topic 6 assessing data

8/14/2019 Topic 6 Assessing Data

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/topic-6-assessing-data 1/10



In the last lesson, you had an opportunity to investigate and practisea runningrecord or a miscue analysis with a student (Yes it's okay if youuse the same

student for assignment #3). A focus on understanding what a reader is doing and

how he/she is using cueing systems of written language

opens a window to how we think about reading and how we listen to our students

read.It takes time to develop a 'miscue ear', and the process does get easier and faster

with practice.

Sandra Wilde suggests trying out three or four sessions (with taping and

retelling/summarizing, if possible) with a range of readers in your class, a goodreader, an average reader, and one or two struggling readers. For classroom

assessment purposes, she concurs with Marie Clay and many others, that using a

'seen' text or 'read once‘ text is appropriate. Some professional resources provide

specific gradiant texts created just for that particular assessment package (e.g.,

DRA, PM Benchmark) however, running records and miscue analysis can be justas easily administered using classroom materials (e.g., brief short stories, non-

fiction chapters, novel excerpts).



The Running Record and Miscue Analysis provide valuable data about a student as a

reader, but may not provide all of the information that you want about a particular

student. As well, you may not wish to (or be able to) complete arunning record or

miscue analysis with every student in your class. You may chooseto carry out periodicformal running record/miscue analysis with only the students that you are concerned

about or that are receiving special services.

You may choose to use a simpler version as you listen to and observe the other

students read aloud, and keep a simple sentence tally of whether a student reads

grammatically and semantically, making miscues and self-corrections to maintain

meaning as he/she reads. Then follow up with a brief retelling and one or two questions.

Another option may be to use part of a daily independent reading time. Teachers often

circulate among their students, kneel down beside a student as acue to begin to read

aloud, jot a few notes about miscues and meaning-making, suggest a next step, and

then move on to the next student.

Many of you may have already made a natural and comfortable shift to analyzing the

data and considering the types of instructional strategies that you might use to help the

student improve as a reader. The process used to create a profile of one student can be

used to create a class profile that can inform your programming decisions as well. The

next slide is an example of the work that we did at one school to track primary level

student progress using PM Benchmarks.



PM Benchmarks 1-3 Focus for Instruction: Class Profile

School: Teacher: Grade: Date:

Fluency Cues Comprehension

StudentNames

LEVEL

Wordbyword

SomePhrasing

PhrasedReading

ExpressionIntonation

Meaning Visual Structural Prediction LiteralComp

Retell Inferencing

Self-Correcting

Self-Monitoring



Sandra Wilde (2000) suggests "that there are five potentially problematic aspects of the readingprocess that miscue analysis (including retelling) alerts us to, and that there are very common

sense ways of working with the readers involved. These are: a developmental lag; overuse of

phonics, underuseof phonics; problems with comprehension; and self-doubt as a reader."

(Miscue Analysis Made Easy)

In Reading Part 1, you had an opportunity to investigate, learn about and try out a variety of

reading instructional strategies. In Reading Part 2, you have had opportunities to investigate,

learn about, discuss and 'try out' a variety of reading assessment techniques. This topic

investigates the connection between assessment and instruction. Building instruction on

assessment information is an empirical approach based on what weobserve, see and hear about the reader. Teachers of reading use the assessment information they have gathered from

different sources to respond to the needs of their students and guide their instructional

decisions. There isn't a simple formula for this complex decision-making process.



In this lesson, you will recall what you already know about reading assessment to analyze a case study

representing the reading assessment information gathered for onestudent and make suggestions for effective instruction to support the student's growth as a reader.

The focus in the previous topics has been on gathering information about students as readers. However,

gathering information is only part of the assessment process.

Recall the common understandings about assessment:

· the primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning

· assessment is the formative process of gathering information from a variety of sources

· effective assessment provides students with descriptive feedback to help them improve their learning



Teachers are interested in interpreting the data they have gathered to help them make relevant programming

decisions for students. Reviewing the assessment source information about a student to identify patterns and

trends about the students' learning (strengths and weaknesses) is critical.

This analysis creates a portrait of the reader and helps us to generalize about the students' strategies and skills,and areas for growth. Linking reading assessment to reading instruction guides a teacher's decisions about the

levels of support students require to become independent and

effective readers. If my assessments tell me that the student is having problems with comprehension, specifically,

difficulty understanding directly stated information and ideas (e.g., reading on the lines), then I might use one or

more of the following instructional strategies:

· model using the title or headings/subheadings of text passages to predict what information the passage may

contain, and reflect upon what I already know about the topic

· provide students with advance organizers (visual/graphic charts, outlines), helping them with the "what to lookfor" while reading

· preview the questions before students begin the reading

· teach students to identify "trigger" verbs in the questions, such as identify, list, tell, retell, locate, give, which askfor information given directly in

the text

· demonstrate how to return to the text to find the information, rather than relying only upon memory for the answer

· engage students in shared reading activities to support each other in their reading: "Read this paragraph, and

then tell your partner…."



Simplistically the analyzing and interpreting process considers two questions:

· What does the assessment information tell me about this student as a reader?

· What are the next steps I can take to support the student's reading development?

As I create a reader's profile I might identify one or more of areas of concern such as:

· a developmental lag (e.g., not reading grade/age appropriate materials)

· limited repertoire of reading strategies (e.g., overuse or underuseof phonics, forgets to visualize,

doesn't know how to chunk the text)

· comprehension gaps (e.g., recall, sequencing, monitoring understanding, making connections)

· attitudes about reading (e.g., doesn't see themselves as a reader, can read but doesn't, doesn't take

risks, reads limited range of genres)

I might also identify a student's strengths such as self-corrects, rereads when confused or previews the

text. As I search for patterns and trends in the assessment information, I begin to identify the

instructional strategies I can use individually, and in small and large groups to support the student's

growth as a reader.



Task:

1) Investigate and locate resources to assist you in making the links between assessment and instruction

(e.g., your classroom experience, teacher's guides such as Gage's Cornerstones and Scholastic's

AlphaKids that contain "If the student.../Then the teacher..." charts to help teachers identify

appropriate strategies, some of the web sites explored in previous topics that provide

instructional/programming suggestions).

2) Review and analyze at least 2 of the Case Studies presented in the following slides. Post your

suggestions and ideas based on the following prompts in the online professional dialogue.

· What else would you like to know about the student as a reader?· What other reading assessment strategies would you recommend?

· What recommendations would you make to the student's teacher?

3) Review the running record or miscue analysis that you completed in the last lesson.

· What else would you like to know about your 'student' as a reader?· What other assessment strategies would you recommend to gather data about your 'student'?

· What instructional strategies and activities do you recommend to support your 'student's' reading

development?

Share your ideas, thoughts and strategies, and provide feedback to your colleagues' analysis.



Case Study 1:

The student:

- has an Accuracy Rate of 94%

- retells the story well

- reads with little fluency orexpression

Case Study 2:

The student:


- demonstrates goodcomprehension of text

- does not self-correct- substitutions are not alwaysmeaningful

Case Study 3:

The student:


- demonstrates goodunderstanding of story

- does not focus on visualclues when making

substitutions and self-corrections

Case Study 4:

The student:


- comprehension is adequate

- retelling lacks detail,coherency, and sequence

topic 6 assessing data

Documents