Rationale

DEMOGRAPHICS

For the 2020-2021 school year, I taught third grade in a suburban school. There were 188 students enrolled in my school, 24% of those students were English Language Learners, 72% qualified for free/reduced lunch, and just 3% were high ability learners. Over half of the students enrolled, 63.83%, were classified as a minority. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we started the year in the yellow instructional level, meaning I taught 50% of my students on A days and the other 50% on B days. My district made the decision to move from the yellow instructional level to the green instructional level at the end of February, which meant 100% of my students came every day. There were 23 students in my third grade class; nine boys and 14 girls. There was a wide variety of needs in my classroom. I had two students who are deaf and hard of hearing and two students who were newcomers. Six students qualified for special education/deaf education, nine students qualified for reading intervention, six english learners, and nine students used counseling services.

IMPORTANCE

A student’s feelings toward independent reading can be a deciding factor if they are going to be a successful reader. Oftentimes, at a young age, students develop feelings of doubt. The thoughts of “I am not a good reader,” “I suck at reading,” “I hate reading,” frequent their minds, leading impressionable students to truly feel these ideas. As an educator, it is important to instill confidence in students to encourage them to put forth 100% effort in all they do. Reading is a vitally important skill that supports all content areas and areas of life. If students have the confidence and skills to read, and become better readers, that may facilitate a desire to read.

NEED

The data collected in beginning of the school year had shown a drastic need for an improvement in reading in varying areas. Based on data and observations, I noticed the need for improved reading fluency, comprehension, and most of all, desire to read.

MEASURE OF ACADEMIC PROGRESS (MAP)

REALLY GREAT READING (RGR)

OBSERVATIONS

ATTITUDE SURVEY

The beginning of the year MAP (measures for academic performance) data had shown that 12 students scored in the low range, meaning they scored in the less than 21st percentile. I had six students who scored in the low to low average range, meaning they scored in the 21st to 40th percentile. One student scored in the average range, scoring in the 41st to 60th percentile and two students in the high average, scoring in the 61st to 80th percentile. The norm MAP score for 3rd grade is 186. My students scored as follows: 149 (2), 153, 155 (2), 156, 158, 166, 167 (2), 169, 170, 176, 177 (2), 178, 180, 182, 185, 197, 199.

Another piece of data collected is from a phonics curriculum called Really Great Reading (RGR). Normally, RGR instruction would not be administered to 3rd grade, but there was a strong need for a whole class intervention displayed in the data collected.

14 out of 23 students displayed a decoding deficit, five students were classified as emerging learners, leaving three students who measured to be strong decoders. The data collected proved the need of a whole class phonics intervention.

A huge indicator of the need for an improvement in reading skills/desire was seen in my observations during individualized daily reading (IDR). IDR is a time during our school day where students have 25 minutes to read a book of their choice. Something I noticed was well over half of my students visibly did not enjoy reading independently nor did they actually read during the allotted time set aside. I did not want this time to go to waste. I wanted students to use this time to truly read and want to read.

At the beginning of the school year, I had students complete an attitude survey to see their feelings towards reading. I instructed students to be completely honest in their answers. 62% of students selected "never" as their response to the statement - I like to read books at school. After reflecting on that data, I knew this was something I wanted to change. I wanted students to develop a love for reading and a desire to read.

Focus Students - Why?

For my action research, I chose to focus on six students specifically rather than my whole class. This choice was made as a result of the data collected in the beginning of the year. These students displayed a need that other students did not. While I continued to implement the strategies chosen with my whole class, I intentionally focused on these six students. Below you will see a profile of each student.

1

MAP - 155

SPED

Reading Intervention

Behavior

Counseling

Low Motivation

2

MAP - 170

Reading Intervention

English Learner

Counseling

Low Motivation

3

MAP- 170

SPED

Speech Intervention

Reading Intervention

Counseling

High Motivation

4

MAP - 167

Reading Intervention

High Motivation

5

MAP - 166

Reading Intervention

Very Low Motivation

6

MAP - 166

Reading Intervention

English Learner

Counseling

Low Motivation

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