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| Gabby |
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| Kelly |
Here is the most up-to-date baseline data with the final participants
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Finishing Up
Data collection is quickly coming to an end. I hope to get one more data point this week, but we don't have school on Friday and we are doing scrimmage testing with all 3rd-5th grade students. I have met with the school psychologist who is helping me with the statistical analysis and worked out a time to meet. I am so excited to see what comes of all the hard work. One concern I have is that my students do not all have the same number of data points. Absences, school assemblies and other interruptions have interfered with different groups. I am thinking about using the average scores for each student to examine the relationship between fluency and comprehension. My research question is, "How does fluency impact comprehension". The average will still allow me to see if higher fluency scores resulted in higher comprehension scores or vice versa. At a glance, this doesn't seem to be true. There are a few screenshots of student spreadsheets below. One is of the most fluent reader and the other is of a random participant.
Here is the most up-to-date baseline data with the final participants
Here is the most up-to-date baseline data with the final participants
Monday, March 11, 2013
One more observation...
Sarah is a second grader and is in the first group of the day. She has only been receiving tier III RTI services since December and transferred into my school this year. Sarah is small in comparison to her peers and fairly shy.
As Sarah runs in the door to take cover from the rain, she stops and gives me a hard look. "Did you brush your hair?" she asked. Everyone in the trailer literally laughed out loud. Before I could respond, she said, "Well, it doesn't look like it!" This comment was out of character from what I have typically observed from Sarah's dry and serious personality.
The group begins the lesson and Sarah participates through the word work. A few times she would say the word before my single and before the other students had a chance to think. The first section in our student book asks students to read a sentence, understand the meaning and then use the info to follow my directions. After the choral reading of the sentence, I ask Sarah what to do. She correctly answers, "When you say go touch my arm." All of the students have gotten really good at this tricky game. I say a bunch of random words before giving them the clue to touch their arm. As soon as they hear go, all students touch an arm.
I ask Sarah to read the title of our story aloud. She mistakingly reads beat for bets and gives me a puzzled look when she finishes.
The title read: The Tall Girl Bets Her Brother.
Sarah read the title as: The Tall Girl Beats Her Brother.
Sarah reads the title again without prompting, corrects the error and nods her head.
On the first reading, the group reads each word aloud together after my signal (a tap). If the reading isn't a firm reading or I hear individuals read words incorrectly, we start back at the beginning of the sentence. Sarah seems to get annoyed when other students make mistakes. She huffs every time I ask students to go back to the beginning of the sentence.
For the second reading, students take turns reading one sentence until we finish the story. Sarah follows along with her finger and doesn't seem to be frustrated when some students take a bit of extra time to read a word. When it is her turn, she waits for me to say her name or point in her direction. Most of the students pick up with a sentence with the person next to them finishes. She reads fluently and sounds better than most students in the group. I am starting to wonder if we need to make some changes in instruction for Sarah. I stop the students to make predictions about half way through the story. At this point students should be connecting our reading from last week to the story we are currently reading. The series is about a bug finding a home inside a girl's ball. When the students are asked to predict how the girl might get the ball to roll without touching it, Sarah mentions vibrations and bouncing beside the ball. All of the other students agree or give similar predictions, but nobody mentions the bug.
When we are ready start reading again I tell Sarah it is her turn. She begins reading at the wrong place and begins to argue when I show her the place.
Sarah begins working quickly when she is given her workbook assignment and twirls her hair as she works. She accidentally turns two pages when she finishes the front of page 37 and starts to do the back of page 38. I quickly stop her and show the page number. Sarah starts to argue again. I have noticed this happens a lot. Sarah is very quiet, but doesn't seem to take direction very well.
She finishes before the others and has completed both pages correctly.
On the individual reading checkout, Sarah reads 67 words per minute. The grade level cut score for "risk" is about 72 words per minute. She read with automaticity, no errors and didn't stop to decode. I will definitely bring up her huge improvements in the next meeting with her classroom teacher. Sarah is ready to move on!
As Sarah runs in the door to take cover from the rain, she stops and gives me a hard look. "Did you brush your hair?" she asked. Everyone in the trailer literally laughed out loud. Before I could respond, she said, "Well, it doesn't look like it!" This comment was out of character from what I have typically observed from Sarah's dry and serious personality.
