Topic 6 Assessing Data

In the last lesson, you had an opportunity to investigate and practise a running record or a miscue analysis with a student (Yes it's okay if you use 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 good reader, 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 just as easily administered using classroom materials (e.g., brief short stories, nonfiction 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 a running record or miscue analysis with every student in your class. You may choose to carry out periodic formal 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 a cue 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 School:

Focus for Instruction: Class Profile

Teacher:

Grade:

Fluency

Student Names

L E V E L

Word by word

Some Phrasing

Phrased Reading

SelfCorrecting

Cues

Expression Intonation

Meaning

Visual

Date:

Structural

SelfMonitoring

Comprehension

Prediction

Literal Comp

Retell

Inferencing

Sandra Wilde (2000) suggests "that there are five potentially problematic aspects of the reading process 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, underuse of 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 we observe, 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 one student 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 look for" 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 ask for 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 underuse of 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 or expression

Case Study 2: The student: - has an Accuracy Rate of 89% - demonstrates good comprehension of text - does not self-correct - substitutions are not always meaningful

Case Study 3: The student: - has an Accuracy Rate of 95%

Case Study 4:

- demonstrates good understanding of story

The student:

- does not focus on visual clues when making substitutions and selfcorrections

- comprehension is adequate

- has an Accuracy Rate of 96% - retelling lacks detail, coherency, and sequence