Teacher Instructional Log

Appendix D: Teacher Instructional Log

Introduction

Your school has partnered with the Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest to study the impact of a new toolkit on improving reading comprehension instruction for struggling readers. As part of that study, all English language arts classroom teachers in your school are invited to complete the following log at the beginning and end of the study. In each round of log completion, we will ask you to complete a short daily entry each day for two weeks (10 days). For each completed round, we will offer you a $75 gift card. There will be two rounds of log completion.

Your participation in this activity is voluntary. You may skip any item or the entire log. However, your responses will contribute to understanding of how to support educators’ instruction and students’ growth in reading proficiency, so we hope you will participate.

For this log, we are focusing on the students in your class who have been identified as in need of reading support. Your district identifies these students as having [enter district criteria here].

Think of that group of students in your class and choose one student who is typical of that group of students. Please enter that student’s first name and last initial here: [enter name]

Now, focus on that student as you complete each log during the entirety of the two-week period. In the log, we will refer to this student as the “target student.”

The research team will protect the confidentiality of all information collected for the study and will use it for research purposes only. Only the evaluation team members with training in how to deal with sensitive and confidential data will be allowed access. Your survey is associated with a unique identifier rather than your name, and your responses will be aggregated so that individuals cannot be identified. None of your responses will be individually attributed to you or your school or district and will be used for statistical purposes only. You may opt out from responding to a question or the entire measure at any time with no consequences.

(Language Arts Log; Camburn & Barnes, 2004)

1. How much total time did the target student spend on language arts today? Please include all language arts instruction the target student received, including routine times such as morning board work, even if the instruction took place in another room or by another teacher.

(Print the number of minutes using all three boxes. For example, write 015 if you taught for 15 minutes.)

If 0 minutes, skip to question 3.

2. Of the language arts time recorded in question 1, how much time were you either the teacher or observer of the teaching?

(Print the number of minutes using all three boxes. For example, write 015 if you taught for 15 minutes.)

If more than 0 minutes, skip to question 4.

3. Please mark the reason(s) why you recorded 0 minutes in question 1 or 2, and then stop here.

(For any of the following items you choose, place an “X” in the corresponding box. Mark all that apply.)

1. The target student was absent.

2. I was absent.

3. School was not in session (for example, vacation period).

4. There was a field trip, assembly, visitor, or other special event.

5. The target student participated in standardized testing/test preparation.

6. The target student received “pull-out” instruction.

7. Other: ___________________________________

4. To what extent were the following topics a focus on your work with the target student in reading/language arts today? (Place an “X” in one of the boxes for each item.)

	A major focus	A minor focus	Touched on briefly	Not taught today	Complete section(s) if this topic was a major or minor focus
a. Comprehension					A
b. Word Analysis and Fluency					B
c. Writing					None
d. Concepts of Print					None
e. Vocabulary					None
f. Grammar					None
g. Spelling					None
h. Research Strategies					None

Proceed to section A only if you marked “major focus” or “minor focus” for question 4a.

All others STOP HERE.

A—Comprehension

A0. Was the work in comprehension in… (Mark all that apply.)

_____ Listening comprehension? (A0a)

_____ Reading comprehension? (A0b)

A1. What areas of comprehension did the target student work on today?

(For each area you choose below, place an “X” in the box to indicate whether it was a focus of instruction or was touched on briefly. If an area was not a focus of instruction nor was touched on briefly today, please leave the row blank.)	A focus of instruction	Touched on briefly
Activating prior knowledge or making personal connections to text (A1a)
Making predictions, previewing, or surveying (A1b)
Vocabulary-comprehension relationships (A1c)
Students generating their own questions (A1d)
Reading for pleasure or information (A1e).
Self-monitoring for meaning (A1f)
Using visualization or imagery (A1g)
Using charts, graphs, figures, tables, or other visual aids in text (A1h)
Using concept maps, story maps, or text structure frames (A1i)
Answering questions that have answers directly stated in the text (A1j)
Answering questions that require inferences (A1k)
Explaining how to find answers or information (A1l)
Sequencing information or events (A1m)
Identifying story structure (A1n)
Practicing other skills, such as identifying similes or understanding referents (A1o)
Comparing and/or contrasting information or texts (A1p)
Summarizing important details (A1q)
Analyzing and evaluating text (A1r)
Examining literary techniques or the author’s style (A1s)
Exposure to challenging texts (such as stretch texts) (A1t)
Having students work through challenging texts with appropriate supports provided by the teacher (A1u)
Having students work through challenging texts with appropriate electronic supports (A1v)

A2. Did the materials used by the target student in work on comprehension include any of the following? (Mark all that apply.)

