Chapter+2

===//1. “The goal of this chapter is to offer advice on how to make the magic behind reading a little more visible.” (16). As you read through the principles of assessment on pages 18 and 19, you were reminded of the importance of having a repertoire of ways to assess reading. Is your current repertoire of reading assessments balanced? Does it give you a complete picture to best make visible the “magic” behind your students’ reading processing? If so, please provide a couple of examples of assessment that you use and how they fit within the categories outlined in this section. If not, with which assessment category would you like to put some focus in the future and why?//===

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Respond here: With a new school year about to begin, I am thinking of the testing waiting for me. It is a huge task that seems so overwhelming. The information I gather is so important to what will happen over the next 36 weeks. I do use assessments that give me a complete picture of my students. I use Dibels and running records to identify the starting points of my students. I use student conferences and small group instruction as a way to keep learning moving. I need to know what each student is working on and where they need my support. I am working on giving each one the confidence to face a challenge and presenting strategies for them to use when needed. I do rely on formative assessments and revise my instruction as needed. I can gain a lot of information about my students this way. Deb McLeod=====

My assessments are lacking in diversity. This year it my plan to use more of the assessments that allow me to get into my student's heads. To do this I will be using the Readin Log. I have used this idea but only during "March is Reading Month". What was I thinking? I had the tool in the palm of my hand and didn't use it even for that month. I do watch how students engage in the reading process. My job is to be a note taker for future one-on-one instruction or group instruction.

Margaret Fox

After reading this chapter I feel I need to broaden my assessment options. Currently, my assessments mainly run along the diagnostic line of trying to __**gain a baseline of understanding of a reader p18.**__ I use running records from F&P to establish reading levels, and DIBELS to assess fluency. I also use STAR Reading which is a type of standardized assessment that assesses growth over a period. I have not done a good job of formative or informal assessment and see the need to improve in these areas. Most of my summative assessments have come in subjects other than reading. I see the need to really focus on informal assessments and use that as a means to improve my reading instruction. That looks like a huge challenge right now as I lack organizational skills and I'm not sure if I can keep up with multiple checklists, rubrics, and sticky notes. I'm hoping to find some great ideas on how to fit that all into my daily reading workshops. I also need to be more vigilant with interest inventories. I see them as being valuable in preparing to assess my students engagement and can use these inventories to help teach engagement skills and strategies. I wonder how to make the qualitative and quantitative assessments for engagement so that it is useful at school nd at home. It has been my experience that many book logs get "lost" as soon as they leave the classroom. How do you support the continuing thought process and engagement for those readers? Seperate book logs, sticky notes to bring back to school to re-enter in logs, what works? Mike

Chapter 2 from Bobbi Friend #1 When I began to think about my assessments and how they are such an essential part of quality reading instruction, I find that I am doing a better job than I realized I was doing. Currently I use Dibels scores to measure fluency. Dibels is an example of a diagnostic assessment. I use running records for fluency, miscues, and comprehension. Running records are also examples of diagnostic assessments. I use a benchmark assessment at the conclusion of every marking period and that is an example of a summative assessment. Conferring notes are another assessment that I use and they are informal assessments. MEAP tests are examples of standardized tests. I also use the Star Reader program which assesses print strategies, comprehension, and word work. I feel my current repertoire of assessments is fairly balanced, but I need to keep more formative assessments to keep track of progress within skill sets.

As a teacher, I used the same tests that Mikes uses...Dibels, Running Records, and STAR but I also heavily relied on my reading conferences with individual and small groups of students to make goals for children to keep them moving forward. I feel during conferring the formative assessments that happen regularly in conversation and over the shoulder are key to diagnosing readers. I loved this part of teaching! I also heavily relied on frequent running records to make sure students were reading appropriate texts. I feel running records should be a part of a teacher's daily routine. As an administrator I am trying to encourage all teachers to see the value in the quick running records and conferring. Many times as teachers we get overwhelmed with testing expectations and data collection points and we forget to see the value in the information we gain through our assessing. It is a difficult balance, especially since reading instruction in only one of the many aspects of a teacher's day, but a good organization system to monitoring kids can make it all more managable. Mike mentioned above that he struggles with organization but I think that is true of every teacher until they find the perfect fit for their personality...it is important for us to keep trying different organization systems until we feel successful. I always believe in keeping the system simple and whatever finally works will be obvious because it seems like you finally have a handle on each reader. I struggle with organizing my time and conferring with teachers now that I am an administrator but I keep trying new tactics and I know when something works because I feel like I have a handle on where my teachers are as classroom leaders. Adding ways to assess classroom effectiveness to my "administrator toolbox" is something I constantly work on just like I constantly worked on my "teacher toolbox" when I had a classroom. A person can never have too many tools for looking at their learners. Carol Dawson

