Assessment of Student Progress in Reading and Writing

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Assessment of Student Progress in Reading and
Writing

• Tompkins-Chapter 3
• 5th edition

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Determining READING LEVELS

• INDEPENDENT- CAN READ ON OWN WITH 95-100
  ACCURACY
• INSTRUCTIONAL-CAN READ WITH SUPPORT WITH 90-94
  ACCURACY
• FRUSTRATION-TOO DIFFICULT
• LISTENTING CAPACITY-POTENTIAL READING LEVEL

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READABILITY FORMULAS

• Method of estimating the difficulty of text or
  reading level of a text
• Determined by correlating semantic and syntactic
  features
• Leveled Books, FRYE Readability Graph, Lexile
  Framework

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Leveled Books

• Basal readers traditionally leveled according to
  grade level equivalent, but may be too broad
• Fountas and Pinnells Text Gradient-levels books
  on continuum from easiest to hardest (p. 79)

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The Lexile Framework(developed by MetaMatrix
available through Scholastic)

• System for leveling books (or matching books to
  readers)
• Measures students reading level and the
  difficulty level of the text
• Lexile levels range from 100-1300 (pl 80)
• Ex. 6th grade 850-950

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Fry Readability Graph

• Readability Formula
• Used to determine if a textbook or trade book is
  appropriate for a particular grade level
• See p. 78 for instructions
• Select 100 word passage
• Count of syllables in each word
• Count of sentences in the passage
• Plot on graph

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Reading Recovery

• Early intervention program for struggling readers
  at the end of the first grade
• Goal to get them on grade level by 3rd grade
• Reading Recovery reading levels 0-26

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Informal Assessments

• Used to guide instruction
• Not high-stakes (does not determine placement in
  groups or grade levels)

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Monitoring Student Progress

• Observations
• Anecdotal Notes
• Conferences
• Rubrics
• Work Samples
• Portfolios
• Self-Assessment
• (Also See Assessment Tools p. 85)

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Observation

• Interaction with students
• Shadowing-following one student and
  systematically recording the students
  instructional experiences
• Kidwatching-Ken Goodman
• Teachers explore 1) What evidence exists that
  language development is occurring?
• 2) What does the childs unexpected production
  say about the childs knowledge of language?
• Anecdotal records- written accounts of specific
  incidents in the classroom (p. 82)

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Conferences

• Planning Conferences
• Reading/Writing Workshop Conferences
• Evaluation Conferences

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Rubrics (p. 64 and p. 84)

• Rubrics are used to assess a students
  composition (writing), performance on a task, or
  a project.
• Teachers establish criteria for scoring each
  product.

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Portfolios

• Folders, notebooks, web-based files that hold
  students work.
• Teacher establish guidelines
• Students submit work within the guidelines
• Progress Portfolios
• Showcase Porfolios

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Self-Assessments

• Involving students in self-assessment requires
  them to look more critically at their own work
  and set goals for improvement

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Diagnosing Students Strength and Weaknesses

• Teachers use diagnostic reading assessments to
  determine a students strengths and areas of
  weakness
• See page 85

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Concepts about Print or CAPMarie Clay

• Assessment of Basic understandings about print
  and the way it works
• Book-Orientation concepts
• Directionality concepts
• Letter/word concepts
• (See p. 113 for example of Scoring Sheet)

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Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

• Monitor sound isolation, segmentation, blending,
  etc. through picture sorts, songs, rhyming words
• DIBELS-Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
  Skills (assess phonemic awareness and
  phonological awareness)
• The Names Test-Phonics (Cunningham)

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Running Records(Marie Clay)

• To assess word identification and fluency
• Students read text aloud while teachers make
  checkmarks noting the words read correctly and
  the miscues
• Calculate of words read correctly (95
  independent, 90-94 instructional, and fewer
  than 90 frustration level
• Examine miscues
• Examine comprehension through retelling
• (DIBELS gtgtgtRunning Records)

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Miscue Analysis

• Miscues unexpected responses
• Includes substitutions, repetitions, omissions,
  mispronunciation
• Categorize according to cueing systems
• semantic (meaning is similar)
• graphophonic (looks similar)
• syntactic (grammatically acceptable)

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Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)

• Commercial tests to assess reading levels (grade
  level equivalents)
• Includes graded word lists, graded passages, and
  comprehension questions
• Used to calculate independent, instructional, and
  frustrations levels

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Retellings

• Students retell a story or expository text after
  reading the text silently or aloud
• Student retell story without assistance and then
  the teacher may ask open ended questions (What
  happened next?)
• Teachers analyze retelling for comprehension

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Oral Language Assessments

• Teachers students who speak a language other than
  English (SOLOM)
• Five Components on a Continuum
• Listening,
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Grammar

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Cloze Procedure

• Used to
• Determine suitability of a textbook or trade book
• and/or
• Access comprehension

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Cloze Procedure

1. Select a passage of approximately 250 consecutive
   words from the text or trade book. The text
   should be one that the students have not read, or
   tried to read, before.
2. Type the passage using the first sentence intact
   and deleting every fifth word thereafter.
3. Give students the passage and have them fill in
   the blanks. Allow them all of the time they need.

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Scoring Cloze Tests

• Score by counting as correct only the exact words
  that were in the original text.
• Determine the percentage of correct answers.
• Less than 44- Frustration Level (level that is
  too difficultthwarts or baffles student)
• 44-57- Instructional Level (level at which the
  student can read with teacher guidance)
• 57 or more- Independent level (level to be read
  on his or her own)

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Maze Procedure

• Similar to cloze procedure
• Students are provided with 3 choices for each
  deleted word (or each blank)
• 1) correct word
• 2) syntactically acceptable but semantically
  unacceptable
• 3) both semantically unacceptable and
  syntactically unacceptable

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Authentic Assessment (informal)

• Takes place during the teaching/learning process
• Does not measure language as a set of fragmented
  skills
• Oral and written language are integrated and
  whole
• Contextual/situational
• Assesses many types of literacy abilities in real
  and functional ways
• Continuous process
• Varied process
• Should include students interests and beliefs
• Involves self-reflection and self-evaluation

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Standardized Tests(Formal)

• Mandated tests
• Schools and districts use scores for comparing
  student achievement with previous years
• Comparing with national norms and other districts

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Purposes

• To place and classify students
• To provide accountability
• To determine who needs extra help or enrichment
• To create groups
• Standardized tests often fail to reflect current
  views of teaching reading and are of little use
  to teachers day-to-day instruction

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Formal Assessment-Norm Referenced

• Norm-referenced- measure a students relative
  standing in relation to comparable groups of
  students across the nation or locally
• Authors seek reliability and validity so that
  schools can be confident that the tests measure
  what they intend to measure
• Results in standard scoresgrade equivalents (in
  years and months) and percentile ranks (position
  within a set of 100 scores)

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Criterion-Referenced

• Scores are interpreted in terms of specific
  standards
• Designed to match the standards or expectations
  of what students should know at successive
  points, or benchmarks
• Advantage Students do not compete with one
  another, but try to master certain objectives or
  criterion
• Disadvantage Reading can appear to be merely a
  set of skills that can be taught and learned in
  isolation

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Standardized Testing
YES
NO
Is standardized testing beneficial to student
learning?
Conclusion
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Standardized Testing
Pros --wide-scale testing could bring about need
reforms --can be a tool for teaching and learning
as well as designing curriculum

• Cons
• Biased
• Teaching to the test
• Students become passive rather than active
  learners
• Not always accurate representation of what the
  student can do
• Not authentic
• One source of information