___ Informational text (A2a)

Narrative text

____ With controlled vocabulary (sight words and/or words easily sounded out) (A2b)

____ With patterned or predictable language (A2c)

Literature-based or thematic text

____ Short selection (A2d)

____ Chapter book (A2e)

A3. In which of the following ways did the target student demonstrate comprehension? (Mark all that apply.)

___ Answered brief oral questions (A3a)

___ Discussed text with peers (A3b)

___ Did a think-aloud or explained how they applied a skill or strategy (A3c)

___ Generated questions about the text (A3d)

___ Answered complete multiple-choice questions (A3e)

___ Completed sentences filling in the blanks (A3f)

___ Worked on concept maps, story maps, or text structure frames (A3g)

___ Wrote brief answers to questions (A3h)

___ Wrote extensive answers to questions (A3i)

___ Worked on a literature extension project (A3j)

A4. Did your comprehension instruction include any of the following? (Mark all that apply.)

___ I demonstrated or explained a skill (for example, how to determine the main idea, how to make an inference). (A4a)

___ I demonstrated or explained how to use a reading strategy. (A4b)

___ I explained why or when to use a reading strategy. (A4c)

___ I helped students practice a skill or strategy. (A4d)

___ I administered a comprehension test. (A4e)

Proceed to section B only if you marked “major focus” or “minor focus” for question 4b.

B—Word Analysis and Fluency

B1. What areas of word analysis and fluency did the target student work on today?

(For each area you choose, below, place an “X” in the box to indicate whether it was a focus of instruction or was touched on briefly.)

	A focus of instruction	Touched on briefly
Letter-sound relationships (B1a)
Sound segmenting
Counting the number of sounds in words (B1b)
Sound spelling/invented spelling/developmental spelling (B1c)
Segmenting a part of the word (for example, “many” without “m” is “any,” or “upstairs” without “stairs” is “up”) (B1d)
Other segmenting tasks (B1e)
Sound blending
Blending an initial sound with a rhyming word (onset-rime) (B1f)
Blending individual phonemes (sounds) into real words (B1g)
Blending phonemes (sounds) into nonsense words (B1h)
Blending syllables (B1i)
Other blending tasks (B1j)
Word recognition, sight words (B1k)
Structural analysis, examining word families, prefixes, suffixes, contractions, and so on (B1l)
Use of phonics-based or letter-sound relationships to read words in sentences or stories (B1m)
Fluency
Repeated reading of passages for different purposes (B1n)
Reading with expression (B1o)
Reading a wide range of texts (B1p)

B2. Did the materials used by the target student in work on word analysis include any of the following? (Mark all that apply.)

____ Sounds only (B2a)

____ Pictures or objects to identify letters and words (B2b)

____ Isolated words and letters (B2c)

____ Individual sentences (B2d)

Connected text (for example, stories, articles, or poems)

____ With controlled vocabulary (sight words and/or words easily sounded out) (B2e)

____ With patterned or predictable language (B2f)

____ That is literature based or thematic (B2g)

B3. What did you do when a student got stuck or made errors in word analysis? (Mark all that apply.)

____ I corrected the student’s errors and modeled the correct answer. (B3a)

____ I told the student to try again. (B3b)

____I gave oral cues—sounding out parts of the word for them. (B3c)

____I ignored the error and waited for the student to self-correct. (B3d)

B4. Did your instruction in word analysis include any of the following? (Mark all that apply.)

____ I listened to the student read. (B4a)

____ I administered a word analysis test. (B4b)

Student Engagement in Reading (only included with the first log)

(Reading Engagement Index; Wigfield et al., 2008)

For this set of questions, please indicate how true the following statements are of [target student] using a scale of 1 to 4, where 1 indicates “not true” of [target student] and 4 indicates “very true” of [target student].

	1. Not true	2	3	4. Very true
1. Often reads independently.
2. Reads favorite topics and authors.
3. Is distracted easily in self-selected reading.
4. Works hard in reading.
5. Is a confident reader.
6. Uses comprehension strategies well.
7. Thinks deeply about the contents of texts.
8. Enjoys discussing books with peers.

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest Toolkit Evaluation 15