Guided Reading in the Kindergarten Classroom

Transcription

1 Guided Reading in the Kindergarten Classroom Lisa A. Jelinek Spring 2005 Elem Ed 720 Action Research in Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Judith Hankes and Elem Ed 792 Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Michael Beeth

2 Table of Contents Abstract Page 3 Statement of the Problem Page 4 Situating the Problem Page 4 Review of Literature Page 6 Methods Page 15 Data Collection Page 15 Results Page 18 Conclusions Page 25 References Page 29 Apppendices Page 30 2

3 Abstract Strong research shows that students learn best when lessons are differentiated for their own needs. An effective way to differentiate literacy instruction is through the use of guided reading, a process I was previously familiar with but lacked enough information to effectively use this method with my students. In an effort to meet the needs of my students, I researched this method and utilized it with my kindergarten students. I began my study by researching the guided reading instructional process developed by Fountas and Pinnell (1996) and used this information to format lessons that would best fit students needs based on their current reading levels. Students were grouped with others who had similar needs. I met with these groups frequently over a four-week period to teach concepts about print and decoding strategies for students to apply during their independent reading times as well as practicing letter and sound recognition. The use of guided reading groups helped my students to learn necessary strategies in order to become more effective independent readers. Data gathered after the intervention period shows that every student made gains in literacy, including rhyming word recognition, letter and sound recognition and understanding basic concepts about print. Observations of the students during independent reading times also show that the students were applying these skills without prompting from the teacher. 3

4 Statement of the Problem The district in which I teach strongly supports and encourages the use of guided reading as a literacy instruction method for kindergarten through grade 5. However, as a third year kindergarten teacher, I did not feel adequately prepared to use this approach. This problem motivated me to conduct the study reported in this paper. The following questions guided my review of literature: 1. What are the most important kindergarten literacy skills? 2. What is the format of a guided reading lesson? 3. How are guided reading lessons sequenced? I utilized the answers to these questions in conjunction with other research to discover how to effectively teach guided reading to maximize my students learning. Situating the Problem The K 5 elementary school where I currently teach and conducted this study has approximately four hundred students. The school has and serves a predominantly middle class socioeconomic community with very little ethnic diversity. I conducted this study during my third year teaching kindergarten, my third year attempting to use guided reading as a method of teaching literacy to kindergarteners. In many ways, I feel that my first two years of teaching were more like a survival game. I found myself constantly trying to learn about the curriculum, hone my classroom management skills and truly begin to understand what kindergarten children need. Although I feel much more settled and comfortable with my job and expectations, I am by no means under the impression that my understandings about kids are complete. In 4

5 fact, this was the perfect time to use my current understandings along with researched methods to become a more effective instructor. In my classroom, much like a majority of classrooms these days, my students have a broad range of academic backgrounds. There are some kindergarteners who begin their formal educational experiences in preschool, long before they enter my classroom. Others have some limited experience in day care facilities. Still others have had little to no experience with formal educational settings. This, in addition to other factors, contributes to the broad range of levels of understanding in my classroom, from low to average and even advanced. There is a distinct difficulty in meeting all student needs in the most effective manner. Often, whole group instruction does not allow all students to participate and practice skills, especially skills at their own level of understanding. It is difficult to teach lessons that challenge those at a more advanced level. Also, the attention of all students is never guaranteed continuously. Allowing the students to learn literacy in centers also poses many of the same problems. These instructional methods are both important and necessary to use in classrooms. However, to maximize student learning, lessons need to be more individualized to meet each student s needs. One research based instructional method that addresses this issue is guided reading. As I reflected on my teaching of literature and guided reading from last year, I recalled how unhappy I was with my guided reading lessons. Often these lessons lacked a focus, a scaffolding of skills and a revisiting of previously taught skills. There was no smooth flow from one reading skill to another. Because these skills and strategies were not reinforced as much as they should be, students quickly forgot about them and frequently did not employ them during independent reading times. I wanted to know how I could improve my instruction. 5

