I have completed several actions of my
Action Research Plan. During last school year, I trained my second grade level
on running records. Before the training, I prepared all the material needed,
such as several blank running records, leveled readers, and asked several
students to stay behind during P.E. The first training was completed with hard
copies. First I explained the symbols used when conducting running records,
such as check marks for correct reading, dashes for omission, R for repeating
of phrases or sentences and writing in the word if a substitution occurs. Next
I modeled a lesson using a running record while one of the students read. The
running record I was conducting was being shown on the Interactive White Board.
Finally the teachers were given a book and assigned a student to practice
conducting running records a few times. During the next training, I walked the
second grade teachers through the process of downloading a Running Record app
on the I pads. We set up the teachers’ emails to enable the ability to forward
the running records to our emails and print the running records. The running
records can be used as documentation for RTI purposes. We practiced conducting
running records again with the same students and a different set of leveled
readers. The running record app also records the words per minute read, fluency
rate and reading level.
I have self-reflected on my guided reading
lessons, running records and took note of the process the students were making
with the interventions provided. I observed four teachers guided reading lesson
plans on two separate occasions. I have compared the students reading results
with the DRA. I found the teachers who were using running records had students
reading at a higher level at the end of the year as compared to teachers who
were not using running records during their guided reading lessons.
