How do differentiated literacy centers affect my first-grade students fluency scores?

Seminar Title

How do differentiated literacy centers affect my first-grade students fluency scores?

Differentiated literacy centers

1st Grade

Elementary

Reading

Special Education

Do you strive to have your students reading at grade level by the end of the year? Do you struggle to give students who are already at grade level, or above, a challenge to continue their growth? I had the same questions and concerns so I chose to experiment with differentiated literacy centers where every child was working at their level during our reading block. Figuring out and meeting every child at their level may sound like a daunting task for teachers who are already stretched for time but with the help of an individualized assessment and grouping children into like-groups, it can be done. Come and explore the possibility of reaching every child’s needs in reading and making this individualization a manageable task for teachers as well.

The question that guided my research was: How do differentiated literacy centers affect my first-grade student’s fluency scores? Through a literature review I found there were 3 main themes the literature pointed to. These themes were 1) behavior management and focused centers 2) differentiation through literacy centers and guided reading 3) and regular routine assessment. Because the literature overwhelmingly supported these ideas, I chose to implement these components into my reading block. Children worked on them in a center-like model where they spent 15 minutes at each center and then rotated through a series of 5 centers. Students were given an assessment called PRESS to help me understand their exact level of reading at the beginning of the school year. PRESS gives children 10 words to read in each of the following areas: phonemic awareness, CVC, digraphs, blends, vowel teams and variant vowels. Children progress through the tiers when they have shown proficiency in the previous area. After I had this information, children were placed in center-based groups with other children who had the same deficit and worked on the exact skill they showed they were not strong in yet. Each month, children were given a progress monitoring assessment so I was aware of any progress, or lack of progress, that they were making and I could adjust their work in their centers. Another area of focused differentiation was sight word work. Through the use of the Fry Sight Word list, children worked on specific sight words they needed. I had them read through the list of words and when we found 10 that they could work on, these words were written down and were the words only they worked on. Each child had their own set of words and progressed through the list to continue strengthening their fluency. Though it is hard to tell if the differentiated center work has increased scores to a level that is beyond what kids in other years have reached, I can say the children in my class have made some very nice gains this year and are well on their way to becoming more fluent readers. In the months to come, I will be eager to see if this model continues to show enough growth in that every child will leave my room classroom in June at grade level. This is the goal that I will strive to reach.