Running Record Data

For the past few weeks I have been completing running records with my target learners to see where the gaps are in their knowledge and understanding. From these running records I have found that my target group of students are able to answer literal questions really well. I have also noticed that some of this group of students tend to make up answers that they think are correct sometimes without even referring back to the text to make sure they understand the question or see if they can find the answer. I have found this very interesting during my guided reading sessions with these students and trying to have them refer back to the text even when it could be an inferential question. A key thing that I have learnt from this is that the students need to go back to the basics of referring back to the text when answering questions and have them point to where they go this information. 

Another thing that I have seen from these running records are three areas that need to be work on and they are 

• Inferring questions
• Applied knowledge from own experiences and understanding of situations. 
• Vocabulary

The last two years I have changed my reading and writing program in order to help students with their understanding of vocabulary which I will continue to work on with this group of students as well as the rest of the class. From reflecting on this I think that topic specific vocabulary needs to be in the forefront of all of my literacy lessons. With continuing to have an overall topic focus each week I think this will be something that can be managed in the setting up of the topic and understanding this in more detail. The data shown below show what I have noted from these running records and how this has linked to my inquiry question and focus. 

As you can see from this data my target students are able to decode the text really well and are reading with a 97% + accuracy level. However they are struggling when it comes to answering questions about what they have read. Most of these students are able to use the text to answer literal questions, but when it comes to inferential, applied knowledge and vocabulary questions that students are unable to answer these correctly. From observations during these running records I noticed that the students would often freeze up when being asked these questions and take a very long time to answer as they were trying to think up an answer as it was a test I could not guide them to look at the text again, however this is something that I will work on when we go back to reading groups. 

Completing running records on these students has been extremely insightful as it has shown me the areas in which the students need to work on and how I can best help these learners in being able to make progress in their reading. I will be testing these students again during term 2 for our school reports so will be interesting to compare data and to test and see if the changes that I am thinking of implementing will make a difference. This will be a very good time to test and see what is working and what I need to change and work on.  

Describing my evidence

Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practices or intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these:

One of the key things that I have been looking at this week is the evidence that I am using for my inquiry and how I can best describe and show this looking at my data. Below I have outlined some of the key data that I have been collecting and how it has been summarised and recorded. 

• Spelling tests - I have been using spelling words that are related to our reading topic for the week and trying to link this into writing as well. In order to see if this is working and being used in writing I have been conducting spelling tests each week and looking at the students writing to see if these words have been coming up. Each week the class will have a pre test where I record down the results of the words they spelt correctly or incorrectly in a spreadsheet. I then complete a post test at the end of the week where the students have learnt the words and taken them home for homework and again I record down the words that were correct and incorrect and compare this with the beginning of the week. What I have noticed so far is that my students who have been working at home to learn these words as well as completing the weekly spelling tasks tend to spell more words correctly on a Friday as well as use these words in writing for the week. 
• Running record data - I have used beginning and mid year data to see how my students are tracking. This gave me a detailed indication of the next steps for my learners and what they need in order to progress to the next level. The running records show the levels that my students are at and can advised my next teaching steps. These also give a clear indication if my inquiry is working and any tweaks that I needed to make. Running records are something that I have continued to use throughout the year if I felt a student had made progress. 
• PAT reading and star data - I used this data at the beginning of the year as a base for where to group my students especially those who were not at school for the last part of 2021. I will use this data from the end of year testing and compare to the beginning of the year to see if there has been any shift. 
• Well being survey - I have stored this data in a spreadsheet where I can see how the students have felt with their well being at school. I will again conduct this same survey to see if there are improvements in the students well being. 
• Reading for enjoyment survey - I have stored this data in a spreadsheet where I can see how the students have felt with reading and their enjoyment. I will again conduct this same survey to see if there are improvements in the students student enjoyment for reading. 

These are a few of the ways that I have gathered data for my inquiry and the results from the data have provided insight into my implementation and I have made changes as I have needed.

Looking at my data Term 2

We have just finished our term 2 testing in preparation for school reports. This is a great opportunity to see where my students are at with their confidence in reading and reading strategies they are using to answer questions as well as decode information. This data is also helpful to see if my students have made any progress with their reading and what my next steps could be in order to make sure they are gaining the shift that I am looking for in this inquiry. Below I have used graphs to show my data this will compare the start of the year data to the data I have found from completing the running records along with observational data that I have collect from the comments I have made during guided reading sessions and also from sitting one on one with the students to complete the running records. 

This first graph shows the changes in reading level according to the running records using the PM kit. This data shows that most of my students moved up at least one reading level from the start of the year with some showing movements of up to 2 levels. From analysing this data the students who showed little to no movement were my students who were quite often away or late to our reading sessions. Some of these students also had not been at school since August 2021 and when they were retested on the return to school had moved back several reading levels. This was something I had to take into account when assessing the data. One thing I did do for these students was to test them until they passed a level with some needing to move back or stay on the same level as the decoding or comprehension was not satisfactory. This gave me a really good insight into their next steps as well as a clear picture of where the gaps were in the learning. 

This graph shows the reading ages that students moved from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year. As you can see in this graph below again I have some students who made no progress in reading age with some making up to 1 years progress. The reason I showed the level data first is the move from 8 to 8.5 and 8.5 to 9 years requires the student to pass 2 levels to make the change in reading age. So although some of my students did not make gains in reading age they moved up at least one level. This data also highlighted some of the key areas that need to be worked on. 

Finally this graph shows the reading age after mid year testing in comparison to chronological age of the students. This shows that most of my students are still currently below where they should be for their reading age. This data has shown me that there is still some progress to make before these students reach year 6 so that they do't fall further behind where they should be for their age. Again I have analysed all running records to see if there is trend and what I can best change in my teacher practice for these students. 

Overall comparing this data has been really insightful to my inquiry and has shown the gaps in the learning and what I need to change in my practice to make sure that term 3 and term 4 are the most beneficial for my learners in terms of their reading achievement. I have decided not to reassess my wellbeing and engagement in reading surveys as this was something I did when most of my students had returned to school so will wait until term 4 to see the progress made from these surveys. In the meantime I have taken the time to ask my students these questions during guided reading sessions to see the answers and have noted these down and will continue to do so which will impact my next teaching steps going forward.