The first results of the school year are in!
I was excited to assess my students on letter names and sounds after five weeks of school—five weeks of daily whole group phonics; five weeks of my new and improved small group instruction that focused on letter names, letter sounds, and blending VC combinations; and five weeks of letter name interventions with nine of my lowest incoming students.
I administered my letter name and letter sound assessment during the third week of September. I typically do it at the end of each month through December, but we had parent-teacher conferences coming up the last week of September so I did it a little earlier to make sure I got to every student before then and had time to compile the data. I was happy with the results. Ecstatic, actually! All students grew (as they should), but did they grow more than expected based on the changes I’ve made in my instruction this year? And, did they grow more than my students did the first month of school last year?
Let’s analyze the numbers and see…
# —> Instead of listing student names on the chart below, I gave each a number. I have 24 students.
BOY —> Beginning-of-the-year DIBELS color (red is significantly below level; yellow is below level; green is on level; blue is above level).
LN —> Letter Names (number identified out of 54)
LS —> Letter Sounds (number said correctly out of 37 sounds although I did not ask long vowel sounds yet because it’s important to wait until they’re taught so students respond with knowledge and confidence and not just luck)
Highlighted yellow —> Student gets letter name interventions
I have 11 red students, four yellow students, three green students (student #7 is green), and six blue students.
The average number of letter names known in August was 21.1 and five weeks later was 35.1. The average number of sounds known in August was 4.2 and five weeks later was 13.5. I like these numbers! To be honest, in years past I didn’t expect to see much growth in letter sounds until the end of October. But, with all the letter name and letter sound and blending practice we’ve been doing in small groups, it doesn’t surprise me that there was so much growth in letter sounds this early in the school year. Look at student #1 and student #5, two of my intervention students. What incredible growth in just five weeks!
Speaking of growth with the students getting interventions with me, in August those nine knew on average 4.1 letter names and in September knew 23.3 letter names! And, in August they knew exactly zero letter sounds and already in September knew 7.6 letter sounds! The interventions focused on letter names only, so all letter sound knowledge was picked up during whole group phonics and small group instruction. I attribute that to all the blending practice we did because I provide great clues for the students, making it fun and accessible to (almost) all students.
What do I mean? What fun and effective letter clues? Many of you have seen some of these in videos and many of you have asked to see them all. So that is what the video below is about.
Comparing this year’s five-week growth with last year’s five-week growth…
Some other data analysis I did was to compare this year’s students’ letter name growth for the first five weeks of school to last year’s students’ letter name growth during the same period. I was hoping and expecting that this year’s class would show more growth since I made some changes based on my Science of Reading learning (the biggest change being practicing letter names, sounds, and blending during small group instruction during that time instead of just during whole group phonics and interventions, as I did last year).
Average # of Letter Names Known in August 2020 —> 21.4
Average # of Letter Names Known in August 2021 —> 21.1
Average # of Letter Sounds Known in August 2020 —> 4.1
Average # of Letter Sounds Known in August 2021 —> 4.2
The above data establishes that the two classes are quite similar in their entry skills.
Growth from August to September in Letter Names 2020 —> from 21.4 to 32.9
Growth from August to September in Letter Names 2021 —> from 21.1 to 35.1
Growth from August to September in Letter Sounds 2020 —> from 4.1 to 8.5
Growth from August to September in Letter Sounds 2021 —> from 4.2 to 13.5
I love this, especially the growth in letter sounds this year since that is where I made the biggest change in my instruction—getting the students practicing sounds and blending sounds much earlier in the school year!
And now let’s compare the growth year-to-year of just the intervention students…
Growth in Letter Names August to September 2020 —> 4.6 to 20.8
Growth in Letter Names August to September 2021 —> 4.1 to 23.3
Growth in Letter Sounds August to September 2020 —> 0 to 3.8
Growth in Letter Sounds August to September 2021 —> 0 to 7.6
Again, I am loving this!
If you’re not familiar with what I’ve been doing during small group instruction, check out this video for demonstrations, letter name clues, letter sound clues, and my famous grandma story!
Exciting changes coming up in October
As if this growth data wasn’t exciting enough, I always make big shifts in my instruction during the month of October.
For the first 7-8 weeks of school, my small groups are a heterogenous mix and all groups/all students get the exact same instruction. I do this intentionally to lay the same solid foundation. Starting in October, students are grouped more strategically, allowing me to linger on certain skills and concepts with some students while letting others forge ahead at their own pace. I will begin to implement the components of this small group plan I outlined in July.
Looking forward to starting the word lists based on spelling patterns that I spent two months developing and testing last spring. Very excited to have students move through these 34 lists at their own speed.
Students will get reading folders to house their word lists, phonics practice sheets, decodable text, continuous text, writing practice, orthographic mapping activities, and “decodable” books (as compared to past years when they had book bags that housed their leveled books). Excited to work through the process and pacing of conducting these small group lesson plan template components.
Students will get individualized and regular phonological training using Kilpatrick’s One-Minute Exercises. They will move through these at their own pace. This is new to me and will be fascinating to watch.
We will move from guided drawing and writing to writing more independently during writing time, using my goal-oriented journal cover. This starts the week of October 11.
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Video: Impressive Growth in Five Weeks
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