Guided Reading Assessment

Guided Reading can be defined as:
The process of a teacher splitting a classroom into various small-groups, post-assessment, based on reading levels, and subsequently schooling each on a text at their instructional level, promoting higher cognitive thinking through questioning and think-alouds and supporting each student through individualized and group responses. The teacher does so through pre-reading, during reading, and post reading activities. 
Necessary Elements:
1) Knowledgable teacher
2) Small Groups at same reading level
3) Text at instructional level 
4) Three stages of instruction

Guided Reading   Before Reading	During Reading	After Reading
Teacher Behavior: -Recapped what they had been learning that week -Variety of Questioning   -Expansion: “What made you think…”   -Inference: “What does weather do to flowers?” -References illustrations on cover page   -Use of touch: “Put finger on sunny [picture]” -Modeling of Predictions “I’m predicting we’ll be learning about…” -Pointing to words while reading -Rereading multiple times as a whole group Student Behavior: -Answering a variety of questions   -Individually: “It looks stormy”   -Holistically: We’ll be learning about.. “Weather!” -Reading the title as a group -Using touch: reading while pointing to words	Teacher Behavior: -First focused on illustrations, then text -Related book to local weather: personal connection -Asked a variety of questions   -What, when, how (“What sound does it make”)   -Checking comprehension (learning about     weather)   -Relationships: “What other words do you know that…”   -Active motions: “Find…, point to…, “etc -Explicit relation between illustration and text (cloud) --Kept positive attitude, treated students as readers   “You know every word on this page” -Point out punctuation (explanation point) -Over exaggerated reading and facial expressions to aid in student comprehension (bend like trees) -Made sure every student was attentive and on same page -Pushed students to notice patterns (letters at beginning of words, repetition of words) -Sounded out words, repeated sounds, and finally compiled into cohesive word, repeating for emphasis on pronunciation (pointed to mouth) -Use of touch: pointed to words and illustrations, encouraged touching book Student Behavior: -Repetitions of emphasized words during activity -Use of touch: pictures and words while reading -Modeled sounding out -Asked questions (“What is an icicle?” -Caught onto rhythm of questions being asked	Teacher Behavior: -Asked students to read story to themselves while she took notes on their good behavior - Listened to every student, aided in their trouble areas -Points out positive behavior students employed   Danielle looking at photo to cross-reference a   word -Corrected tactfully   Had child look at beginning letter “l” and  corrected their use of “storm” after pronouncing   word, saying lightning is a type of storm -Asked children to explain pictures   “What makes trees blow?” “Remember, sounds at beginning and end of work go with what we’re saying” -Think-aloud: rereading after using “wat” and substituting for “what” -Collected books to enhance attentiveness -Picture matching:   -Students asked to name picture (emphasized    difference between adjective ”cloudy” and    desired noun “cloud”)   -Match given letters to first letter of picture   -Match given letters to last letter of picture -Explanation of sound/spelling misconception “ice” -Nice touches (pat to arm) Student Behavior: -Muttered aloud while reading to themselves -Read and re-read book after encouragement -Associated last letters with first (most had difficulty with final consonant) -Most memorized word (difficulty associating with letters, some grasped concept better than others)

This video is highly informative and offers upcoming teachers an opportunity to see guided reading in action. Although the classroom is made up of relatively young students, and thus the teacher is not able to delve much into higher concept questions, the teacher utilizes many aspects of guided reading imperative for any level, including think-alouds and crosschecks for comprehension. She is able to keep the classroom mostly on task, and attempts to foster a text-to-illustration and first-to-last letter correlation in the minds of her students. The teacher was extremely enthusiastic, which translated to a passion for reading in her students; she also recognized that her students, although pre-split, were on different levels, and the integration of her secret of rereading was an excellent way to keep each student confident in their relative reading capabilities. 
I think the guided reading activity could be aided with a more direct reading of the passage. Although the students are young, they should be presented with an activity that places equal value on the text and the illustration, rather than such a heavy focus on the illustration (which is an accessory to the text itself). I think the teacher should have given some students enough time to have their "ah ha!" moment; I found that she gave the students the answer to the questions she asked without allowing them to come to the conclusion themselves.  

readinga-z.com 
This website offers leveled texts, translating perfectly to guided reading, which is based upon small groups at differing levels of reading. After doing an assessment, the teacher is able to split up her students and garner text from the website that would be good for her guided reading instruction. She can simply print off enough copies for all of her students in each small group, and save quite a bit of money doing so.
The website offers a menagerie of other useful tools, such as graphic organizers and word sorts, which can be used for other activities during the school day. The fluency passages can be used for assessment purposes, and the leveled passages used in guided reading activities after my students have been assessed. Vocabulary development can be promoted through the word sorts and vocabulary resources as well. 

