Tracking Reading Levels Through the Year

Primary students can make incredible reading growth each year and I am always looking for a quick and easy way to track that growth. This is a simple form that works for me, so I thought I’d share the idea with you. It’s just a table I created in PowerPoint to match the levels our testing kits assess.

After receiving my class list, I plug in the names of students onto the chart. This one page chart is super handy while making sure to prep enough copies for reading assessments. Not to mention it fits into a sheet protector that is kept in the front of my grade book for safe keeping! Here is an example of a class I recently had (I use names on my handwritten chart, but changed them to numbers to protect student privacy while sharing here):

Note – the N/A column indicates new students without reading data

In our district we are required to test and report data three times during the school year (I test my below grade level readers more frequently than that). Here is the data after my beginning of the year testing:

Key (blue = lower than reported, green = new students, pink = higher than reported)

It’s important to note that J was the expected level at this point of the year. Second graders reading below a level J are required to be placed on a reading plan. If you’re counting, I wrote NINE reading plans that fall. Yes, that’s over 1/3 of my class. Yikes!!

Each year we are required to write professional goals, one is usually based on student performance. I make an individual reading goal for each of my students. As I meet with my principal throughout the year to discuss my goals, I bring this page with me to show evidence of student growth (or lack thereof).

Another reason I like this form is it makes it super easy to see possible groupings. Let’s face it, if I have students on 12 different instructional levels, I’m not going to run 12 different reading groups. I just don’t have time for that. So, I look for groupings that might work well together. At this point of the year I had five reading groups:

ABC (3 students)

FG (5 students)

IJ (6 students)

JKL (5 students)

MPR (5 students)

As I assessed and students made progress, I just erased and move the students along on the chart. I would keep the groupings flexible and students would change groups, as needed. By the end of our second trimester, this is what my chart looked like (L was grade level expectation):

Note – numbers disappear as students move, new students indicated in pink

Yes, I know I still had 9 students below grade level, but they were making progress!

Here is my data for the end of the year:

Considering I reduced the number of students below grade level from 9 to 5, I was thrilled! Not to mention that 3 of those 5 are only one level below.

How do you track reading progress throughout the year? I’d love to hear about it!