In today's classrooms, many teachers meet students' reading needs by providing guided reading. However, little is known about how teachers combine student data and pedagogical content knowledge to plan guided readings lessons. This study focused on understanding how elementary teachers use guided reading pedagogical content knowledge and student data when planning a guided reading lesson. The conceptual framework was based on Fountas and Pinnell's guided reading framework, and Clay's theory of data collection with respect to literacy processing. The research questions concerned how teachers' use, guide, and reflect on guided reading pedagogical content knowledge and students data when planning a guided reading lesson. A qualitative study using both phenomenological and case study aspects was utilized to capture insights of elementary teachers from a successful Title 1 school. This study included a single elementary school. Participants included 10 elementary teachers from grades K-5. Data sources included introductory and follow-up teacher interviews as well as teacher lesson plans. Data were analyzed using coding for identification of patterns. The findings revealed that teachers believe their success lies in searching for the right books use to differentiate their guided reading instruction based on each student's individual data. They also believe their success comes from providing background knowledge to students when teaching guided reading lessons to pique their students interest and help them better understand what they are reading. This study can contribute to positive social change by providing administration insights to how to prepare high quality professional development to help teachers plan guided reading lessons.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how teachers perceive the instructional support provided by district and school level administrators in implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The independent variables were staff development, small group development, direct individual assistance, technology, teacher age, and teacher years of experience. The dependent variable was teacher perception of the efficacy of the instructional support received. The phenomenological approach was specifically chosen for this study to give a voice to teachers who, for the majority, are often left unheard in the policy making process. By focusing on the similarities of the participants’ experiences, the stories collected in this study will help school and district level leadership in identifying how they can best support teachers in implementing the Common Core standards. The study took place in a metropolitan school district bolstering nearly 99,000 students. Schools were selected to participate using maximum variation sampling. This type of sampling ensures that findings reflect differences in perspective, which is ideal in qualitative study (Creswell, 2007). Schools were selected according to the following descriptors: Title I status, ethnicity of student population, English proficiency of student population, disabilities of student population, grade level of student population, and College and Career Readiness Performance Index (CCRPI) Score of the school. The participants represented elementary, middle, and high school settings. The data collected during this study were analyzed using the phenomenology research procedures of Moustakas (1994). The research resulted in a collection of significant statements that were clustered to define themes. The 11 themes were extracted from 28 teacher surveys, 5 teacher interviews, and 3 school-level administrator interviews. The findings of the study revealed that school level instructional support was perceived more favorable than district level instructional support in all areas: staff development, group development, and direct individual assistance. Small group development at both the district and school level was engaging, allowing teachers to discuss, plan, and create during the time spent together. Approximately half of the participants in the study indicated that they never received direct individual assistance from administrators neither at the district nor school level. Participants expressed positive perception regarding the technological training they received and the impact it had not only on their instruction, but their administrative skill as well.

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