I teach at a dual language school with approximately 865 students. There is a high percentage of English Language Learners (ELLs) at 58% and high percentage of students who receive free/reduced lunches at a total of 90%. In my third-grade classroom, I have 15/20 students who are English Language Learners, three of whom are currently receiving additional services. There is a strong need for instruction in reading and the ability to understand the text on a deeper level. After text-leveling and reviewing my students’ NWEA MAP assessment scores, I made the observation that all of my students were having difficulty in the area of reading comprehension, specifically with inferencing, drawing conclusions, and developing predictions over the text.

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The MAP assessment allowed me to visualize a deep, more complete picture of where exactly each of my students are at and where exactly they are struggling.  The Fall ‘17 MAP assessment scores provided data that 10 of my students scored in the low percentile and 3 of my students scored in the low average percentile.

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The ability to “read between the lines” is a crucial skill that my students will use throughout the rest of their educational career and in everyday life. My students were not able to combine their prior background knowledge and explicit information in the text to answer comprehension questions. Their lack of ability to accurately inference the text was demonstrated through multiple forms of data: MAP scores, selection texts, and through text-leveling. As the classroom teacher, it is my responsibility to teach these important skills that students will use for the rest of their academic career.