6 My goal for this action research project is to sharpen my guided reading instruction to encourage students to become more effective and independent readers. As a result, I expect to see a good portion of my students exceed the school district s goal of reading at a Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) level four by the end of kindergarten. I also expect that my students will be proficient on the district s Integrated Literacy Checklist which assesses reading comprehension, alphabet recognition and early literacy skills (such as concepts about print). If I am successful, my students will employ these effective reading behaviors on their own during independent reading times. Review of Literature In 1996, regular education classroom teachers were introduced to a new way of teaching literacy known as guided reading. Prior to its introduction in regular education classrooms, this method was used in Reading Recovery programs under the direction of Marie Clay in New Zealand and other countries. Since its mainstream introduction through the book Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996) this innovative literacy approach has been embraced by teachers around the world as an effective means to teach reading to all children. The district in which I am employed strongly supports and encourages the use of this approach at the elementary level. Early literacy skills kindergarten students should know According to Marie Clay, elementary teacher and clinical psychologist, children eventually need to grasp the following concepts (although not necessarily at the same time) (Clay, 2002): 6

7 Knowing the front and back of the book Understanding that print contains a message Knowing which page to begin reading, where to start reading on that page, which way to go and to return sweep at the end of a line Word-by-word matching (one to one match) Knowing the concept of first and last Understanding different punctuation and what each is used for Understanding the concept of a word and a letter Knowing the difference between capital and lowercase letters Reading words in the correct sequence In addition to teaching these basic concepts about print, guided reading lessons should focus on teaching a variety of decoding strategies and teaching text comprehension strategies. What is Guided Reading? Guided reading is an approach that begins by looking at students strengths and needs. The classroom teacher s observations are used in conjunction with the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) by Joetta Beaver to determine a child s current reading level. The DRA has two portions the students are assessed on. One part is a mathematical percentage score based on the accuracy of the child s reading of a text using a running record (see appendix A for two examples of running records). This includes errors and self-corrections that are made. The other portion of the score is an assessment of the child s reading behaviors, such as basic concepts about print and the fluency of the oral reading. At levels four and up, the reading behaviors assessment also includes questions about the child s comprehension of the text and requires the student to retell the story. Both an independent reading level (95% accuracy and above) and an instructional reading level (90% accuracy and above) are determined based on these two factors. After a reading level is determined for the students, they are grouped together in groups comprised of no more than five students based on similar DRA levels and common reading strategies that they use. These groups will work with the teacher to 7

8 gradually learn additional reading strategies and apply them to strengthen their own reading skills and move up in DRA levels. Benefits of using guided reading The ultimate goal in guided reading is to help children learn how to use independent reading strategies successfully (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Guided reading is an approach to teaching literacy that builds on the strengths already present in students. It is a way to differentiate and individualize learning to a student s specific needs. Guided reading helps encourage confidence in readers by taking what they know and slowly adding new reading strategies with support from their teacher. It may be true that using guided reading as the primary literacy instructional method may mean more work and training for a teacher who is accustomed to using a basal reader for the primary literacy instruction method. However, in a typical elementary classroom the broad range of achievement levels makes the classroom basal highly ineffective and unable to meet a majority of the student s needs. The information gathered from students reading behaviors during guided reading lessons is also a driving force during whole group classroom instruction. What happens in the guided reading groups? Each guided reading group is very fluid. As students independently use more skills and increase in their DRA levels, they are regrouped to best meet their needs. Groups could potentially change every few weeks, depending on how the students perform. In the guided reading approach, the teacher constantly assesses (usually informally) and makes observations as to whether the books read are posing enough/too much challenge for each student in the group. Each guided reading group generally meets with the classroom teacher (or in some cases, the reading specialist) a minimum of three times per week. While meeting with the teacher, the group learns new reading strategies and concepts 8

9 about print necessary for independent reading and comprehension while reading a new book. In kindergarten, the groups also learn early concepts about print, such as knowing where to begin reading on a page, knowing the difference between letters and words, knowing how to return sweep, etc. As the DRA levels progress and early concepts about print are mastered, the emphasis in guided reading groups shift to decoding strategies as well as comprehension strategies. What a guided reading lesson looks like A guided reading lesson begins long before the groups of children are seated in front of the teacher. A teacher must prepare for the guided reading lessons by choosing appropriate texts for each group. The texts which are chosen must be just challenging enough that the children are forced to problem solve and use a variety of reading strategies, but not so much that the problem solving interferes with their comprehension of the story. An important factor to keep in mind while choosing books is the students familiarity with the concepts in the book (a child s background knowledge) along with the appeal of the concepts in the book. Each child has their own copy of the book throughout the lesson, so it is imperative that multiple copies of the text are available. Once appropriate texts are chosen, the groups are ready to begin. In some cases, a guided reading lesson may begin with a re-reading of a familiar text, more than likely one which was read during a previous guided reading lesson. Then, it is time for the teacher to begin introducing the new text. This introduction will vary depending on the reading level and interests of the readers as well as the difficulty of the text. At times, an introduction might be as simple as giving a concise overview of the story along with a brief picture walk. In other cases, the introduction may be much more supportive, such as leading the children through the pictures page by page and discussing each one. Either way, the goal of the introduction is not to simplify the book or rewrite the story. [It s 9

