Tools, Measures and Approaches

From our last CoL meeting we were asked to think about the tools, measures and approaches that we might use this year as well as having baseline data to compare our inquiry to for the end of the year. In this blog post I have outlines some of the tools, measures and approaches that I will use as baseline data for my learners which has continued to from and shape my inquiry.

PAT Reading Test
Looking at raw data from this test as well as a deep dive into the type of questions that students were able to answer and those that were a struggle and see if there is a trend in this data.

PAT STAR
Looking at raw data from this test as well as a deep dive into the type of questions that students were able to answer and those that were a struggle and see if there is a trend in this data.

Running Records
Exploring running records from 2024 as well as previous years for each of the students to see if there are trends in this data and what areas these students might be getting "stuck."

Attendance Data

I would like to have a look at this data to see if there are any trends into this and what the attendance is like with this group of students.

Student & Whānau Voice
Completing a student survey around attitudes and feelings towards reading. I would also like to hear what Whānau think about their children's reading and what we can do to work together to have student success.

Observation Data

We have been using Vosaic to analyse our teaching and share things that we can work on in our teaching. I would like to use this for my teaching as well as with these groups of students while they are completing follow up tasks to see the shifts and trends throughout the year.

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.