crazy Hair Day". The students sound out words together. Ryan looks at the floor through most of the word review. He is prompted twice to participate. The last word is "up". Ryan reads the word before others and then immediately says, "Mrs. Carty you know that up word- Up is a movie".

For the first reading, the group reads the story together. Difficult words are reviewed. Ryan starts playing with his shoes after the group reading. Students take turns reading individual sentences. Ryan reads the sentence when it is his turn. He stops at the word 'with' and begins to sound it out-- /w/i/t/h. He looks up at me and waits for help. I point out the /th/ and ask if he remembers what sound the two letters make together. Another student interjects with the correct digraph. Ryan reads the word correctly and then rereads the sentence.

After the story the students begin their workbook page. Section has 4 sentences and a picture. Ryan appears to be reading all of the sentences. He does not choose any answers. I stop him and explain that he needs to choose the sentence that best describes the picture. He finishes the page correctly.

Interpretations, Questions, and Thoughts:

Ryan may have been a little more rambunctious and distracted than usual because of I Love to Read Week. The theme of the day was Crazy Hair, which explains his comments. The lady he was referring to was the speech pathologist. Ryan goes to a group with her two days a week immediately after our reading group. Does he know her name?

He had a very hard time finding the page. This has happened before. Does Ryan understand numbers? Follow up with teacher about math performance in the classroom.

Ryan has an ADHD diagnosis. Did he have his medication today? He had a very hard time focusing. He must have been paying attention a little bit, since he was so quick to read 'up'. He made a connection to the word.

Ryan's brother both drop the Mc from my name (Mrs. McCarty). I hadn't noticed that he did it too. Funny.

Ryan needs additional practice with digraphs. His fluency is not improving, he stops to sound out words often. He is getting better at blending sounds. Ryan is rereading sentences when he stops to decode words- like we have discussed in group.

The workbook section is repetitive. Students have been completing the same task after each story for a while now. The objective is to develop comprehension and identify main idea. He has completed the activity before. After checking the other workbook pages, Ryan has completed this section incorrectly for the past 2 lessons. He completed it correctly before that. Ryan may need directions for independent task repeatedly daily. I can't believe I hadn't noticed the mistakes on the other pages!

Surveys

I completed the survey last week, but hadn't had a chance to really look through the results. I ended up giving the survey to the 15 students that have turned in consent forms. The information I gained from the analysis was very beneficial in getting to know my students opinions and attitudes. I created my own survey using a smiley face/ sad face questionnaire. Surprisingly, most of my students answered yes or no to each question. The neutral face option that indicated sometimes was only used a total of two times.

Since I still haven't figured out how to upload anything other than a picture, here is a screen shot of my survey.

Numerical Data-

Analysis- 

As you can see from the table above, most of my students felt that they understood what they read. However, DIBELS and MAP data indicates otherwise. Half of the 14 students also felt that they were fluent readers. Referencing my baseline data and the individual surveys, it appears that 6 out of the 7 students answering yes to question #1 were the 6 students that I had previously identified as fluent readers lacking comprehension skills. It was interesting to see which students stated that they like DIBELS. I had actually predicted that students answering yes to the fluency question would be the same students to indicating that they like DIBELS. However, this question really resulted in mix of responses. Five of the students that like DIBELS felt that they were fluent readers while 3 of the students that like DIBELS are not fluent. Even more interesting is that only two of those 8 students indicated that they enjoy reading aloud. Since, DIBELS requires reading aloud I was a bit surprised with responses. 

Some more findings....

• Ryan chose the sad face (no) to answer each question
• The final question (#7) "What do you like to read?"--- 6 students wrote "books". Lesson here- if you want a specific answer then you should ask a specific question ;)
• Other responses to question #7- Junie B. Jones, animal books, Escape the Giant Wave, Dog Tags and superhero books 
• Tyler doesn't like to read aloud or silently, but likes to read
• Eric and Bobby chose the happy face (yes) for every question

According to the survey, almost all of the students indicated that they like to read silently. I felt this was a very positive finding. I will continue to reference the survey results as I conduct more observations and search for patterns in the data. 

DATA!!!

Thoughts...

I have really started to collect some data and look for patterns. It may be a bit early to decide, but I have noted that the lack of fluency has more of a negative impact on comprehension with second graders than it does for the third and fifth grade students in my study. Prior to implementation, I had classified many of my second  graders as being non-fluent and lacking comprehension. Now that I am collecting data, I have started to think this is no coincidence. I have also noted in my target observation charts that the second graders I observed lack background knowledge and vocabulary skills that could help them compensate for the lack reading fluency. 

I have received 13 consent forms. I had really hoped to get all 20 back, so I am a little disappointed. Unfortunately, a one of the students that really intrigues me hasn't brought back her consent form. The good news is that I have added two new students to my groups this week and sent consent forms home with them yesterday. If returned, I will have 15 students in my focal group. The group will consist of 4 second graders, 6 third graders, and 5 fifth graders. 

So, there will be some changes to my baseline data sheet. I will post the document when everything is finalized. 

Spreadsheet...

Here is a snapshot of the spreadsheet that I am using. Individual pages were created for each student. This will allow me to compare student to student and individual student growth for comprehension and fluency at the end of my study.

Key:
WC= Words correct on DIBELS timed assessment.
Retell= number of words the student could retell after the timed assessment (This is subjective.                
            However, I am the only examiner so the assessment is consistent).
Comp= number of questions answered correctly. Students are given the opportunity to complete the                   
             passage and then are given a set of 8 comprehension questions (4 literal, 4 inferential). 
             Students that struggle with written expression are given a scribe. 

Sample of comprehension questions...