While working with students in my reading intervention class I observed how low their reading comprehension skills were. The Fast Track curriculum, which I use in the program is designed to help students who are reading at below grade levels to advance in their reading levels. The only way these students advance to higher levels and return to their normal classrooms is to test out and the test is based on reading comprehension. My goal for these students is to increase their reading comprehension and their reading skills. I started gathering information for my action research, which includes a student survey on reading habits and their likes as well as dislikes of reading. The students are given a pre-assessment test which comes from the FAST TRACK (FT) curriculum that measures their reading ability and comprehension. Students who are in the FT program are given assessments every eight stories to check on their reading comprehension as well as their reading levels.
All my students have varied levels of reading difficulty as well as low reading comprehension levels. I noticed that the students who had an easier time reading also had higher levels of reading comprehension. Maybe it was just coincidence ,but I started to focus in on which reading fluency strategies would help these students' reading abilities. I used a few fluency strategies that I thought would help my students read better and ones that they wouldn't mind using. What I found soon after is that their reading comprehension increased because they were able to take part in discussions and answer questions more than they did before I used these strategies. The students reading levels also increased as well as their reading fluency. The whole class benefited from using these strategies which was pleasantly surprising to me. The students' assessment scores also went up.
I will continue to use the reading fluency strategies that enables students to read better and work with the strategies that the students find that they enjoy as well. I didn't realize how powerful action research could be in the classroom and what a difference it could make to my students and myself.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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