Evaluation of inetervention

 This year my inquiry has focussed on supporting my students to gain reading ability and confidence to tackle unseen texts. 

I noticed that this was particularly the case when they encountered lengthy or challenging texts, or when they were required to read several different texts in a short time period - such as on a PAT test. 

At the start of the year

I noted a really need to increase reading ability for a number of student working below their chronological age. The aim was to identify their needs which I found was around vocabulary, decoding strategies and letter sound knowledge. 

Starting the Intervention 

Throughout the year the intervention and its focus adjusted. There were many factor that impacted the changes including progressional learning, lockdowns and changes to the way we were teaching more generally because of covid.  

Final Data Collection (mid term 4)

Over all reading data in my class was very mixed. 10 students made significant progress over 1.5 years in a year. While 5 made a years progress and the remaining students made less than expected progress. Given the challenging year we had with Covid19 and the two significant lockdowns and on going effects of those it is hard to say what factors determined reading success. 

As for my target group:

5 students made significant progress of 1.5 years or more. With one of these student boy E making progress of 2.6years. Girl D made 0.9 year progress which well compared on norm progress is not significant compared to the less than a year of progress she has made in her prior 3 years of school this is significant for her. 

However there were sadly some results that were not has positive with 6 students making 0.5 years progress or less two of these made no progress in reading level during the year. 

These results were supported by the start test data shown below. 

With average progress for year 4 being 16.2 and progress for a year 3 being 27.6. You will note that Girl C, Girl E Boy E and Boy A made over average progress. While girl B came very close to average progress. 

Given this data I feel confident to say that the intervention had mixed results but was also influenced by a number of facts including lockdowns, attendance and attitude. 

What change have I Made to my teaching in 2020

My inquiry focussed on supporting students in reading with a focus on understanding new vocabulary and being able to decode unknown words so that they could tackle more challenging age approbate texts with less support. 

In June I looked at my teaching in depth asking what texts am I proving learners with a why, what do the children think about my teaching and their learning and what strengths and needs do I have in my practice. 

Changes to the way I teach reading

As a result of this study I made a point of actively including sight words along with other text specific word work to every reading group lesson. I also made more opportunities to talk about words and made this rewindable through our group digital modelling books. 

Changes to my learning design

To be honest this was something I did not change because of my inquiry but rather because of the ever changing needs of 2020 with Covid-19 and to address every day changes in the classroom. I found that I was providing less differentiation. This included proving one book a week at the children expected level with audio support to encourage engagement with more vocabulary and complex language structures. 

Did the change in teaching affect student learning?

This is a challenging question as for some students these changes provided a needed challenge and pushed them to engage more with a wider range of vocabulary and ideas. While for others the challenge was perhaps too much and therefor served to discourage them. I don't think I found the hapy middle ground I would have liked. 

To what extent did my teaching change?

I think my teaching changed in small but significant ways. I began asking why did I choose this text and how can I provide challenge within the scope of what learners are capable of.