Over the course of the semester, I was able to work with a fifth grade student, Luke, on his reading. Luke is currently reading at an end of first grade level. At the beginning of the semester, when I first began working with Luke, he was reading at an early first grade level. He has shown much improvement over the three cycles that I worked with him on. Not only did he improve with his reading, but also I saw his confidence increase after each cycle. Luke began reading a level F.
He had a lot of success with this level, which is when I decided he would move up to a level G. Level G seemed to be too easy for Luke. He was able to complete the fluency passage almost twice through on his first try. Along with that, the benchmark passage also seemed to be too easy for him. He was able to read the entire book by himself on the first day. After noticing this, I continued him on another day with this passage and book. Then, decided continuing with the passage was no longer beneficial for Luke because it was extremely easy. Luke moved up a level H, which was the level that he ended on. Luke made the transformation from a level F to a level H throughout the time I spent working with him.
There has also been a dramatic increase of Luke’s scores on each of the cold, warm and hot reads. On Luke’s first cold read, he read 61 words per minute with two errors. On his next cold read for the following cycle, he read 79 words per minute without any errors. On his last cold read, he read 83 words per minute. Although he increased levels on each cycle, he was still making improvements within his cold read. Similar things happened with his warm and hot read. His first warm read was 87 words per minute with one error.
For the next warm read, he ead 99 words per minute without any errors and for his last warm read he read 129 words per minute without any errors. On his first hot read, he read 128 words per minute, and on his last hot read he read 144 words per minute. It is clear that Luke made extreme progress throughout each session. Throughout each level, there is a comprehension check at the end of each cycle. On all three-comprehension checks Luke scored a 100%. This made me extremely happy that throughout the entire cycle he was able to not only improve his reading, but also achieve the end goal of comprehension.
This showed him how much he was learning throughout reading. It allowed him to have a sense of pride in himself and his work. This was something he wanted to take home to show his parents how well he was doing on the comprehension checks. We made a copy of this for his parents and him to discuss. Luke was very proud of his work and how well he performed on the comprehension checks. Luke and I have had many conversations about project MORE and all of the activities and cycles that are done throughout it. We both thoroughly enjoy the games and activities that are along with the individual book cycle.
Additionally, this allowed for Luke to interact with the material in fun and exciting way rather than spending his time re-reading the book. The four-day cycles were beneficial for Luke. He had once stated that he liked being able to review and re-read the book in order to become more fluent. Along with that, I liked being able to see his growth and progress throughout the course of four days. Luke has also stated that he enjoys seeing his progress by his scores on the cold, warm, and hot read. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed doing project MORE with Luke due to the cycles and activities.
My favorite part of project MORE was observing the confidence change throughout each session. At first, Luke was a very shy kid. He read extremely quiet and it was clear he lacked confidence within his reading. Also, he read as fast as he could. After these cycles, I noticed his confidence increase. He would smile a lot more after seeing his progress and always say, ‘Wow, I got_ words in a minute!! ” After seeing his progress, he began to read much louder and with much more expression. Also, he began to read slower so his reading was better understood.
Luke has made a lot of progress throughout the semester, and it was amazing being able to see his progress and growth. Over the course of this semester, I saw Luke grow and make a lot of progress with his reading fluency, comprehension and confidence. He improved three levels of reading and is now reading at a level H. Luke is still reading at an end of first grade level, however, with more opportunities to engage in project MORE, I am confident that would help him improve more. In conclusion, I think this was a very beneficial program for struggling readers and has proven to have an impact on a students reading.
