Positive Results

It has come to that time of the year where we have started our testing. We are really lucky at the end of the year to have one of our wonderful teachers Jenni Clarke complete our running record and probe tests for our learners. I have been able to see some of the data that is coming in so far and most of my students who have been tested have made at least 6 months reading progress!

One massive success is a student who struggled to make progress during mid year testing and who had been on the same level for several years has made one and a half years progress. They have done really well and are so much more confident with their reading. 

Many of my students are also very excited for reading and are willing to read for longer periods of time for enjoyment. I initially started my novel study for my own class and shared it with my colleague Sarah Tuiā and her class absolutely love it and are so excited to read books for enjoyment. It has started a little bit of competition between the two classes which has been great to see. From this it has made me think about how we can make this into a team challenge next year to try and engage everyone in reading. 

I am looking forward to being able to graph all of my data in a later post and see the overall extent of what they students have made progress. I also need to collate my data for my last reader profile survey which I will also share in a later post. 

Target Group Selection

My target learners are students who are reading from the age of 9-12.5 years. Their learning levels are either just below or at where they need to be. What I want to do is focus on how to extend these learners to be at or above moving into year 7. Common trends that I have noticed is that these students are able to decode really well however when it comes to answering questions that require critical thinking such as applied knowledge, vocabulary and inference questions they struggle. Observations from these reading groups show that there are some confident students in these groups who will share their thoughts and feelings but there is no discussion and often they don’t even refer to the text for their answers. Observations from Vosaic shows that there is a lot of teacher lead discussion, with questions and answers and I am often having to prompt students to share their ideas with each other.

Ways in which I might be able to clarify my problem is through formative assessment looking at PAT reading and STAR as well as running record data from previous years. I will also compare this to 2025 testing data. From observations during literacy sessions I will be able to see students' behaviours towards reading. I will conduct a reader profile in order to see students' attitudes towards reading. I would like to look into research about language acquisition and see if there are some assessments that I can use to see the change in this throughout the year.

Potential tools and measures:

• Formative assessment
• Performance in current testing round
• Classroom behaviours
• Language Acquisition
• Attendance data
• EdPotenial data (longitudinal)

PAT Data

One of my tools and measures was to look at PAT data in more detail to see areas that my target group excel in and areas that might need development. In this blog post I will outline my findings from PAT Reading and PAT Star data. 

I have a group of year 5 students and a group of year 6 students which is why the number of questions in each area is slightly different. Below I will look in detail at each category of question and explore what the data shows. I have used PAT Pānui - Aratohu Kaiako (Teacher Guide) which is available online and gives a great run down of each of the questions and areas. I have used direct quotes from the resource created to breakdown what each type of questioning means and I have put these in italics. I thought about rewriting them in my own words but the guide succulently details each type of questioning well. 

Retrieval
Questions require comprehension without needing to make any inference, so that the answer within the text can be matched to the wording of the question (PAT Pānui). From the data above I can see that this area is mixed with some of the students do really well in this area and some needing some extra support. From looking at this data and seeing the students in this group I think they have forgotten to look at the text for the answer and we will need to make sure that we are focusing on referring back to the text. 

Local Inference 
Questions require comprehension of implied information from within relatively small sections of text. The answers are straightforward and localised but require some inference where the answer is not explicitly stated in the text (PAT Pānui). From the data above I can see that this is an area where the students really struggled to answer the questions. This has highlight another are that needs work. 

Complex Inference
Questions require ākonga to connect information from different sections of text to draw an inference. Complex inferences may require linking of more than one idea or phrase and analysis to identify the best answer (PAT Pānui). Looking at my target students data I can see that some students did well in this area however there is also room for improvement. 

Interpret and integrate
Questions integrate ideas and information making sense of the intent and developing a more complete understanding of the entire text. At this level of inference ākonga use their own experience and understanding to unpack more abstract ideas and meanings within a text. (PAT Pānui). 

Critique and Evaluate
Questions require ākonga to draw upon knowledge of language use, presentational features, and general or genre-specific features of texts and understanding of how the language and features determine the meaning or purpose. These questions might be about how the writer achieves a particular purpose or meaning. (PAT Pānui). 

As I have looked through the data and each of the areas that my target group needs to work on I can see that there is a trend in this data. As I am observing it I can see that the students are glossing over key areas of the text and are unable to answer questions directly related to what they have read which impacts their ability to infer meaning. Therefore this is the first part that I am going to look into with this group of learners is being able to pull out key information confidently.

PAT Star
I have added this data in as I have found the results interesting and can see that with this group we will have to focus on making meaning of words in the text that we are reading which can be linked to inferring meaning of the text as well as the words. 

Reflection
One thing I have noticed with this group is that they are very capable with reading they just struggle with sharing their ideas with each other. So one key area that I need to focus on to begin with is confidence in reading and allowing the students to feel confident in themselves and their reading. 

Data check in

At our last PLG we were asked to look at what kind of data we have used throughout the year and think forwards to our bursts and bubble presentations coming up in a few weeks. I have used a mixture of both qualitative and quantitate data throughout my inquiry this year. Below I have outlined each of ways that I have collected data and how I will use these data to see how effective the intervention has been. 

Guided Reading Data
This has been obtained through anecdotal notes throughout the year. This has been the best and easy way to keep track of my students throughout the year. It has also given me a way to tweak the intervention as I go and make changes. 

Running Record Data
I have been looking at this data throughout the year to see if there have been improvements from the intervention. I have used this to not only look at reading age and level but which aspects of reading that these students are needing to work on. 

