Conclusions--Formative Conclusions

Conclusions  (Formative Conclusions)

Self: 

I have enjoyed the experience of blogging. I first used it as a requirement of EDU. 537 and as a device to remember the course's reading content better. The more one uses information the more accessible it becomes. It helped to a lessor extent than I hoped, but it did help and learning is a process after all. 

I have discovered that I am a visual person. Ever since I took an Art Appreciation class I have striven to understand the uses of images. Artist are authentic presenters of information because in their image is their message. Or the image invites the viewer to think about what it means. (I will now take that conscience  intention  and apply it to print.) I have experimented with the use of image and print to create a deeper, more inviting, and  authentic messages in Learning Footprints and enjoyed it fully. I look forward to creating other blogs where print and image interact to communicate a message in the future. 

Blogging: 

I found I became obsessed with the process and the pairing of images to ideas. 

Where as I enjoy writing this was a new type of writing that is more self expressive than I was use to. I  enjoyed the experience immensely.
 

Reading Assessment: 

Before this class I viewed assessment as a four letter word. It was something that was done to someone with only political and face saving intentions. I now see I was reacting to my own long ago experiences. Yes, some testing is not done with the student in mind and that I will have to research in more depth, but formative assessment is just, simply put, teaching. It is discovering who your students are and what they know and don't know. The next step is using that information to inform instruction helping them experience a new way of doing and viewing whatever it is that the student needs  help with. Formative assessment is  a positive educational process that I am pleased to come have experienced again myself. 

 Miscellaneous: 

Cartoons I wish I could have used, but had no relationship to my content.

 

   

 

OK, I could go on but I think this is enough.

In General I view the blog as a positive experience that could be used with students as an After Reading Activity. 
Links to presentations
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iZ5pBJ-idCMAg1MxrnYcEg1ZqMqdlvZcT9wI04fS_Ho/present#slide=id.phttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LU3tJRu7VDNXZlC2dgicWF96mqVlQpabWidk5ExYq2A
/present#slide=id.g625e7e9_2_54
Podcast The Importance of Writing & Dr. M. Graham
http://www.readingrockets.org/podcasts/writing/

TESTING 

Hello. Testing, Testing, Testing. One, Two, Three. Testing, testing, testing

This is just a test. This is only a Test.  Are assessments the straight jacket of objectivity or a way to inform instruction ?

According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: The Unabridged Edition (1967) test is defined as: 
The means by which  (1) the means by which the presence, quality, or genuineness of anything is determined. (3) a particular process or method for trying or assessing. (4) Edcu. a form of examination for evaluating the performance and capabilities of a student or class. (5) Psychol.  a. a set of standardized questions problems or tasks designed to elicit responses for use in measuring the traits, capacities, or achievements of an individual. b. a measurement technique based on such standardized criteria as specified. (13) to conduct a test.
  

According to Thesaurus.com  some of the synonyms of test are: 

Test—Analysis, approval, assessment, attempt, catechism, check, confirmation, corroboration, criterion, dry run, elimination, evaluation, exam, experiment , final, inquest, inquiry, inspection investigation, pop quiz, questionnaire, standard, touchstone, trial and error, verification, yardstick. 


According to The Random Hose Dictionary of English Language: The Unabridged Edition (1967) Assess is defined as: (3) to estimate or judge the value, character, etc., of: evaluate.  Assessment is next defined as: the act of assessing, appraisal; evaluation.According to Thesaurus.com some synonyms for assessment are: Appraisal, computation, determination, estimate, estimation, judgment, rating, reckoning, valuation, value judgment. 


Nowadays everything is tested and assessed; the students, the teachers, the curriculum, and the school. There is nothing wrong with schools, curriculum, teachers being the best that they can be and reflecting on how to make that happen for the betterment of students, but objectiveness can pinch and prevent growth and data can confuse and strangle. Testing and Assessment themselves should be evaluated. Education need to find a balance.   Gathering Data is all well and good, but data should be both formative and summative and more teacher and student centered. Data should be manageable and goal oriented  with student growth as the outcome.
 
  As Reading Teachers or Specialists we will  be administering and or evaluating many tests and assessments.  
We will assess attitudes and interests of students, reading levels, student progress. student reading, writing and student needs.  We also assess phonemic awareness, phonics skills, sight word recognition, fluency, comprehension

We will give standardized and criterion based tests . 

