Assessment in Reading involves understanding and appreciating how children interact with print in authentic reading situations and why.
High-Stakes Testing is a result of the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) in which states are responsible for submitting accountability plans to the US DOE. These plans must address proficiency on tests, closing gaps in achievement, and other indicators such as graduations rates and English Language proficiency, Math and Science (depending on state). H-ST is intended to provide the public with a guarantee that students can perform at a level necessary to function in society and in the workplace. (Important: high stakes tests do NOT provide a complete picture of students literacy knowledge and accomplishments. This is why Assessments are so important)
Authentic Assessment: students are doing reading and writing tasks that look like real-life tasks and students are primarily in control of the reading or writing tasks. Students also develop ownership, engage thoughtfully and learn to asses themselves.
With Retelling a story a teacher can go beyond assessing the simple questions of the story and include understanding of the story and characterization. Teachers can use a clear rubric so that students can utilize the assessment tool themselves.
Performance-Based Assessments which require knowledge and problem-solving abilities representative of real-world purposes.
Formative Assessments are used to gather evidence to adapt to meet a students needs. They should show both strengths and weaknesses a student has. It also involves noticing details of literate behavior, interpreting student’s understanding and perspective, and knowing what the reader knows. It is purposeful, collaborative, dynamic, and descriptive, and contributes to improvement in teaching and learning.
Progress Monitoring takes place when teachers need to be able to diagnose reading and writing problems while monitoring the progress of each student.
Student self-assessments are a process-driven evaluation system where students have the ability to use assessments to change their behaviors, set goals, and redirect their learning efforts.
Formal Assessments are generally norm-referenced or criterion-referenced. Some incorporate both.
- Standardized tests are machine-scored instruments that sample reading performance during a single administration. They are useful at local, state or national levels. They are generally norm-referenced meaning it is constructed by administering it to large numbers of students in order to develop a norm. These norms represent average scores of a sampling of students selected for testing according to factors such as age, sex, race, grade, or socioeconomic status
- Reliability: refers to the stability of the test. Does the test measure ability consistently over time or consistently across equivalent forms? The reliability of a test is expressed as a correlation coefficient. A reliability coefficient of +0.85 or better is considered good. One below +0.70 suggests that the test lacks consistency. (Standard of error Measurement – represents the range within which a subject’s true score will fall. ex. they get a 4.0, deviation SEOM is .8, their score would fall between 4.8, and 3.2)
- Validity: is the most important characteristic of a test. It refers to how well a test measures what it is designed to measure. It needs 3 types of Validity –
- Construct Validity: which shows the relationship between a theoretical construct such as reading and the test that proposes to measure the construct.
- Content Validity: which reflects how well the test represents the domain or content area being examined.
- Predictive Validity: it should accurately predict future performance.
Standardized Diagnostic Test – is a type of formal assessment intended to provide information about individual students’ strengths and weaknesses. (Generally characterized by a battery of subtests that uses large numbers of items to measure specific skills in areas such as phonics, structural analysis, word knowledge, and comprehension)
Survey Test – represents a measure of general performance only. (Often used in the beginning of a year as a screening test to identify children having difficulties in broad areas of instruction.)
Criterion-referenced tests – these tests are judged by what a student can or cannot do with regard to the skill objectives of the test. The results aren’t compared to anyone else. The biggest difference between norm-referenced tests and criterion-based is that it will indicate strengths and weaknesses in certain skill areas. Whereas norm-based are used to screen students and to make a general grouping decision.
Informal Assessments – do not compare the performance of a tested group or individual to a normative population. Instead informal assessments are given throughout the year to individuals or groups for specific instructional purposes.
Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) is an administered reading test. It consists of a series of graded word lists, graded reading passages, and comprehension questions. The passages are used to assess how students interact with print orally and silently. IRI information can lead to instructional planning that will increase students’ effectiveness with print. When making and using an IRI, at least three steps are necessary –
- Duplicate 100- to 200- word passages from basal stories. Select a passage for each grade level from the basal series, pre-premier through grade 8. Passages should be chosen from the middle of each basal textbook to ensure representativeness.
- Develop at least five comprehension questions for each passage. Be certain that different types of questions are created for each graded passage. Avoid the following pitfalls –
- Questions that can be answered without reading the passage
- Question that require yes or no answers
- Questions that are long and complicated
- Questions that overload memory by requiring the reader to reconstruct lists
- Create an environment conducive to assessment. Explain to the students before testing why you are giving the assessment.