10 job] is to focus the children s attention on critical aspects of reading the story by highlighting what they need to take into account and learn about before they begin to read (Pinnell & Scharer, 2001). The introduction of the book should allow enough preparation for the students that during the first reading they should be able to problem solve with a limited amount of help. Now it s time for the students to read the text on their own. At early levels, such as kindergarten, it is acceptable for students to read aloud quietly. Eventually, the goal is to encourage students to read silently. During this reading time, a teacher will listen to the students reading and may take a running record to help analyze errors and selfcorrections. This information will either lead to the mini-lesson portion of the guided reading lesson or to help prepare the guided reading lesson for the following session. The teacher s role at this stage is to also praise the children s appropriate uses of strategies and to help students problem solve when appropriate. Frequently these books are read several times during this portion of the lesson. After reading, the text is discussed with the group. This discussion may include a retelling of the story or connecting it to previous readings. At this time, a strategy may be taught to assist students during future readings. In addition, this would be the time in the lesson to work with words (using white boards, magnetic letters, etc.) that have been troubling students while reading. This strategy will then be practiced, either through another reading of the story, through a written response to the reading, or working with the strategy in another capacity. An important goal of the post-reading portion of the lesson is to allow the children time to reflect on the strategies they used and learned. These can then be applied during future reading times. The books read during guided reading lessons should be placed in browsing boxes that are accessible to children during independent reading time. 10

11 Guided reading in a kindergarten classroom Typically for most students in kindergarten, guided reading does not begin until January. Generally students are not developmentally ready before this time. Sometime between December and January, the children are assessed using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) (Beaver, 2004). In this assessment, children read books at a variety of levels and are asked comprehension questions about the reading. An instructional reading level is found for the student based on the scores of the text reading (from a running record) and the comprehension questions. These instructional levels, generally from levels A to 6 in kindergarten, are used to group kids based on common strengths and needs. Again, these groups of children (guided reading groups) are fluid and change often based on updated DRA scores which may be done as much as once a month. The guided reading groups, which are normally comprised of 2-5 children, meet with the classroom teacher or reading resource teacher at least once a week. Each guided reading lesson generally begins with the reading of a familiar book from a previous lesson. Then, the teacher introduces a new book in which the strategy or skill is practiced. Next, the teacher leads the group in word work and/or the introduction of a new reading strategy. The group may practice the strategy together or with a familiar book. The next guided reading lesson will revisit this skill and, if the group is ready, move on to a new skill the teacher thinks necessary based on the group s earlier reading. Kindergarten reading behaviors A majority of kindergarteners fall in one of two developmental reading stages (or somewhere in between), the emergent reading stage and the early reading stage. A few of the more advanced students may fall into a third stage of development, the transitional reading stage. 11

12 At the emergent reading stage, most children rely heavily on the pictures for reading. Generally, they are not aware of concepts about print (such as how words carry meaning and that we are actually reading these words while we read books). Books at this level (DRA levels A-2 or Fountas and Pinnell s Guided Reading Levels O, A and B) generally have concepts familiar to the students, a small amount of print per page (often only on the left page), large spaces between words, print which is separated from the pictures and pictures which are highly supportive of the text (Pinnell & Scharer, 2001). These books are also very repetitive and utilize a large proportion of high frequency words. Guided reading lessons at this level focus on: How to handle books (finding the front cover, how to turn pages, etc.) Concepts about print (reading left to right, matching one to one, finding the beginning and end of words/sentences, etc.) Following patterns in text Finding known and unknown words Predicting Self-monitoring See appendix B for a sample of a book at the emergent reading stage. In the early stage, children have already gained the basic building blocks of how books work. They can read fluently with phrasing and use at least two of the three cueing systems (meaning, language and visual) to decode while reading. Books at this level (DRA levels 3-14 or Fountas and Pinnell s Guided Reading Levels D-H) have gradually increasing amounts of text, more difficult plots, difficult vocabulary and less repetition. Guided reading lessons at this level focus on: Reading with phrasing and fluency Cross checking information using different cueing systems Reading for meaning Self-correcting while reading Making predictions and connections Discussing story elements (characters, setting, problem, resolution, etc.) See appendix C for a sample of a book at the early reading stage. 12