The group begins the lesson and Sarah participates through the word work. A few times she would say the word before my single and before the other students had a chance to think. The first section in our student book asks students to read a sentence, understand the meaning and then use the info to follow my directions. After the choral reading of the sentence, I ask Sarah what to do. She correctly answers, "When you say go touch my arm." All of the students have gotten really good at this tricky game. I say a bunch of random words before giving them the clue to touch their arm. As soon as they hear go, all students touch an arm.
I ask Sarah to read the title of our story aloud. She mistakingly reads beat for bets and gives me a puzzled look when she finishes.
The title read: The Tall Girl Bets Her Brother.
Sarah read the title as: The Tall Girl Beats Her Brother.
Sarah reads the title again without prompting, corrects the error and nods her head.
On the first reading, the group reads each word aloud together after my signal (a tap). If the reading isn't a firm reading or I hear individuals read words incorrectly, we start back at the beginning of the sentence. Sarah seems to get annoyed when other students make mistakes. She huffs every time I ask students to go back to the beginning of the sentence.
For the second reading, students take turns reading one sentence until we finish the story. Sarah follows along with her finger and doesn't seem to be frustrated when some students take a bit of extra time to read a word. When it is her turn, she waits for me to say her name or point in her direction. Most of the students pick up with a sentence with the person next to them finishes. She reads fluently and sounds better than most students in the group. I am starting to wonder if we need to make some changes in instruction for Sarah. I stop the students to make predictions about half way through the story. At this point students should be connecting our reading from last week to the story we are currently reading. The series is about a bug finding a home inside a girl's ball. When the students are asked to predict how the girl might get the ball to roll without touching it, Sarah mentions vibrations and bouncing beside the ball. All of the other students agree or give similar predictions, but nobody mentions the bug.
When we are ready start reading again I tell Sarah it is her turn. She begins reading at the wrong place and begins to argue when I show her the place.
Sarah begins working quickly when she is given her workbook assignment and twirls her hair as she works. She accidentally turns two pages when she finishes the front of page 37 and starts to do the back of page 38. I quickly stop her and show the page number. Sarah starts to argue again. I have noticed this happens a lot. Sarah is very quiet, but doesn't seem to take direction very well.
She finishes before the others and has completed both pages correctly.
On the individual reading checkout, Sarah reads 67 words per minute. The grade level cut score for "risk" is about 72 words per minute. She read with automaticity, no errors and didn't stop to decode. I will definitely bring up her huge improvements in the next meeting with her classroom teacher. Sarah is ready to move on!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Analyzing data
As my data collection comes to an end, I am starting to look for themes in my observations and quantitative data. Here are a few notes I have collected on my possible findings...
Qualitative data
DISTRACTED!!! About 75% of my observation notes contain some form of the word distracted. I knew that most of my students struggled with attention and focus, but wow! I can't really do much to change the environment of the classroom. Right now students have their back to the door and "walking area" of the room where people from other groups come and go. I do seem to think that students were more engaged and less distracted in the observation that included the self-checks for fluency. I have started to use this strategy more in all of my groups. The distraction has to have a negative impact on their performance in the classroom. I can only imagine how distracted they are in a large group setting.
Here are some excerpts from my observations:
"Gabby is distracted after the first reading"
"Tyler is inattentive during comprehension check"
"Tyler was not paying attention during word review... "
"Gabby isn't paying attention. She is looking at her paper and smiling..."
"Robert looks around the corner to see who is coming in the door"
"Tristyn puts his head down"
"Brooke hears another teacher say tornado drill. She interrupts lesson to ask about drill"
"Mike is playing with shoestring"
"Ryan chats about Crazy Hair day in the middle of the lesson"
"Ryan is distracted after he sees the word 'up'. He starts talking about the movie Up"
Quantitative Data
Just by glancing at the number of words read per minute and the number of comprehension questions answered correctly, I am not seeing a correlation between fluency and comprehension. For several students the lowest comprehension scores were received on the same assessment date as their highest fluency score. Additionally, one of the strongest readers (reads approx. 125 wpm) has consistently low comprehension scores.
Also, students with fluency scores below 20 words per minute (approximately) are unable to identify the main idea of the passage or answer any question correctly. Students finish the passages independently, which may be a limitation of my study. I simply did not have time to read the entire passage with each student in our 30-45 minute group session. Once I have completed the statistical analysis, I am going to look at the extreme differences in data points and consistently low scores. I wonder if at some point the struggle to decode words overloads the processing skills and students can't compensate.
