Cody: Growth Over Time - Reading

Beginning Assessments

Initial Reading Level:

At the initial kindergarten assessment on 8/22, Cody’s DRA assessment placed his instructional
reading level below level A. This was typical for incoming kindergarteners. Of the 47 students
assessed for my two classes, 5 were reading at level A and two were reading above an A. All
instructional reading levels for other students, including my four focus students, fell below an A.

Other initial data collected:

As a part of this kindergarten assessment, we collected data in the following reading-related
areas: uppercase letter naming, lowercase letter naming, letter-sound ID, and sight words.

Uppercase letter naming

Assessed 8/21
Known: all 26 letters
Confusions:
Lowercase letter naming:
Assessed 8/21
Known: 23/26
Confusions: says d for b, d for q

Letter sound ID
Assessed 8/21
Known: 16
Sight words:
Assessed 8/21
Known: 4
 End-of-quarter Assessments - Early October

Note:
In kindergarten, reading groups do not typically begin until the Kindergarten Readiness
Assessment is complete. This is necessary for several reasons. First, waiting to add reading
groups to the mix of centers gives the teacher time to establish and directly supervise centers
before stepping back to focus on small group instruction at this time. Second, it gives the
teacher time to teach and establish classroom procedures. Third, it allows for the KRA to be
completed. Since the students only attend half of the week, and the KRA requires lots of
one-on-one assessment, completing the KRA is a very long process.

Because of these factors, end-of-quarter assessments took place before reading groups began.
However, due to whole-class work, all focus students showed improvement in these
assessments.

All prior assessments were repeated.

Uppercase letter naming

Assessed 10/5
Known: all 26 letters (no change)
Lowercase letter naming:
Assessed 10/5
Known: 26/26

Letter sound ID
Assessed 10/5
Known: 20 (grew from 16)
Sight words:
Assessed 10/5
Known: 18 (grew from 4)

Several additional assessments were added at this point: writing all learned sight words, naming
beginning sounds, writing the alphabet, and writing a dictated sentence.
Sight Word Write:
Assessed: 10/17
Wrote: 6/20
Note: Cody became very frustrated after having a hard time writing one of his words. He quit
writing and cried on the carpet for the entire middle half of the assessment after scribbling on
some of the lines. In a setting where that stress was lessened, he likely would have been able to
write more.
Beginning sounds assessment:
Assessed 10/17
Identified 9/10

Dictated sentence:
Assessed 10/17
Given sentences: I can see the dot. Look at my bug.
Cody wrote: I can see
Then, still frustrated from the sight word writing, he erased & crossed out his work and refused
to write more.

ABC write:​ did not complete due to frustration

 Beginning Reading Groups & Running Records

Reading groups began for Cody’s class on 10/16. Based on his data, Cody began reading at
the level C.

Note about running records:

At all my past placements where I taught small group reading, I would take one full
running record each day. With 4 - 5 students in each reading group, that would translate to
about one full record for each student. However, this class presented a big challenge. They
came only 2 - 3 times per week, and reading groups held up to seven students. Due to these
factors, taking full running records was impractical. Doing so would have meant that either
several weeks passed between each record or that most of the reading table’s time was
dedicated to taking these records.
My cooperating teacher’s answer to the problem was to take partial records (1 or 2
pages) for each student every time they came to the reading table. I tried that method all
semester, and in the end, I believe it has several advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:
● Data is collected for each student every time they visit the reading table.
● The time between each RR is as minimal as possible.

Disadvantages:
● Important data can easily be missed because the whole book is not analyzed (i.e.
difficulty starting a book, difficulty with a change in text that only appears on one page,
etc.)
● The process of gathering data feels rushed because of moving between multiple
students.

Cody’s Running Records:

Week of 11/12 - no RR taken for group

Week of 11/19 - No RR taken due to the feast day & Thanksgiving break

11/28:
 My Final Assessments
To wrap up my time in the classroom with Hannah, I reassessed her in all of the
following areas: DRA reading level, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, letter sounds, and sight
words.

Final DRA:
Since Cody’s group had been reading level C books for several weeks with consistent
success, I assessed him at a DRA level 3. However, his accuracy was very low, and I scored
him at 5/9 for oral reading and 5/9 for printed language concepts. We moved back to the DRA
level 2 assessment, where he scored at the independent level in every area.

Based on this data, I would recommend moving Cody back down to a B for a week to
work on some basic concepts of print and reading strategies, then applying them to level C
books, then reassessing to see if progress has been made.
DRA Level 3 Assessment:
DRA Level 2 Assessment:
Uppercase letter ID:
Assessment given 12/4
Known: 26/26 - no change

Lowercase letter ID:

12/4
Known: 24 (lost two)
Letter sound ID:
12/4
Known: 24 (grew from 20)
Sight words:
12/4
Known: 22 (grew from 18)
 Analysis & Discussion

Strengths:
Cody is very close to gaining master over uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and the letter
sounds. His knowledge in all three areas has grown consistently throughout the semester.
Cody is also developing his knowledge of sight words. At this point, he can read about 2/3 of the
words his class has practiced out of context.

When reading, Cody has begun to explore self-correcting his mistakes. He also recognizes that
print should match the words he says on a 1:1 basis, though he is currently not sure how to
correct the situation when his 1:1 match is off.

Prediction of Future Progress:

● Sight words: Cody will continue to develop his knowledge of sight words as the class
adds them to the word wall. Because he has fallen a bit behind, he would benefit from
extra support to solidify his knowledge of the sight words.
● Letter sounds: Cody is on track to master all of the letter sounds very soon. At his
current pace, he will likely have them mastered by the end of the third quarter.
● Self-correcting: Cody has begun to make a couple of self-corrections in his running
records. Now that he recognizes mistakes can be fixed, he is ready to learn how to
check the first letter of a word to make sure it matches the word he just read. Doing this
will fix most of the mistakes he is currently making.
● 1:1 pointing during reading: Cody is aware that his reading must match the text on the
page 1:1 but does not yet know how to correct himself if it does not. He is ready to learn
that this is a clue he needs to make a correction.

Strategies for Next Semester:

● Self-correcting using visual cues: Teach and practice the “Lips the Fish” strategy at
reading group. This strategy teaches students to look at the first letter of a word and get
their mouth ready to make that sound.
● Self-correcting using visual cues: Make a Lips the Fish bookmark. Store it in the book
you are currently reading and reread the strategy every time the book comes out.
● Letter sounds: Continue to incorporate letter sound sorts into the morning literacy
centers.
● Letter sounds: Continue reviewing the letter sounds daily with the class as a whole
group.
● Sight word practice: Incorporate a hands-on “make the sight word” center, where
students create word wall words with playdough, magnetic letters, or by stamping.
● Sight word practice: Add a sight word sing-along to the day. Many popular educational
resources offer them, including Jack Hartmann and Dr. Jean.
● Sight word practice: Create a Go Fish game with sight word cards for centers.
● Sight word practice: Choose reading group books that incorporate sight words that the
class has practiced but he has not mastered yet.
● 1:1 match when reading: Teach a minilesson to Cody’s reading group about pointing to
each word as it is read. Be intentional about holding students accountable for matching
1:1 every time you read together afterward. Look for teaching moments where you can
guide Cody toward making a correction when his words and text don’t match up.