Informal and Formal Checkpoint

From our last PLG which I unfortunately missed we have been asked to think out some key checkpoints to see if our intervention is working as well as what we can do to change things to make it better. Below I have outlined some of the ways that I have informal checkups on my learners and how my intervention is working. 

Guided Reading - Informal
This is the best way to be able to complete an informal check in on how the students are going. As I have outlined in previous posts by taking notes during guided reading and having these reflections as anecdotal notes has been a quick way to check in to see if students are able to understand inferring questions as well as new vocabulary that they come across. The follow up tasks from our guided reading sessions also provide a good place to see what the students have learnt and how they applied that knowledge to what they are doing. 

Along with informal checkpoints there is also the need for formal checkpoints. Formal checkpoints allow you to check systematically how learners are experiencing the intervention and whether it is beginning to have the impact on learner outcomes. I have outlined some of the ways that I have completed formal checks to see where my learners are at throughout the year. 

Running Records - Formal
I have completed running records at mid-year testing as well as throughout the year to see how the students are progressing and if the intervention has been impacting learner outcomes. This is a great way to see quickly what areas that the students are still needing to work on. 

Key into Inference - Formal 
Through this tool I have been able to have very quick formal assessments of my students to see how they are going. This tool shows very quickly and clearly if the students are able to infer with small sentences or short paragraphs. The great thing about this tool as that I am able to work with a group of students who are needing extra assistance and then extend the students who have understood. 

PAT and e-AsTTle - Formal
PAT tests are the tests that we complete at the beginning and the end of the year so these are the overall formal assessments that I will be able to use to see shift between the beginning of the year and the end of the year. I have also completed some e-AsTTle tests throughout the year that has provided data for me to look at and decide the next steps for these target learners. 

I think it has been really good to see which types of checkpoints I have used throughout the year as our inquiry starts to wrap up as this has allowed me to think about how I can show these changes and the different forms of assessment that I have used. 

Recording Data

While I was looking at the tools that I have been implementing to my inquiry I have been focused on how best to record data in order to see if what I have implemented has caused shift in my learners. I have outlined some of the key ways that I will be able to record and check data and some of the ways I have reassessed my inquiry with the data that I have recorded. 

Initially I used PAT Star and PAT reading as a guide for the beginning of the year to see where the students were at. This was easy enough to graph but I also just looked at the numbers and thought what is this actually telling me. So what I did was I looked at this data in depth and for my target group I analysed each part of this data to see what needed to be worked on. This is something that I will also be able to look at with end of year testing that will give me data to go off. 

Other reading data I looked at was the students end of 2022 running records. At first I looked at the data of what level each of the students were at but again that only showed what they had achieved. So before having my students in front of me I decided to analyse their end of year running record data to see what areas needed to be worked on. From this is found that the students main areas that needed work were inference questions, applied knowledge and vocabulary. This then allowed a good starting point for when the students were in front of me what we need to work on during guided reading. 

Another way of collecting data has been through my teacher notes from reading with my reading groups. I try at least once or twice a week to hear each of my students read aloud and take down notes of what they are doing well and what they need to work on. During these sessions I also take note of who is sharing their ideas with the group and who is able to answer questions. These anecdotal notes have been really helpful for next steps and also to see the confidence in my students shift. So this is another form of data that I have. 

Finally I have the data of the key into inference resource. This is something that I have been working on with my whole class so it has provided really great information about where students are at and what they are needing to work on. This is a very quick way to see where students are and can group students to work on how to infer meaning from these different levels. 

Overall I think I have used both qualitative and quantitate data to see how well my implementation has worked. There is a good amount of baseline data that I will be able to use to compare end of year data to see if there has been shift with my target group of learners. I think the anecdotal notes will be just as important to see shift in attitudes and confidence throughout the year. 

What have I implemented?

This week I have been reflecting and thinking about what I have implemented and how I can see if there have been changes to what I have implemented with my inquiry. This is something that we discussed at our last PLG. 

"At the end of the inquiry cycle, you want to be able to attribute any changes in learner outcomes (in part) to changes in the experiences of learners. To do this you need to be able to demonstrate exactly how the learning experience has changed for learners"

This is what we have been asked to think about in order to see if what we have implemented has been successful. This is always an area that I forget about so often when I am doing my inquiry so it is a great reminder to think about what I am going to be be able to use data wise as a baseline to see if what I have implemented has caused a change or has been successful. So I have been thinking about the things that I have implemented for my inquiry this year and outlined this in detail below. 

