DATA ANALYSIS
Pre-Test and Post-Test Collection
The class was given a pre-test and post-test based with questions based on the five strategies going to be taught in the following weeks. Each student read the same short text aloud. After, each student answered five questions from Fountas and Pinnell guided reading questioning guide. Each question related to one of the five strategies that was taught in the following weeks. The pre-test was a struggle for the majority of my students with 47% scoring lower than 50%. The next five weeks the strategies were explicitly taught. At the end of the five weeks, another passage was read and asked the same five questions applying the strategies taught. Students overall achievement increased. 64% of my students scored higher than an 80%. This data shows growth in the overall achievement of students understanding the reading comprehension strategies taught.
Triangulation of Data
A paired-samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect explicit instruction of targeted reading strategies during guided reading groups will increase student achievement and self-regulation use in reading comprehension. There was a significant difference in the scores prior to implementing summarizing strategies (M=53.64, SD=25.14) and after implementing (M=72.73, SD=25.97) the summarizing strategies; t(22)= 2.51, p = 0.0102. The observed standardized effect size is medium (0.53). That indicates that the magnitude of the difference between the average and μ0 is medium. These results suggest that explicit instruction of targeted reading strategies during guided reading groups had a positive effect on will increase student achievement and self-regulation use in reading comprehension. Specifically, the results suggest that the use of comprehension strategies increased reading achievement and self-regulation.
I used the four quantitative and qualitative forms of data to guide my instruction and needs of my students. The pre-test asked questions based on the five strategies taught. The results from the pre-test helped me decide which strategies to teach first. I chose the strategy my students struggled with the most on the pre-test to allow more time to focus on the harder strategies. I connected my exit tickets to my observational data to assess how my students were grasping the comprehension strategies. I gave exit tickets each day after we met and modeled how to use the strategy. I was able to see where I needed to modify my instruction in my groups for the next day. The post-test gave me information on where I still need to give explicit instruction to lead my students to self-regulation. All four forms of data gave my similar information. My data was consistent from the pre-test that my students struggled with summarizing and inferring. This was proven true at the end with the post-test.
Weekly Assessments
Every Friday students took a weekly comprehension text. They read a short passage and independently answered five questions relating to the story and testing their knowledge of the strategy learned the current week. The two strategies the students struggled with the most was summarizing and inferencing. The word "infer" was a difficult vocabulary term for most to grasp. Most struggled with drawing a conclusion based on evidence given and using their own personal knowledge. Summarizing was challenging task to be able to choose the main/important points of the story. The students wanted to copy exactly what the book said and struggled putting the story into their own words. The students were very confident and able to activate their background knowledge to answer questions about a story. Overall the class average of each text was over 80% besides inferencing.
Exit Tickets
The exit tickets were given to each student when we met in small guided reading groups. Each guided reading groups meet three times a week. The formative assessment each week changed with the strategy. The exit tickets were based on a point scale of five points. Each group was given the same exit ticket, but with differentiated text. The data from the exit tickets was similar to the data from the weekly reading tests. The guided reading groups were at different Fountas and Pinnell reading levels: B, D, E, F, and G. There were differences between the groups, but all the groups struggled with inferencing and summarizing. The data showed the average of each guided reading group on a five point scale with the exit tickets.
Observational Notes
Staying consistent with my data, I noticed with each group I had to give more explicit instructions for the students to complete the exit tickets. With every group I had to remind the students what inferencing was and gave examples. Similar with summarizing, most of the groups needed my assistance to walk through the book and find the main points in order to summarize the story. Individual students required more prompting than other students. The higher guided reading level groups required more prompting due to the difficulty of their story.