How to use this Page

Empowerment Post-Assessment

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

Two weeks ago, I shared with you some resources to use when determining a reading goal for each student, and last week I talked about how to motivate students about their reading goal and about how to schedule out regular assessment.  Today, I want to get into the nuts and bolts of the running record assessment time, and how to create a post-assessment conference that really empowers students.

The first part of my assessment time with each individual student is the assessment itself.  Once I’ve determined the student’s independent reading level (each assessment program differs in terms of what a student needs to score to be considered independent), I take out a secondary assessment kit and read with the student on their instructional level to determine each student’s “Magic Three.”  The “Magic Three” are the three reading comprehension skills and strategies I’m going to send that student off with to focus on during their independent reading time between now and the next assessment.

When reading with a student on their instructional reading level, I consider the following:

“The word reading has two senses, often confusingly lumped together.  The first means the process of turning printed marks into sounds and these sounds into words.  But the second sense means the very different process of understanding those words.  Learning how to read in the first sense—decoding through phonics—does not guarantee learning how to read in the second sense—comprehending the meaning of what is read…[c]hildren who lag in comprehension in early grades tend to fall even further behind in later years.”

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. The Knowledge Deficit

Different running record assessment systems have different accuracy benchmarks, but when I do running record with a student, only a small percentage of what I’m looking for has to do with decoding.  On the whole, I’ve found students can decode at a far higher level than they can comprehend, so this usually isn’t a factor when dealing with a student’s instructional level.  What I look for is: a) do they comprehend the story on a BASIC level? and b) how much of the story were they able to EXTEND to comprehend on a deeper level?  Most students, when they’re reading at their instructional level, may have a few minor problems with the basic comprehension, but really tend to st

Here is a re-post of my blog from last year on standardized testing.  It begins next week at Sts. Peter & Paul School.  The Department of  Catholic Schools uses the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (IOWAs),  a norm referenced battery of  standardized tests, every fall in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.  According to IOWA test  publishers Riverside Publishers, fall testing is more desirable than spring testing.

Two important uses of test scores are to check year-to-year progress and to determine areas of relative strength and weakness. To accomplish these purposes most effectively, test results must be available early enough in the school year so that teachers and administrators have a chance to incorporate this diagnostic information into their instructional decisions.

Diagnostic information . . . and remediation strategies can  be developed based on the information from fall testing. Used properly, these results offer a predictable glimpse of which students are most at risk of not meeting academic performance goals. . . (and) allows districts to effectively use test results in a collaborative way.

Longitudinal patterns can be used to focus professional development strategies or determine instructional areas that need additional resources.