My first grade classroom had 23 diverse students. I had five students on individual education plans for autism, one for developmental delays, and many other articulation delays.  Many of my students were fortunate enough to receive services from our special education teacher and reading specialist. Specifically, the six students with individual education plans received services from our special education teacher and five students received services from the reading specialist. The reading specialist saw the students five days a week for 30 minutes. Two of them were above grade level, one was at grade level, and the rest were almost at or below grade level. I had different learners with different needs in my classroom, but one area of reading we struggled with is comprehension. I first noticed the struggle with comprehension when I started giving the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System at the beginning of the year to see where their reading level was at. The second week of school we took the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Test and the majority of my students scored below average grade level for comprehension. After looking at all of the factors I believed focusing on comprehension during my guided reading groups would be beneficial for my students.

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There were key pieces of data I looked at from the beginning of the school year to lead to the conclusion to assist my students with comprehension. One form of data I used is my student's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Test scores. I specifically looked at their comprehension score. 12 out of my 23 students had comprehension as their lowest score on Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).  Their test scores were in the range of 145-160. The average score for a first grader in the fall season is 161. Another form of data I used is their reading percentile scores in comparison to the norm grade level. I had 15 students who were below the norm grade level. These students scored in the 140-160 range. Another form of data I used during guided reading groups is recording and answering questions asked about the story we read, focusing on one student per guided reading group. I took observable notes throughout the groups. Another form of data is the student’s weekly reading assessments. The test focused on their comprehension. Every week there was an average of five questions asked about a short passage read. The students scored an average of two out of five on the comprehension questions.

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I believed it was important for my students to succeed in comprehension to become better readers. To understand what they read and gain knowledge on what they read, students need to be able to comprehend. This was an area I focused on because this was an area where everyone could increase their skills. I was torn between comprehension and phonological awareness, but eventually I chose to focus my action research on targeted reading comprehension strategies because not only do students need to know how to read the words, but they need to be able to understand what they read.