Question-Answer Relationship
Why implement QAR?
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand written text. It is an important skill that students need in order to be successful in academics as well as their outsides lives. QAR helps improve reading comprehension by teaching students to analyze and decompose questions. Many questions start with the same question stems such as who, what, where, and why. If students can identify the question stem and understand what the question stem is asking then they will be able to answer the question. These questions stems are used in all academic areas as well as in everyday conversation. Learning this strategy is beneficial for students to learn because it can be generalized across content areas and into their lives.
Class Description
My capstone project was implemented with four students, but the instructional strategies used can be generalized to all students in any grade level. All four students were in fifth grade. At my school, there are two fifth-grade classrooms. Three of the students were in one class and the other student was in the other class. They all received small group instruction in the resource room split into two groups by reading level (two students in each group). They were all on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that included specific reading goals. These goals included being able to identify the main idea and details, sequence a story, and being to answer who, what, where, when, why, and how questions in a story. All the students had deficits in executive function (organization, memory, and attention). This affects their processing speed and understanding while reading a text. One student has experienced trauma, one student has a visual impairment, and one student's family speaks a language other than English. These are all important details that hinder the students' learning. The student with trauma is affected because they have behavioral difficulties that take away from instructional time. The student with a visual impairment is affected because it makes it hard for them to be able to read the words on the page. It causes them to make a lot of errors as well as takes them longer to read a passage. Lastly, the student whose family speaks a language other than English makes it hard for them to understand the patterns used in reading a word and the meaning of words.
The Need For QAR
The students needed intervention specifically in the area of reading comprehension. This determination was based on the data I had collected.
MAP
The student's data for the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) in reading indicated that all students fell below grade level. In reading, the students needed to score a mean score of 204 to fall within the average range for the fall semester. All four students scored between the following 172-200.
Fountas and Pinnell
The students were at least two grades below grade level based on the Fountas & Pinnell leveling system. Based on the running records through Fountas & Pinnell, the students struggled to answer questions focusing on content within the text. Within the text questions ask students to identify information such as events in the story, the problem, and character descriptions. When asked questions in this category on a running record all the students scored in the unsatisfactory range based on the Fountas & Pinnel comprehension point system.
IEP Goal Progress
All four students are working on making progress towards their Individualized Education Plan goals. One student is working towards being able to answer comprehensions that ask about the who, what, where, when, and how in a story. They are specifically struggling with being able to answer when and how questions. I have two students that are working on being able to sequence events in a story. They are currently able to sequence 3 events if the events are given and are working towards beginning able to identify the events independently.
Observations
My observations indicated the students are very receptive to the act of reading, but it takes multiple days for them to understand what they are reading. The students will be able to answer a question right after it is read but will forget when touching on it again the next day. This tells me that the students are able to read the words on the page, but are not able to retain what they are reading.