Assessment Tools For A School's Success With Its Literacy Program

Improved Assessment Literacy: Unlike the current education system that treats assessment more separated from teaching, the core teaching standards recognize that teachers need to have greater knowledge and skill on how to develop a number of assessments, how to balance use of formative and summative assessment as

This has deepened my understanding of the big 5 concepts of literacy (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) through understanding what criteria can be used to determinate what is effective developmental for a reader and what needs improvement. The Informal Reading Inventory is one example of this because it allows me to assess word recognition, oral and silent reading, comprehension, and literacy capacity. All of which is valuable information which I can then use as a reading teacher to determine further instructional moves. While I have yet to have a place to fully put these assessment techniques into my full practice as a first year teacher. Learning about how to properly assess these components has better equipped me to think about my students' literacy abilities and further strategize my instructional planning to meet the diversity of their literacy

I am a strong believer that one test defines a students. Therefore, variety is key when assessing students. When using formative assessment I use student reflections, journal entries, exit cards in addition to non verbal communication such as thumbs up or down. I also make anadotal notes on students to help assess the overall learning journey of the student. When using summative assessments, I use district assessments, state assessments, portfolios, short answer, multiple choice, and student based projects. In all forms of assessments, students are provided the appropriate accommodations. My learning goal for assessing students is to have a valid assessment that demonstrate the student’s understanding of the specific skill. It is crucial that I understand the purpose of the assessments and the content that is being taught, therefore, I often start instruction with the assessment piece in

According to Meikamp and Suppa (2007,) “Although the IRI may be regarded as a harmless tool because it is not a standardized test, any instrument has the potential for harm if its results are misleading or utilized inappropriately. Recently, developers of some IRIs have begun addressing the technical adequacy of their instruments,” (Meikamp & Suppa, 2007). Even though this test has areas that are questionable, it definitely provides a structure that some teachers could benefit from using in their classrooms. It is important that prior to using this assessment, that a teacher does in depth research on the assessment to gauge whether or not the assessment would work well for their students. It is important that when a teacher decides to use an assessment such as the Informal Reading Inventory, that they use this research to ensure that it is going to measure the skills of each student, so that they can effectively plan academic interventions for their students.

In every school across America, effective practices of reading instruction are being discussed. Calkins (2012) suggests that over 85% of students being tested on grade level literacy standards are non-proficient. Research suggests that students, who are unable to read proficiently by third grade, are not predicted to ever learn to read or have successful lives when they reach adulthood (Martinez, 2008). For these reasons, it is important that districts implement literacy models and instructional reforms that have been well researched and shown to be successful. The instructional reform method of Balanced Literacy is being used throughout the country to meet the challenging standards of the Common Core. Teachers will need

However, these comments are something which can only become reality if practitioners are enquiring into their practice. On reflection, it is my opinion that as assessment is such a widely-debated idea that it should be enquired in a teacher practice on a regular basis. I feel that by just concentrating on effective questioning it has implicated my practice and made me feel more confident and knowledgeable. However, there are many other factors a teacher uses daily which can change the form of a child’s learning. Therefore, I feel another important next step in my practice would be to follow other formative assessment tools as a line of enquiry. Specifically, into LI and SC and understanding the most effective way to use this in the classroom, such as discussion or visibility. I feel that this next step would be a natural movement in the action research cycle (see Appendix 9).

IPTS 7J relates to performance activity forty-seven by how the competent teacher uses assessment results to determine a student’s performance levels of all four sections of the Basic Reading Inventory: graded word lists, oral reading, silent reading, and listening reading. During this site visit, I gave another form of the silent reading portion to determine if the student is at the instructional/frustration level on grades fifth through eighth. The student remains to be at the instructional/frustration levels for grades fifth, seventh, and eighth grades. I learned to consider other aspects of assessments besides results to understand and evaluate what a student knows

In early childhood education classrooms, teachers utilize assessments for a variety of reasons. Assessments are used to detect strengths in weaknesses in a specific area of study as well as the differences in the students’’ learning the classroom (Stiggins, 2007). Teachers utilize this information in order to direct instruction in the classroom to best benefit the students in it. There are various types of assessments for education, many geared toward early literacy skills. Two of the more common literacy skill tests for early childhood education are the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT) and the Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA), both of which assess reading for young students. Using the information from the GORT and the ERDA, a teacher can create a pre-assessment and a post assessment for phonics and phonemic awareness.

