Over the past few weeks I've learned a bit about my buddy's needs, abilities, and interests. My buddy, whom I'll continue to call Katie, seems to genuinely enjoy reading. She particularly enjoys her reading textbook. During one of our informal reading conferences she neatly summarized what had been happening in one of the stories, highlighting both explicit and implicit details. For instance, she inferred why the main character, Maria Isabel Salazar Lopez, disliked being called Mary Lopez, a conclusion supported, but not directly stated, by the story. Katie's comprehension of the two assessment readings, Amelia Earhart and Early Railroads, was fairly good. She did miss some explicit supporting details, such as the sentence that told the reader who Tom Thumb was in the Early Railroads piece. This affected her comprehension of the analogy being made between the engine and Tom Thumb, and she stumbled on the comprehension questions that dealt with that analogy.
Additionally, Katie's reading of the assessment pieces was slower than average. She read Early Railroads at 93 words per minute - nearly 20 words per minute slower than an "average" 4th grade peer. In all her reading aloud for me, however, I noted a particular difficulty with names that really slows her down. Katie had a bit of trouble with the name Tom Thumb in Early Railroads and it almost felt like the name was a bit of a tongue twister for her. It took her a while to move on with the reading. At other times, though, Katie will elide an unknown word. That said, Katie generally reads in larger, meaningful chunks, until she gets to a section that trips her up. Occasionally she missed punctuation, too. Katie had 12 miscues during her reading of Early Railroads, which indicates that the text is at instructional level for her.
Given the results of the reading assessments and my findings during our informal reading conferences, I would say that Katie is at level 3 on the NAEP Oral Reading Fluency Scale. Katie sometimes read with meaning, but at other times read inexpressively and missed punctuation and phrasing. Although she sometimes read larger phrase groups with correct expression for long stretches, these stretches were punctuated by shorter word groupings and groupings that missed words and/or punctuation. She might be just a bit higher than a 3 with an instructional text.
Overall, I think Katie needs work on fluency. While fairly good, her comprehension would improve if she had better fluency. This week, I plan to have Katie read the level 3 texts.
I am curious since it seems as though Katie’s comprehension was much better in her textbook reading compared to the two 4th grade texts, do you think that has anything to do with the work the students do while reading different stories in the textbook. I am assuming Katie summarized what had happened in the story after she had read the whole thing since she was able to talk about the conclusion. From what my buddy has told me is that they only read parts of the story at a time and are able to debrief on what they are reading as they go along. Considering different students reading strategies I would assume that some need that extra time to make the connection and that taking the time to read slower would help facilitate that style.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience with my buddy as she read Early Railroads. While she seems to read slower than an average 4th grader too, she even read this text slower than the one from last week. She was less familiar with railroads than with Amelia Earhart. As I read about your buddy reading in larger meaningful chunks I recalled that my buddy would be reading pretty fluidly and then all of a sudden stop because she would lose her place.
From your analysis I can see why you would suggest a lesson on fluency for Katie. How would you plan on doing this? Would you select a text she is currently using, or would you bring your own text?
I just want to add that I really enjoy reading your analyses. They are always very thoughtful and showcase your knowledge of the readings we have had. Great work!
From poetry to poems for 2 voices to stories with dialogue and readers theater, there are lots of interesting texts to use with students when focusing on fluency. This sounds like a good lesson topic for your buddy.
ReplyDeleteYou create a complete, well rounded picture of where your student appears to be at present in her reading ability.
ReplyDeleteI think your suggestion of working with her on fluency is a great idea. I wondered if you saw hesitation or any other indication of attempting to decode the unknown words before omitting them. Is she trying to decipher them at all or simply skipping when they are not readily recognized/identified?
I would be curious about her miscues. Were they mostly omissions and some punctuation or did you identify any other issues? Maybe her fluency will go down even more as she starts to spend the time needed decoding those unknown words before it can improve. I like that you are planning on working with a lower level text. It will probably be helpful in this regard.
I wonder