• Picture Questions:
  The first thing I implemented with my reading groups was to have a picture with questions that require the students to think beyond the image that they are looking at. These pictures posed questions such as who is taking the photo along with a range of different questions that required the students to infer meaning. 
  
  
• Photopea GIF:
  Another one of the things that I have implemented was the use of Photopea as a create task in order to have students infer meaning from a story or article. This could be inferring the meaning of a characters feelings or new and unfamiliar words and phrases that we have come across. This has been a simple task to try and have students focus on creating a visual to show hidden meaning from the text. 
  
  
• Key into Inference: 
  Another key tool that I have continued to implement in the Key into Inference resource. This resource starts off by having students infer meaning from a sentence firstly focusing on who, what, why, where, when and how. Then finally as the text's progress the students are then required to infer meaning from paragraphs. This has been a very useful tool as it allows very quick results to see which students have grasped the concept and which students need further help. 
  
  
• Shared Reading:
  This year I have also really focused on having a shared text to read as a whole class. Through this we will unpack a text in detail and look at key questions that require inferring as well applied knowledge questions which are accessible to all learners in the classroom and allows to start focusing on that extended discussion as a class.
  
  
• Guided Reading:
  Finally I have focused on ensuing to explicitly plan for inference questions as well as applied knowledge questions. This is something that I have been doing previously but have made sure to be more explicit about this in my planning and in my teaching. Research and observations from this year have shown that when something is intentionally planned for then teachers are more likely to make time for this during guided reading sessions. 

These are the key things that I have implemented this year in my inquiry. I have found each one of these valuable and interesting in their own ways so far. I have been constantly looking into the effectiveness of each of these implementations and have changed how I use these in the classroom as a best fit for what works. As I outlined earlier it was a thing that started with looking at my target group but some of these implementations were working so well I tried it with a number of other students in my class. 

Restating the Question

At this point of my inquiry it is important to restate my question for this year to see that I am on track and what I can do further with my inquiry. My question for this year is:

How can I help my students reading between the ages of 9 and 10 years make accelerated progress?

I have been looking at this question and thinking about how this has shaped and changed throughout the course of the year. From my mid year data I did have some success with the things that we have been doing in literacy and have been able to add further students to my target group. This has meant that my overall group sample is now quite a large one which will hopefully allow some great data to see at the end of the year. 

As things go it always makes sense to implement these changes with all of the students in the class to see that if it works for not just one group but how it can be seen in the classroom. I think I have been using lots of these tools with a large number of students so I think it is really important to look back at was my initial question was and to make sure I am on track with that part of my inquiry. I think as teachers we sometimes get really excited about what we are changing and try and save the whole world at the same time so it has been good for me to be able to take notice of the initial question and reground myself in this stage of my inquiry. 

Throughout the year I have completed research and observed learning and behaviour around reading. I have looked into running record and PAT data to see what areas need special focus. From this I have found three key areas that I am focusing on this year. 

1. Comprehension strategies: inferencing and applied knowledge.
2. Critical discussions around what students are reading. Thinking about author's purpose.
3. Improving understanding of vocabulary through inferring meaning of these words using clues from the text.

These are the three key areas that I have been focusing on and have identified with my causal chain. I think it has been really important to stop and take stock of what I have been doing so far this year in order to keep my focus on what I started this year looking at. Like I said above we can tend to get a bit carried away when we are excited about something but this restating and looking at what I have been working on has given a new focus and appreciation for what I have done so far and where I am going to go from here. 

CoL PLG 5

Last week we had out CoL PLG where we were able to share what we have done so far with our colleagues and think about the implementation process for our inquiry and thinking about what we might have already done and what we intend to change with our inquiry. I love coming together with colleagues and hearing about their inquires I think it gives you an almost new and refreshed outlook on your inquiry and helps to take stock of what you have done so far and achieved. I have also learnt that I have a bit of work to do in making sure that I am making the most of the learning this term in the classroom. 

From this PLG I have been challenged to think about how to consider and monitor the changes from the intervention. There is still a couple of pieces of literature that I would like to look at from the research that I have already done. One big thing I am going to focus on this week and next week thinking forward to our next PLG is to really make sure that I am using this key into inference tool well in the classroom across multiple groups. I have also started to think about introducing roles to some of my reading groups so that all students are being heard. 

I am really excited to see how this will play out for the rest of the term. We have also had our share staff meetings this week and it was so great to connect with other teachers around the country and to share what we are doing in our inquires and to also have some feedback and maybe some ideas that we can take back to our spaces. I loved the conversations that we had around our inquiries and again this has make going into this week that much more exciting to look at my inquiry and the learners in front of me.