The Literacy Teacher's Playbook - Week #2 - Chapter #2 - Analyzing Data!

Welcome Back!  Are you done with school?  I FINALLY am on summer vacation!!  The little lady and I are LOVING it and enjoying our time together.  I'm taking a tiny break today to talk with you all about the first part of the next chapter all about analyzing data.  

I realize that many of you may have already read the entire chapter or maybe you are reading all of our reflections on the chapter, but before you read on, I want to share with you what Jennifer Serrvallo says at the end of the chapter - it is NOT expected that you would analyze every student's work in every area!  After reading this chapter for the first time, I was panicked about fitting it all in, but she talks about choosing students who are receiving interventions as being good candidates.  She also mentions if you would like you could do this kind of analysis once a year on each student - spreading them out across the year.  Just a thought to remember as we continue :) . 

This week we are going to look at 4 areas of assessment:

Engagement Inventories
If you read my post last week, you will remember that I LOVED this idea.  I have always assessed my students on their level of engagement, but NEVER have I spent the entire reading block watching and recording their behaviors!  I can't wait to try this out a few select times next year!

Once I collect the data, it will be great to know what to do with it and sure enough that's what we learned!  Looking for strengths and areas of growth is a positive way to work with students and families.  And if this is completed a few times a year, you can compare data!

Book Logs
Ready for some honesty???  I'm not sure about reading logs.  EEK!  There I said it.  Am I the only one??  I hope not.  Getting my firsties to write at the beginning of the year can be a challenge and I am fearful that writing titles will take most of the reading time - even if we use the tally idea.  I do like the idea of holding them accountable for reading during reading time, but there must be another way...

Reading Interest Inventory
Another idea that I CANNOT wait to use!  I always do something like this at the beginning of the year, but it is more general and I don't really do anything with it.  This is just one more way to get to know your class and maybe you will be able to reach one student through what you learn!

Writing About Reading
Remember those quick jots from last week?  Now we get to look at them.  You can compare the level of student understanding when all students are answering the same questions in the same places.  You can see what strategies students are using as they are listening to a story.  This can even be done while they are independently reading.  (Did you read my post earlier this week about reading comprehension...maybe this is my answer...???

Thanks for joining us on our second week through this AMAZING book!  Next week we will be completing the second section of chapter 2 if you are reading along with us.  Please enter the giveaway below - you will be getting WINNER's CHOICE from some GREAT teacher authors!!

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Keep hopping!  There are some great ideas coming from reading.  Here are some more teachers who are ready to share!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Digging Into - Reading Comprehension

I am FINALLY done!!  The last two week have a BLUR of excitement, work, and longing for the summer.  And now it is here!  We spent the weekend BOUNCING in our rented bounce house and eating hotdogs in the sun!  WOO HOO!

Now I am settling in to do a little work and share some things about reading comprehension with you.  As always the good, the bad, and the UGLY.

  I also have a HUGE update to my classroom organization post – remember those HORRIFICLY messy games?

Check them out now…

All they needed was a little DUCK tape LOVE!  Much easier than I thought and the boxes are reinforced, so hopefully they will last!

Reading comprehension is an interesting component in a first grade class.  Most of my kids come into my room at a B or C reading level, so they are really mostly focused on the decoding piece of reading.  At the beginning of the year, we do A LOT of whole class reading comprehension.  We start the year teaching the 5 core values of our school (respect, responsibility, cooperation, friendship, and learning).  While teaching these we read favorite “getting to know you” picture books and do a lot of talking about the parts of the story.  We do some FUN crafts too…

 (from Kim Adsit's pack!)

We then move on to story mapping (whole class and in guided reading).  We spend a week teaching each component – characters, setting, problem, and solution.  Then we spend a few weeks putting all of the pieces together with a book.  The length of this unit truly depends on the needs of out kiddos. 

(also from Kim Adsit!)

Now that CCSS has entered out lives and we need to teach 50% fiction/50% informational text, we spend the next two units focused on informational text – what it is, how to compare it to fiction, text features, main idea and details.  This is done whole class and in guided reading as well.  Students complete responses on their own and in guided reading, so we are able to assess their progress as we go – don’t worry I’m coming back to this one in the what I want to change part. 

The spring is spent using many of the reading strategies we have talked about all year in different genres (fairy tales, biographies, realistic fiction, Cynthia Rylant author study).  This, again, is done whole class and in guided reading.

 So…what do I want to improve on??  I want to find time to confer with kids as they read independently.  I want to know if they are able to use the skills and strategies that I am teaching whole class and small group, when they are reading on their own. 

Our literacy block is 90 minutes.  We have a 15 minute focus lesson (whole class strategy/skill/genre lesson), a 15 minute phonics lesson, and 60 minutes for stations which we rotate every 20 minutes.  I take groups for the entire 60 minutes and am teaching for the first 30 minutes – This is the structure from my district. 

So, I NEED some help from all of you AMAZING teachers.  How do you know whether or not your kiddos are internalizing and using what you are teaching when they are reading on their own??? 

OK – So week #4 and I don’t have any great products for Y’all, but yet again I have some IDEAS…I would like to fancy up our story mapping unit for sale.  Adding that to the to-do list… J

Happy summer to you all!  Hope you are all having some fun in the sun!  Keep on hopping – I know I will be – to get some more reading comprehension ideas. J