Module 2: Opitz Chapter 5 & 6 and Assessment Article Reflection

           Module 2 focused on informal assessment and standardized tests. A part that stood out to me in Opitz (2011) chapter five was “There are some limitations associated with performance assessments.” I believe performance assessments are a great way to see what students truly know and understand but like chapter five discussed they take a lot of time and resources. I recently ran into this problem in my own classroom with a math performance task with counting large numbers. I felt like the task would be hard to manage whole group, so I decided to conduct it in small groups, but it is taking an excessive amount of time to complete. The second part of chapter five that I connected with was on p.79 when the authors discussed understanding students’ attitudes and interest as a way to motivate students to read. Once again interviews and surveys were mentioned. The text provided some great examples of interviews and surveys. I think these resources will be helpful to me in the future, and I am eager to use them in my classroom. The assessment methods mentioned in chapter five were informative and useful.
           Chapter six in the Opitz text explained many terms associated with standardized tests and scores. Once I read the explanation of norm-referenced tests on page 92-93 I felt that this was the type of test I would find beneficial. I connected with this test because it compares students to others in the same class, school system, city, state, and nation. Then, the authors pointed out that just because a child is considered above average in a certain class doesn’t mean that same child will still be above average when compared to others outside his/her own class. However, the authors also listed some limitations of norm-referenced tests.
           The article, Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instruction, suggested that educators make the most of their potential by assessing more than a single skill, using formative assessments, and designing multimodal assessments. By focusing on higher order thinking, deep comprehension, and open-ended questions teachers will be able to assess how students solve problems and apply strategies while reading. I was interested to read on p. 421of this article that, “[E]xpectations for teachers to rely on interim or benchmark assessments for forming instructional decisions are based on faulty assumptions.” This struck me because my county takes a District Benchmark Assessment three times a year and those scores help determine things such as placement in the Early Intervention Program (EIP), and we are expected to drive our instruction from these test results. However, this article made it sound like that isn’t the best approach.

                                                   References

Risko, V. J., & Walker-Dalhouse. (2010). Making the most of assessments to inform   

                                                                               

          instruction. The reading teacher, 63(5), 420-422. DOI:10.1598/RT.63.5.7 

Opitz, M., Rubin, D., & Erekson, J. (2011). Reading diagnosis and improvement:

          Assessment and instruction. (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Module 2 – PowerPoint Reflections

           I agree with Vygotsky’s views on the Emergent Literacy PowerPoint. I too think learning takes place in a social context and language comes from the need to communicate.  Also, the cultural, social, and family aspects of a child’s life support their learning to read, speak, and write. This is why parent and teacher interaction and support are necessary to best help students, because students are constantly learning even when they aren’t in school. I also found the breakdown of emergent readers and early reading helpful since I work in first grade where the students fall into the five to seven years old range. While teaching children in this age range I get to see a great deal of growth, in most cases, with each child’s reading and writing abilities.     

            I am most familiar with using rubrics as a way to assess writing, and like the Assessment PowerPoint discussed I’ve had students participate in the construction of a rubric to help them have a better understanding of what I expect in their writing. I also like to keep writing samples or journals throughout the year so that I can gauge the student’s progress.  The students also really enjoy looking back at their previous writing and seeing how far they have come as a writer. I agree that observing students during their reading, writing and speaking are great ways to assess many different areas of learning. Checklists are a great tool to use to keep track of the observations.     

Module 2 – Reading Inventory Demo Video Reflection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHAZyRKKbic

            The teacher questions at the beginning of the video reminded me of The “Garfield” Reading Attitude Survey.  I think it is important to get the student’s opinion about reading before beginning to tutor, and then ask the student the same type of questions after they have been tutored for a length of time and compare the results. Hopefully, the student’s attitude and opinion toward reading will improve as the tutoring process continues. It is my hope to help a student academically who struggles with reading as well as improve their confidence and desire to learn.  The teacher/student conversation helps set the stage and comfort level for the tutoring session. Knowing your students and modifying your lessons to fit their interest seems to be an effective way to teach students who are struggling in the classroom, and a survey/conversation is a good way to learn more about your students.  Then, using the word list will help pinpoint the reader’s ability level.  Using both of these tools at the beginning of the tutoring process will help set the stage for success.      

Module 1: Response to Opitz, p.14 - Activity 4

           I chose to read with a first grade student who is new to my school this year, because I don’t have the same information from her previous teacher like I do for my other students.  The book we were reading had a child’s name on every page.  Every time she got to a name she would stop and stare at it.  I pointed out to her that every sentence had someone’s name in it and while it was good to learn how to say a variety of names it really wasn’t important that we say every name perfect in order to understand the sentence.  While reading with me, I could tell she was just trying to identify each word correctly, which according to Table 1.1 on p. 14 is a behavior of a less proficient reader.     

 

            Even though the book was very simple she read very slowly and stopped to sound out most of the words.  I encouraged her to look at the pictures for clues, because every sentence had something to do with the child in the picture.  I also noticed that she wasn’t confident in her reading ability because when I asked her if she wanted to take the book home to continue practicing it she said no.  I then asked her why not, and she replied, “Because I don’t know the words in that book.”  I explained to her that the only way to learn new words was to practice them, and I assured her the words would get easier the more she read them.

            During my summer endorsement class, the text pointed out the importance of read-alouds.  I truly think listening to a fluent reader while tracking the words would be beneficial for this student.  That way she sees the words and hears the words, which I believe will better prepare her to read the words independently.  This student is not a proficient reader, and will require a lot of modeling and guided reading instruction to increase her reading strategies and skills.      

Analysis of a Video: Assessing Reading Skills

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZlUXUwRYk&feature=related>
Information about this video from YouTube:

Uploaded by wetalearningmedia on May 19, 2008

“Watch & Learn: Assessing Reading Skills”

This video discussed the importance of ongoing assessments.  Through these assessments teachers are able to identify problems and work with the student to correct the issues and become better more fluent readers.  The main goal of reading is comprehension.  This video along with my previous EDRD class have stressed that goal.  Without decoding skills and fluency, comprehension becomes very difficult.  The video talked about readers who exhaust themselves on decoding gain very little meaning from the text.  As a first grade teacher it is my goal to build decoding and fluency skills early, so children can begin focusing on meaning as soon as possible.  It was also interesting that the video pointed out that a high IQ score doesn’t guarantee reading success.    

I am always looking for new ways to reach my students and improve my instruction.  I enjoy using a variety of strategies and tools with my students, and I am looking forward to learning even more throughout this semester.     

Module 1: PowerPoint Response

“Assessing & Correcting Reading & Writing Difficulties”

            As a teacher, it is my main goal to help my students be successful.  The PowerPoint slides titled “Nothing Succeeds like Success” really stood out to me.  Acknowledging success and praising students helps to build their confidence and motivate them to do their best.  Another good way to encourage and motivate students is by building on what they already know and relating lessons to their lives making learning more meaningful.  Making learning fun and interesting all the time can be a challenge, but I think students appreciate and admire a teacher who tries to make learning fun.  Another part that stood out to me was “Never do for a student what they can do for themselves.”  Sometimes it can be hard to allow that “struggle time” for students to think for themselves and problem solve, but those are important skills they need to acquire.  With my first graders, I often find students glancing at assignments/papers and immediately turning to me for answers without even attempting to use any strategies to figure things out on their own or read the material on their own.  I think it is very important to guide students and model while teaching but also create independent learners as well.  While teaching reading to my first grade students I feel it is important to provide instruction with decoding words, strengthen phonics skills, build fluency, and create conversation to reinforce comprehension.