13 Sometimes, although rarely, a kindergartener will be reading at the transitional level. Generally this stage occurs near the third grade. At this stage, students do not need to spend as much time on word solving (decoding), which allows reading to be more automatic than the previous two stages. This also allows them to begin to read using expression. Students rely heavily on print for information (Pinnell & Scharer, 2001). Books at this level (DRA levels or Fountas and Pinnell s Guided Reading Levels I- P) include many genres of literature (fiction and non-fiction), have complex story and language structures, and few if any illustrations. Guided reading lessons at this level focus on: Understanding and interpreting stories Comprehension strategies Reading critically Using texts as resources Reading silently See appendix D for a sample of a book at the beginning of the transition stage. Long range planning for kindergarten Guided Reading The nature of using Guided Reading is that it builds on individual strengths of children and adapts to meet these needs. This means that it is virtually impossible to plan for a full year s teaching and scaffolding for Guided Reading in addition to concepts covered in guided reading lessons. In fact, it also means that it may be difficult to even plan a month in advance for guided reading lessons. The most effective way to plan for guided reading groups is to reflect daily on the children s strengths and needs, then adapt lessons to fit these needs. For a general overview of concepts that could be covered in kindergarten guided reading groups throughout the course of a year, see Table 1 (Franzese, 2002). Keep in mind that this table does not take into account which skills 13

14 students may have already learned and is also reflective of a classroom that begins guided reading in mid-november. Table 1 Nov./Dec Jan./Feb. Mar./Apr. May/June Use picture to predict text Understand return sweep Self-monitor to see of what is read makes sense, sounds right, and looks right (notices errors) Locate where to begin reading Understand directionality Integrate meaning, structural and visual cues Reread to clarify confusions Reread Verbalize how to use reading strategies Notice if what is read doesn t Self-correct Self-correct match text Turn page correctly Begin to develop fluency and phrasing Match letters and words oneto-one Cross-check meaning with visual cues (initial letters of words) Develop a bank of high frequency words Read and locate known words within a variety of texts Cross-check meaning and structural cues with visual cues (going across word looking for chunks and parts of words-th, sh, ch, wh Develop fluency and phrasing Increase sight word vocabulary Problem solve through analogy (use known to get to the unknown) and search or known features within words clusters str, fr Apply and integrate reading strategies to higher level texts Locate and frame known high frequency words and letters within a word Use known initial letters to figure out unknown words Begin to understand the meaning and use of periods, question marks, and exclamation points Recognize sentence beginnings and endings Understand the meaning and use of quotation marks and ellipses ` Identify capital letters, periods, and spaces between words Differentiate between a letter and a word Make predictions based on title and pictures Understand the meaning of author and illustrator Recognize story patterns 14

15 METHODS Participants The participants in this study were 21 students in my kindergarten classroom. These students ranged in age from 5 to 6 years old and were comprised of almost equal amounts of males and females. There was a vast array of achievement levels ranging from advanced to low, which is generally representative of the other kindergarten classes in the urban elementary school in which I teach. Data Collection In order to evaluate my effectiveness in teaching guided reading and encouraging students to apply these skills in their reading, I collected data from the students and used this in conjunction with data reflecting on my acquired skills. The data collection process from the students began at the beginning of January when I administered the DRA to all students in my class. This was a district mandated three-week window of testing that occurred in all kindergarten classrooms throughout the district. In addition, I assessed the students using my school district s Integrated Literacy Checklist which tested students on their knowledge of concepts about print and letter/sound recognition during the same time frame. See appendix E for a sample of the Integrated Literacy Checklist. The same two assessments were administered at the end of my four-week intervention period, in the middle of February. In addition to these two data sources, data was collected on each student while in their guided reading groups through the use of anecdotal records and running records. Reading was monitored each time I met with the groups. Data was collected through the use of observations during whole group instructional times. These observations were then evaluated to determine if I had indeed gained new skills in my guided reading instruction. 15

