1. Assessing Reading Apprenticeship
How to Measure Student Growth and Performance
Zoe Fisher, Assistant Professor
Pedagogy & Assessment Librarian
University of Colorado Denver
Auraria Library
Metacognition & Mindfulness Conference
Renton Technical College
March 11, 2017

2. About Me
Reference & Instruction Librarian at Pierce College,
Completed Reading Apprenticeship training at WestEd in Oakland, Ca. in June 2013
Pedagogy & Assessment Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver, July 2016 to Present
Image courtesy of Auraria Library

3. Today’s Outcomes By the end of today’s session, you will be able to…
Use the Curriculum-Embedded Reading Assessment (CERA) to measure progress with student literacy goals
Develop a rubric for any RA routine by determining criteria and performance indicators relevant to course context
Identify Reading for Understanding as a source of supplemental materials for assessment

4. This is the right session for you if…
You’ve never used the CERA before
You have some (or no) experience with RA routines
You would like to get some supported practice with creating rubrics

5. Introductions

6. Introductions In pairs or groups of 3, introduce yourself & include:
Your role & where you work
Your experience with RA
Any assessment/grading strategies you’ve used with RA routines
Any struggles/challenges you’ve had with assessing RA
Image courtesy of Unsplash.com

7. Curriculum-Embedded Reading Assessment (CERA)

9. CERA Summary (1-2 sentences) Process Self-Assessment
What kinds of things were happening in your mind as you were reading?
What did you do to help you understand the piece?
What questions/problems do you still have?
Self-Assessment
How easy or difficult was this piece for you?
How well did you understand it?
Comprehension Questions (determined by text)

10. More about the CERA
Often used as a pre-/post-test to gauge progress over an entire course
CERA questions can be used for any reading assignment at any time to generate conversation about the student reading process

12. Practicing with the CERA
Let’s take the next minutes to read & answer the CERA questions.
I’ll let you read for a few minutes, then I’ll bring around the CERA questions.

13. Practicing with the CERA
With your partner, compare…
What kinds of things were happening in your mind as you read this?
What questions or problems do you still have with this piece?

14. Practicing with the CERA
How did it feel to answer these questions?
How could you use this with your students?

15. Student Samples

16. Student Samples from Spring 2014
April 7
May 23 (7 weeks later)

22. Assessing the CERA
Let’s take a few minutes to look at the CERA rubric.
Can you score your own work using the rubric?

24. Assessing RA Routines

25. In order to assess RA routines…
You need to know what you want students to do.
You need to clearly define what it will look like when expectations are met.

26. The basic components of a rubric
Criteria
Performance Indicators
What are your outcomes?
What should students be able to do?
Example: Write a 25-word summary of a piece.
How do you know those outcomes were done well?
What are your expectations for different levels of performance?
Example: Summary is exactly 25 words.

27. Example Rubric Template
Unsatisfactory
Developing
Satisfactory
Criteria 1
Criteria 2

28. Examples from Reading for Understanding

29. Reading for Understanding, page 165

33. Creating Our Own Rubric

34. Assessing Metacognitive Reading Logs
How would you know that a Reading Log had been done well? What are some things that you look for in your students’ work with Reading Logs?

35. How would you design a rubric for a reading log?
Working in pairs or groups of three, design your own rubric for a Reading Log.
Your rubric must have at least two criteria and three performance levels for each criteria (unsatisfactory, developing, sufficient, etc.).

36. That’s it!
Thank you!
Zoe Fisher Pedagogy & Assessment Librarian University of Colorado Denver