Literacy Assessments:

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Literacy Assessments

• Formal and Informal Measures of Assessment

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Testing the Way Children LearnPrinciples for
Valid Literacy Assessments

• Validity principles for assessments (assessments
  should always be in the service of learning)
• Guide assessment design with knowledge of human
  development and learning (methods of presenting
  or assessing knowledge that utilize only one
  approach to learning or that call for only one
  right answer are not effective for all students)

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Contd.

• Use multiple forms of evidence to assess student
  progress
• Connect assessments to the goals and purposes of
  learning
• Assessments should be a learning experience

4
Contd.

• Assessment information should reveal the impact
  of instruction over time
• Assessments for accountability must also support
  teaching and learning(The push for
  standardization drives large-scale assessments to
  focus on what is easiest to measure, rather than
  what is most important)

5
Contd.

• The elementary literacy profile can be a useful
  guide to teachers, students, and their families
  about the processes of learning to read, write,
  and develop oral language.
• (http//www.ncte.org/pdfs/members-only/la/0761-sep
  t98/LA0761Testing.pdf)

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• Contd
• This website fully explores how standardized
  tests for literacy should be used correctly.
  Further, the website has articles that will give
  teachers ideas how they may better inform parents
  of the importance of these literacy assessments
  and how to evaluate the results for their student
  or child.

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Informal Assessment in Educational Evaluation

• Uses and examples of informal testing in the
  classroom

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Types of Unstructured Assessment Techniques

• Writing samples
• Homework
• Logs or Journals
• Games
• Debates

• Brainstorming
• Story retelling
• Anecdotal
• Naturalistic

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Types of Structured Informal Assessment

• Checklists
• Cloze Tests
• Criterion-referenced Tests

• Rating Scales
• Questionnaires
• Miscue Analysis
• Structured Interviews

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Scoring Assessments for Unstructured Activities

• Holistic
• Primary Trait
• Analytic
• Holistic Survey
• General Impression Markings
• Error Patterns
• Assigning Grades

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• Http//www.ncela.gwu.edu/ncbepubs/pigs/pig3.htm
• This website defines and explores informal
  assessment in the classroom on a daily basis.
  Examples are given of these types of assessments
  and then are expanded on with advice on how each
  should be used. Nearer the end of the site you
  will find information on grading portfolios and
  what should be included and how the information
  should be used.

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Literacy Assessments

• A board resolution of the International Reading
  Association
• http//www.reading.org/position/lit-assess.html

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May 1991 Resolutions

• There are 2 major purposes for literacy
  assessments to inform learning and instruction
  to address accountability concerns, that is
  evaluating program effectiveness.

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May 1991 Purposes

• Improving the effectiveness of assessment
  procedures and measures
• The importance of how assessments are developed
• The importance of assessment content and
  philosophy
• The importance of appropriate interpretation and
  use of assessment results.

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• Contd.
• This website depicts what the opinion and
  resolution of the international reading
  organization resolved and declared in 1991. What
  is most interesting about the information in this
  site is that we are still today, after all these
  years, trying to accomplish what was set out by
  an international committee 12 years ago.

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National Assessment of Educational Progress

• The NAEP has decided that testing is to undergo
  major changes (1993). These changes require that
  standardized testing be more parallel to the
  everyday work of the student.(http//www.ed.gov/pu
  bs/ncesprograms/assessments/surveys/naep.html)

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Ciera Report

• Http//www.wiera.org/librar/reports/inquiry-2/2-01
  3/2-013.html
• This is a comprehensive site outlining and
  detailing what exactly is to be assessed during
  literacy evalutaions

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Contd.

• Print awareness
• Aspsects of word recognition
• Reading
• Reading Strategies
• Comprehension
• Motivation

• Self-Perception/Self-Concept
• Metacognition
• Attitude
• Oral Language Listening and Speaking

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Related Texts

• Literacy Assessment Helping Teachers Plan
  Instruction AuthorsCooper,J. David Kiger,
  Nancy D.
• Bader Reading and Language Inventory by
  Bader,Lois

• Effective Reading Strategies Teaching Children
  Who Find Reading Difficult by Rasinski, Timothy
  V.Padak, Nancy
• Literature Activities by Yopp,Hallie Yopp Kay

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More Texts

• Creating Writers Through 6-Trait Writing
  Assessment and Instruction (3rd Edition) Vicki
  Spandel

• Vygotsky in the Classroom Mediated Literacy
  Instruction and Assessment Lisbeth Dixon-Krauss
  (Editor)