Concerns at this Point...

Part of my baseline information is the Lexile reading levels of my students.  This year, our English department offers four levels to our juniors: Advanced Placement, Advanced, Regular, and EMA (Emerging Acheivers).  As mentioned in an earlier blog, the class I have chosen for this project is a an EMA class.  Throughout the course of the year, my students have been given the STAR test four times (3 in the fall and once in January)  The STAR test is also new to our school this year as it replaced the MAP test.   I have taken the January test results to determine lexile reading levels of each student in this study and included this information in the chart below:

As you can clearly see, according to this assessment, the majority of this class reads on a 6th grade level, and not one of the students is reading on a high school level.

My next step is to complete the San Diego Quick Assessment (SDQA) & I can't wait to see what the comparison reveals.

The SDQA measures a student's ability to read and recognize grade-level words as they are viewed out of context.  The test consists of 13 lists of equally difficult words that correspond to designated grade levels.  When conducting this test, the proctor is to begin with a list that is 2 or 3 levels below the reading level of the student.  As the student reads each list, the examiner is to note which and how many of the words in the list that the student mispronounces.  Once errors begin, they can be interpreted as follows:

1 error  = Independent Reading Level
2 errors = Instructional Reading Level
3 errors = Frustrating Reading Level

Today, I was able to give the SDQA  to student #4 and found that there was certainly a correlation between the two assessments with this student.  Her Lexile level score on the STAR test indicates that she reads on a 5th grade level, and when reading the words below, she went from reading independently with the 4th grade words but shot straight to the frustration level with the 5th grade words.  I feel like these are so close that when looking at the two, I have a fairly solid understanding of where she is.  It's nice to know this and makes me really excited to see what this reveals with the other 20 students in my study!

On February 26th, I was able to give the SDQA to the students in the study and have some interesting results.

I followed the instructions on the SDQA and had each student begin reading the word list that was two grade levels below the Lexile level indicated on the last STAR test.  For instance, if the STAR indicated that a student read on a fifth grade level, that student began reading the 3rd grade level list. 

The test indicates three levels of reading: Independent, Instructional, & Frustration.  

INDEPENDENT LEVEL OF READING

This first chart reveals a comparison between the student's Lexile reading level and the students level of reading INDEPENDENCE, according to the SDQA.  

• 84% of students are reading independently ON or BELOW their Lexile.
• 68% of students are reading independently BELOW their Lexile.
• This is very interesting to me, and I am so surprised that so students many are reading INDEPENDENTLY below their Lexile.  I know that this is the "be-all/end-all" of reading level assessment, but I think such a close correlation between the two assessments does indicate some truth.  

INSTRUCTIONAL LEVEL OF READING

This second chart reveals a comparison between the student's Lexile reading level and the student's level of reading INDEPENDENCE, according to the SDQA.  

This is definitely the most interesting finding! How weird is it that 73% of students' assessments did not indicate an instructional level...  They were cruising right along, and then they were stumped completely.   I have included a couple of kids' assessments to give a visual of what was going on here on their sheets.  

• 22% of students are reading on  an instructional level that is ON or BELOW their Lexile.

FRUSTRATION LEVEL OF READING

This third chart reveals a comparison between the student's Lexile reading level and the student's level of reading FRUSTRATION, according to the SDQA.  

• 58% of students were found to be at the frustration level on or below their Lexile level.  
• 41% of students were found to be at the frustration level above their Lexile level.  

Who we are...

As this is a collaborative class, it is very important when planning and examining the data to consider 504's, IEP's, and those students with neither type of plan.  Below is a chart that indicates this information:

As this reveals, well over half of the students involved in this study (63%) have some type of learning disability that hinders their educational growth in some form or fashion.  With that said, even the 37% of students without a plan are still struggling readers.  As a reminder, from the STAR Lexile levels revealed in my last post, no student in this study reads above an 8th grade level.  In regards to my study, I am encouraged that I am examining new ways to help these struggling students - at this point in their high school careers, anything is sure to help them.  I know the reading journals are a new concept to them, and I feel confident that they will at least look at how they read and process a little bit differently once we really get going.