Selecting Books and Integrating Proper Instruction

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263655039913/
Exemplification of various readability formulas

"Readability formulas usually give a numerical score to rank books or other

 reading matter in an order of difficulty...Leveling is more modern and is similar 

to readability in that it employs various systems for determining the 

difficulty of books or reading material, but is more subjective and is used mostly

 at the beginning reading levels" (Fry 286)

"The analysis of the observation data revealed four distinct

teacher moves as they scaffolded student understanding, 

including using questions to check for understanding, prompting

cognitive and metacognitive work, cues to focus the learner's 

attention, and direct explanations or modeling when the 

learner continued to struggle" (Frey 86)

Teachers encounter a variety of academic decisions during their career, and many aspects of teaching have yet to be perfected, or follow two trains of thought. One such area of research is leveling, a more subjective system of rating books then readability, based on content, illustrations, length, curriculum, language structure, judgement, and format. It asks important questions like "How do the illustrations contribute to the understanding of the passage" or "What background knowledge would a student have to know to understand this passage" that are essential to gauging student understanding. This system is especially prevalent for me since I am focused on early education, and leveling is geared exclusively toward the lower grade levels. However, although leveling is valuable, it should always be paired with the more scientific readability scales, often based on number of syllables, word and sentence length, and presence of common words in a passage.

The other article offers some tips for instructing said books effectively in the classroom. Under the four categories listed above, the article explores and touches upon various techniques that effective teachers were, either consciously or unconsciously, doing. I found it especially noteworthy that the teachers only rarely offered direct explanation and modeling, and instead preferred to preemptively exhaust all other avenues. The teachers recognized the value of having the students experience that "Ah ha!" moment of coming to a conclusion on their own, even if partially facilitated by an instructor or by classroom discussion. They employed all types of tactics, ranging from touch, to a print rich environment, to a variety of questions, to outward gestures. The teachers remained a mobile, oral, and knowledgable presence in their classroom, despite it's makeup.

A couple great questions directly form the article:

"Novice teachers sometimes focus on the physical arrangement of guided instruction at the expense of the cognitive purposes. Why do you think this is so?" (Frey 85)

"Why is it important to ask a range of robust questions (divergent, inventive, heuristic) during guided instruction?" (Frey 85)

Frey, Nancy and Douglas Fisher. Identifying Instructional Moves During Guided Learning. 

Fry, Edward. Readability versus Leveling. 

Modified Guided Reading Instruction for ESL Students

Guided reading provides teachers with a systematic, yet open-ended framework for evaluating students' needs while building upon the strengths students have already demonstrated" (320)
"In addition, small, flexible groups lend themselves to accelerated learning; however, teacher planning for students' needs is the key to learning gains" (320). 

"Shared reading of the guided reading text supports L2 readers by providing teachers the opportunity to model fluent reading, discuss the story and vocabulary as the text is read aloud, make connections and scaffold the content for concepts that may be different for the students and focus on the strategy demonstrations before the students read with guidance as needed from the teacher" (324).  

 Link to article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204590

"Students must feel that their remarks and conversations are important. How teachers react to students' comments determines how and if they will continue to share their thoughts about texts, take risks in using the L2 and inquire about language" (325).


This article focuses on a modification of guided reading, namely MGR ( modified guided reading). MGR is utilized for ESL children, or English as a second language. The article makes a few very poignant points, such as correlating students' capabilities in their first language (L1) with their projected skills in their second language (L2)

"Using this modified instructional model, teachers are able to monitor ELLs progress, meet their needs in order to facilitate literacy and language learning, and enable students to self-extend their reading proficiency by building in what is known in their L1" (328)

The article provides a template (above) for teachers to follow when they are pre- planning their guided reading lesson, and is adapted for ESL students. This is a great tool to have in the classroom, especially if you are planning on being in an inner city school, wherein many students are ESL. This article also touches on the importance of having a second language background, so that you can better understand the connections the students are making between words in L1 and L2. This type of thinking is crucial when going through text, so that you can adequately explain homophones, homographs, figurative language, vocabulary, etc. (anything that wouldn't make sense to a non-native thinker). Getting in the mindset of a non-native speaker, aided by some L2 instruction yourself, can allow you to target ESL students more effectively, and make them feel as if you understand their tough situation.


