KAITLIN BARNES
READING RESPONSE AND COMPREHENSION
Because I teach in the reading workshop format, students are constantly applying the skills we are learning in class to a self-selected text. Teaching in the reading workshop format also means that I design activities that match learning objectives with appropriate assessment methods. I assess students' comprehension of their independent books in several ways, including individual reading conferences and reader's response prompts. I assess students' comprehension of their text and their mastery of TEKS through authentic student work that requires them to apply a reading skill to a book of their choosing. Finally, though not a main component of my reading instruction, I also use the Fountas and Pinnell running records system to assess student's independent reading levels three times a year.
Please use the Table of Contents below to navigate this section of my website. Clicking on each underlined subtitle will bring you back to the top of this section.
​
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INDIVIDUAL READING CONFERENCES
Each day after conducting my Status of the Class check, I pull students for individual reading conferences. These conferences allow me to do several things. First, it helps me build more personal relationships with my students, because I am meeting with each student several times a month. Second, it helps me assess whether or not students are understanding their independent reading books. If students cannot explain to me what their book is about, then I know their book is likely too difficult for them, and I need to help them pick a new one that is a better fit. Third, reading conferences help me gather data about how students are selecting their books, and how they are responding when they come to tricky spots in their reading. I am then able to either affirm these strategies, or share new strategies that students can use. Finally, reading conferences serve as another way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of both their books and of the reading skills we are learning in class. Because they happen verbally, conferences particularly help students who are English Language Learners or students who may struggle with writing. These students are able to express their understanding orally in addition to the more traditional pencil-and-paper assessment methods that happen on a weekly basis.
Individual reading conferences allow me to monitor student progress with their independent reading books and help guide my instructional decisions in terms of which books to recommend for individual students. In this way, I am understanding the progress and habits of individual readers, and I am able to use that data to influence the choices that I make about book clubs, class novels, and our classroom library. I also use individual reading conference data to identify what reading habit mini-lessons I need to teach. For example, my students went through a phase where many of them were abandoning books quickly. After noticing that habit and talking with students about why they were abandoning books, I designed a mini-lesson that I delivered to the whole class about when and why to abandon books. This helped cut down on the number of students who were quitting books and increased the number of students who were choosing books that they were able to complete.
​
This student is reading at grade level and has a preference for graphic novels. She has just started her book when we have our reading conference, but she is able to give me a summary of what she has read so far and make a prediction. She also is able to identify the names of the characters in her book, which is an improvement over her last conference when she struggled with that. I noted that improvement in my conference notes.
This student is reading above grade level and is almost done with the thick fantasy novel that she had started during our last conference. She needs very little prompting when discussing her book and is able to make connections between the characters and events in the story.
This student is reading at a third-grade level and has just finished reading a popular graphic novel. She can describe the events and characters, but needs more prompting than other students. She also was able to use the text features and images of a graphic novel to help her find evidence to support her thinking during our conference. Ultimately, she did forget some events during her summary of the book, which tells me that I should include her in future small-group instruction that targets summarizing.
Another way that students demonstrate their knowledge is through reading response prompts. Each month, students select one book they read and use that text to complete a reading response prompt. Each reading response requires students to rate the book, give a brief summary of the most important events, and answer a thinking prompt. Sample thinking prompts include: "Which character changed the most during the book? How did they change? Why did they change? Was it a good change or bad change? Why?" and "Describe one of the main conflicts (problems) in the story. What was the conflict? How was it resolved (fixed)? Do you agree with the solution? If you do agree, why do you agree? If you don’t agree, what would you have done instead?" These reading responses allow me to learn more about what my students enjoyed reading, because most of them choose to respond using their favorite book from that month. The responses also help me see which students need additional support when responding to text. Reading response prompts give me another type of assessment data that I can use to identify individual student needs, and differentiate the assignment where appropriate.
This student is an English Language Learner who participated in the bilingual education program until fourth grade. He understood how to write a summary and did answer the thinking prompt, but his response did not include the higher-level vocabulary or show as much depth as some of his peers.
