Data Sorts

Twice a year we have data sorts.  We have a reading intervention period four times a week for 30 minutes called PAWS.  We have 5 different groups and categorize the students according to their SIPPS assessment, reading ability, fluency, and classroom observations. I teach 4th grade and we have a handful of students still below 1st grade reading level.  A lot of them are between 2-3rd grade reading level so we have 3 levels for that working on phonemic awareness, phonics, and word recognition on different levels.  The last group is called the enhancement group and this is readers on or above grade level readers.  I work with this group and we talk about questioning the author, text features, and higher level thinking questioning.  We have done projects that take a book and pick a subject in that book and dig deeper to find out more about that subject. Then they present them to the class.  Halfway through the year we bring out the cards and reevaluate our groups and see if anyone has moved up or down.  This is tough because you don't want to have too big of a group, yet you need to think of what is best for the students achievement. What do you do when the lowest group is not showing improvement?  What happens then? They are already in RtI.