Student Reading Levels - As of January 2015

Part of my baseline information is the Lexile reading levels of my students.  This year, our English department offers four levels to our juniors: Advanced Placement, Advanced, Regular, and EMA (Emerging Acheivers).  As mentioned in an earlier blog, the class I have chosen for this project is a an EMA class.  Throughout the course of the year, my students have been given the STAR test four times (3 in the fall and once in January)  The STAR test is also new to our school this year as it replaced the MAP test.   I have taken the January test results to determine lexile reading levels of each student in this study and included this information in the chart below:

As you can clearly see, according to this assessment, the majority of this class reads on a 6th grade level, and not one of the students is reading on a high school level.

My next step is to complete the San Diego Quick Assessment (SDQA) for all students in the study to the two.  I can't wait to see what the comparison reveals.

The SDQA measures a student's ability to read and recognize grade-level words as they are viewed out of context.  The test consists of 13 lists of equally difficult words that correspond to designated grade levels.  When conducting this test, the proctor is to begin with a list that is 2 or 3 levels below the reading level of the student.  As the student reads each list, the examiner is to note which and how many of the words in the list that the student mispronounces.  Once errors begin, they can be interpreted as follows:

1 error  = Independent Reading Level
2 errors = Instructional Reading Level
3 errors = Frustrating Reading Level

Today, I was able to give the SDQA  to student #4 and found that there was certainly a correlation between the two assessments with this student.  Her Lexile level score on the STAR test indicates that she reads on a 5th grade level, and when reading the words below, she went from reading independently with the 4th grade words but shot straight to the frustration level with the 5th grade words.  I feel like these are so close that when looking at the two, I have a fairly solid understanding of where she it.  It's nice to know this and makes me really excited to see what this reveals with the other 20 students in my study!

What's the problem? What's so difficult?

Back to the survey data!  The more I look at the Baseline Reading Survey, the more valuable I see this information.  It is so nice to really stop and examine what my students think about reading.  I think sometimes as teachers we are SO bogged down, we think we are tapping into every need of our students and that we really know them, but we may not be as much as linked-in as we think.   Today, I am examining the following question: 

WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST DIFFICULT ABOUT READING? 

Prior to the survey, I would have have put money on the following response that they "just don't like it."  Well, well, well...what a surprise! I don't know everything after all!  I was completely blown away to learn that 50% of them find unknown and difficult words to be the most difficult! What!?! Vocabulary!?!  Never in a million years...so....now, I see that vocabulary work is much needed, and I am seeing a need to incorporate this skill into our work EVERY DAY!  In fact, the journals need to incorporate a new "word of the day" - selected individually by each student from whatever they read that day in class.  We shall see...this may help!

In addition to struggles with vocabulary, my students shared a number of other difficulties:

How do you rate?

Today, I distributed a Baseline Reading Survey and have begun to crunch some of the data.  These open-ended questions were handwritten.  

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (ten is the best) how would you rate your feelings about reading:

2. What do you like about reading?

3. Why is this?

4. What do you dislike about reading?

5. Why do you think this is?

6. What do you find most difficult about reading?

7. What are some things that help you with reading?

8. Have you noticed your reading improving as you get older?

9. If you answered yes to #8, why do you think it has?

10. If you answered no to #8, why do you think it hasn’t?

I am finding this sooooooooo interesting and I am loving seeing my students thoughts on reading and it is amazing how much I am learning just by looking at their thoughts differently than I have before!  I thought I totally knew my kids, but just from this little ten question survey, I feel so much more in touch.  The first question asked them to "rank" themselves as readers - simple scale of 1 to 10 with ten being the best.  When I first looked at it, I tallied the percentages of 1's, 2's, etc...They were all so similar, it really didn't tell me anything - I have included that graph below: 

The next chart  includes the same data in a different way.  As I mentioned, the first chart didn't really reveal a quick glance of my students' opinions of their reading abilities.  As a result, I decided to "rank" the 1 to 10 scale as percentages: 

A = 9-10

B = 8

C = 7

D = 6

F = 5 and below