This student receives special education services. He clearly remembered a strategy for writing a summary that includes the beginning, middle, and end. However, his response to the thinking prompt does not focus on one character.
This student clearly understood her book very well, as evidenced by the amount of writing that she was able to produce in response to her reading. Her response includes both academic vocabulary ("protagonist") and high-level vocabulary ("vast," "without mercy"). In addition, her thinking prompt response focused on a deeper change within the character and she was able to name that he started out hopeful and lost that hope throughout the book, as opposed to saying that he started out good and then turned bad.
I use a rubric to score Reader's Responses. This helps me ensure that I am being equitable across my classes, and helps students understand and identify quality responses. I also include notes to the students on the bottom of the rubric, since I make it a point to try to read as many of the books from our library as possible and am familiar with most of the books they select.
Because students spend so much of our class time working with a book of their choosing, I assess student understanding through activities that require them to apply TEKS to an authentic text. In this way, I am designing assessments that match learning objectives and standards to a method that allows for student choice. Whenever I assign an activity, I give students the option of using their independent reading book, our class novel, or a book club text. Regardless of the text they use, they are expected to show text evidence, understanding of the book, and understanding of the skill we are focusing on. Included below are several examples of authentic student work that I use to assess student understanding of character, theme, and sequencing.
For this activity, students selected a character and wrote an acrostic poem to describe that character's traits. They were required to find and cite specific text evidence to support their chosen traits. This student chose a high-level independent reading book and included details even when listing her character's traits.
This student chose to use a Big Nate book for this activity, which is a popular series that has a lower reading level. Even though Big Nate books are written like comic books, he was able to still find and cite text evidence to support his descriptions of the character.
For this activity, students identified the theme of their book and provided three pieces of text evidence to support their chosen theme. This student chose evidence that shows the main character telling the truth to other characters.
This student chose to use a former class novel, Zane and the Hurricane. They provided specific text evidence from throughout the story to support the theme Overcoming Obstacles.
After we finish a class novel, students complete a cumulative novel project. This student chose to make an Instagram profile of one of the characters in our novel. Her work demonstrates a strong understanding of important events from the entire novel. She also demonstrates a deep understanding of the book's characters--even the Instagram handles (MalvinaJokes, TruMusic) reflect details about each of the characters.
This student also chose to create an Instagram profile, but only included events from the beginning and end of the story. His work does not represent as in-depth an understanding as the first student, but he does include several significant quotes from the book in his comments that show comprehension ("No angels cryin today," "You shot my friend").
Because my school district does not use guided reading in fifth grade, running records are not a main component of my reading instruction. However, I do realize their importance from an instructional viewpoint and use them as another type of assessment data that I use to identify individual student needs. Knowing my students' beginning reading levels helps me suggest books that are a good fit for them, and assessing reading levels again in the middle of the year helps me gauge which students are improving and which students need additional support. This data helps me understand student progress and guide my planning for small group and tutorial instruction.
I do not share reading levels with students. Fountas and Pinnell, the creators of the running records system, have stated that reading level data is meant to be seen only by the teacher. I teach my students how to choose books that are a good fit for them at the beginning of the year and I never limit what they can read based on their reading level. I also do not share reading level data with parents unless they request it. This is also following the recommendation of Fountas and Pinnell, who state that parents often do not have the background information necessary in order to understand what a reading level "R" or "U" truly means.
I use rubrics to grade projects to make sure that I am always assessing content, and not just how a project looks. The first student scored the highest possible number of points, while the second student could have improved in content, text support, and effort/aesthetics.
I keep track of individual reading levels using a spreadsheet on my computer. This data is shared with my administration, instructional coordinator, and appraiser and updated as I conduct running records at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. I also use this data as another way to monitor student progress and guide my instructional decisions. For example, if the majority of my class is reading several letters below grade level, I may need to select a class novel that will be more accessible for them to comprehend.