How does individual reading conferencing impact students’ reading comprehension?

Jade Pelzl


Seminar Title


How does individual reading conferencing impact students’ reading comprehension?


Concept/Strategy

Focus of the Research


Literacy Development


Grade Level

Research Was Applied


3rd Grade


Relevant Grade Level

Connections


Elementary


Discipline

Where Research Was Applied


Language Arts


Additional Discipline Areas

I see Application to


Language Arts


Invitation/Commercial


When given the opportunity to read independently, our students seem to respond in a variety of different ways. You have those students that show much excitement while others tend to dread it and ask questions like: “How long do we have to do this?” or “Can I work on something else instead?” Many teachers have even gotten away from providing time for students to free read due to these responses and the focus on other things. However, as stated by Randi Stone in her book Best Practices for Teaching Reading, “The love of reading is the greatest gift a teacher can give students” (Stone, 2009, p. 10). Therefore, it has been my goal to develop this love for reading in my third grade students by providing them the opportunity to explore books of their choice and talk about them. Individual reading conferencing is a great way for students to share and reflect on their reading while being pushed to dig deeper into the books they are reading. If you are looking to learn about how I ran these conferences and the effect it not only has on students’ interests in reading but comprehension development, this session is for you!


Abstract


Literacy development is a critical part of our education system today where much focus and time is spent developing these skills daily. Due to this emphasis on literacy development, I chose to implement individual reading conferences into our daily schedule as a way to see the impact these conferences have on students’ comprehension skills. Each day, my third grade students have been given 20-40 minutes of independent reading time. I chose to incorporate this time into the day in order to give students choice in their reading selections. It was during this time block each day that I pulled students back to conference with me one-on-one. Each student was conferenced with either weekly or biweekly based on individual needs. During these conferences, students discussed their books and different comprehension skills. Along with meeting their individual learning needs, these conferences allowed a time for students to share things they otherwise wouldn’t in a large group setting. I took notes on each student during the conferences in an app called Reading Conferences where each student had their own individual folder which made accessing quick and easy. The notes that I made during these conferences were helpful in helping me recall what was discussed and guide my instruction. These notes and observations were one source of my data collection. Students also completed weekly comprehension assessments based on the skills taught that week. The final source of data collection that I used to track progress was our schools FastBridge benchmark testing reports that are given at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Looking at the data that was collected from this action research study, I have seen growth in students overall reading ability as well as comprehension skills with some skills needing more focus than others. I truly believe that these individual reading conferences as well as the other literacy development skills we have done this year led to this growth and I planning to continue implementing them in the future.