For this assignment, I completed a survey to assess my school’s literacy program by using a survey that was adapted from by Patty, Maschoff, & Ransom (1996) to analyze the instructional program and the school’s infrastructure. To be able to answer my survey, I needed to go colleagues of mine in the English Department and to my administration to help with these questions. Being a math teacher, we hardly ever discuss the literacy and the students’ acquisition of it in our department meeting during staff development days. Since I am not truly current with literacy acquisition in education, I am hoping to understand more from this process so I can help all my students. I want them to be able to read texts related to math and find

Chapter two summary talks about the purpose of reading assessment which there three; identifying the students reading behaviors, determining reading level, and assess students’ progress. When you’re a good reader you don’t realize the different ways you read different genre or material like a story versus informational text and how both are different methods of comprehension, questioning, and vocabulary. Another part of reading good readers don’t know about is that we exhibit a variety of behaviors like building their lexicon, making inferences and determining which information is important. The purpose of reading assessment is to assess the reader’s level. The common assessment is testing the student’s ability to read and comprehend text at different grade levels. Another way of knowing the student has a reading problem is when they are able to read their own grade level text but instead a lower level text, Besides that they are put into three levels of reading; instructional level, independent level, and frustration level. When determining the students reading level so many factors comes into play and as teachers we need to know.

Assessments are used to track a student’s progress while examining how much they have learned. In the English Teacher’s Companion, it discusses that all the work a student does throughout the year becomes a means of assessing what they have learned (285). In my classroom, it is crucial to examine the process of my students learning throughout the year without basing their entire grade on one final exam. As mentioned in the text, a few of the strategies that I imagine using are to give students as much information as possible. The author states “Students should understand the requirements, the standards, and the criteria” (286). With that being said,

The use of formal and informal reading assessments provide important data that allow educators to identify at risk students (Tompkins, 2010). The data collected from the assessments address any factors that may prohibit the development of students’ reading and writing skills. In addition to the assessments, the more an educator can learn about students’ backgrounds and their past reading, language development, and writing experiences the more instructional strategies can be designed to specifically meet the needs of diverse learners in the classroom.

My response from my checklist for an effective literacy program revealed that I am a very animated teacher. I encourage my students to laugh with me building a positive relationship. I found that my students enjoy my lessons when I bring in prior experiences. Modeling the lesson with humor capture the student’s attention and they are eager to participate and collaborate with the peers and teachers. My strength demonstrates that I model all my lessons and make them student friendly. I plan and model my lessons by incorporated and adapted the skills to students’ individual needs. I also teach cross curriculum allowing students to build from each core subject.

Assessments are integral parts of instruction, they determine whether classroom goals have been achieved, and help teachers know what areas they should focus on and maybe reteach. They are great tools for developing lesson plans and answer questions such as; “do my students possess full understanding of the material?” There are many ways of assessing students’ learning, one of which I have personal experience with are on-the-spot assessments.

Writing assessment started as a classroom practice during the 20th century. During 1930s, College Board changed from using direct writing assessment to indirect form since the tests were cost-effective and they were believed to be more reliable. By 1950, more students with different background attended colleges and universities therefore administrators used standard testing to decide how to place students and what and how to teach them. As more students were placed in courses according to their standardized testing score, teachers started to notice a conflict between what students were tested and what teachers taught actually. Because of this difference educators started writing assessments that were designed in the programmatic and classroom levels. Therefore establishing methods of assessment started (Behzad, Nadia & George, 2011).