3-Step Guided Reading Data Collection System
It’s the endless struggle, right? You want to maximize your Guided Reading time and data to help your students learn and improve as much as possible, but you find yourself in the never ending cycle of revising your system.
At about this time in the school year, many of you have already made and remade multiple data sheets. You’ve spent lots of money on Teachers Pay Teachers and have probably already brainstormed with teammates and reading instructional coaches. After all of that, it can still be so hard to find the one template that actually works for your students. Rather than more stand-alone templates, what you may need is an actual organizational system.
And I happen to be passionate about creating systems that work for you.
With that, I want to share about a new resource that was created for a teacher, just like you, who wanted a new system that would serve two purposes: maximize time efficiency + growth.
The Teacher Behind the Resource
My friend, Michelle, who requested this resource is a first grade bilingual teacher at a public school. She has 27 students in her class and they range in ability levels and differ in their levels of language acquisition.
When she ordered this resource, she was really struggling with Guided Reading data organization. The problem was that every day she witnessed her students growing leaps and bounds, mastering reading skills, and unlocking new standards, but didn’t feel she had an easy, time-efficient way to do anything with the data.
How many of us can relate? You take endless anecdotal notes and see so much growth, but don’t have a simple system to analyze the notes and report it in meaningful way.
Her school’s report card system is based on a 3-point scale that measures mastery of standards. She was hoping to find a way to use notes and observations from Guided Reading groups as evidence on her report cards. (Remember, she wants to save time considering she has 27 learners!) She needed a seamless way to transfer that data so she could kill two birds with one stone: regularly update their reading progress, while simultaneously getting some of her report cards done.
Both she and I agreed that measuring mastery had to be the main focus of whatever system was created, especially since that is also what the report card measured. And within that, we had to have a plan for those learners that really struggled to master it. Would they stay behind in the group? Would they be moved ahead out of the group anyways? These were questions we had to think through and all of this led me to create this system as you see it today in the shop.
A New Guided Reading System
As you look at the overview of this data collection system, you will notice that it isn’t all that remarkable. It includes the main components that would be expected with any data collection system. And yet, it does stand above the rest in 3 key ways:
The super easy-to-use, reproducible templates were created to work seamlessly within its own cyclical system. You aren’t having to make anything “fit”. They will work naturally and as intended to get you the maximum results.
By recording the data in this closed, cyclical system, it actually makes your life easier and saves you time. Rather than aimlessly taking down anecdotal notes, you are recording what matters and what directly translates to standards. You are then using that data to regroup students and conduct conferences. There are no extra steps involved. Each sheet in the system uses the previous sheets’ data to accomplish its purpose.
It encourages you to use best practices, especially if you previously avoided some best practices because you found it burdensome. For example, we know that it is important to practice flexible groupings that change depending on mastery, but we often find it hard to come up with sufficient evidence to justify a switch, or find it too complicated to organize. With a detailed design for how and why re-teaching and moving groups takes place, you can feel comfortable practicing more flexible groupings. Additionally, we know that reflection and revision is a non-negotiable element of teaching, but we often don’t make time for it. Reflection is embedded in the very DNA of this resource.
Now that you have an overview of what makes this resource unique, let’s dive into the details of how the system actually works.
Meet with groups & check for skills
Let’s take a look at how to do this using the template below.
Take notes on individual reading behaviors you observe in the reading group. Using the first template in the data collection system, you will record individual reading behaviors and skills within the areas of decoding, fluency, and comprehension.
Using the right-hand column of the template, record initials of students that demonstrated those particular skills/standards. This is something unique to other Guided Reading notes templates and it is a step you do not want to miss. If you see a student using picture clues, you record their initials. As you see another student participating in discussion, you record their initials. As the whole group attends to the text, you may record “all”. It is a super quick way to record data and the best part is, the data will actually be used in the next part of the system. Long gone are the days of pages of anecdotal notes that you never do anything with.
To be able to share with you how this was being functionally used in the classroom, I checked back with Michelle and asked her how she was using it. Here are some of her insights:
She reported that for decoding, she simply records the words students miss.
For fluency, she uses a 1-2-3 point system. 1=reads word by word, 2=reads in short phrases, and 3=reads fluently sentence by sentence. How brilliant! That way she only needs to put a 1, 2, or 3 in that box.
Finally, for comprehension she puts short notes, like “AQ” answered question, or a little note if more reteaching is needed for a certain skill. I love hearing how you all make the resources your own, especially when it is something we can all try and use!
Part 2 of the system is just as important as the first part. While the first part focused on data collection, part 2 gets into analysis. Without analysis, the data is useless. Unfortunately, many of us spend little time analyzing because we don’t have the systems that make it easy for us to do so. Luckily, this can really help you with that.
Here’s how Part 2 works:
On a weekly basis, add up daily checkmarks to assess mastery for each student
Take a look at the second template below to see how to analyze the data you recorded on the first template.
Note: Remember that this second template is a student-by-student view. This is important because you can use it for individual progress monitoring, sending home to parents, conferences, individual report cards, etc. So, while it may seem like extra work to complete one per student, I promise it is quick and will save you time in the long run because the data will be used for multiple purposes. Plus, you can fill them out while you individually confer with students to save time!
Review the first template and tally reading behaviors observed. You will review the first template’s right hand column from each previous day, and pay attention to initials. As you look at the template below, you’ll see the same behaviors listed in the left column match the first template’s right column. Go skill by skill and check to see if the student you are reviewing had their initials listed 3-4 times that week for that skill. If their initials were listed 3-4 times, then they mastered that skill (at that current reading level). If, however, their initials are missing or they don’t quite meet the 3-4 mark, you will note that as well.
Record any pertinent evidence. The evidence can be anything you physically wrote on the first template (words missed, comprehension questions answered, a “3” in fluency, etc.) or observed at a reading center. The hope is that this evidence can be used as report card evidence as well.
Now comes the final part of the system that honestly gets left behind by so many of us busy teachers. We don’t feel we have time to get into the weeds with data and notes, so we just make a quick judgment call on when to move students’ levels and their groups. This final phase of this system will make it easier than ever to switch up groups and decide who to reteach and who to move up.
On a weekly basis, reflect. Who needs reteaching? Who needs to be pushed into another group?
Determine who needs re-teaching. As you look at the template, you can see there is a straightforward t-chart to record who needs re-teaching and what you will reteach. To determine who needs re-teaching in each group, you will separate the individual weekly summaries (the second template) into their current groupings. Take a look at who within each group did not receive a check for mastery of a certain skill. You’ll record that on the template below under “Who needs reteaching?”. For “What will you reteach?”, you can simply copy the skill they did not receive the check in. Remember, for re-teaching groups, you don’t have to pull the entire Guided Group, you can just pull those few students if only a few struggled.
Determine who needs to move groups. If you have a student that has mastered every skill at that reading level, make a note to test them to move reading levels. It’s that simple!
Determine what skills the entire group has mastered and what you will work on next week. For example, Michelle mentioned that all of her students are attending to the text, so she would write that skill in the bottom left box noting “Skills this group has mastered”. To determine what skill you will need to teach next week, you will evaluate any skills that had very few mastery checks.
After the final phase of the system, it begins again the following week! My hope is that in using this system you will feel more confident with student reading data, that you’d see marked progress as you analyze growth, and that you’d also be encouraged by the amount of time you save in actually doing something with the data you record.
Click here to check them out in the shop. They include bonus student bookmarks that contain all of the skills for mastery.
If you’d prefer a system that takes into account your particular reading curriculum or standards, you can order custom Guided Reading Sheets from my store.
Here’s to easier data collection!
-Erin