Qualitative data
DISTRACTED!!! About 75% of my observation notes contain some form of the word distracted. I knew that most of my students struggled with attention and focus, but wow! I can't really do much to change the environment of the classroom. Right now students have their back to the door and "walking area" of the room where people from other groups come and go. I do seem to think that students were more engaged and less distracted in the observation that included the self-checks for fluency. I have started to use this strategy more in all of my groups. The distraction has to have a negative impact on their performance in the classroom. I can only imagine how distracted they are in a large group setting.
Here are some excerpts from my observations:
"Gabby is distracted after the first reading"
"Tyler is inattentive during comprehension check"
"Tyler was not paying attention during word review... "
"Gabby isn't paying attention. She is looking at her paper and smiling..."
"Robert looks around the corner to see who is coming in the door"
"Tristyn puts his head down"
"Brooke hears another teacher say tornado drill. She interrupts lesson to ask about drill"
"Mike is playing with shoestring"
"Ryan chats about Crazy Hair day in the middle of the lesson"
"Ryan is distracted after he sees the word 'up'. He starts talking about the movie Up"
Quantitative Data
Just by glancing at the number of words read per minute and the number of comprehension questions answered correctly, I am not seeing a correlation between fluency and comprehension. For several students the lowest comprehension scores were received on the same assessment date as their highest fluency score. Additionally, one of the strongest readers (reads approx. 125 wpm) has consistently low comprehension scores.
Also, students with fluency scores below 20 words per minute (approximately) are unable to identify the main idea of the passage or answer any question correctly. Students finish the passages independently, which may be a limitation of my study. I simply did not have time to read the entire passage with each student in our 30-45 minute group session. Once I have completed the statistical analysis, I am going to look at the extreme differences in data points and consistently low scores. I wonder if at some point the struggle to decode words overloads the processing skills and students can't compensate.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
New literature
Thanks to a classmate, I discovered an interesting article about fluency and comprehension. The title is The "RAP" on Reading Comprehension and the link is below.
The intro of the article describes some of the feelings that I had that inspired me to conduct research on the relationship between fluency and comprehension. I have worked with many students that can read fluently, but have no idea what they read. One of the most interesting students in my focal group reads between 110-130 words per minute, but can only retell one or two details. It amazes me! My hopes are for my research to improve the RTI program. Ideally, I will be able to use the findings of my research to advocate for more effective use assessment data to identify the needs of students and match students with appropriate interventions.
The main purpose of the article is to introduce a reading strategy, but the intro grabbed my attention and gave me a little energy boost about my research topic.
Here is a little excerpt from the article:
In many cases,
early intervention in reading instruction focuses primarily on foundational
reading skills, such as decoding. These
foundational skills allow the reader to
read fluently (i.e., with speed and
accuracy; National Reading Panel,
2000). However, with much of the
focus on fluency, reading comprehen-
sion may be overlooked. It's true that
reading fluency is necessary for comprehension. Students who are able to
decode and recognize words effortlessly are able to devote more of their cognitive resources to reading comprehension. As a result, readers who are fluent are more likely to have better comprehension skills (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp,
& Jenkins, 2001).This link between fluency and comprehension can lead
teachers to assume that if students can
read fluently they should also be able
to comprehend what they read. For many students, this assumption
is correct; however, there are students
who are fluent readers who experience
difficulties with reading comprehension. Up to 10% of students are fluent
readers who struggle to understand
what they read (Meisinger, Bradley,
Schwanenflugel, Kuhn, & Morris, 2009;
Shankweiler, Lundquist, Dreyer, &
Dickinson, 1996). These students are
able to successfully decode text in spe-
cific content areas, such as sciences
and social studies, but are unable to
process and comprehend what they
read (Caccamise &Snyder, 2005).
Hagaman, J. L., Luschen, K., & Reid, R. (2010). The "RAP" on Reading Comprehension. TEACHING Exceptional Children,
43(1), 22-29.
Notes on Tyler
"I got a new student!" This was the first thing out of Tyler's mouth as he entered my room on Wednesday morning. I nodded and smiled like teachers on a mission do when they are afraid we will get way off task by asking for clarification. I didn't really know what he was talking about until after the end of our lesson when he repeated it the second time. This time I had to ask what he meant. Tyler was trying to tell me that a new student had enrolled in his class that morning.
As students sat down with their materials, they argued back and forth about where they had stopped the day before. Tyler sat quietly through the debate and never gave any input. He coughed a couple of times and turns to the page. He waits on others to find the page and coughs some more.
