Grouping for reading instruction can be an interesting task. There are many questions to ask about each student along with how you feel or think they are improving in their reading development. Often reading groups are created based on a student being a good reader, or one...who does okay but is slow, and then one, well who is just not getting it. Then the students move along happily in their groups for the year.
What if there was a better way of grouping for reading instruction? A systematic way of looking at skills students are missing and then providing instruction so they understand the skill and are able to apply it during their reading. Luckily, there is a systematic way, but it is not easy and takes time to perfect. It consists of three steps which involve assessment, analysis, and action. The same three steps can be found in the medical field as well.
Start with universal screener for reading to identify whether the students are successful and at their appropriate reading level. There are several available, and a common one is DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). Once you have administered the screener to all your students then you will be able to place the students in three general instructional groups: Benchmark, Strategic, and Intensive.
Benchmark (Tier I) students need to continue on with grade-level content and skills and should be able to remain at grade level with strong instruction. Their monitoring should come from the reading curriculum for reading instruction. Most reading curricula have an end of unit test. This test is most often overlooked but can provide a great deal of information on how your students will score on most state tests. These tests are an implied test. They cover many skills taught prior and then have the students apply those skills as they will in the state tests. Teachers often overlook these because it appears they are not testing what was just taught in the unit they have been teaching. If you want to know how well your students are able to apply the information then this is your way of monitoring your students’ ability to process the material for the state tests. This group of students should now be further grouped by how they score on the unit test. You will be able to group them into three groups.
Group 1: This is our goal for all students. These students are able to apply and analyze what they have read. They are scoring 90% or higher on their unit tests or theme tests.
Students in Group 1 still need strong instruction in the same areas that the Group 2 students need. They also need the opportunity to expand. In most cases, fluency is not an issue. Therefore, that time may be used to move the students to the synthesis level of comprehension. These students will exceed most often on state testing, as they are able to apply the information they read.
Activities/Lessons:
- Many of the same activities from Group 2
- Vocabulary applied and expanded
- Writing
- Give information and the students create their own story.
- Use information from different stories and write a new story. An example would be taking the setting from one story, characters from another story, problem from another, and then creating their own story. They can then share and discuss the stories with peers.
Group 2: These students have met their fluency benchmark and are able to pass the themes tests or end of unit tests with a score of between 70% and 89%. Truly these students are on their way to becoming good readers and have fair comprehension. They will meet the expectation of the state tests.
For the most part, these students have a good understanding of the knowledge level of questioning and are fairly strong on comprehension. They need to work toward the application and analysis of what they read. This group should have no problem passing the state test. The goal is to move them to fully applying what they read.
Activities/Lessons:
- Practice in fluency is still important so they don’t lose it.
- Lessons can be taught and they can work independently on workbook pages or worksheets that match lessons.
- Story Maps
- Retell the story in written form.
- Vocabulary
- Applied vocabulary (replace words with synonyms)
- Crazy Professor (YouTube)
- Guided comparisons / Venn Diagrams
- Guided comprehension skill application moving toward independent application.
- Rewriting or telling the story explaining if the characters made a different choice
Group 3: These students have met their fluency benchmark but are unable to pass the theme or end of unit tests.
Students in this group are using less cognitive energy when decoding text. This will now free up some cognitive power to build on comprehension. They are still at the knowledge level and very concrete. An example might be if the student read: “The dog ran very fast. When he got to the dish it was empty.” Then if you asked the question, “What did the dog run to?” they could not make the connection between the two sentences. They can tell you that the dog ran fast and that the dish was empty, but wouldn’t connect that the dog was running to the dish. Often these are the students' teachers who will say, “They have no problems reading but do not remember a thing!” They need to be taught how to apply information and to read for understanding.
Activities/Lessons:
- Students still need to practice reading to keep their fluency up.
- Lessons need to be guided, with comprehension worksheets and workbook pages done together.
- Vocabulary and word use needs to be instructed and practiced orally. Point out vocabulary in the text during guided reading. (Make them look at the word in the text so they don’t just read over it.)
