Diagnostic Reading Assessment Paper

The setting for this research is a first grade ESL class in an urban district of the state of Connecticut. The school has about 1300 pupils from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. Each grade level from kindergarten to fifth grade has 2 mainstream classrooms, 1 bilingual (Spanish) classroom, a Dual language English classroom and a Dual language Spanish classroom. In grades sixth to eighth, there are 4 mainstream classrooms and one bilingual classroom. There are also 3 ESOL teachers for the whole school.

There are 23 first grade students in my ESL class. They all come from a Hispanic background. Out of the 23, only 17 students returned their permission slips and were allowed to participate. The participants are all Hispanics, between 6 and

I will use instruments that will provide me with information that can be quantified to allow comparison. I chose these instruments because they will allow me to establish a baseline to begin my study and a post assessment at the end. I will also have tools to determine mastery of different skills. This will allow me to analyze students’ progress to adjust instruction to meet their needs.

I will use the Diagnostic Reading Assessment (DRA), to measure the students’ reading level before and after the research. The DRA allows me to gather data regarding decoding skills, fluency and comprehension. I will be able to analyze different components using one tool. Using the Diagnostic Reading Assessment will allow me to quantify their reading abilities using a valid, accurate tool, used by our school system, to compare the results. I will also use benchmark assessments from Reading A-Z and Saxon phonics to be able to guide instruction and determine which skills have been mastered by the students and what do they need more practice with. This benchmarks focus on decoding and phonics skills. These assessments will allow me to differentiate instruction to help the students demonstrate growth in

For this action research project, the teacher will be the researcher. The information gathered will help teachers develop a receptive practice and improve reading achievement of first grade ESL students. Since the teacher is the researcher, she will be able to gather insight that will allow the researcher to understand and analyze the students’ thinking process and gather and analyze data in depth.

This action research used quantitative approaches to determine how effective Scientific Research Based Interventions (SRBI) are in helping English Language Learners improve their reading skills. It looks to document how specific interventions can help students demonstrate growth in reading and how much growth was