16 Intervention Guided reading groups begin After conducting the DRA and the Integrated Literacy Checklist with my students, I used this information to form groups. For this first month of guided reading, I had six groups with no more than four students in each group. The first time I met with each group, it was necessary to explain the purpose of our meeting and clearly outline my expectations for them while they were in the group. Students were told meeting in guided reading groups was a time to learn about reading and to become the best readers possible. My expectations during our meeting were: putting forth their best effort, attempting a task independently before asking for assistance and allowing others the opportunity to do the same. We talked about the different materials we would use during our group time, including dry erase boards, magnetic boards and letters, books and pointers. Then they were able to find a book from the classroom that they felt they could read on their own. In most cases, the students made appropriate choices and were able to independently complete these books on their own while I monitored them. After reading a familiar book, the group s new books were introduced. Since this was the first time any of the students had been in a guided reading group, my introductions were very supportive of the text, regardless of the level they were reading at. We looked through the texts together, using the language of the text and for some groups, I even introduced the pattern of the text. Then students were asked to read the books on their own. I quickly discovered that with my two lower groups, we would have to stop and work on a strategy before they could continue. We went back to the first page and I modeled one to one matching using a pointer. Then the students were asked to do the same. After they understood the strategy and understood the pattern of the story, they were able to complete the reading on their own with minimal assistance. For my other groups, they 16

17 were generally able to read to the end of the story and we were able to go back and work on a strategy using the text. Students then went back and re-read their books while applying their new strategy. After reading, we discussed our favorite parts of the books or retold the story. I explained that this book would be put in their book buckets to read any time they wanted to read it. Guided Reading groups continue The next time I met with each group, we began our guided reading session by re-reading the book we worked on during our previous meeting. I informed the groups that I would be looking for them to be using the strategy we worked on the last time we met. After rereading the familiar text, I introduced their new book. For my higher groups, this introduction was much briefer than the previous one. However, for my two lowest groups who were still struggling with one to one match and following patterns, this introduction was still very supportive of the text. For these two groups I also decided to continue to work on one to one matching for their strategy of the day after noticing these students had not applied the strategy during their independent reading time earlier that week. My other groups were able to read through the texts and then we worked on our strategy of the day. These groups worked on looking at the initial consonants or looking at pictures to help predict what a word might say as well as working on comprehension of the story plot. I met with each group at least one more time before the four-week intervention period was over. During the next meeting, groups chose from two texts in their reading buckets for their re-reading. Each group was encouraged to apply their previously learned strategies while reading their familiar book and their new book as well. Introductions to new books were similar to what they were for the previous meeting - 17

18 more supportive for the lower groups, less supportive for the middle and higher groups. Strategies focused on during this session included: using the pictures to help predict words for the two lowest groups, comprehension strategies for my middle groups and finding a word they knew within an unknown word to aid in decoding for my higher groups, also known as chunking. Results After my intervention period, significant changes happened in my classroom in regard to literacy. The biggest change was that students were much more confident in their reading skills. I observed many students choosing to read their book bucket books during free choice times and other independent reading times. I found some rather significant changes in their DRA scores considering the short intervention window. See table 2 for the class DRA scores and Appendix F for individual student data. There were DRA reading level gains of at least one level or more in 43% of the class, and for the 57% who did not move up any reading levels, all but two of these students maintained their previous reading level. After the intervention window, over half of the class was on track to achieving the district goal of reading at a level four by the end of the year (a level two by this point of the year), a 10% increase in the intervention s 4 week time period. Interestingly enough, after examining my data and reviewing the running records of those two students who appeared to make no progress based on the DRA score, these students did in fact make progress. In the case of my three lowest groups, the main focus of my guided reading lessons was to get them to understand one to one match. After looking back at the running records of these students, almost every one of these 10 children did apply one to one match while reading their post-assessment DRA book. What prevented these students from attaining 90% accuracy or better on these books was no longer a 18

