Growing up, Reading was my least favorite subject. I did not find reading interesting and did not enjoy reading. I only read what was required in school and did not read for pleasure. Also while in middle school and high school, I was placed in the regular reading classes. This may seem okay to most people, but I was always pushing myself to be a higher achiever. I was in advanced math classes and thought I should be in the advanced reading classes as well; however, I was placed in the "on level" reading classes which made me feel like I was not very good at reading. No matter how hard I tried and worked on the placement tests, I was never placed in the advanced reading classes. This also left me not being able to take AP English in high school. I did not like being an "average" student in reading, I wanted to excel. Having leveled classes in middle school and high school gave me a stigma that I was a poor reader and not good at it. Like Marie Clay put it, "I learned how to be learning disabled." No, I was not actually learning disabled. I did not have to go through reading interventions or anything like that, but being labeled as "average" made me feel that way. This stigma has stuck with me still. Becoming a teacher, I wondered how I was going to teach my students to be good readers when I have always had the idea that I was not a great reader. Prior to this course, I thought I was not a very good Reading teacher and my students were benefitting from not having me as their "Reading" teacher. I thought everything related to reading and learning reading strategies was for the designated Reading time in our schedule. Since my teaching partner and I have departmentalized, I thought I had "gotten out of" having to do any of the teaching of reading strategies. However, during this course I learned that I am still a reading teacher even though I do not teach the designated Reading time.
Prior to this course, I had experience with a few different literacy assessments: Fountas and Pinnell Running Records, Developmental Reading Assessments (DRAs), Words Their Way Spelling Inventory, PALS, Forward, and STAR. My only experience with progress monitoring had been with STAR and we only progress monitor the students once during our Response to Intervention time so it is not something that is done consistently to check for progress. I also had experience with the literacy intervention programs, Read Naturally Live and Reading Plus. During our Response to Intervention time, I have always had the group of students who need reading intervention and have used the programs of Read Naturally Live and Reading Plus. I also have done all Words Their Way instruction for the fifth grade. I had always thought as the teacher of the reading intervention group that I needed more knowledge of reading assessments and the areas of literacy that should be focused on. I have always used Read Naturally and Reading Plus with my Response to Intervention group because they are the programs I am familiar with. Other teachers in my Grade-Band Team have wanted to get experience with the programs but I have been scared to try something different because I felt incapable of creating a reading program or intervention instruction on my own.
Through the Assessment course, I gained a deeper understanding of the literacy assessments that I currently use and gained knowledge and expertise in additional literacy assessments that can be used within my classroom. Through this course, I have gained confidence in being able to help my students reach literacy goals by deepening my understanding of literacy assessments. I am able to use assessments in a more meaningful way to guide instruction for each student and find specifically what each child needs further instruction in. I have also found ways to adjust assessments I have been given by our district curriculum to make them more student-friendly and family-friendly. Making modifications to current assessments has also made it more clear to myself what exactly I should be assessing students on by aligning the current assessments and components to the Common Core State Standards. Since I have a more clear vision of what needs to be assessed through the modified rubrics, I can better instruct and guide my students to what is expected of them.
After the Assessment course and in the Practicum, I was able to apply what I learned to tutor two struggling readers over fifteen sessions. One of the readers was at the elementary level and the other reader was at the secondary level. During the Practicum, I assessed the students at the beginning of our sessions and again at the end of our sessions to check for growth. The assessments I used were STAR Reading, Fountas and Pinnell, Words Their Way Spelling Inventories, San Diego Quick Assessment, and QRI-6. I did not have experience actually conducting all of these assessments prior to the practicum. We did practice conducting a QRI-6 during the assessment course which helped give me confidence when conducting this assessment with my tutoring students. I used the formal and informal assessments I learned about to provide a clear starting point for the lesson plans for the sessions. From there, I spent time after each lesson reflecting on the outcomes of the activities. By continuously reflecting after each session, I was able to create lesson plans that seamlessly built off the prior one and adjusted as many times as needed throughout the practicum. Each of my lessons utilized a combination of word study, comprehension, and fluency practice. After the first few sessions, I developed a repeated routine for each session. The repeated routine was very important for the two students that I tutored since the predictable pattern was helpful to build student confidence and reduce frustration or anxiety, which could have been the difference between the success or failure of the practicum experience. Throughout the practicum, I learned much more than I ever anticipated. After completing the sessions and case study, I was able to share what I learned and discovered with my case study student and his parents to make the work I did with him more relevant and hopefully allow his family or someone else to continue to work with him where I left off.
At the beginning of the practicum, I was feeling quite overwhelmed and did not know where to begin or how I was going to be able to develop an intervention. As a result of the overall practicum experience, I have grown as an educator. As a result of this class and the required case study, I now feel comfortable using multiple assessments to identify a student's strengths and areas for improvement to become a better reader or writer. After this practicum experience, I have a much better understanding of a wide variety of assessments, find exactly what students need support with to grow as readers, and how it can be used to guide my instruction. I will use the data I gather from assessments to create individualized instruction for struggling readers. To be an effective interventionist, my lessons need to be purposeful while incorporating the resources that I have, along with engaging in best practice strategies and progress monitoring tools, to keep my instruction student-focused and driven by data.
Completing this case study, along with the lesson plans, parent report, and test comparison report allowed me the opportunity to learn more about how to design a unique curriculum to truly benefit the needs of a specific student. Now that I have completed the intervention, case study, and testing, I am going to focus my own classroom teaching more on how I can adjust my strategies to fit the needs of my students. I have a better grasp on the strategies that will help me meet the needs of students at a variety of reading levels at each grade level. The practicum experience was an influential part of the culmination of my growth and understanding, especially utilizing this new learning in an effective way to ensure that I am helping my students continue to grow as readers. I also hope to share what I have learned with my co-workers.