How can a teacher modify their instruction for ESL students of various L1s? Will there be any changes between what words are emphasized, questions asked, etc.?


Avalos, Mary and Alina Plasencia, Celina Chavez, and Josefa Rascón. Modified Guided Reading: Gateway to English as a Second Language and Literacy Learning.

Integration of Multiple Reading Assessments

"Teachers often have little say in the administration of standardized tests, but they can feel empowered by their capacity to use alternative assessments. Another benefit of using multiple instruments is that they provide several data sources that each reflect slightly different aspects of the skill involved in reading. When results are taken together, they can give teachers a comprehensive portrait of student achievement"(Rubin 607).

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654991026/

 

 

Great idea to keep books related to administering and

integrating multiple assessment measures in your 

classroom as points of cross-reference

I don't particularly remember ever having been thoroughly assessed on my reading capabilities, other than through standardized tests. I grew up in a private Catholic school, so common core standards and their equivalents didn't apply; the teachers assessed us mainly through classroom interaction and limited short assessments (which have already been proven to be not entirely successful in determining reading capabilities).
In a classroom environment wherein many students are performing below average, I think that it becomes more crucial to determine the flaws in their reading capabilities and address such adequately.
The article offers multiple instruction methods, and stresses the importance of aligning all on a comparable scale, so that discrepancies can be addressed and contradictory tests tweaked and re-administered.
1. Cloze test: Figure out what words could fit into deletions in a passage (semantics and syntax)
2. Informal Reading Inventories (IRA): post-reading questions to test comprehension (teacher made)
3. Running Records: oral reading testing accuracy (three passages)
4. Standardized Tests: controlled externally

Although Rubin's is only one of many diverse opinions, I do believe that making time (which is perhaps the most difficult part) to administer a variety of tests, as well as to create a comparable scale of evaluation (or adopt his) is extremely beneficial to both the teacher and the student. It allows the teacher to garner in-depth data as to how a child might be struggling to back up preconceived notions they may have had. It also allows the student the opportunity to get more individualized instruction targeting their specific needs, or to be placed with other students with the same issues and instructed in a group setting. Conversely, it allows students who struggle in different areas to be placed together, so that they can mentor one another on their strengths, allowing every student to gain confidence and feel successful.

I have found another blog on guided reading assessments 

that I think is extremely helpful, informative, and creative.

snippetsbysarah.blogspot.ca/2012/05/guided-reading-assessments.html

Ms. Sarah keeps track of her students' progress through a menagerie 

of sheets that she has designed.

 

These sheets and other assessment records can be 

kept in a cute box in an accessible portion of the classroom. 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/363384263654991043/

What other scales of reading comprehension can one integrate into assessment instruction besides 1) Frustration 2) Instructional 3) Independent?

Do you think that splitting the categories further (i.e. making more than three) would be a more accurate depiction of a child's reading level, or are the methods of assessment too diverse to compare to a more exact categorization?

Ms. Rebecca's Point System

Reading Inquiry: Interview with Ms. Rebecca*

       My topic dealt with the capability of teachers to integrate differentiated instruction seamlessly into a classroom with students of varying reading levels. My real-life inquiry involved two components: an in-depth interview with a fourth grade teacher in a full service community school program and a subsequent observation over the course of two weeks in said teacher's classroom. I garnered a conceptual understanding of how Ms. Rebecca teaches through her expressed viewpoints on reward systems, fluency measurements, and judging comprehension through classroom discussion, and followed up her perception of herself with how her classroom was structured and taught.

