Baseline Data

One tool that I have used is running record data. This baseline data that I have for my learners is their reading ages and levels from 2025. I have placed this into a spreadsheet and given each of the students an ID code to protect anonymity of the students. You will see from this data the ages and levels that my students are reading. 

Another 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. Below I have added in data from my beginning of the year data for my target learners. The group I have identified are all year 6 learners this year. 

From this data I have a clear picture of what my students strengths are in reading and some areas for improvement. 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). 

PAT Star
This is my PAT Star data from the beginning of the year which I have also had a look into. By looking at this data in detail I have also noticed strengths and areas of improvement for my learners in word recognition, sentence punctuation paragraph comprehension and vocabulary. These are some key areas that I want to explore with my learners going forward this year.

This post is already so long that I will delve into the data in detail in another blog post. If you have made it to the end, thank you for following along and looking at my baseline data selection. I am glad to have finally collated all of my baseline data and look forward to exploring it in greater detail at a later date. 

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.

Baseline Data

We have been asked to think about what we will be using as our baseline data to see if our intervention has shown shift at the end of this inquiry. I have decided that I will use the following as my baseline data and use this again at the end of the year to see if there is any shift. 

PAT Reading & Star
I will use data collected from both of these tests and again analyse in detail at the end of the year to see which areas have shown improvements. I will be able to compare beginning of the year data to the end of the year data. 

Running Records
I will be able to use this data also to see if the intervention has made shift in reading age
and level. This will also be good data to use in the middle of the year to see how the students are tracking and what other changes might need to be made. Our students are also tested on running records at the end of the year so will be able to compare this data (often this is not ready before bursts and bubbles so will need other data for that). 

Probe Tests
Because I have tested the students in term 1 using probe (all but one as attendance can be a bit low) I will be able to complete probe testing at the end of the year to see shift. This will be something that I can complete early on term 4 and will be able to use for bursts and bubbles. 

Attendace
I have been looking into this as well, I will have a blog post that will show trends in attendance as I wanted to know if this will have an impact on students reading. I will be able to use of attendance data to see trends in this data.

Student Voice Survey
I will complete this again at the end of the year to see if there is a change in students perceptions in reading and see if there is any shift and if there is shift where this shift has come from. 

Observations
I have been taking notes during guided reading with this group of learners and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. I think this will be a good way to gauge confidence in these students and to see if there is any shift in that area.

I think that this will be enough baseline data to have ready for the end of the year to see if there is any shift in reading age due to the intervention being made. 

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. 

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.