Analyzing Student Progress in Reading Recovery: Guiding Questions and Next Steps

I have found that developing a system for looking across multiple running records, as well as lesson records, to be a vital process necessary for consistent progress that leads to acceleration. When I make time to look for patterns of behavior across lessons, rather than only looking day by day, I feel like I know my student better and therefore I am able to plan for my student more effectively.

I use three guiding questions when examining my records.

How does my student help himself?

What new behaviors has my student demonstrated?

What behaviors are getting in the way?

I would like to provide an example of my thought process while looking at my own student who is in their 5th week of Reading Recovery lessons.

Question #1: What does he do to help himself?

As I look through my records, I am looking to see what my student does when they come to something they don’t know. I want to know what they do when they are stuck and I want to notice any helpful behaviors that my student is routinely demonstrating. I saw the following patterns of behavior:

• Asks for help if he doesn’t know what something is called (he is an English Language Learner)
• Monitors and self-corrects using known words
• Rereads to fix known words
• Monitors using first letter (no attempt to fix)
• Rereads to know the next word to write
• Isolates and records the first sound of a word (if sound/letter is known)

Question #2: What new behaviors has my student demonstrated?

I am looking to see if my student did anything unexpected. I am also looking for any glimmers of new discoveries. These new behaviors often guide me in determining what to teach next, allowing me to build upon this newfound knowledge.

• Attempts a letter by letter sound analysis (some success with cvc words)
• Uses sound boxes independently (records sounds in order, most consonant sounds, and a couple of short vowel sounds)
• Leaves spaces between words (with some lapses)

Question #3: What behaviors are getting in the way?

It is important to also look at what behaviors are getting in the way. In other words, what are the roadblocks that are slowing down progress. Are there any red flags with foundational learning, such as directionality that need to be addressed?

• Directionality confusion with two letter words
• Head pointing (word by word reading)
• Not attempting to fix his reading when he notices it doesn’t look right
• Letter name/sound confusions
• Doesn’t start writing all of the way to the left

For this analysis, I create three columns on a sheet of paper, label each with the respective questions, and proceed to make notes as I examine 3-4 days’ worth of both running records and lesson records. Underneath my notes I also take notes about particular areas related to the Observation Survey.

It is important to take note on the student’s progress with their lowest stanines on the Observation Survey. For example, my student entered Reading Recovery with very weak concepts about print skills. I keep careful track of which skills we have worked on and his progress. Once a skill is learned, I intentionally plan to check in on it here and there to be sure it is still in place. The following are the CAP skills my student is currently working on. The highlighted are the skills he is regularly demonstrating knowledge of.

• First and last concept
• Meaning of a period
• Meaning of quotation marks
• Frame a letter

My student also entered Reading Recovery with low letter identification that included many letter confusions. Again, I keep track of what letters we have worked on, plan to echo the letter work across his daily lesson and across multiple lessons, and circle back to reinforce the letters that he knows. These are my student’s letter confusions along with his unknown letters. The highlighted letters are the letters I have explicitly taught him.

Confusions: K/C, J/G, G/J, T/L, U/Q, C/S, F/T, d/b, k/c, j/g, g/j, 1 or i/l, c/s

Unknown: i, r

Lastly, my student entered Reading Recovery with one word he could read and one word he could write. When keeping track of the words that are known, I think about the scale knowing. In Literacy Lessons Designed for Individuals (2016) Clay discusses about what it means to know a letter/word (p. 75). Clay writes that, “We can think of a new response coming into a child’s repertoire of literacy behaviors as being

• new
• only just known
• successfully problem-solved
• easily produced but easily thrown
• well-known and recognised in most context
• known in many variant forms.”

Thinking about how a word is known helps me to think about what words I need to have coming up in our books, what words I need to extend. If a word is known well in reading, but not writing, I can help the student make that connection. I take a little liberty with Clay’s ways of knowing and keep a record like this for my students:

Reading

Well-Known: I, a/A, Mom, Dad, too, can, is, no/No, to

Known with lapses: in, said, come, here, are

New: at, am, look, you

Writing

Well-Known: I, a, cat, can, to, can, is, Dog

Known with lapses: in (slow production), the/hte, like

New: here, come, my, you

Next Steps

After analyzing all of this information, I think about next steps for my student. This is where I pull out my predictions of progress. This analysis helps to me think about the goals already set on the predictions of progress. If the student has not been making any progress toward a goal, I think about whether I have been following through on my plan under “extra work is needed on” and “I will need to pay special attention to”. If I have been following through with these areas, then I may need to reconsider whether this is what the student really needs to be working on, think of a different approach or ask for help from my colleagues and/or teacher leader. This analysis of my student makes It is easier to think about what my student needs to know in the next couple of weeks. It also makes it easier to pull out my books and think about what set of 3-5 books will help my student with the processing they will be learning next.

In Summary

I have discovered that performing this weekly routine greatly enhances my ability to respond to my students. While it takes about 20-30 minutes per student, the time invested pays off in spades. Not only does it streamline my daily lesson planning, but it also provides a clearer path forward. Your routine for record analysis doesn’t have to look the same as mine, but crafting your own system will yield substantial benefits.