      The interview brought up a menagerie of points covered thus far in our class instruction, including the accuracy of fluency measurements, the concept of comprehension vs. reading level, memorization, and the helpfulness of game inclusion into daily instruction. Theresa Deeney introduces this issue of the accuracy of "fluency" measurements in her article, One Minute Fluency Measures: Mixed Messages in Assessment and Instruction. Ms. Rebecca alludes to her utilization of two-minute, word-per-minute assessments, and decidedly uses such in order to characterize her fourth graders into reading groups B through E. She denotes that she herself doesn't have time to do a more in-depth study than these measurements, and even that she sometimes has her volunteers administer the tests in her absence. She administers the test twice a year, and allows her children an opportunity to move translationally through the reading levels. Deeney points out the shortcomings of using measurements such as these to characterize children, pointing out that fluency is made up of accuracy, rate, prosody, and comprehension, and that tests similar to Ms. Rebecca's focus solely on accuracy and speed. Although these tests do indicate which students are struggling, they are simply an avenue to testing endurance and making a more in-depth study. Ms. Rebecca also touches upon the ideal of comprehension vs. reading level in her interview, explicitly stating that children are more inclined to comprehend texts that interest them than those which are required but uninteresting. Deeney's, as well as Sharon Gill's The Comprehension Matrix: A Tool for Designing Comprehension Instruction, both touch upon the correlation between understanding and interest. Gill lists multiple factors affecting comprehension, including interest level, alongside specified purpose, lack of noise, font, and presence of illustrations. She also suggests that memorization is a key avenue to comprehension, which is a highly debatable viewpoint (that she recognizes as such). Finally, Ms. Rebecca cheerily adheres to a commonly known trick for engaging students at any age: make it a game! She understands that games, and competitiveness to succeed, increase students' interest in a subject and willingness to learn.

      One aspect of Ms. Rebecca's classroom that has intrigued me since I began volunteering there is her use of a monetary-based reward system. She views such as an important avenue to the real world, a weekly reminder that attaining an education is just as important as maintaining a job post-education. She sees the system as a way to reinforce such topics as decimals and rounding, and cites parental approval as a reinforcement to continue. In her classroom, I have seen first-hand that the students work harder and longer, and seek out additional work on an individual, responsible basis due to their wanting to garner as many points as possible by the end of the week. The students are driven to succeed, and have allowed the system to become a personal challenge against their own past weeks, rather than a competition against their pees. Post-interview, Ms. Rebecca introduced to the children the suggestion of keeping track of one's own points, to which every child replied enthusiastically and impatiently. The students have learned to keep track of their own money, and many of the students, even as third graders, save their money from multiple weeks in order to buy something especially important to them. Although there are definitive positive outcomes of this system, I myself feel that introducing money could possibly undermine the internal satisfaction of learning new things and seeking out additional knowledge. I understand Ms. Rebecca wanting to reward her children for working hard, and wanting to give them concrete rewards that they can understand, rather than intangible "wisdom" or "knowledge", but I do think there is value in propelling children to learn for the sake of knowledge, and to become lifelong learners despite the rewards offered.

    Another exciting part of the observation was Ms. Rebecca's introduction of the special project of the week. The children were learning to associate mean, median, mode, and range with specific sets of numbers during that particular week in their during-school hours. Ms. Rebecca allowed the children the opportunity to achieve an additional five hundred points though the creation and decoration of a flip book, teaching the concepts of each of the terms, alongside an example utilizing a group of numbers. I liked how this idea integrated what the children were learning in their actual classes, propelled them to think critically through the creation of an example, while allowing them to become creative and decorate the books in their own distinctive style. Although Ms. Rebecca showed the class a way to make the book, even the construction of such was open to self-interpretation. One issue that I took note of during the introduction of the project is that, immediately following her explanation, the students had a mad dash to finish their homework, sometimes half-hardheartedly, and those that perhaps were slower learners were extremely dissatisfied with themselves once the other students began their special projects. A final issue I noted was that the students immediately began constructing and decorating their books, even after receiving direct instruction that they had to complete their definitions and examples prior to constructing and decorating. This, however, is to be expected of children that age when arts and crafts is mentioned at all!

