First Meeting

My cooperating teacher has recently started the benchmarking process for the second time this year. Being that I will be working with an individual reader, he felt that it would be a wonderful idea if I benchmark the student, I agreed. I meet with this student, introduced myself, and asked if he would like to work with me individually while I was working with his class for my practicum. He eagerly agreed. I explained to him that the first couple of meetings would be about getting to know each other so that I can create lessons that will be enjoyable, exciting, and benefit him as a reader. After we engaged in small talk about his weekend, we began the benchmarking process. I explained to him that I would be writing down what he was saying as he read to me aloud. For benchmarking purposes, the school I work with uses the Fountas and Pinnell benchmarking system. I began with the level “N” because this is where the student was marked for instructional level during the first benchmarks. The student read this as a cold read and read and comprehended with ease. We continued until we hit level “R” as he completed levels “O”, “P”, “Q” with 98% accuracy. This was a difficult read for the student and he finished the read with 96% accuracy. With my cooperating teacher, we concluded that this would be his instructional level for the time being. The student jumped 5 levels from the last benchmarking and will receive instruction at the level “R”. This level is representative of that of a 4^th grader in the middle of the year. Therefore, this student is above grade average on the Fountas and Pinnell benchmarking scale.