We will use our assessments and tests to gather a clear picture of our students and be able to help the development of each as readers.  

But Testing can be Tricky . It's helpful to remember that a teacher is an important, if not the most important part of testing and assessing.  Assessing happens everyday in the classroom. Teachers just need to learn to be systematic, data driven, and devoted to the academic, mental, emotional, and human growth of or students.  

The Balancing Act

At the upcoming Summer Reading Academy of 2012, we will be administering formative and summative   assessments so we may get to know who our students are, so we may help them improve their reading skills, and become better and life long readers. We will be using an ideal way of teaching (and learning)--using our knowledge and applying it to real world situations, or we will be learning through an authentic means, by teaching Literacy. The assessments that we will use with our students, then carefully analyze their results, and next use those analyses to instruct and give authentic activities, are a Student Reading Survey, the Woodcock Johnson III, The Qualitative Reading Inventory, along with our own observations and judgements.    
Assessments will be judged upon their usefulness, consequences, reliability, validity, and the responsibilities they give us as administrators/interpreters of the assessment. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LU3tJRu7VDNXZlC2dgicWF96mqVlQpabWidk5ExYq2A/edit#slide=id.g625e7e9_2_54 

Week 4: Formal Assessment

HOW DO WE USE ASSESSMENTS TO INFORM INSTRUCTION?

 

There are many ways of assessing a student's reading skill and formal assessments are part of the assessment tool box. 

Examples of formative tests are the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities; the Peabody Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition; Standford diagnostic Reading Test, Fourth Edition; Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests; and the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition to name a few. 

Standardized Tests need to be administered  according to prescribed procedures. Some are Norm referenced comparing students to a norm sample. Others are Criterion based expressing mastery of skills. As with any assessment they must be used with care, in conjunction  with results of other assessments, and with input from teachers.     

 

  Standardized Test produce data and data is a tool. It can be a bad thing if that is all education focuses on and is used improperly, but it can also be good if it shins a light on students' needs or furthers instruction. 

AFTER THOUGHT 
While standardized assessment is part of the educational climate we find ourselves in, sometimes we as educators will need to pause and reflect on what the purpose(s) of assessments are and how best to test and use the results. Below is a link to a conversation in Canada about Assessments and Alternatives to Standardized Assessments.http://alternativeassessmentineducation.edusped.com/what-is-the-alternative-to-standardized-tests/
  
 
Humans are greater than their scores and there needs to be a balanced approach taken to assessments.
 

Practices and Problems in Literacy Assessments (Note to self)

5-10-12 Practices and Problems in Literacy Assessments

 Definition of Reading: Reading is a complex developmental process in which the reader uses their own socio-cultural and schematic background along with their internal motivation to construct meaning and        apply that meaning appropriately across various contexts.    

VISUAL DEFINITION OF READING:

Within the Context is the reader and the text, while running through it all is the purpose for reading. 

 

Things to Remember: 

The Definition of Reading is important because it defines the parameters of what we assess, and if it does not include comprehension it is not valid.

            One must know what one is assessing before one assesses (or teaches).

Practices: Formative, Summative—They should be reliable, valid, conform to content standards and curriculum.

Formative helps the teacher teach because it is an ongoing assessment of what the student knows in context of what the instructor is teaching.  By using the Zone of Proximal Development teachers are applying formative assessments.

Summative assessments can measure what the student has learned and does it coincide with what is required of the student to learn. Used with care, a variety of eyes and for the benefit of the student.

(Look up encoding; chopping like Wilson; AIMS web)

Activity:

Instructions: print words and cut into strips, distribute so learners may construct their ideas of assessments.

Assessment

Reliability of Assessment

Validity of Assessments

Curriculum or Content Standards

Norm Referenced Assessments

Assessments

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

Formative Assessments

Authentic Assessments

Performance Based Assessments

Portfolio Assessments

Curriculum Based Measurement for Progress Monitoring

Criterion Referenced Assessment

Week 3 Part 2: Fluency and Assessing the Other

Week 4: Fluency  and Assessing the Other 

 

FLUENCY is one of the 5 Pillars and is defined by Jennings, Caldwell, & Lerner (2010) in Chapter 9 of Reading Problems: Assessment and Teaching Strategies  as "Reading with accuracy,  speed, and expression and doing so without conscious or overt attention on the part of the reader (pg 215)."