     As far as my feelings toward the experience, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I have been working with Ms. Rebecca and Washington Elementary for a period of three years, and enjoy thoroughly every opportunity I am given to analyze the way the program is structured and the way in which various classrooms are taught. I think that Ms. Rebecca is an incredibly talented and patient teacher, and has a natural knack for dealing with all types of people (she was previously a social worker). Although I don't necessarily agree with her monetarily-based reward system, I do understand her logic behind implementing such and honestly feel that the students have benefited in that they are self-driven learners and achievers. I witnessed Ms. Rebecca putting action behind her words, through asking a variety of challenging analytical questions to every student she teachers, and through her integrating both individualized and whole group instruction into her classroom. She does, however, rely heavily on worksheets and memorization for the bulk of her academic points, and I would love to see the children get rewarded for learning new facts in unorthodox ways (such as attending a fair or event). I would also love to see her utilize her volunteers in order to generate a more in-depth study of each child's fluency.

        As far as within my own classroom, I think that Ms. Rebecca has demonstrated the usefulness of several concepts. I love the idea of reading levels within the classroom as a way to allow students at different levels to have their own appropriately-leveled texts. I think it is important that the level of analysis is similar between groups, but allowing lower readers to read less complicated readings gives them space to analyze successfully, rather than spending all of their time comprehending. I would, as previously stated,  use this after a more in-depth study than what Ms. Rebecca instituted, but still allow the students an opportunity to move upward throughout the year as she does. Game instruction is always an exciting activity for students, and even memorization has it's place, so long as it is not substituted for comprehension activities. I also admire the idea of a point system, but I would have to drum of alternatives than money as rewards for students doing well each week. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the teacher I have worked with for two years on a more in-depth basis, and admire her more so for developing her own niche for teaching and allowing it to blossom within each of her students.

Interview with Ms. Rebecca*: A Fourth Grade Teacher at Washington* Elementary Full Service Community School Program

E: What grade level do you teach and where?

R: I teach fourth grade at Washington* Elementary Community School.

E: How differentiated are the reading levels of the students that you teach?

R: They vary, now I could tell you what reading groups I have, which is B through E. Or I could say to you that I have grade levels second grade all the way up through eighth.

E: So how does B through E translate to second through eighth?

R: My Bs are more second and third, my Cs are third to fourth.

E: So it’s like the second half of one year and the beginning of the second?

R: Yeah, exactly.

E: Alright. How do you integrate instruction for these differentiated reading levels into whole group/ class activities?

R: By the skill, and not so much the story. Like if you’re working on main idea. I basically use something that nobody uses; I use the main idea from a story that nobody’s previously read.

E: So do you ask like different kids different questions based on what reading level they’re at, if you are doing it in a whole group?

R: I find myself doing that, although I don’t agree with doing that. A child may be a low reader but can conceptualize the answer to very big questions. I have one child in particular who I’m thinking of right now who is very good orally, but not written. It’s hard to tell sometimes.

E: I don’t think reading level always translates to comprehension.

R: It doesn’t. Or even greater skills than just comprehension, retaining and using the information to do like analysis.

E: Do you find that the students that can analyze the best are analyzing the best when you're reading it? Versus themselves reading it, since they aren’t at a higher reading level?

R: I’m going to say yes and no. Yes if its something they're reading that they don’t really care about or are not interested in. And no if it is.

E: How do you use individualized, one-on-one instruction to help children who are behind and challenge those who might be ahead? Or are you working more to get them all on the same level?

R: No. To get them all on the same level, that’s just unfair. I’ve got students who work on special projects, like I’ve got two special projects this week that I know that only five will do.

E: Is that for the students that are ahead?

R: Yeah. When they finish their work they can start on their special projects. I get kids who aren’t ahead, who want to do the special projects, because sometimes it involves cutting out, gluing, artistic things. Sometimes you’ll have kids who are artistic that aren’t really into writing and reading.

E: So what do the special projects entail, or do they vary from week to week?

R: They vary from week to week, and it always involves memorization. Always.

E: Do they have to present to the whole class?

R: That’s extra points if they do, so they don’t turn that down.

E: Can you explain your point system?

R: Okay it’s complicated. And I’ll tell you what I’ve got such a wide variety of kids this year that some of them will keep up with their own points too. So I’m accommodating that. They have their own sheet to add up their own points. They may not know it but they’re analyzing their own work. If they get three checks, they can get their 100 line points.

E: So you only have to do it three out of the five days?

R: I’d like them to all get line grades every day of the week if that can happen.

E: If they do, do they get extra points?

