Hypothesis 2 & 4 - Interventions in action

Term 3 started by revealing new reading groups and explaining why the changes were made and the challenge was made for others to monitor their own reading so they could see their progress - especially my target students who were still tracking along the colour wheel.

As a result from running records last term, one of my target students has moved out of the target group into the next reading group up. I haven't quite figured out how I will ensure the same interventions used with the group will be used in her new group but I will endeavour to sort that out next week. 

Here is my collated data for Hypothesis #2: Student voice. This also includes our goal setting talk which links with Hypothesis #4: High expectations. 

One of my highlights from this one-on-one session was students were able to say what they were good at and what they needed help with. I could also see that students struggled with spelling and they saw this as a barrier in their writing. 

They also completed a quick sight word test.

My goal for this term is to make the students learning visible. Only 3 or 4 students have shown they are able to select the best part of their learning/task to share onto their blog. My aim is to up-skill everyone in the group with the skills to share from 'explain everything' and then write a short description about their learning to accompany this.

End of Term 2 update

Here are the results of our mid-year running records testing. As mentioned in my Hypothesis 3: Being test ready, I've noted behaviours and test outcomes for my target group without much scaffolding into what to expect when they are being tested.

Observations: 

Before Testing: The majority of students were quite apprehensive about being tested. They didn't think they were ready for it and kept asking questions about what to expect before I'd had a chance to explain how testing works. Once my explanation was given 2 of the boys did make comments like "oh Miss I'm dumb I won't get anything right" and "Oh man. Can we just talk about it?" meaning he just wanted to discuss the book like we normally do in guided reading sessions. The rest of the group were ok to go along with it and give it their best shot. 

During Testing: Most students who moved up more than 1 level struggled reading their 1st test and I was a bit 'iffy' about whether I should keep testing or not. But because they scored more than 98% accuracy in decoding and 100% in comprehension, I went ahead and tested them up. What I noticed was that they got better (more fluent) in their reading. My hunch is that this was confidence/momentum gained from the 1st test that the next one they were more relaxed with and just read normally without being nervous about the 'testing atmosphere'.

After Testing: Once I showed each student how far they'd moved on the colour wheel or stages on the back of the books, they were quite excited and almost in disbelief that they made it that far. One student commented "Not even Miss. Those colours are wrong I'm still reading at red level". He said it as a joke, but I could tell he was so used to reading at such a low level he lacked self-belief that he could get that far up on the colour wheel. I definitely made sure to encourage him with lots of praise and hi-5's and to keep it up as we'd like to keep moving up next term.

Testing Results:

- 3 students moved up 3 levels and could still be tested higher. But due to time restraints, I had to stop after 3 tests.

- 1 student moved up 2 levels (moving up 1 level shocked him!) He didn't want to keep going for fear of failing when he was doing so well.

- 2 students failed their test so I was able to get a concrete level for where they are reading at now.

- 1 student (RF) I tested using Probe. She read so well and confidently that I have a feeling I may have held her back too long and she was ready to move sometime during the term. But now that I know, she will be moving up a reading group. I will still continue to monitor her progress as part of this target group.

Additional Information:

I've added this groups attendance records just as a side note about these students. After 6-7 years of schooling, and still reading below 7.5 years of age, one of the contributing factors was their attendance. A few of these students also need support staff hours and other interventions but due to their frequent absences, they do not qualify for funding to get them this help. I went into to this challenge knowing this, and am committed to doing my best for them and with them on whatever day they do turn up. A great example would be student AT who with only 35% attendance for the 1st half of the year still managed to move up 2 levels. I encouraged him to wonder about what he could achieve if he actually attended school more regularly. Overall, I, along with my group and support staff worker were very happy with our mid-year results. This has definitely helped me shape my 4th Hypothesis about high expectations. Stay tuned!