- Story Maps
- Retell what they have read in their own words. (Orally)
- Crazy Professor parts 1, 2, &3 (YouTube)
Strategic (Tier II) students who fall in the mid-range of the screener, often are able to be split into two groups. They also may require additional diagnostic screening to identify specific areas of instruction needed. In most cases, this group of students can be split into two groups. Group 4 of our student groups are students who are not fluent but are accurate. What this shows us is that they are fairly strong on their phonic/structure skills but it is just not quite automatic, and they are having to take additional time to decode their words. The area of instruction for these students would be fluency. If they are not accurate this is where additional diagnostic screenings are needed (Group 5). There are several available and most reading curriculums have them though you may have to reach out to a primary teacher as they are usually not in the upper-grade curriculum supplies. Upper grades should first check to see if these students are missing single-syllable words or multisyllabic words. Often upper-grade students are just struggling with multisyllabic words and need additional support.
Group 4: These students are strategic and have passed all parts of a phonics diagnostic screener and are reading passages with 95% accuracy.
These students are on their way to becoming readers. They are currently using their cognitive energy to decode words. They need to work to train their brains so that reading is automatic and they don’t have to think about decoding the words. Comprehension will come when the reader is no longer using their cognitive energy to decode. Comprehension will be stressed in Learning Groups 3,2, and 1.
Activities/Lessons:
- Practice reading orally materials that are at their independent reading level.
- Read Naturally
- Up-Up-Up Reading Activity
- Read word lists to activate the working memory
- SuperSpeed 1000 (Chris Biffle)
Note: These students should be taking the core reading program skills tests and/or unit check-outs. If they are able to pass the skills tests at the exceeds level (90% or higher) you may need to evaluate to see if they have any physical problems holding them back from making the fluency benchmark. They may just be slow-moving or have a speech problem. If this is the case they need to be placed in learning group 1. Caution, they must read the test with none of the material being read to them. It is true that they may be able to process the material at a higher level auditorily, which is great, but the goal is that they are reading and processing themselves. If you focus on their processing ability alone, you are missing the goal of the student becoming a reader.
Group 5: These students are at the strategic reading level and have not passed phonic diagnostic screeners.
The phonics diagnostic screener will direct the instruction of the student. Once they are able to pass all the tasks, then the student should be ready to move to Group 4.
Grades K-1: Need instruction on specific phonics and language skills.
Grades 2-5: learning group 5 is in two parts.
5A has not passed the first part of the phonics diagnostic screener. Their instruction needs to be driven by the skills identified during leveled skill group time.
5B have passed everything but multisyllabic words. Students in learning group 5B need the majority of their instruction during leveled skill group time in multisyllabic word decoding.
Learning group 5 is a hard area for leveled skill group instruction. The instructional focus comes from the missing skills, but uses the materials for the theme that is being taught. Working with these groups requires that teachers understand the spectrum of reading skills to be able to adapt materials to meet students’ missing skills as indicated by the diagnostic screener.
Intensive (Tier III) students make up the last group for the classroom teacher. They are the students who are way below the benchmark goal and are struggling. The first step is to check to see if there is any type of IEP or reading struggle identified in their file. If there is then that file will drive their instruction and you need to follow the plan that was developed. If you are not able to locate anything in their file, then the first place to start is with the diagnostic screener to identify skills they are lacking and need to develop. If they continue to struggle you need to check with your school's referral processes and present data to help develop a plan for those students.
Group 6 (two groups)
6A - students are in the CORE reading program and are working on basic skills they have not passed on the phonics diagnostic screener. If a student at this level has not moved in three learning group reviews you need to start some deeper evaluations. (Most often these are students who move into your classroom who are below grade level.)
6B - students are working in a Title I program or have an IEP. Their instructional focus should still be what is listed in 6A, but also making sure any previously developed plan in the student file is being followed.
Using this processing of evaluating students learning strengths and needs and teaching to their specific gaps will allow them to gain a better understanding of the reading process and become successful readers. Though the process is not simple and there are many steps, meeting the students' gaps will allow them to become fluent readers at a quicker rate than just moving through a curriculum hoping they will learn.
