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Collaborative Learning Community Data Analysis

Students first name: Collaborative Group members: Assessment Administrator: Date:

A. Context and Purpose (Completed by teacher in advance of meeting.) Relevant Background on Student, Concern, Instructional Context
Provide what is necessary (e.g., student age, concern is comprehension of content area texts, new to school, asks for repetition of directions), not what may direct participants (e.g., suspect adhd, autism) Jason is an 8th grade student. He will be turning 14 next month. He is knowledgeable about a lot of topics and uses his background knowledge to further discussions. Jason rushes through his reading and I am concerned that he is not comprehending when he silent reads. He struggles with being able to pay attention without direct adult involvement.

Assessment
Name assessment(s) used, briefly describe materials or procedures not known to others (e.g., QRI, using contrasting narrative and expository passages from grade levels pre-primary through 4th grade). I used the QRI-4 with Jason. Administration starts with word lists to provide a beginning point for the reading passages. Passages include both narrative and expository. Each passage checks for familiarity on the topic before reading. Once the student reads, they retell what they have read and then answer comprehension questions about the passage. This IRI also allows for look-backs if they are unable to answer the comprehension questions. It also allows for testing silent reading skills.

B. Observations What do you see? Students reading, writing and related behaviors in context of text, setting using this assessment
Limit remarks to observed behavior, (e.g., One can see a student respond to a comprehension question with a comment about a favorite movie; one cannot see his focus); suspend judgment; what not why. Include context as specifically as possible (e.g., responded to comprehension questions with info from own experience (rather than from text) in the context of passages that involved animals, a favorite topic).

1. What could the student do?

Jason reads up to level 6 passages with comprehension. When reading out loud, his miscues retain grammar and meaning. An example of this would be reading beside, when the text word was side. He also left off endings of several words, however still retained meaning. Examples of this would be reading road for roads or pull instead of pulling. Due to my concern with whether or not Jason was comprehending when he silent read, he read several passages to himself. This demonstrated that he could comprehend passages through level 6. He also uses his background knowledge to make predictions of what the passages will be about.

2. What skills is the student developing (can almost do)?

Jason is almost reading fluently. He has a pattern of leaving off the endings of words. Examples include reading class for classes or safe for safety. Jason also makes good use

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of the opportunities to look back in the text for answers to the questions. He nearly always finds the answers. An example of this is after silent reading Life Cycles of Stars- Part 1, he answered the following question- In a low-mass star, what does hydrogen change intowith this answer- gas and it helps create the stars. The answer was helium. He knew it was a gas and when given the opportunity to look back, he was able to give me helium as an answer. He does this on several occasions; describing what it is the answer is looking for without giving the exact word the assessment was requiring.

3. What is the student not yet able to do (that he really needs to do)?
Jason struggles to monitor his own comprehension when silent reading. When he read aloud passages, his comprehension was better. When reading aloud higher level texts, the lookback option was used more frequently. One look back was used on a level 4 and 6 were used on a level 5. The number of look backs used stayed high for the rest of the silent reading passages except for the one entitled, Pele, which was about soccer and a soccer player. I was able to give Jason the think-aloud assessment and this demonstrated that Jason mostly reread the text to me. He also made comments like, That is intriguing to me or I want to learn more. He made few new connections with what he already knew. Jason also struggled with retelling what the passage was about throughout all of the passages.

C. Analysis How to organize what you see?

Look for patterns of strengths and needs. Think about how student may be processing or thinking about text. Bring order to data and develop more complete understanding of how student approaches text, tasks. Provide specific examples as evidence of patterns that you discover. Jason understands concept questions and uses miscues that retain meaning when reading out loud. He is able to use look backs productively. He utilizes his extensive background experiences and prior knowledge throughout the passages when making predictions for what the passage will be about. Jason struggles with monitoring his comprehension when silent reading. He struggles to answer concept questions when silent reading. When reading out loud, Jason leaves off endings to words which could interfere with others learning if they are listening to him read. Jason uses think alouds as a way to reread or report back the text that he has written. He struggles to summarize or put the passage into his own words.

D. Interpretation Why?
Consider data, patterns, evidence, and specific areas of relative strength and areas that need support to grow. What factors may be contributing to students strengths or affecting growth areas? Consider possible hypotheses and support your thinking. Take into account learner resources, text characteristics, and elements of instructional context as well as sociocultural context of school (e.g., all students read like their hair is on fire for 3 minutes at the outset of each language arts class), home (e.g., home language), and community. Jason likes to read and can read most words. He understands when he reads out loud better than when silent reading. Jason seems to enjoy most readings. Jason does seem to rush through when reading out loud, losing those endings of words. Jason struggles with

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focusing for long periods of time, making sustained silent reading an area of concern. He is better engaged when moving.

E. Plan
Regarding assessment: What additional information might you gather to support or modify your hypotheses about this students learning? How might you collect that information? What further questions might you have? What will be your next step? Regarding instruction: What are implications of for instruction of the patterns that you see and the hypotheses that you form? I would like to know if his comprehension would be different on reading out loud the level 6 and upper middle school passages would be different than reading out loud. Is it the silent reading piece affecting comprehension or is the reading too difficult. I will administer more passages with him reading out loud. I would also practice the think aloud strategy with him again. I believe that with a bit more modeling and a reminder of how we use think alouds, he would be able to begin making connections with the text and wouldnt feel the need to reread the passage to me. I also would like to focus on comprehension strategies that he could use while silent reading. This could include graphic organizers, sticky notes, or a tape recorder to recorder thoughts as reading. I also feel that incorporating movement into what he does is important, whether that is using the white board to record thoughts or silent reading while pacing or sitting on a therapy ball.

F. Rationale
How does this IRI assessment align with or fail to align with your definition of reading? Be sure to reference your definition and provide support from the literature for that definition. To the extent that this IRI assessment does not fully meet the requirements of your definition of reading, what do you want to build into your next assessment to capture what is missing from the IRI? Reading is an interactive, multi-faceted concept. Afflerbach says that reader motivation is an important part of the reading process (2012). The QRI-4 questions and some of the passages failed to honor this idea. The questions were one dimensional. For example, one of the questions was Why does a baby whale stay with its mother for a year? My student gave the answer, not big enough to fend for itself. This is a true statement. But the answer required that he say it gets food from its mother. The IRI does not allow for teacher judgment on the answers. The questions were surface level questions, rarely asking for student opinions or thinking, and if there were questions, the answers dictated what the student should think. Reading assessment should allow for students to explore their own thinking. A comprehensive reading assessment would include an opportunity for teachers to use their best judgment in terms of the questions asked and answered. It would allow for student interests. Jason would do well on an assessment based on a topic that was engaging and motivating to him. I think he would do well on this assessment whether he was reading aloud or silent reading the text. The QRI-4 seems to do the best job of IRIs in terms of taking into account most of the components of reading. The problem that I see is that reading is not made up of

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components. Reading is the interaction of all of these components and taking them out piece by piece interferes with reading.