19 problem with concepts about print. In fact, in almost every single case of students who were reading at a level one or under, the mistakes they were now making were that they weren t always paying attention to the initial consonant to help predict what a word was. For instance, they might look at a picture of a sailboat accompanying text on a page, and when reading the word sailboat, would say boat instead. If they had been looking at the initial consonant as well as the picture, a majority of these students probably would have used the correct word. I knew after noticing this common error in the students running records that this would be the next skill to focus on with these students. Table 2 Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) Levels Amount of change in levels Number of students Range of levels preintervention Range of levels postintervention +3 to +6 3 Level 1 to level 4 Level 4 to level to +2 6 No change 10 Level A not passed to level 3 Level A not passed to level 4 Level 1 to level 4 Level A not passed to level 4-1 to -2 2 Level A to level 1 Level A not passed Not only did I notice many behavior changes and changes in DRA levels after my intervention period, but I also found some significant literacy gains based on the Integrated Literacy Checklist (ILC). See tables 3-7 for the class data regarding the ILC and Appendices G, H and I for individual student test results. As you can see from these tables, 95% of the class, all but one student, made some type of gain in literacy skills, even though this might not have been reflected in a growth in their DRA levels. In some skill areas, specifically identifying rhyming words, there was a significant amount of 19

20 students who made no change (19 out of 21 students), yet all 19 of these students had already received the full 6 points during the pre-intervention assessment for identifying all rhyming elements. However, out of these 19 students who had no change in this area, only one had no literacy gains overall. This student scored full points in every preintervention assessment and was already reading at a level 4, which is an end of the year goal in kindergarten. Table 3 Integrated Literacy Checklist Letter Identification Amount of change Number of students Amount identified pre-intervention (52 total) Amount identified post-intervention (52 total) +10 to to to to to to 52 No change to to 52 Table 4 Integrated Literacy Checklist Sound Identification Amount of change Number of students Amount identified pre-intervention (26 total) Amount identified post-intervention (26 total) +10 to to to to to to to to 25 6 to 26 No change

21 Table 5 Integrated Literacy Checklist Concepts About Print Amount of change Number of students Scores pre-intervention (16 total) Scores post-intervention (16 total) +3 to to 9 12 to to to to 16 No change Table 6 Integrated Literacy Checklist Rhyming Words Identification Scores preintervention (6 total) intervention (6 total) Scores post- Amount of change Number of students +1 to to 5 6 No change Table 7 Amount of change Integrated Literacy Checklist Beginning Sounds Identification Number of students Scores preintervention (10 total) Scores postintervention (10 total) to to 9 3 to 10 No change

22 Individual Student Progress Three Cases Case #1 Student 2 comes from a family with an older brother and a younger brother. Her parents are very conscientious about making sure this child reads and practices academic skills nightly. Student 2 came into kindergarten with a lot of literacy knowledge, including already knowing a lot of concepts about print. She could recognize all 52 upper and lowercase letters when assessed for the first time in September. She could also recognize all 26 letter sounds when initially assessed in January. Student 2 quickly picks up skills taught in class, but without guidance is not always able to synthesize these skills and apply them in her own work. In other words, she needs someone to clearly connect her learning and show her how to apply new skills before she is able to use them on her own. Student 2 began the intervention reading at a level 2. A level 2 requires students to have a good basis of concepts about print, the ability to follow a pattern as well as a significant sight word vocabulary. This student had no problems with any of these skills. During the pre-intervention DRA assessment, this student struggled most with decoding unknown words. What she needed most was to learn a variety of decoding strategies. During the intervention period in her guided reading group, we focused on exactly this skill. The group worked on chunking words and finding words they knew (most often high frequency words) within the unknown word. When student 2 was reassessed at the end of the intervention window, she had jumped 4 DRA levels! She was more confident in her reading, more fluent, and made multiple attempts to decode unknown words. Case #2 Student 5 is the youngest child in her family with one older sister who is five years older than her. Her family also works with her significantly at home in both reading and writing. Chronologically she falls in the middle of the class with a February 22

23 birthday. It is also important to note that this child also receives speech therapy three times a week. Significant amounts of research have found a negative correlation between the occurrence of a speech disability and the attainment of literacy skills. Student 5 came into kindergarten having much basic knowledge about literacy and also picked up much in the first half of kindergarten, similar to student 2. She could identify all 26 upper and lower case letters in January, as well as recognize many beginning sounds and rhyming elements. However, student 5 had distinct difficulties applying these skills in her own reading. She began her guided reading instruction unable to pass a level A. Student 5 struggled most with one to one match. In her guided reading group, she and her 4 group mates worked intensively on this crucial skill. This group read books at a level A, books with 4-5 words per page with very repetitive text. After practicing pointing to each word on the page as it was read, the students counted how many words were on the page to reinforce this skill. At the end of the intervention period, student 5 not only passed a level A, but now comfortably reads at a level 1. She also gained one more point in the Concepts About Print assessment. Case #3 Student 21 is the older of the two children in her family. Although this student is not one of the youngest in the class, at times her immaturity and attention span hinder her learning. There is little home support and reinforcement of reading or writing skills. In large groups, student 21 struggles with attention and grasping a lot of basic concepts. For this student, working in a small group like our guided reading group or even individually is much more effective. It is also important to note that this student also receives speech therapy three times a week. When student 21 came into kindergarten, she had limited literacy skills in regard to literacy. During the pre-intervention assessment in January, she was able to recognize 23

