Rationale

My capstone project was centered around 20 third grade students in an Omaha-metro school district. Currently at this elementary, there are 569 students enrolled in our building. Out of these 569 students, 78.5% are Caucasian, and only 1.1% of these students qualify for free and reduced lunch. The students families need to live in our boundary lines which is only a one mile radius around the school. Within the classroom, I have 11 boys and 9 girls, all of which come from a high socio-economic background. I have two students in the Student Assistance Team (SAT) process, both for ADHD. Four of my students are receiving additional enrichment instruction in reading from our High Ability Learner Education (HALE) teacher. I have four students on a IRIP (Individualized Reading Plan) that get support from the Reading Specialist and four others that receive extra math and reading interventions.

The data I collected from my students overall showed a need in reading comprehension. I have 7 students that scored below the 50th percentile for the Fall MAP reading test. Based on the test, my class struggled with literary text-theme and analysis the most with 14% in the low range. This shows me that they have little to no concept of what theme and analysis are when comprehending text. At the end of every week, I administer a weekly Wonders reading test that assesses students over the skills learned that week, comprehension ability, and text-dependent analysis understanding. I have a wide variety of test scores ranging from 29% to 100%. There are 7 students that average a score of 50% each week, which shows they are not obtaining the comprehension skill we learned that week. Another observation I have made is their focus/engagement during the lessons and reading stations is lacking. This showed me that I needed to focus our time in guided reading groups on practicing weekly comprehension skills and applying those to our leveled readers to better engage my students. Qualitative and quantitative data I took included their MAP winter and spring reading scores, weekly Wonders assessments, how they felt about reading groups (students survey), scoring their focus/engagement during reading stations, and formative assessment tasks such as exit tickets and targeted questions.

The information I gained from this study is important because it allowed me to identify if the implementation of explicit instruction during guided reading groups increased student comprehension. It allowed me to understand and identify my readers and where they need support, assist me with instruction, and different strategies I can implement each week. This study helped me support each student where they fall individually and encouraged me to challenge them in their areas of strength. I did this by differentiating instruction each week during small groups. I strongly believe that with a better understanding and practice of comprehension strategies in small groups, it did better equip them for understanding text and helped their ability to learn in my classroom. Because I found success in my research, I will be better equipped for future years with the readers that are placed into my room.