Tyler has been absent a lot this year. His attendance has improved this nine weeks, but he often acts sick or asks to go to the nurse. Usually the illness is something like a stomach ache or head ache, but today he seems to be coughing a lot. I ask if he is sick and he nods while holding his throat. We begin our lesson and Tyler reads the title. When I asked him what he knows about the story, he sums up the title, "the bug wants to stay". Other students give more in-depth predictions and discuss what we have already read in the sequence of stories about a bug and his home. Tyler watches the other students as the talk. He doesn't interrupt others and is very respectful of peers. Occasionally, he nods in agreement with a student.
As we read aloud, Tyler yawns frequently. He follows along with his finger as other students read and reads when it is his turn. He also answered the comprehension he was asked correctly. On the second round of reading, Tyler doesn't use his fingers to follow along, but keeps his eyes on the text. He knows when it is his turn and begins reading immediately after the other student finishes. When he reads again he struggles with the word crying. Tyler knows the word, but has difficulty saying it because of his speech delays. I ask Tyler another question when he finishes. He coughs for a long time and then answers correctly. On the final round of reading, Tyler says the word said for sat. His sentence went on to the next page, but instead of turning the page Tyler stopped reading. I am not sure he understands that the sentence continues until a punctuation mark. Another student tells him it is still his turn. Tyler turns the page and finishes his turn. We discuss punctuation and print concepts at the end of his reading, which is the end of the story. Tyler puts his head down immediately and doesn't participate in the discussion or look at the picture. He really seems sick.
Next, students complete their workbook pages as I read independently with students. Tyler doesn't have a pencil and waits until I pass the pencil cup to open his workbook. He works very slowly with one arm propped up on the table holding his head. When he finishes, he waits quietly to checkout with me. He reads fluently during his individual reading and is smiling when he finishes. I found that he missed one question related to the story on his workbook page and missed one question in the direction following section. This section of the workbook page asks students to do things like draw a circle, write a over the circle, make a box beside the a, etc. Students have to read the words, comprehend the sentences and follow the directions in order to complete this section correctly. Interestingly enough, the student next to Tyler missed the same questions on the workbook page. I now have to wonder if one of them is cheating. I will be watching next time!
As students sat down with their materials, they argued back and forth about where they had stopped the day before. Tyler sat quietly through the debate and never gave any input. He coughed a couple of times and turns to the page. He waits on others to find the page and coughs some more.
Tyler has been absent a lot this year. His attendance has improved this nine weeks, but he often acts sick or asks to go to the nurse. Usually the illness is something like a stomach ache or head ache, but today he seems to be coughing a lot. I ask if he is sick and he nods while holding his throat. We begin our lesson and Tyler reads the title. When I asked him what he knows about the story, he sums up the title, "the bug wants to stay". Other students give more in-depth predictions and discuss what we have already read in the sequence of stories about a bug and his home. Tyler watches the other students as the talk. He doesn't interrupt others and is very respectful of peers. Occasionally, he nods in agreement with a student.
As we read aloud, Tyler yawns frequently. He follows along with his finger as other students read and reads when it is his turn. He also answered the comprehension he was asked correctly. On the second round of reading, Tyler doesn't use his fingers to follow along, but keeps his eyes on the text. He knows when it is his turn and begins reading immediately after the other student finishes. When he reads again he struggles with the word crying. Tyler knows the word, but has difficulty saying it because of his speech delays. I ask Tyler another question when he finishes. He coughs for a long time and then answers correctly. On the final round of reading, Tyler says the word said for sat. His sentence went on to the next page, but instead of turning the page Tyler stopped reading. I am not sure he understands that the sentence continues until a punctuation mark. Another student tells him it is still his turn. Tyler turns the page and finishes his turn. We discuss punctuation and print concepts at the end of his reading, which is the end of the story. Tyler puts his head down immediately and doesn't participate in the discussion or look at the picture. He really seems sick.
Next, students complete their workbook pages as I read independently with students. Tyler doesn't have a pencil and waits until I pass the pencil cup to open his workbook. He works very slowly with one arm propped up on the table holding his head. When he finishes, he waits quietly to checkout with me. He reads fluently during his individual reading and is smiling when he finishes. I found that he missed one question related to the story on his workbook page and missed one question in the direction following section. This section of the workbook page asks students to do things like draw a circle, write a over the circle, make a box beside the a, etc. Students have to read the words, comprehend the sentences and follow the directions in order to complete this section correctly. Interestingly enough, the student next to Tyler missed the same questions on the workbook page. I now have to wonder if one of them is cheating. I will be watching next time!
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