24 a total of 36 upper and lower case letters and only 14 of 26 letter sounds. She also scored 9 out of 16 points in the Concepts About Print assessment. In January, this student was reading at a DRA level 1. The group she worked in was working on books at level A. Although when initially tested student 21 appeared to have no problems with one to one match, in her guided reading group it was quickly evident that she didn t always apply this skill on her own. In this particular guided reading group, the skill we focused on a majority of the time was using the pictures to help support the text. After the rest of the group went back to work at their literacy centers, I worked with this student individually to focus on one to one match. After the intervention period, this particular student was unable to pass DRA level A, which was actually 2 DRA levels below what she had previously tested. However, the mistakes she made during the post-intervention running record were of a different nature than those previously made. She did, in fact, begin to look at the pictures to help support what she was reading. Instead, the mistakes resulted from the student not looking closely at the initial letters of the unknown words as well as still not consistently applying one to one match. The combination of these two types of errors resulted in an accuracy rate of only 80%, 10% less than what is required for an instructional level. After the post-intervention assessment, I knew exactly what skills to target with her next during guided reading. What I did discover though after the assessment, was that after working with student 21 in this new format, her scores on the other assessments went up. After the intervention, she could identify 13 more upper and lower case letters, 4 more letter sounds, gained 3 points on the Concepts About Print assessment and could identify all 10 of the beginning letters of the pictures shown to her. In a 4 week time span, this was a considerable amount of knowledge for her to master, especially compared to what she had accomplished up to that point in kindergarten! 24

25 Conclusions As I prepared for my intervention, I felt confident that I knew exactly what I was going to do. However, I discovered a few months before my intervention window that everything would not run as smoothly as anticipated. The first stumbling block I encountered was my district s change in assessment tools. The Integrated Literacy Checklist which was used for years to determine children s literacy readiness, along with assessing skills communicated with parents via report cards and identifying children who may need extra support in first grade, was being discontinued. Although the results of this assessment would no longer be formally reported and utilized for classroom purposes, after conferring with reading specialists, I discovered I could still utilize it for my own information purposes. This assessment tool is currently being revamped by our district s reading specialists and will be used to some extent next year. Although the entire Integrated Literacy Checklist will not be employed as I now know it, I may still administer portions of it not included in our new literacy assessment tool to future classes simply for my own information purposes. The next stumbling block which occurred was the district s policy change regarding using the DRA with kindergarten students. In years past, I began using the DRA with my students for the first time in October. This allowed me to not only get baseline information on all the students literacy awareness early in the year, but also gave the students a chance to become familiar with the DRA and what was expected of them during the assessment s initial administration. In addition, when January came about, DRA testing in previous years took significantly less time, since I was able to approximate where I felt the students were performing based on October s DRA level and progress since that testing period. That is, I did not necessarily have to test each student starting at the beginning DRA level, level A. This school year the district 25

26 decided that kindergarten teachers were able to begin using the DRA with their students for the first time in January. Hence, when January came about my assessment took almost a week longer than expected, thereby setting back my start date for guided reading groups. After my intervention period, I was surprised by many of the results most were positive, others were slightly more negative. Overall, I would say I am happy with the changes which took place, not only in the gain of skills reflected in my results, but also with the general atmosphere and attitudes in the classroom in regard to reading. More and more often, students would choose to read and write books during their free choice times and during indoor recess. During these times, I would see more of the skills worked on in guided reading groups being employed by the students independently. There was more participation in our school s reading incentive rewards program. The students even seemed to be more attentive during read alouds and noticed more about the books which were read to them. Most importantly, every child in my classroom made some type of literacy gain during the intervention period. Even those students who did not move up in DRA levels expanded their literacy knowledge in regard to letter and sound identification, concepts about print and rhyming words. The biggest realization and disappointment I had after my intervention was that not all of the students made measurable gains in regard to DRA scores. After analyzing this information though, I realized just how much a gain of even one level meant in kindergarten. Throughout the course of their 9 month long kindergarten career they are expected to be able to independently read at least 5 DRA levels - A, 1, 2, 3, and 4. This averages to the students moving one DRA level every 7 weeks or so. My intervention period only lasted 4 weeks, which for some students may have been too short a time period to move up a level (or more). Also, so many of the beginning levels of books 26

