Progress Monitoring: Who, What, When, Where, Why & How

We recently asked our email list to complete a survey and the results were eye opening. One of the questions was about what assessments teachers are lacking. A whopping 80% of those who took the survey said that they needed a quick way to track progress. Our mission at Up & Away Literacy is to support teachers and families of growing readers, so in true Up & Away fashion, we set an unrealistic deadline for ourselves to make sure our people have what they need. 💗

So let's talk about the who, what, when, where, why and how of progress monitoring! We'll also share the tool that combines everything we love to use to track our students' progress.

WHAT is progress monitoring?

Progress monitoring is simply assessing your students in reading on a regular basis. There are multiple types of assessments that can be used, and each type gives you different information about your students' reading abilities. Here are two types that we used often as classroom teachers and reading specialists:

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)- This is a timed, one-minute assessment where students read a grade level passage aloud. Words read correct and an accuracy percentage are calculated.

Phonics Quick Checks- Quick checks are quick, formative checks to see if your students are mastering the phonics skills you've taught them. The quick checks should follow your phonics scope & sequence, and will help guide your instruction.

Both of these assessments are equally important, but for different reasons. Data from the ORF assessment will tell you if students are progressing toward the grade level benchmarks. The phonics quick checks will tell you if students are mastering the phonics skills you are teaching at their level.

WHY should we progress monitor students?

There are 3 main reasons for progress monitoring:

1️⃣ Measure students' reading performance

2️⃣ Quantify rates of improvement toward goals or benchmarks

3️⃣ Determine how students are responding to instruction and intervention over time

Progress monitoring students also has other benefits, including:

• Identifies strengths and weaknesses
• Builds student confidence (students can see the progress they are making!)
• Leads to higher student success
• Results in better student outcomes

 
Now that you know the importance of progress monitoring, let's get into the details about how to do it with your students!

WHO should we progress monitor? HOW often?

Everyone! The only difference is how frequently we assess different groups of students. Students considered "Tier 1" (typical readers) may only need monitoring several times a year, while "Tier 2" (at-risk) and "Tier 3" (intensive intervention) students should be monitored more frequently. Here are some recommendations for frequency of assessments:

Tier 1 students- at least 1x/grading period

Tier 2 students- biweekly to weekly

Tier 3 students- weekly

HOW can we fit progress monitoring into our busy schedules?

If you don't plan for, and schedule, going to the gym it's not going to happen. Am I right? The same is true for progress monitoring. Planning and scheduling is crucial to gather data consistently. That means you build it into your routine and you also have the correct assessments ready to go.

For us, Fridays were the perfect time to progress monitor. We would plan to wrap up the teaching and practicing of a new concept on Thursday so that Friday could be used for games and progress monitoring. For each small group, we'd explain a game or fluency activity, get everyone started, and then meet with each student one-on-one to progress monitor. This is the perfect time to praise each student individually, whether or not they score well on the assessment. We all need a good boost of confidence every once in awhile!

If every Friday doesn't work for you, that's okay! Maybe every other Friday is more realistic. Maybe you progress monitor 1/2 of your class one week, and the other 1/2 the next week. Just make sure you include it in your schedule and have the assessments you need ready to go.

WHAT does a quick check assessment look like?

You can make your own quick check assessments that follow your scope and sequence, but if you're looking for some that are already created... we've got you! 

Inside the Launching Literacy Membership, we have quick check assessments for 60 phonics concepts, plus a quick check for letters & sounds. 

Each phonics skill has a list of 10 words for students to read. These lists can be cut out and placed on a ring for ease of use. Also included is a teacher copy to track and record progress.

A class spreadsheet helps you see your students' scores at-a-glance, so that you can easily form groups!

 
For these quick check assessments, students aren't timed like they are with an ORF assessment. Instead of measuring students' automaticity with the words, you are looking to see whether they can accurately decode each one. As long as they quickly sound out the word and then blend it back together (within a reasonable amount of time), put a checkmark next to the word on the teaching scoring sheet. After all 10 words are read, write how many words the student read correct, along with the date, on the right-hand side. We use 8/10 or 80% of the words read correctly to count as mastery. If a student masters the concept, check it off on the class spreadsheet.

Now, you're ready to look at the data and make decisions about your instruction!

HOW do we use the data?

Look at your students' individual scores to decide if you should move on to the next concept, or if you need to do a bit of reteaching first. Keep in mind what Anna Gillingham said, "Go as fast as you can, but as slow as you must."

Group students with similar skill levels, provide explicit instruction in small groups, and use the quick checks to assess and track progress!

 


If you'd like to learn more about the Launching Literacy membership for teachers, and everything that's included (quick checks and all!), click the button below ⬇️