Recently, we administered the DRA test to all students from Kindergarten through grade three. The classroom teachers tested their own students. After testing was completed, the teachers and coaches met by grade level to determine instructional needs. We reviewed the test forms to reflect on our students' strengths and weaknesses. We shared ideas and focused on specific skills to teach in our invitational groups. It was really enlightening to see the common errors at different levels. At the Kindergarten level, we saw that children need to work on one-to-one correspondence in text. They also need more practice in identifying beginning and ending sounds. First grade teachers noticed the need for sight word practice and looking for word families. They also decided to stress that the children go back and reread when the word doesn't sound right or make sense in the story. Students often have a problem with dropping endings and confusing voiced and unvoiced endings (look-ded for looked). We decided that this should be taught explicitly. Second grade teachers also noted the need for specific lessons on self-correcting. Many of the students showed that they are still having difficulty with long vowel sounds. Teachers in first and second grades were surprised that so many children see contractions but say the two words instead of the contraction. If they see "we'll", they say "we will". One first grade teacher shared that she now writes on the board, "We'll have art today" or "You'll be learning about penguins today", and the children read the message aloud in the morning. She does this to infuse the use of contractions in their daily work. Several of us really liked that idea. Both second and third grades found that the children need more practice with retelling and sequencing the events in stories. They are also going spend time with chunking words, looking for familiar word parts to assist with decoding. Third grade is focusing on oral language to increase fluency in reading. Teachers will continue to use running records for all levels to monitor growth and individual needs. We plan to meet again and discuss our progress. We expect that this collaborative reflection among grade level teachers will have a powerful effect on spring testing results! |
