Term 3 Data Shifts

Once again, the end of the term is upon us and I set out to test my Focus group of children using the PROBE reading test.  However, as I began testing other students in my class quickly became interested and asked to be tested as well.  Before I knew it, I was using nearly all of my classroom release time to test my reading students. I am so pleased to know that nearly every student in my class has made 6 months progress during this term (this will be discussed in detail further down in the post).

The above data is based on Running Record tests conducted using the PROBE test. 

The above graph illustrates the shift of my focus group throughout the year so far. Students A, B, E, G and I all went up an additional 0.5 years this term, while Students C, D, and F went up 1.0 years this term.  It is also important to note that Student H has relocated and is no longer a student at our school.

It was my intention to work primarily with the learning needs indicated from the Term 2 testing data of students D and F this term in an effort to see accelerated growth from them by the end of this term.  I am so please to see that both of these students have made a year progress this term.  Student I has also made 0.5 years progress during the term since arriving at our school.

During the upcoming term, we will be focusing on reading plays as part of our Inquiry topic. However, I would really like to give my class some opportunities to read and discuss longer texts.  I hope to have them read at least one chapter book next term.

Small Steps to Vocabulary Success!

One of the things that I have been considering recently is how successful has the deep diving been when developing vocabulary acquisition with my students this year.  I discussed my initial process with Deep Diving in an earlier blog post found here.

Recently, I spent some time deep diving a few words/phrases that I felt were important to discuss with my reading group prior to beginning the text.  However, I asked students to circle any words or phrases that they were unsure of while reading the article with a partner.  It was my intention to spend some time discussing these words as a group later in the week.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that some students took it upon themselves to deep dive/word web the identified words/phrases and share their understanding on their blogs.  This is seen in Lillyana's blog post below.

Click here to see this post and interact with the slides.

I was really impressed with Lillyana's post because also took the time to indicate using a question mark (?) the possible definitions for the words she was exploring.