The three parts of Fluency are further broken down to 

 

Accuracy –Readers identify both familiar or sight words and unfamiliar words. If the word is unfamiliar they are able to use decoding processes by matching letters with sound patterns and pronounce new words almost effortlessly.

Speed—Fluent readers identify familiar and unfamiliar words instantaneously and without conscious thought. Because of this a fluent reader can devote their attention to comprehension. (But not if speed is all that matters.)

Prosody—Reading with expression by using the punctuation, identifying cues in the structure of the text and language that suggest proper pitch, stress, and juncture. Readers who read with prosody are believed to comprehend the text,  because  how else could they read with expression. Readers who read with prosody are thought to be skilled decoders with a large bank of sight words.  (The more reliable of the three as reading with prosody does not mean reading fast.)

There is an assumption that fluency equals comprehension or if one reads fluently that one knows and understands what one is reading, but fluency is also interpreted as Words Per Minute, which has little to do with comprehension. 

Fluency can be assessed by Listening to Students read Orally, determining their reading rate of Words per Minute  (WPM), students' Correct Words per Minute (CWPM), and Timed Administration Word Lists. There are programs, such as Dibles and AIMS, but they measure speed.  If the object or the end goal of reading is comprehension then too much fluency training can interfere with comprehension. 

Where the 5 Pillars are important for learning how to read and teaching how to read, fluency is a chicken and egg story. Fluency is a by product of meaning making. Caution should be used as defining fluency as being able to read an acceptable amount of words per minute as that ability does not mean the reader comprehends what he or she has read. Comprehension is not a race.   

 

 

(In an informal survey I conducted with a few students, Students felt that an advantage of reading fast was that it is helpful for taking standardized tests.) Despite this some authentic ways of assessing and teaching fluency  are:

READERS' THEATER

RADIO TALK

POD CASTS

CREATING BOOK RECORDINGS

PART 2: ASSESSING THE OTHER 

While assessing a student's ability to use the 5 pillars of reading ( and using the results of those assessments to instruct)  so is assessing a student's  non-cognitive aspects of reading. Starting with the assumption that reading is more than the sum of the 5 pillars, strategies, and skills, but  it also encompasses students' possessing  good attitudes toward reading,  positive self concepts, the ability to make accurate attributions, and act on those attributions.  Because of that more than just cognitive skills need to be assessed. How the student views literacy is important as it is not just about reading a book, but about multi-literacies and their ability to interact with the world through those literacies. Students' interests, attitudes, self concepts, reading motivations, and reader attributions need to be assessed. Without the context of these non-cognitive reading aspects readers have no purpose to read. 

There are a wide variety of surveys; attitudinal survey reading interest survey, reading attitude survey (high school and elementary) and reading motivation survey to name a few.

http://www.professorgarfield.org/parents_teachers/printables/pdfs/reading/writingsurvey.pdfReading Attitude Survey from Read Write Think
Name:________________________________________________
Date:_________________________________________________
A fiction book is____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
A nonfiction book is_________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
When I have time to relax, I usually (Circle the letter of your choice.)
a. Take a nap d. Go skateboarding
b. Read a book e. Play a video game
c. Watch TV f. Other ___________________
I read because______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
The kind of book I would buy with my own money would be_________________
__________________________________________________________________
School reading assignments and what I read in my free time are different because
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
School reading assignments would be more interesting if____________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Copyright 2003 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. ReadWriteThink materials may be reproduced for educational purposes.

 

Reading Attitude Survey

Learner’s Name  _______________________________         Date _____________

Please circle the response that best describes how you feel about the following:

1.       I enjoy my reading lessons.

                           

Always           Sometimes            Never

2. Reading is interesting.

                           

Always           Sometimes            Never

3. I like to read in front of people.

                           

Always           Sometimes            Never

4. I learn a lot when I read.

                           

Always           Sometimes            Never

5. Reading is my best subject in school.

                           

Always           Sometimes            Never

 

 

 

Assessing strategies and skill is only part of assessment. Understanding how students view and define reading is a necessary component of teaching reading. Knowing students views on reading is an assessment that will help differentiate instruction and give our students a purpose to read. Student reading surveys find students strengths and struggles. Their findings can be made into expert charts, show interests, attitudes, and motivational attributions. From these libraries, assignments, and metacognitive strategies can be used to the benefit of the reader.