Action Plan
What was implemented?
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Structured guided reading format planned using Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum
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Selection of instructionally-appropriate level texts for each group
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Focused on text level appropriate skills
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Pre-planned targeted questions to increase comprehension
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Included questions within, beyond, and about the text
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Intentionally planned word work to maximize students' phonics skills
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Pacing of each lesson designed to meet groups' needs
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Guided writing used to increase comprehension
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Prompts to teach and reinforce decoding and comprehension
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Implemented decoding strategy chart depicting common vowel patterns
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Implemented summarizing chart to identify key story details
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Use of Close Readers
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Focused on comprehension
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Required text evidence in answers
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Responsive planning and determination of group priorities based on:
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Anecdotal notes recording student reading behaviors
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Running records used to evaluate progress and understanding
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Teacher reflection of lessons
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Administered student perception surveys
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Gave information about student interest in personal and academic reading
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Identified areas needing improvement
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Additional Teacher Action
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Reorganized guided reading folder to include running record and anecdotal note data for all groups
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Created schedule for running record formative assessments
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Completed teacher perception survey
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Identified areas needing improvement of teacher planning
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When and with whom?
Students from my second grade class at a Title 1 elementary school and students from two other second grade classes that participated in my guided reading groups. The groups were created after evaluating the specific needs of each student, their guided reading level, and reading achievement. There were a total of four groups; two groups had 4 students, one group had five students, and one group was one-on-one. 10 of the 14 students came from my own class.
How and why?
Guided Reading Lessons
Utilizing a structured guided reading plan enabled me to work with students at their individual reading level and to focus on the particular skills students needed additional practice with. The preplanned word work for each group provided students with decoding strategies and phonics understanding necessary for them to be successful with the rigor of the text at their level. Purposefully planning within, beyond, and about the text questions provided evidence of student understanding and indicated skills students mastered or needed improvement on. Using the Literacy Continuum to preplan these questions ensured that students would have the opportunity to discuss and articulate the concepts and ideas required of their reading level.
Decoding Strategy Chart
Students had a hard time decoding words and looking for parts they knew while reading. Many of the words in second grade level texts consisted of vowel pattern sounds that students struggled to remember or identify. The vowel pattern chart was implemented to help students identify parts they knew and continue to decode the text. I was able to prompt students using the chart when they came to an unknown word. Furthermore, students were able to reference the chart independently during both reading and guided writing to increase their self-monitoring.
Close Readers & Summarization Chart
Using Close Readers was another way to improve comprehension, a key component to reading and literacy. Research suggested that students should be able to draw inferences from their reading and should use the text to answer comprehension questions. Student Close Readers provided brief segments of text, followed by a combination of questions that required inferencing skills and citation of text evidence. Using the Close Readers scaffolded students to using the comprehension strategies in other texts as well. Utilizing the summarization chart was a way to provide scaffolding for students to determine the main ideas or key elements of a story when asked within the text questions. It could also be used as a reference to elicit discussion and to prompt students during guided writing.
Student Interest Survey
The action plan began with administering a reading interest inventory. Students were asked to rate how they felt about different aspects of both academic and personal reading. They ranked themselves based on a four point scale using Garfield pictures; happiest, slightly smiling, mildly upset, and very upset Garfield. Knowing how students felt about reading helped me identify students that needed to encourage and engage more in the lessons. I also ended the research study with the same interest survey to determine if purposefully planned and engaging lessons would impact their interest in reading for academic and personal purposes.
