Happy St. Patrick’s Day! A successful research
journey has come to an end. My task now is to "turn what I have learned into something that makes sense to others, something I can communicate to a relevant community of discourse" (Rossman and Rallis, 2003). This past week I had my students retake the STAR
Test since all group sessions have been completed in my classroom. As a
reminder, below are the results that I received from the students the first
time the students took the STAR Test. This was right before I started pulling
the three different groups in the classroom.
Previous
Results:
STAR Reading Results- Grade Equivalent Reading Level
prior to beginning research
2.4 1.4 1.6 2.7 3.5 0.8 1.8 1.1 2.2 0.9 2.2 1.0 1.1
1.2 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.1 3.8 1.1
·
Mean: 1.7 Range (0.8-3.8)
·
Median: 1.3
·
Mode: 1.1, 1.3
One
student did not score on the STAR Test. Therefore, 95% of the students received
a score on this assessment. Until a student is reading independently and
decoding words, students will not perform well on this assessment. At the time
the STAR Test was given, students should have been reading at a grade equivalent
reading level of 1.5. This number represents the first grade in the fifth month
(December). This test was given prior to beginning the research study in order
to check for gains in reading levels. Below you will find a pie chart showing
how many students are reading above, on, or below grade level.
New
Results:
STAR Reading Results: Grade Equivalent Reading Level
after Research Study
2.3, 2.0, 2.2, 0.0, 2.9, 3.5, 1.5, 2.3, 1.2, 2.6,
1.1, 2.2, 1.8, 2.0, 2.0, 1.7, 2.1, 1.8, 1.8, 2.6, 3.4
·
Mean: 2.05
·
Median: 2
·
Mode: 2.0
All students scored this time on the STAR Test,
although the student that didn’t score last time received a 0.0 this time. 100%
of the students received a score on this assessment. Since it is March, students
should have been reading at a grade equivalent reading level of 1.8. This
number represents the first grade in the eighth month (March). This test was
given before and after the research study in order to see the impact that the
small group sessions had on the student’s reading performance. Below you will
find a pie chart showing how many students are reading above, on, or below
grade level.
Comparing
Results:
I am excited to show such positive results!!! The
mean, median, and mode were all on a second grade reading level. I now have 16
students reading on or above grade level! I only have five students that are
reading below grade level. Before I began my research, I had 8 students reading
on or above grade level. This means that I doubled in the amount of students
reading on or above grade level! This shows the effectiveness of the HELPS
Program, repeated reading, and Houghton Mifflin groups. I believe that the
reason my students made such gains were due to the small group sessions. The
five students that scored below grade level are students that I would expect to
score below grade level. They are all working with the RTA (Read to Achieve)
Reading Specialist. Below you can see students’ scores from both STAR Tests
taken:
Only two students decreased in their score but they
are still scoring well above grade level. As the research comes to an end, I
could not be happier with the results that came from the process. Begeny et al. (2011) found the HELPS to be a promising program for improving reading fluency. The researchers also found that feedback to students, goal setting, and reinforcement was highly effective for students with learning disabilities (Begeny et al., 2011). I believe this to be true from my findings. When first
beginning the research process, I was afraid that I was going to be in over my
head. I would say the three biggest challenges were snow days, students absent/having
to make up sessions, and time. Overall, once I was able to get in the routine,
the students knew the routine and what to expect as well. It allowed us to make
the most of the time. Although I cannot give specific numbers on which method
is more effective, I can positively say that all methods had some effectiveness
to them based on the results that I have seen. Looking above at the table, all
students made huge leaps. There wasn’t one group that didn’t make significant
gains. I would definitely recommend these fluency methods to other teachers for
their struggling readers. I do believe that I am going to continue using these
small groups in my classroom. Although my research class is coming to an end,
why stop now? As long as the students
continue to make progress, I will continue to use these methods.