I use the Dibels, running records and timed weekly reads as a form of assessment. From reading this chapter I realize that I need to do more informal assessments and like Mike need to improve in the area of keeping track of all of the data in an organized way. I do assess them in small groups but don't have a way to keep track of the information I am finding out. I like the idea of a reading log like on pages 24 & 25, for seeing what types of books they choose, length of time they are reading at home and at school. I am overwhelmed by the time it llooks like it would take to organize this and evaluate them to get all of the information that Lucy says you can assess. My personal goal for this year is to try to use parts of this in my classroom. Ronda

In our district we use DRA, DIBELS, Harcourt Beginning, Middle, and End-of-year assessments along with end of story tests. We also use checklists for a variety of skill. Our RtI coordinator puts them into pivot tables and we get out classroom results within a couple of days of testing. The quick turn around is very helpful for forming groups and altering groups as needed. I need to do a better job at assessing engagement and attitude about reading and then keeping written (not mental) notes. I always feel that I know my students well but I get most of my information through observation. I like the idea of an engagement inventory as shown on page 22 where the author uses a code system and checklist to make intervention groups. --Jodee Tuttle

As a district, we test all students 3 times a year with 3 diagnostic assessments to measure growth as well as identify students to receive interventions. We use Aimsweb (similar to DIBELS) to assess fluency in 1-5 and early literacy skills in kindergarten and first, the spelling inventory from Words Their Way to assess phonics and spelling skills, and SRI to assess comprehension in grades 2-5. I feel as though these three assessments give us a good picture of the reader as a whole. We might find that a reader may be considered at risk in fluency, but has excellent comprehension. It helps us focus on a reader's strengths and challenges to guide our teaching. Although this summative data seems to give the whole picture, it still doesn't dig deep enough. We need to talk with the teacher and look at a student's formative data before he or she receives interventions. As an interventionist, I am required to use Aimsweb progress monitoring to monitor fluency (actually just automaticity, word recognition, and speed), but I don't find that recording the words per minute give me a clear picture of the other strengths that a reader might have, or what I need to teach the reader. My observations and notes of how they handle all of the skills of fluency give me a better picture. I give formal running records from F and P LLI as a diagnostic assessmen about 3 times a year. I also give a reading interest inventory to help me assess their attitudes about reading as well as learn what they like to read so I can choose high interest books for intervention sessions. What I find most helpful are the informal running records, observations, and conferring notes that I record daily. I find that my anecdotal notes become my plans to support the reder in his or her next session. I agree with Carol that teachers would find that they can really get to know their readers' strengths and needs through daily running records. These daily conferring notes and running records help me view the student's reading process and plan his or her next steps. ~ Stephanie Benedict

Analyzing whether our assessment is balanced—here is a helpful and a question I’m excited to ponder. First, diagnostic helps gain a base line of students level. The level is informal done with a spelling inventory. Formal done with DIBELS or Fountas & Pinnell. Second, formative assessments are standardize or on the go assessments. The standard assessments for the grade level I was at 2nd—at the beginning of the year I might get to see the 3rd grade MEAP—and have a very little time is disaggregate it. The IOWA had lots of good info but late in May is too late for that year and way to early is some sense for placing for next year—unless revisited. Thirdly the summative assessments are giving at the end of each unit. I found these to be the most helpful. These test where on things taught and learned this school year. I could analysis both their learning and my teaching. KDN

===//2. Did this chapter broaden your view of reading assessments at all? If so, how specifically? For me, I started to think about readers in new ways. I have an analogy in my head of readers as super heros, all with special powers. Assessment in its various forms, shines a light on the special powers each reader already has, in order to use those powers to strengthen the other, less developed areas of reading proficiencies that all readers also have. This analogy that I held in my mind while re-reading this chapter helped me see the views of reading assessments offered as opportunities to hold a light up to all the things a reader does well, in order to more specifically use those strengths to plan next steps for that reader.//=== //﻿// ===The analogy of readers as super heros really clicked with me. I use different assessments as a way to understand each student abilities. So many times I didn't agree with the results of an assessment because I knew what the student could do. For example, a student was labeled "at risk" in oral reading fluency because they were working against a timer. I need to know every aspect of a child's reading self. This information helps me focus my instruction on what a student needs support in (reading powers that need strengthening). I reread chapter two keeping the super hero analogy in my head and I have to agree with Jen. We need to point out and celebrate those skills a reader does well and use their powers to support weaker areas. Deb McLeod===

===//The multiple detailed supports Jen provides such as the “Opportunities to assess __” boxes or “The Take-Away: Implications for Grouping” sections I found to be those beams of light that empowered me to identify each reader’s strengths and next steps.//===

//So, again, how about you? How have you been stretched to view reading assessment in new ways through this chapter?//
Respond here:

This chapter made me reevaluate my mode of assessment. I know my heart was in the right plays, now I need to develop a tool box that is more diverse. I am not doing all that is necessary to bring the "invisible" into the visible. I thought I knew my children well, now I'm doubting it. I need to use more concrete methods of assessing. I will be working with my team to spread the word.