Determining Reading Levels – Can be determined by administering and IRI
- Independent Level – the level at which the student reads fluently with excellent comprehension.
- Instructional Level – The level at which the student can make progress in reading with instructional guidance.
- Frustration Level – the level at which the student is unable to pronounce many of the words or is unable to comprehend the material satisfactorily.
- Listening Level – The level at which the students can understand material tha tis read aloud.
Miscues are an errors – or a deviation or difference between what a reader says an the word on the page. Miscues can be quantitative which involves counting the number of errors or qualitative which is a tool for assessing strengths of the students reading skills.
Miscue analysis is used to determine the extent to which the reader uses and coordinates graphic-sound, syntactic, and semantic information from the text. To analyze miscues you should as at least four questions –
- Is the meaning changed?
- Are the miscues nonwords or partial words?
- Are the miscues similar to the text words in structure and sound?
- Did the reader self-correct?
Running Record is an assessment for determining students’ development of oral reading fluency and word identification skills and strategies.
Analyzing Running Records helps determine words read correctly, the amount of students errors, and identification of error patterns. To determine these we use formulas –
- Error Rate: Total words/Total Errors=Error Rate
- Accuracy rate: Total words read – total errors/total words read x100
- Self-correction Rate: #of errors+#of self-corrections/#of self-corrections
Anecdotal notes capture the gist of an incident that reveals something the teacher considers significant to understanding a child’s literacy learning. They are intended to safeguard against the limitations of memory. Charts are particularly useful for keeping anecdotal notes.
Checklists consist of categories that have been presented for a specific diagnostic purpose. They vary in scope and purpose and can be relatively short or long and more detailed. They should be used as a guide to consider and notice what students can do in terms of reading and writing strategies.
Interviewing is used so a teacher can discover what children are thinking and feeling. Periodic student interviews can lead to a better understanding of 1. reading interests and attitudes, 2. How students perceive their strengths and weaknesses, and 3. how they perceive processes related to langugage learning.
Words Correct Per Minute assessment involves children reading aloud for 1 minute from materials use in their lessons. As the students is reading the text, the teacher crosses out any word read incorrectly onto a copy of the text. To calculate teh score, the teacher counts to number of correctly read words, records, and then graphs the score in order to track changes in rates and accuracy over time.
Portfolios are collections of work that “document the literary development of a student” and include “evidence of student work in various stages.” They provide an opportunity to involve students in the assessment process because they can require students’ input and encourage them to think about their own literacy growth.
*Currently Tearing up from the Being Mr. Jensen Video*
Types of Assessment
- Formative
- Summative
- Diagnostic
- Formal
- Informal
- Behavioral
- Rating Scales
- Emotional
- Screening
- Authentic
- Performance Based
- Criterion-Referenced
- Norm – Referenced
Formal Vs Informal
Formal: developed by a group of educators at state/national level; data driven; norm-referenced strict testing procedures; measure longitudinal achievement
Informal: developed by teachers/small group of students; unsupported by data; criterion-referenced normal classroom testing procedures; measures shorter achievement
Formative vs Summative vs Diagnostic
Why Implement?
- F: Informs teachers when students are stuck during instruction
- S: measures whether a student has mastered a large quantity of material
- D: student achievement gaps
When to Implement:
- F: Done during the teaching process
- S: done at the end of the unit
- D: done the first day of class or when starting a new course or unit.
Examples:
- F: student questioning techniques
- S: Class thesis paper
- D: pre-course text book check
How to use:
- F: teaching decisions on the fly (move on or keep explaining)
- S: whether or not a student can advance through a course
- D: future lessons and to sort students into groups
Norm-Referenced Vs Criterion
Norm-Referenced: used to rank students based on test achievement; scores are given as a rank based on other students scores; assesses a very large group of students; tests usually take a long period of time; developed on a state/national level.
Criterion-Referenced: used to measure the kills and knowledge a student has mastered; student scores are given as a percentage; assesses a small number of students; tests usually last a class period; developed by a teacher.
Class Application:
I would use a Diagnostic approach for assessment when starting a new unit with my students about Story Structure. I would have all my students raise their hands and talk to me about the different aspects of story structure so I could get an understanding of what exactly they knew already. Then after that, I would give all my students the same book and we could talk about what the story might entail just from looking at the cover. While reading the book chapter for chapter we would learn more about story structure and what the different categories in story structure are and what they mean. At the end of the book as a summative assessment I would have my students create a story map to show what they have learned about the books story structure.
virginiawilson 