Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Asssessment System Shannon Gallaway February 2015

Why Fountas and Pinnell? KWL

Why Fountas and Pinnell? The demands on our students regarding their abilities to comprehend are increasing This is internationally recognised and identified by a number of literacy experts It is also identified within the Australian Curriculum

Why Fountas and Pinnell? Strands identified within the Australian Curriculum (English) that DIRECTLY identify student’s need to comprehend at a deeper level: Text structure and organisation Expressing and developing ideas Literature and context Creating literature Texts in context

Why Fountas and Pinnell? To be able to differentiate our teaching practice to meet the needs of our students, we must ensure that we are using the best practice assessment tools FOR and OF student learning. Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment is unique as it gives ‘in depth’ information that cannot be gained from other tools.

Why Fountas and Pinnell?

The components of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark assessment system ary/browse-resources- online/english/benchmark-assessment- system/ ary/browse-resources- online/english/benchmark-assessment- system/

Why Fountas and Pinnell? Using the BAS is not ‘just’ an assessment. It gives us rich information that we can use to guide and individualize student comprehension abilities. Teaching students ‘to read’ is no longer about ‘barking at text’ and it’s no longer about using ‘one method’ to gain further information AS students learn. As professional educators we must use this information and review our teaching pedagogy, using this information to guide our teaching approaches once we have analyzed data. conferring/ conferring/

Why Fountas and Pinnell? Watching the system in action

Why Fountas and Pinnell? How do we use the information to differentiate our teaching? How do we identify the ‘next steps’? What strategies do you use in direct teaching instruction? What strategies do you use for ‘content reading’?

Why Fountas and Pinnell? Share our learning How will you implement the BAS to assess FOR and OF learning? How will you use this information to guide you AS students learn? How will you align this data with other assessment tools? Other questions (KWL review)

Expectations at Southern Cross Grammar All students under previous PM 30 equivalent MUST be tested using Fountas and Pinnell. Evidence of differentiation to meet student’s needs from assessement FOR learning using F&P (and other forms of reading assessment e.g.: Literacy Pro, CARS) MUST be included in planning documentation.

Expectations at Southern Cross Grammar Above previous PM level 3o – use based on information gathered using “Guide for Observing and Noting Reading Behaviours” form as a minimum expectation. Indicated use should also include anecdotal information from reading conferences, guided reading, reciprocal teaching and book clubs (novel studies). Please view my blog for professional learning regarding pedagogy and anecdotal recording strategies.

Expectations at Southern Cross Grammar Individualized anecdotal record keeping of student progress during instruction (AS students learn) must be kept. Ongoing changes to planning need to reflect this and keeping anecdotal records for each student is an expectation. 33% of a student’s reading assessment is now anecdotal – 3/2/1 scoring system weekly from anecdotal records.

Expectations at Southern Cross Grammar All data (including Fountas and Pinnell) to be added to assessment spreadsheets on server no later than two weeks post assessment. Specialist teachers are required to keep track of this data and to implement strategies such as reciprocal teaching to support content reading. This requires a knowledge of how students operate as readers.