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In the Beginning

Prior to beginning my journey in this program, I started to see a disconnect in the way that students were learning to read text through out the school year, and how they were assessed at the end of a school year. Students were using traditional strategies in reading text with paper and pencil, and then were asked to take an enormous test on a computer using all the traditional skills learned on a format that was new, a digital platform. I felt that this was an issue that needed to be addressed.

Round One
In the first round of my research, I identified a possible problem that needed to be solved. I wanted to see if setting reading goals on a digital platform could help increase reading comprehension. The idea was that goal setting on a digital platform could possibly correlate with increasing comprehension in reading. Therefore, creating reading goals on a digital platform could help increase the chances of students obtaining a higher reading comprehension. My findings were that regardless the medium of goal setting, whether on a digital platform or on paper, the results were the same. Students creating goals for themselves always helped increase their comprehension compared to students that did not set any reading goals. These findings helped guide me towards adjusting my original driving question into a new question, but still maintaining the same goal to increase reading comprehension.

Round 1 Pretest and Posttest Results

Round Two
In the second round of research, I modified my driving question to closely look at the impact of how reading through digital platforms can help support reading comprehension and fluency. Students are spending a lot more time reading online in various formats, how can we ensure that students are able to clarify, comprehend text, and understand what they are reading? In addition, my school just adopted a new reading program called Benchmarks, which is in the second year of adoption for the district. This new reading program has the digital platform components of texts, and I was able to use it in the class to support the needs of the students.

The second round of research involved students using the Benchmark curriculum to support their reading. Initially, students had taken the Reading Inventory assessment to measure their reading comprehension with a lexile score. Students were assigned to listening stations to listen, and follow along visually, to a book at their grade lexile level. Students listed to the book, then would read the same book aloud with a partner and discuss key questions about the book. The next day, the students were assigned a different book with the same lexile level, read it aloud with a partner and discussed similar key questions about the book. This round of research took place four times a week for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, the students took the Reading Inventory assessment again to track their growth.

Best Tools Used in Class

Great tool for classroom management.
Allows consistent communication with families.
Can display class/student achievement online in a secure digital space.

Core reading and language program.
Online component for listening comprehension.
Has multiple genres of text in various lexile levels.
Provides authentic literature and engaging informational text.

The Reading Inventory is a research-based, adaptive student assessment program
Measures reading skills and longitudinal progress from Kindergarten through college readiness.
Ability to skip questions to help students feel in control.