1. Assessment of Student Progress in Reading and Writing
Tompkins-Chapter 3
5th edition

2. Determining READING LEVELS
INDEPENDENT- CAN READ ON OWN WITH % ACCURACY
INSTRUCTIONAL-CAN READ WITH SUPPORT WITH 90-94% ACCURACY
FRUSTRATION-TOO DIFFICULT
LISTENTING CAPACITY-POTENTIAL READING LEVEL

3. READABILITY FORMULAS
Method of estimating the difficulty of text or reading level of a text
Determined by correlating semantic and syntactic features
Leveled Books, FRYE Readability Graph, Lexile Framework

4. Leveled Books
Basal readers traditionally leveled according to grade level equivalent, but may be too broad
Fountas and Pinnell’s Text Gradient-levels books on continuum from easiest to hardest (p. 79)

5. The Lexile Framework (developed by MetaMatrix available through Scholastic)
System for leveling books (or matching books to readers)
Measures student’s reading level and the difficulty level of the text
Lexile levels range from (pl 80)
Ex. 6th grade =

6. Fry Readability Graph Readability Formula
Used to determine if a textbook or trade book is appropriate for a particular grade level
See p. 78 for instructions
Select 100 word passage
Count # of syllables in each word
Count # of sentences in the passage
Plot on graph

7. Reading Recovery
Early intervention program for struggling readers at the end of the first grade
Goal to get them on grade level by 3rd grade
Reading Recovery reading levels = 0-26

8. Informal Assessments Used to guide instruction
Not high-stakes (does not determine placement in groups or grade levels)

9. Monitoring Student Progress
Observations
Anecdotal Notes
Conferences
Rubrics
Work Samples
Portfolios
Self-Assessment
(Also See Assessment Tools p. 85)

10. Observation Interaction with students
Shadowing-following one student and systematically recording the student’s instructional experiences
“Kidwatching”-Ken Goodman
Teachers explore: 1) What evidence exists that language development is occurring?
2) What does the child’s unexpected production say about the child’s knowledge of language?
Anecdotal records- written accounts of specific incidents in the classroom (p. 82)

11. Conferences Planning Conferences Reading/Writing Workshop Conferences
Evaluation Conferences

12. Rubrics (p. 64 and p. 84)
Rubrics are used to assess a students’ composition (writing), performance on a task, or a project.
Teachers establish criteria for scoring each product.

13. Portfolios
Folders, notebooks, web-based files that hold students work.
Teacher establish guidelines
Students submit work within the guidelines
Progress Portfolios
Showcase Porfolios

14. Self-Assessments
Involving students in self-assessment requires them to look more critically at their own work and set goals for improvement

15. Diagnosing Students Strength and Weaknesses
Teachers use diagnostic reading assessments to determine a student’s strengths and areas of weakness
See page 85

16. Concepts about Print or CAP Marie Clay
Assessment of Basic understandings about print and the way it works
Book-Orientation concepts
Directionality concepts
Letter/word concepts
(See p. 113 for example of Scoring Sheet)

17. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
Monitor sound isolation, segmentation, blending, etc. through picture sorts, songs, rhyming words
DIBELS-Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (assess phonemic awareness and phonological awareness)
The Names Test-Phonics (Cunningham)

18. Running Records (Marie Clay)
To assess word identification and fluency
Students read text aloud while teachers make checkmarks noting the words read correctly and the miscues
Calculate # of words read correctly (95 %= independent, 90-94%= instructional, and fewer than 90%= frustration level
Examine miscues
Examine comprehension through retelling
(DIBELS >>>Running Records)

19. Miscue Analysis Miscues= unexpected responses
Includes substitutions, repetitions, omissions, mispronunciation
Categorize according to cueing systems:
semantic (meaning is similar)
graphophonic (looks similar)
syntactic (grammatically acceptable)

20. Informal Reading Inventory (IRI)
Commercial tests to assess reading levels (grade level equivalents)
Includes graded word lists, graded passages, and comprehension questions
Used to calculate independent, instructional, and frustrations levels

21. Retellings
Students retell a story or expository text after reading the text silently or aloud
Student retell story without assistance and then the teacher may ask open ended questions (What happened next?)
Teachers analyze retelling for comprehension

22. Oral Language Assessments
Teachers students who speak a language other than English (SOLOM)
Five Components on a Continuum
Listening,
Fluency
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Grammar

23. Cloze Procedure Used to:
Determine suitability of a textbook or trade book
and/or
Access comprehension

24. Cloze Procedure
Select a passage of approximately 250 consecutive words from the text or trade book. The text should be one that the students have not read, or tried to read, before.
Type the passage using the first sentence intact and deleting every fifth word thereafter.
Give students the passage and have them fill in the blanks. Allow them all of the time they need.

25. Scoring Cloze Tests
Score by counting as correct only the exact words that were in the original text.
Determine the percentage of correct answers.
Less than 44%- Frustration Level (level that is too difficult…thwarts or baffles student)
44%-57%- Instructional Level (level at which the student can read with teacher guidance)
57% or more- Independent level (level to be read “on his or her own”)

26. Maze Procedure Similar to cloze procedure
Students are provided with 3 choices for each deleted word (or each blank)
1) correct word
2) syntactically acceptable but semantically unacceptable
3) both semantically unacceptable and syntactically unacceptable

27. Authentic Assessment (informal)
Takes place during the teaching/learning process
Does not measure language as a set of fragmented skills
Oral and written language are integrated and whole
Contextual/situational
Assesses many types of literacy abilities in real and functional ways
Continuous process
Varied process
Should include student’s interests and beliefs
Involves self-reflection and self-evaluation

28. Standardized Tests (Formal)
Mandated tests
Schools and districts use scores for comparing student achievement with previous years
Comparing with national norms and other districts

29. Purposes To place and classify students To provide accountability
To determine who needs extra help or enrichment
To create groups
Standardized tests often fail to reflect current views of teaching reading and are of little use to teachers day-to-day instruction

30. Formal Assessment-Norm Referenced
Norm-referenced- measure a student’s relative standing in relation to comparable groups of students across the nation or locally
Authors seek reliability and validity so that schools can be confident that the tests measure what they intend to measure
Results in standard scores—grade equivalents (in years and months) and percentile ranks (position within a set of 100 scores)

31. Criterion-Referenced
Scores are interpreted in terms of specific standards
Designed to match the standards or expectations of what students should know at successive points, or benchmarks
Advantage: Students do not compete with one another, but try to master certain objectives or criterion
Disadvantage: Reading can appear to be merely a set of skills that can be taught and learned in isolation

32. Is standardized testing
YES NO
Is standardized testing
beneficial to
student learning?
Conclusion

33. Standardized Testing Pros
--wide-scale testing could bring about need reforms
--can be a tool for teaching and learning as well as designing curriculum
Cons
Biased
Teaching to the test
Students become “passive” rather than “active” learners
Not always accurate representation of what the student can do
Not authentic
One source of information