R: They do, they do. Every 100 points is a dime. So every 1000 points is a dollar. Now when we start working on decimals, they really get that. It really reinforces their knowledge of money, which they don’t have a whole lot of experience with.

E: And do you think the parents, by and large, agree with you giving money to their children?

R: Oh, absolutely. I’ve never had a parent turn me down. And I always ask. And they’ve always agreed with that.

I find that students: like this student has got 1,540 points. Now, when we get more into decimals he’s going to know that that’s a dollar and forty-five cents. He’s going to know, because it’s just a matter of moving that decimal point. If he had another five there, we’d work on rounding up. That keeps them in charge, and let’s them know that what they do here is just as important as going out and working in the real world, because this is a job.

E: Do most of them keep track of their own points?

R: No, in fact, this is just a new thing. Last year, when they were just third graders, no way. But now, since they all ask, “How many points to I have now? How many points do I have now?” I decided that this is what we’re going to do, as big fourth graders. The difference between them now and after Christmas break is enormous, and they’re going to struggle with that. They’re making goals for what they want to spend their money on, and they know what they have to do to do it. Now I have had kids who have earned up to thirteen dollar in a week. Ask me for workbooks; I will never turn you down! I will hand you a workbook if you want to do it. You know sometimes I have handed them workbooks with answers in the back. I know that seems unfair, but when you think about it, if they’re looking at it, they’re actually reading it to get the answer down. And they’re comprehending whether or not they know it or not. On some level they’re still learning. That’s just part of memorization. I believe in memorization more than I think a lot of people do. I still have kids who can tell me the order of the planets, form two years ago.

E: I think if you teach it the right way, like with a song or something, it can be really helpful. You’ll remember it for a long time.

So do you use a lot of worksheets in your class? Do you think that’s a good way to instruct kids?

R: In this instance, it is, to a degree, because they have half homework they can work on, half the class they have to work on homework. And they get points. If they get homework done in reading, it’s a thousand points, math a thousand points, and that’s always in worksheet form. As far as their reading, it has to be. It has to be because there’s no way you can accommodate.

E: So the way you introduce reading into other subjects is mostly through worksheets? You do classroom discussion too; I’ve seen you do that.

R: Oh yeah, definitely. I try to integrate. I have reading that talks about quotients and science concepts, social studies, but the reading samples I use for my kids are al varied. Is it prime or composite, that’s math, using landforms, social studies, physical science for group C, and life science for D.

E: How do you decide when a kid gets moved up a group?

R: I do a fluency assessment. I do student interviews. We talk about behaviors, we talk about goals, we talk about their skills, and we do a two-minute reading sample. And basically, what I do, is see what level they are on. This is where they land as of two weeks ago, so it’s pretty fresh. They get a chance to move up.

E: Do you do it only on words per minute?

R: I do. I do it because that’s all I’ve got time to be able to work on with. And that’s where the volunteers come in. We’ll get volunteers to come in and do that too, since that’s one-on-one.

E: How important do you think it is to know every child’s reading levels and habits and how do you keep track of such?

R: It’s essential. You have to know where they’re at. In the beginning what I do is a reading assessment, an interest inventory. That’s how I sneak in their birthdays. It’s just a little student information thing that tells me what they like. I know that at this point in their academics they’re over Magic Treehouse books, and Zack Files, they’re done with that. They’re more into Diary of a Wimpy Kid. You can see the progression with those. We’re going to read novels too; we’re going to read books.

E: Are they reading books in their actual classes yet?

R: I don’t know if fourth grade is or not. I know fifth grade read the Wynne Dixie book.

E: Alright. Final question: do you think standardized test preparation in any way impedes a teacher’s ability to individualize reading instruction?

R: Oh it has to, doesn’t it? If you’re tested on something you have absolutely no interest in, or you were hungry that morning, you’re shoes weren’t tied and you tripped. That one day that you’re taking that test something terrible could happen, and it seems like you're never caught on the one day where you feel like you’re on top of the world. And hey, if you do that’s great too.

E: Do you have any way of making what they have to be tested on more interesting?

R: Oh yeah, we play games all the time. This thing back here is filled with all sorts of games. Word games, math games, they’re very competitive. You know that; you’ve seen them. You’ve taken score plenty of times.

E: Alright. Good to go!

R: Awesome.

*Names have been changed to uphold confidentiality