27 require students to have a strong knowledge of concepts about print. In most cases, the guided reading groups focused on one or two of these skills. More of these concepts might have been needed before the student moved to the next level, much like student 21 s situation as discussed previously. Even though I was disappointed with the lack of growth shown in DRA levels, when looking at all of my other data, I clearly saw that every student made gains and the guided reading instruction was indeed effective. The greatest outcome of my action research project was the effect it had on my own teaching. Although guided reading is a teaching technique I had been using for the past 2 years, I had never felt completely comfortable in my abilities to use it. After conducting my review of literature, I was able to understand the process and foundations of using guided reading effectively. I was also able to clarify the short and long-term foci of each guided reading level/guided reading group. Next year I will be able to use these skills to get my students prepared for January and the beginning of guided reading groups much earlier in the school year by helping them to understand the process of group work as well as expectations of them in these groups from early on. Next year I plan to use my guided reading groups in different ways. New research has recently come out citing the effectiveness of grouping students with similar needs (but not necessarily the same reading levels). In this situation for instance, all students that struggle with str- blends may be grouped together, yet each student may be using a different book at their own level which would support learning this skill. I plan to use my action research project as a stepping-stone to discover even more about the effectiveness and importance of guided reading. I have utilized many opportunities this year to learn more about this topic, including attending the Wisconsin State Reading Association Conference. I hope to continue to pursue professional development opportunities in this area of study. The topic of early literacy lends itself to 27

28 a variety of research questions I may wish to explore in the future. Some further questions which could be explored in regard to early literacy could include the differences of learning between male and female students or the impact of cultural stereotypes that exist in literature on same culture student learning. This project has reinforced that the more informed I am, the more effective I will be in my literacy instruction. 28

29 References Clay, M. (2002). An Observation Survey. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G. (1996). Guided Reading. (1996). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Franzese, R. (2002). Reading and Writing in Kindergarten. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. Montgomery County Public Schools. (1999). Guided Reading. Retrieved 11/25/04 from Pinnell, G. & Scharer, P. (2003). Teaching Comprehension in Reading. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. Taberski, S. (2000). On Solid Ground. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 29

30 Appendix A Samples of running records 30

31 31

32 Appendix B Sample of Guided Reading Level A text (DRA level 1) I Like to Eat by Sharon Siamon 32

33 Appendix C Sample of Guided Reading Level D Text (DRA level 4) Kitty Cat and the Fish by Annette Smith 33

34 Appendix D Sample of Guided Reading Level J (DRA level 17) Henry and Mudge and Mrs. Hopper s House by Cynthia Rylant 34

35 Appendix E - Integrated Literacy Checklist 35

36 36

37 Appendix F: Developmental Reading Assessment Levels (DRA) Student Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention Amount of change Student Student Student Student 4 A 2 +2 Student 5 A not passed 1 +2 Student 6 A not passed 1 +1 Student Student Student 9 A 1 +1 Student 10 A not passed A not passed 0 Student 11 A not passed A not passed 0 Student 12 A not passed A not passed 0 Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student 20 A A not passed -1 Student 21 1 A not passed -2 37

38 Student Appendix G: Integrated Literacy Checklist Alphabet and Sound Recognition Alpha-Pre- Intervention (52 total) Alpha-Post- Intervention (52 total) Amount of change Sound-Pre- Intervention (26 total) Sound-Post- Intervention (26 total) Amount of change Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student

39 Appendix H: Integrated Literacy Checklist Concepts About Print Assessment Student Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention Amount of (16 total points) (16 total points) change Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student Student

40 Student Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 Student 8 Student 9 Student 10 Student 11 Student 12 Student Appendix I: Integrated Literacy Assessment Rhyming Words and Beginning Sounds Rhyming Pre- Intervention (6 total) Rhyming Post- Intervention (6 total) Amount of change Sounds Pre- Intervention (10 total) Sounds Post- Intervention (10 total) Amount of change `

41 41