Construction of the data wall enabled the implementation of a concerted whole school approach in tracking success in reading for all students. The impact for student improvement is heightened because there is a shared
responsibility, derived from a wide range of professional input. Teachers have a greater awareness of each student’s
reading needs and can differentiate their teaching approaches more effectively. With this approach teachers feel supported and the responsibility of developing interventions and strategic planning for students is no longer left to each individual teacher. The collaborative scrutiny of students’ work has allowed us to easily track identified groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, English as an Additional Language/Dialect students and those involved in Learning Support. It allowed us to move from the broad use of school data to actually putting individual faces on the data and thereby increasing the urgency to act.
For students at lower reading levels: Using running record results, teachers recorded the accuracy, retell and comprehension level gained from the text. Students achieved a green mark if:
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For fluent readers: If students read at or above Level 26, they were considered fluent and independent readers and could be assessed using the Informal Prose Inventory (IPI). Information was recorded. Students achieved a green mark if:
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- Students are required to have green marks in each aspect of reading before moving on to the next level.
- Each year level was designated a colour and student cards were made to record results.
- Case management dates were included and records from these meetings are stored electronically for teachers to access.
Data was assembled onto two boards:
1. Running record levels
2. Informal Prose Levels
1. Running record levels
2. Informal Prose Levels
Underneath information on the text characteristics of fiction and nonfiction books at every level are provided to understand the demands of reading at each stage. Characteristics and behaviours of students at each level and possible prompts teachers can use to support are provided. These can assist teachers in explicitly teaching concepts during guided reading sessions and include information on:
- Genre/Form
- Text Structure
- Content
- Themes and Ideas
- Language and Literary Features
- Sentence Complexity
- Vocabulary
- Words
- Illustrations
- Book and Print Features