PAT Data
I will use this data to see the changes in reading throughout the year also. I have placed this data into different categories to be able to have a closer and more in-depth look. 

Key into Inference Data 
Unfortunately this has been been an area that I have not been so onto it with documenting but from what I have see and how I have used this tool it has been very informative and successful. 

Monitoring of implementation

It is that time of year where we need to start evaluating what we have been doing throughout the year to make sure that we can see the shift and change of our implementations. One of the first things I have decided to explore is the evidence about the monitoring of my implementation. Here is some of the data that I have collected so far. 

This is a break down of my June running record data. This year I have wanted to focus in on the comprehension part of the test and see if there are any trends in the data. I will then look at the end of year data and compare this with mid year and beginning of the year data. 

I have then looked at my beginning of the year data to see if there has been any changes or shifts in the comprehension part of the running records. Below I have added the beginning of the year data. 

The graph below shows the reading change in reading levels from November 2022 (end of year testing) and June 2023 testing for reports. 

The graph below shows shows the changes in reading ages from November 2022 to June 2023 testing. 

What methods have you used to collect information?​

• PAT testing data
• Running records data
• Anecdotal notes
• Key interference data

​How have you been systematic in that collection?​
I have tired to make sure that especially with my anecdotal data that I have been looking at this weekly and recording this. However I could have placed it in a more collective place where I was able to look at the data better. I have also been collecting the key into inference data but this has been something that sometimes doesn't fit into our rotation for the week or what we are learning so its about keeping myself acceptable and making sure that I make time for it was well. 

What does the data tell you?​
My mid year running records data suggested that what I have put into place has worked. I made sure to test these students before I started the intervention to see if there was any shift from the intervention. This was important to have as a baseline because students could have still made progress from the end of the year. With PAT it is harder to see that data as there is only two points of the year that we do test this so it will be interesting to see that this data shows.  

What are you going to do with the data in terms of ‘tweaking’ your intervention?
From looking at the data of the mid year running records and my anecdotal notes of the students I have been able to tweak the intervention and how it works in the classroom. I tried to make sure that the tweaks where not to large so that I could still use the data as a place to show success. I have used the research and readings that I collected earlier in the year to shape my intervention and what do use in order to make tweaks. 

Mid Year Testing Data

 We have just completed our mid year testing which has been the perfect opportunity to have a look at my data in a bit more detail and reassess any changes that I might need to make coming into term 3. It was very interesting looking at my data as I can see that some of my target students have made some incredible gains during mid year testing. This has also made me have to rethink my data set a little bit and potentially add a new group of target students. This is something to ponder over the holidays and see what changes I need to make. Below I have outlined my data so far and what I have found for this inquiry as of mid year testing.

This is a break down of my June running record data. This year I have wanted to focus in on the comprehension part of the test and see if there are any trends in the data. 

I have then looked at my beginning of the year data to see if there has been any changes or shifts in the comprehension part of the running records. Below I have added the beginning of the year data. 

From looking at this data I can see that there was a shift in comprehension scores for some of the texts where they students were able to infer meaning better in our term 2 testing. I can also see that applied knowledge, vocabulary and inferring are key areas of interest to focus on. From looking at this raw data I wanted to have a look at the shift in levels as well as ages for this group of target learners which I have outlined in the graphs below. 

This graph shows the reading change in reading levels from November 2022 (end of year testing) and June 2023 testing for reports. As you can see from the graph there were 3 students who made no shift in level at all and then the rest of this target group were able to make gains of at least one level with some making progress of three levels with their running records. I like to look at this in levels as well as ages as sometimes the students can make progress but this is not reflective in reading age. Below I have added the graph of reading ages.

This graph shows shows the changes in reading ages from November 2022 to June 2023 testing. This is very similar to the reading levels graph and shows the progress and shift from the reading ages. There has been significant shift in some of these learners and their reading ages. 

My take aways from this data is that I need to look at my reading groups again and reorganise these according to the this data I have been looking at. I need to also decide if I will add in extra students to this data pool as I have some students who have moved to these levels that I have been monitoring. I need to have a look at the students who didn't make any shift and see what I can do to help these students and focus on areas that need to be worked on. I really like taking a look at the middle of the year as it is a good point to see what has been working and what might need some changes. So watch this space as I go into the holidays looking at this with fresh eyes coming into term 3. 

Formative and Baseline Information

In an earlier post where I took a stocktake of my CoL inquiry I outlines some of the key formative and baseline information that I will use throughout my inquiry to see provide evidence of shifts in teaching at the end of the year. Below I will outline each of the formative and baseline information that I will use and why I will use this. 

Some of the tools that I have used are 

• Running records data from last year. 
• Running records from start of term 2 to gauge where the students are at and what areas of their reading needed work. 
• PAT data - I have looked into the PAT data of my students fro reading and have pulled out some key information that I will be able to compare with at the end of the year. 
• I have also taken anecdotal notes of my students while they are reading to be able to understand where each of my learners are at and what their individual work ons are. 

I will also be using our mid year running record data to see if my students have made any progress with their reading as well as look at the key areas that we need to work on. I have been having conversations with my students about reading and I would really like to complete some student voice surveys to compare from now and at the end of the year. I have been looking at some previous student voice surveys that have been used in the past and will try and alter this to fit the purpose of this inquiry. I would like to use this data to see if there is a shift in my learners and what they think about reading. 

I think that each of these measures will bring enough data to see if there has been accelerated progress in reading from the changes in practice that have been made. This will be important baseline information that I will check at regular intervals throughout the term to see if what I am doing is working or if I need to tweak it a bit and make additional changes.