Implementation of Single Sentence Summary in First Grade
I joined the Thoughtful Classroom as a Deeper Learning Coach nearly two years ago. The impact this has made on my classroom is incredible. The tools and reflection tools I have gathered while I have read the textbooks, participated in the online learning opportunities, and traveled to in person learning sessions have forever impacted my practices with my students and colleagues. The opportunity is a blessing to educators and forces us to reflect deeply on the cornerstones that our practices and classroom are built on. In identifying the need in my classroom I made the decision based on the district wide screener, iReady and the universal screener, STAR Early Literacy. Based on my students’ progress monitoring data, I knew they would most benefit from a tool that increased their comprehension skills. The single sentence summary was the most appropriate tool as it allowed students to summarize their text. I implemented my strategy after building small groups. I divided my students into four groups based on response to intervention (RTI) needs. My students who were not in need of tier two services were my dependent variable, while my two remaining groups were my independent variable and would not receive instruction using the single sentence summary. I implemented this tool daily during my 20 minute small group instruction. Students would initially read a text, have a text discussion, and then select a single sentence summary that was most appropriate for the text. The selection students were given was from a multiple choice format. The gains my students made in their comprehension skills and confidence as readers was astounding. I knew my students who were a part of the dependent variable group had made gains based on their selections of their single sentence summary from the multiple choice formative assessments and teacher observations. I wanted to implement the single sentence summary with all of my students during tier one instruction. I began implementing the single sentence summary as a tool for whole group instruction. Implementation occurred daily. Because several students were performing at an emerging kindergarten level and experienced difficulties with written expression I differentiated the implementation of the tool by allowing them to draw their summary of the text they read. The data from the screener, STAR Early Literacy showed incredible growth for the entire population after the implementation of the single sentence summary tool. I knew this instructional strategy could be cross curricular. Therefore, I implemented this tool during math instruction as we worked through our past learning experiences. The second testing window for both STAR Early Literacy and STAR Math revealed significant gains in my students’ performance.Project Showcase
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