Action Plan

As my capstone project focused on using specific methods of instruction to teach decoding strategies with a specific lesson plan format, the majority of the action plan was dedicated to teacher-focused steps. The students in this capstone project benefited from the instructional practices used, which are described below. As the teacher, all of the following action steps were used to better impact overall student achievement in reading.

The action plan was carried out over six consecutive weeks.

Click below to look at the Action Plan schedule

Action Plan

What WAS implemented?

Implementation of guided reading groups

One of the groups met every day for guided reading lessons, Two groups met only on Tuesday and Thursday, and the other two groups met on Wednesdays, and Fridays. The groups are composed of four or five students each, the groups were created after re-evaluating the needs of specific students and guided reading levels, and determining which students would work well in a group.

Materials for instruction

Selection of instructionally-appropriate level books for each group, which required:

Guided reading lesson plans with specific structure, pacing, and focus. Teaching points were selected based on student data, as well as looking at the weekly whole group reading skills and strategies for implementation.

The use of running records, fresh reads, and decodable reader books were included in the implementation of guided reading groups.

The running record allows the teacher to record a child's reading behavior as he or she reads from the book. I also used running records to track students accuracy and fluency while reading in guided reading groups.

Fresh reads are reading passages that students read aloud in guided reading groups followed along by comprehension questions. Fresh reads were used to track and strengthen students comprehension skills.

Decodable Readers are small booklets with a story that target a phonics skill. Decodable Readers were used in guided reading groups to strengthen students fluency when learning new phonic sounds.

Explicit decoding strategies

The creation and implementation of decoding strategy bookmarks were given to each student to encourage and promote the use of decoding strategies while reading independently and in small reading groups. The bookmarks included animal decoding strategies that were taught during whole group reading instruction.

Student surveys

Student surveys were administered to measure each students’ personal feelings about reading.

Fluency Folders

Fluency Folders were used with the intervention group (students reading below grade level) at the beginning of each week. These folders were taken home and brought back at the end of the week for testing purposes. This provided for purposeful practice at home.

Goal Journals with Exit Tickets

A goal journal was introduced and used during small group instruction for students to track progress and promote a growth mindset about reading.

Teaching students how to write specific reading goals and how to accomplish those goals was used when filling out their goal journals.

The utilization of exit tickets in small reading groups was used to encourage students to communicate feelings about their reading.

Animal Decoding Strategy Bookmark

While reading, students often had difficulty using a decoding strategy to read an unknown word. I helped promote the use of specific decoding strategies by providing, teaching and modeling each strategy on the bookmark. When I observed a student using a strategy from the bookmark, I reinforced them with a positive message. I also used the strategies as prompts when the students were stuck on a tricky word. The decoding strategy bookmark gave students a way to decode words they did not know when reading in guided reading groups or independently.

Fluency Folders

At the beginning of each week I would send home a fluency folder with each of my students in the intervention group. The fluency folder consisted of a reading passage, and a documentation sheet for parents to initial each day the student practiced the reading passage. Every Friday students would return the fluency folder and I would time the students on how many words they read per minute. Students recorded words read per minute on their graphs from week to week to be able to see and reflect on their progress. The fluency folders encouraged students to practice reading at home while learning new words, increasing accuracy and to gain the feeling of reading faster and faster each week.

Student Interest Survey

Prior to beginning the action plan, I gave students a reading interest inventory, which consisted of questions asking how students felt about certain aspects of academic and personal reading. The students then rated their feelings using a Likert Scale in which the students would choose one of the three responses. These responses helped me to identify students who needed to be encouraged in reading. I used specific, positive praise to encourage students to be more confident readers. Giving the surveys again at the end of the action plan helped me determine if their attitude had changed over the six weeks of instruction.

Goal Journaling and Exit Tickets

The goal of using exit tickets and goal journaling was to build a reflection platform to help students develop a growth mindset about reading. By filling out exit tickets after guided reading groups, students were able to reflect on goals they had reached and could better understand their feelings during reading instruction. Goal journaling showed me what students wanted to do and learn in reading instruction, this acted a guide when planning guided reading groups. Exit tickets allowed me to see students' feelings after reading instruction. Goal journaling and exit tickets encouraged students to reflect on their reading and make their own adjustments going forward.

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