Reading for Meaning

An Inquiry into Differentiation Based on Reading

Comprehension
By: Kristen Houlihan

Background
I am currently interning at a Title 1 elementary school in
Hillsborough County, in Tampa, FL. Out of the 15 students in the
classroom, I chose three focus students to do my research on. I
picked one student that performs below-level, one student that
performs on-level, and one student that performs above-level.
For the sake of this research their names are: Michael (belowlevel), David (on-level), and Amanda (above level).

Question
This semester I was asked by my CT to take over both the reading block and
guided reading. In teaching and observation of both whole group and small group
reading, I was able to see an across the board area of concern with reading
comprehension in my focus students. I noticed that the students were either too
challenged in whole group, or not challenged enough in whole group practice. In
guided reading, I really wanted to hone-in on reading comprehension with all
students in a way that was adjusted to their individual needs. Therefore, the
purpose of my inquiry was to find a way to plan for reading comprehension
learning with my focus students. With this purpose, I wondered:

How can I differentiate based on reading

comprehension in my internship classroom?

Outside Research
Article Citation

Topic

Take Away

Clark, Kathleen F., and Michael

F. Graves. "Scaffolding
Students Comprehension of
Text." The Reading Teacher
58.6 (2005): 570-80. Web.

The Questioning the

Specific examples
Author technique
and strategies
related to scaffolding
comprehension

Dymock, Susan, and Tom

Nicholson. "High 5! Strategies
to Enhance Comprehension of
Expository Text." The Reading
Teacher 64.3 (2010): 166-76.
Web.

Strategies specific
for the
comprehension of
expository text.

Strategies: activating
prior knowledge,
questioning, analyzing
text structure, creating
mental images, and
summarizing

Harvey, Stephanie, and Anne

Goudvis. "Comprehension at
the Core." The Reading Teacher
66.6 (2013): 432-39. Web.

How to tap into the

comprehension that
students use on an
everyday basis.

Teach students to: be

aware of their thinking,
think strategically, and
recognize the power of
their own thinking

Data Collection Methods

Data throughout this inquiry was collected through:
Informal interviews with both CT and students
Observations in whole-group and guided reading
Student work
Shadowing tools

Action Plan

Action Plan Cont.

Data Analysis Methods

Finding trends throughout the weeks of internship
Checklists on which strategies worked for which student
Analyzing assessment scores

Broad Claim
After learning about what strategies work well with
students during small-group instruction, utilizing
multiple comprehension strategies in whole-group
instruction helps to meet the needs of all students.
After learning about which strategies worked well with each of
my focus students, I applied these strategies-often using
multiple strategies in one sitting-into whole-group instruction.
In doing this I saw an overall growth in reading comprehension
and participation in whole-group reading.

Claim 1
The questioning the author strategy gives
students a better understanding on why
something was written.
This strategy worked well with Michael. He was having a hard
time understanding why we were reading something. In the
Questioning the Author strategy we answer questions like
What is the big-idea of this story? What would you change
about the story if you could write it? Why do you think the
author wrote this page like that? In analyzing the text, Michael
was also able to make text-to-self connections throughout the
stories.

Claim 2
The thinking out loud strategy helps to model how students
should be reading and responding to text.
This strategy worked greatly with my on-level student. I first
introduced this strategy into whole-group reading, and then saw
him implement it into our guided reading group. He responded
very well to this strategy and I saw a big change in the way that
he was reading a text. He would stop after reading a page and
ask him self a question relating to what he just read, or make a
prediction on what he thought would happen next.

Claim 3
Doing extension activities with higher-level students help with
both enrichment and furthering their reading comprehension.

After the higher-level students started doing the extension

activities, I noticed that they had a lot more questions in wholegroup instruction. These questions helped to further their
individual comprehension of the text, but did not necessarily
pertain to the whole class. After seeing this, I then started
having my higher-level write down the questions that they had
during whole-group instruction, and then answering their
question at a later time on a one-on-one basis.

Conclusions
With regards to my students, I learned that every student responds
differently to material. There are some strategies that work for some
students, while those same strategies might not work for another set
of students. It is the job of the teacher to cater to the learning to the
individual. I also learned that students respond well when they know
why they are reading something. If they can relate it to their own life
or see the importance of the written piece, they will comprehend the
material much more than if they did not dig deeper. In completing this
inquiry I know of many more activities and approaches to reading
comprehension that I can try in my future classroom. If I have
students that are in the low, middle, and high reading levels I know of
strategies that have worked previously for students and can use those
as a starting point in tackling reading comprehension in the classroom.

The End!