Margaret Fox

I really liked the focus on perpetually checking in on how the reader's were growning with their comprehension strategies. I loved the diagram on page 52 where Brian was logging different books and how parts of them showed his current understanding of the comprehension strategies. As a teacher, I spent time focusing on an individual strategy each month...we would continue to use the previous month's strategy but I never really did a great job of making sure my students were continuing to grow in each strategy. I would confer and reteach and point out what other students were doing successfully but this idea of regular monitoring through the child's own reflection would have been very helpful to me. I like how the author talked about times when a student may really have a handle on a specific strategy while reading a specific genre but then how that strategy isn't as strong when they are reading a more difficult genre for them as a reader...so true even for adult readers! The constant monitoring of readers is so important to keep them moving forward both in their thinking strategies and in their reading growth. Carol Dawson Chapter 2 from Bobbi Friend #2 –On page 19 Jennifer states, “It is through multiple assessment measures – formal and informal; quantitative and qualitative; diagnostic, formative, and summative – that we can begin to understand the complexity of a reader’s process and offer appropriate instruction to meet the reader’s needs.” Assessment is what we do to be sure that we are teaching well. Currently I assess fluency, print work, and comprehension on a regular basis. I need to a tool for assessing conversation and engagement. In addition to my assessments, I use reading logs and reader’s notebooks for formative assessment. I can use the book logs to document engagement if I look at how many pages students are reading on a regular basis. I know that I have work to do in the area of assessment, but I feel like I have enough in place to launch reader’s workshop in my classroom as long as I continue to develop additional assessments.

I was overwhelmed when reading this chapter. The vast number of assessments and how they could help me to be a more responsive teacher made me realize that I only do a fraction of what is out there and don't utilize as much informaton as I should and could be getting. I feel I assess fluency, print work and comprehension pretty well but don't even touch the assessment of engagement or conversational skills. I am not sure how to manage my time to get some of these assessments done and parts of them look to me as they would work better for the older students. When I read about how Mary Chiarells went into Lucy's classroom and realized that although her kids were quiet they weren't engaged in reading. I know that would be the same case in my room. I really need to use the engagement inventory to help me develop plans to help these children because their "reading is something that only gets better with practice." Ronda

This chapter did broaden my view of reading assessments. It made me realize that every interaction or observation of a student can give us insight into their reading ability. It also made me think about all of the aspects of a reader that we do need to assess to really provide the most effective individualized instruction. We can view the child's reading process through all sorts of lenses. Listening to them read, have conversations about books, answer questions during whole-group mini-lessons, talk during partner work or book clubs, and shared reading can give us information about a reader. Looking at their sticky notes, book logs, or reading response books can help us understand their comprehension of texts as well as monitor their volume of reading. A running record can help us understand which cuing systems the reader has control of as well as how they are comprehending text. I, too, was overwhelmed about how a teacher needs to be tuned in to every opportunity a chlid offers to view their reading abilities. However, what valuable information we can gather from close observations. ~Stephanie Benedict

//3. In addition to the questions and thoughts above, here is a place to post our other ideas and burning questions about chapter two, if any...//
//I really struggled with this chapter. It seemed to go on forever, and I felt like I was never going to finish. So much information, so many excerpts and examples, but it just didn't want to sink in. I am looking forward to the rest of the book. I'm sure this chapter will be one that I revisit often, to grab pieces and parts from but WOW!// //Mike// //Mike, I totally agree. This chapter did seem to go on forever and I felt like it was so broad that when I finished the chapter I instantly went back to reread it to get more clarity. I guess that was a good AHA! moment for me as I was doing that I wondered how many readers actually go back and reread a chapter. I know in my classroom the student mindset is once they've read it they are on to the next thing. Although this topic does not fit in this chapter it stretched my thinking to, "How will I get my kids to reread and realize that it is a good thing to do?" --Jodee Tuttle//

Yes the chapter was expansive. As a former Title I teacher I enjoyed the large list of test and specific descriptions. There was a lot of testing done by my self to locate hole and then develop strategies to fill them. As a member of the School Improvement team look at assessments to find the few that found give the triangulation and the bet information to move toward improvement. So I liked this section as a reference to all the various assessments one could ponder.KDN //﻿//