Ally Wolchko

EDSP 30242

Dr. Lindo

24 April 2022

Progress Monitoring Report

Over the past seven weeks, I monitored Ethan’s reading comprehension progress over three

various 2nd grade reading passages adapted from PROACT. I measured baseline data for Ethan to allow

me to set specific goals for him and monitor his progress over time. I had set the initial plan for Ethan to

correctly identify 55 out of 55 fill in the blank words in three minutes. I utilized the first week to collect

data on the initial screening, in which Ethan was given a PROACT passage that measured his baseline

data. Ethan correctly chose 38 out of 55 words during the fill-in-the-blank reading passage, analyzing his

reading comprehension and fluency in three minutes. After collecting Ethan’s baseline data, I created an

aim line that was more reachable and developmentally appropriate and set new goals for each week

following a positive trend. The overall objective for Ethan’s Progress Monitoring was that Ethan would

correctly choose 55 out of 55 words in three minutes from 2nd-grade PROACT reading passages by the

end of the seven weeks.

I developed three main phases of instruction for Ethan, spending the first two weeks focusing on

comprehension strategies. At week two I noticed that Ethan’s score was below the aim line, so I drew the

trend line in the graph below. At week three, Ethan’s score dipped back down closer to his baseline data

point after previously progressing. I found this surprising because, in week three, I incorporated

intervention and embedded a lesson to help Ethan build his comprehension strategies. A strategy I used to

help Ethan for the first two weeks was to implement various types of comprehension activities. One

example of this was a Mad-Lib activity that concentrated on selecting which word went in the

“fill-in-the-blank” parts of a passage, which helped him practice understanding words in syntax (nouns,

verbs, adjectives) in the PROACT assessments.

 My goal for week four was to get Ethan’s score back to 48 words chosen correctly with the help

of intervention and a lesson plan about reading fluency. Ethan’s week three score had dipped down, but

we missed a week of instruction due to the weather. I implemented another intervention lesson so Ethan

could continue a positive trajectory and get closer to each week’s aim goal. PROACT score dipped again

in week three, so I began phase two and focused on fluency. After every PROACT assessment, I would

ask Ethan comprehension questions to understand if he fully grasped the passage’s meaning. Ethan was

able to summarize each PROACT passage with ease and had little to no errors in his summary. I felt

confident that Ethan could comprehend the meaning of each passage. I was assessing Ethan’s

metacognitive skills, which means he can have an understanding of certain words that make sense in the

context of the passage. He had deep reading comprehension skills, so he had an understanding of the text

to help him. I incorporated fluency lesson plans that allowed Ethan to read difficult reading passages

multiple times, such as a reading passage on the Alamo. I assessed Ethan’s fluency by assessing his

accuracy, rate, and prosody, as I knew that fluency could be measured by the number of correct words per

minute. This phase resulted in a higher score of 49 words correctly identified on week four.

Unfortunately, on week five, I had a fever which is when I was supposed to begin phase three of

instruction which concentrated on the format of the PROACT reading passages. I was also helping Ethan

practice increasing his reading speed while trying to keep the same comprehension skills. I gave him

longer passages than the PROACT reading passages but still timed him for three minutes. I then asked

him comprehension questions about the articles he read. The longer articles allowed Ethan to try and read

quicker and build on his fluency to help assist him with speed for his PROACT readings. Phase three also

concentrated on the format of the PROACT readings, allowing Ethan to break up the words vertically

instead of horizontally. Analyzing the format of the readings allowed Ethan to have more ease when

distinguishing the words that he had to choose from and resulted in a higher score of 52.

Overall, Ethan did not meet the goal of 55 words correctly identified by the end of the seven

sessions. His actual progress did not follow the aim line, but he grew academically throughout the

process. I understand that uncontrollable factors could have resulted in a dip in Ethan’s scores. We had to
miss two sessions of StarPoint due to weather conditions, and I also missed one session due to sickness. I

noticed a dip in Ethan’s score in week six, which followed my absence during week five. I believe his

score dropped due to a week of missed instruction. Furthermore, the environment that Ethan read the

PROACT passages in was not ideal—constant distractions surrounded us, including noise, movement,

and other environmental distractions. Ethan had difficulty focusing with the constant distractions around

him; even when we moved to different areas around the classroom with different seating, Ethan had a

difficult time staying on task and sitting still.

Over time, helpful strategies were implemented through differentiation that enabled Ethan to have

brain breaks and breathing exercises when he was on-task for 30 minute time periods. Although this is not

fully shown in Ethan’s scores, he improved his ability to stay on task and ignore constant distractions

around him. I also observed that the passage’s topic impacted his desire to read and his overall

understanding of the passage. Ethan seemed to score higher on passages that were on topics that he was

interested in and understood the meaning of the passage with more ease. I believe his prior knowledge of

topics assisted him with his understanding of the passages, which led to him scoring higher and impacting

his reading fluency. He knew tier two vocabulary words that allowed him to read faster with more

accuracy. He found other passages fascinating, which allowed him to engage in the readings, but he

usually had to read some of the sentences multiple times to grasp the meaning completely. If he had no

prior knowledge about the topic of a passage, he would score very low because he could not get the

meaning and comprehend the passage. For example, in week three, he read a passage about the Grand

Canyon. Ethan had no prior knowledge about the Grand Canyon, so he had difficulty understanding the

meaning of the overall passage, causing him to score lower.

Ethan’s Initial Probe