Student Goals Lead to Reading Success
Bonnie Crossman
As an interventionist, I spend my days working with small groups of elementary-aged students (second- to fifth-grade) who are reading below grade-level. Some of these students (especially those who need practice in basic skills such as reading sight words and recognizing letter sounds) have come to the realization that their reading skills are lower than their peers, which can be detrimental to their self-esteem. Therefore, any progress that these students make should be noted and wholeheartedly celebrated. Other students need help in understanding the qualities of good reading (i.e., various components of fluency and achieving comprehension) before they can truly improve. In order to help both of these types of students, I have implemented one of Routman’s (2003) top practices to ensure that students become excellent readers: assisting students in setting goals.
Goals For Sight Words and Letter Sounds Interventions
My students who need work on basic skills complete a benchmark assessment before beginning an intervention. Students are shown the results of these assessments and form goals for where they want to be in six weeks. We talk about selecting goals that will take some hard work but that are also realistic. For example, students who read 20 sight words should not make it their goal to read 100. By the same token, they should not take it easy on themselves by making it their goal to read 25 words. To make this principle more understandable for students, we discuss how many more words they think they could read in just one week. We then do some quick math together to figure out what this would equal out to for six weeks.
Once students have formed and recorded their goals, they complete a written plan for how to achieve them. Some examples of student responses are: “I’m going to practice my words if I finish something early in my class,” “I will listen to Ms. Crossman during her lessons so I can learn more,” and “I will stay focused when I am working with my partner.” Creating this plan reminds students of the importance of what they are trying to accomplish, and it holds them accountable to their goals.
To track their progress, students are given a timed assessment once a week. They then mark their new results in a line graph format. This practice is truly motivating for students. In discussing students forming learning goals, Routman (2003) shares, “Their reward for their successful learning is intrinsic, personal pride and pleasure in their accomplishments. In a noncompetitive manner, they enjoy demonstrating small improvements and achievements” (p. 47). I certainly see these behaviors take place in my classroom. I often hear exclamations of, “My line went up!” Furthermore, students love showing their graphs to their fellow group members and they express excitement over sharing the results with their classroom teachers and parents. When students’ scores go down, it leads to honest conversations about what caused the slip. I’ve heard such insights as, “I was rushing and not really focusing, so I made some silly mistakes,” “I didn’t pay attention to my word endings,” “I kept mixing up my b’s and d’s,” and “I was goofing off, so my practice with my partner was bad.” Furthermore, students become determined that the slip does not happen again. I once had a student approach me after group to ask for more copies of the words so she could practice at home and on the bus. This was my first experience of a student asking for homework!
Goals for Fluency and Comprehension
Other groups I work with participate in interventions that encompass all components of reading, with a special emphasis on fluency andcomprehension. Students are placed in these groups based on their instructional level as determined by the Fountas and Pinnell (2013) system. Whenever students read a new book on this level, I listen to their reading and ask them a series of questions. I then assign them a score
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