Assessment is best used to guide student learning and classroom instruction. For the Literacy Assessment Profile, you will focus on one student in your placement classroom and assess their literacy learning in the areas of reading and writing. During the first week of your placement, please take time to talk with your supervising teacher to ensure s/he is aware of your obligations for this course. (I will send supervising teachers a letter outlining my expectations for you in this experience.) Ask the teacher to identify a student who is a developing reader or writer. Work with the teacher to block periods of time to work with your student one on one during your placement to administer your assessments; assessments should not occupy more time than thirty minutes per individual assessment.
The Literacy Assessment Profile will consist of six pieces: 3 running records and MSV analysis of one of the running records, a retelling, a reading interview, a collection of anecdotal records, a collection of artifacts from the classroom, and the development of two lesson plans that grow out of the assessments you have given, addressing directions the student needs to move toward in terms of their literacy learning.
A little detail about the components of the Literacy Assessment Profile:
Running Records (3) & MSV Analysis :: Running records, in a nutshell, are student readings using leveled texts to ascertain their reading ability. Students read orally while the teacher follows long, making notes of miscues for later MSV analysis. It may sound Greek now, but we will begin unpacking what running records are on October 21.
Retelling :: Following the guidelines we will read about in Wilde (chapter 7, September 30), would will engage the student you are working with in a retelling of a story, using the guidelines to draw conclusion about that student's ability to comprehend text.
Reading Interview :: There are many ways to engage children in interviews about their reading practices. We will read about several in the Kidwatching text and I will have several other "canned" (pre-made) interview structures so you may understand more about your student as a reader through deliberate and thoughtful questioning.
Anecdotal Records :: Kidwatching in the purest sense. Several times throughout your placement, you will need to observe and take notes as your student engages in literacy activities. Kidwatching has many effective strategies for collecting anecdotal records, as well as ways to interpret them to more fully understand what a child and their knowledge.
Artifacts :: During your time in the classroom, you will need to collect artifacts of your student's learning. Much like archeologists collect artifacts to piece together the everyday lives of ancient peoples (and sometimes not-so-ancient peoples), you will collect artifacts that allow you to piece together your student's literacy understandings. These artifacts can include written assignments, photos of the literacy space, trascripts of conversations, and artwork.
Lesson Plans (2) :: Instruction should lead to assessment and naturally flow back into more instruction. Given all the information you have gathered about your student, you will need to identify two areas in which your student either needs additional support or needs to go in order to become a more sophisticated reader. You must reference your assessment findings as you identify these areas, explaining your choice of lesson plan topic. A lesson plan format will available shortly.
Parent Letter :: Parents and educators need to work together for the sake of children's learning. Establishing communication is an important aspect of the parent-educator relationship. Keeping this in mind, you are to construct a letter of introduction to your potential student's parents, outlining your background as well as your intentions with their child (for example: "I hope to work with your child to learn more about the effective teaching and assessment of reading. In order to read this goal, your child and I will read several texts together, engage in a retelling of a story, as well as an interview about their reading habits"). Ensure them the identity of their child will remain anonymous. Your letter needs to be emailed to me by the beginning of class Thursday, September 18. Please use the subject line E341 Parent Letter when you send your email. It helps me keep everything organized.
As always, comment with questions.
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5 comments:
In my Reading/Writing Methods I course last semester my instructor taught us how to do running records and take anecdotal notes about one child in our classroom. I've saved all the information she presented as well as the original documents I created based on that student. While reading this blog and reading over the things we will be practicing this semester I feel very comfortable doing those two things and I'm looking forward to learning everything else as well.
One quick question, will we be working with one student for all of those assignments? Or will we be switching students for every different assessment activity?
Thought I should write down my questions as well before I forgot them... (1) Do we need to start looking for texts to be reading with the students or will there be ones provided? (2) If we do need to provide our own reading is there requirements for that?
I think all the specifics we will be looking at with the children in our classrooms will be extremely crucial when learning to be the best teachers we can be. It will help us perfect on how to assess our student's and how they will succeed in reading. However, I had one questions while reading our assignments is when we are told to ask our teacher which student is a developing reader/writer. I wondered how each and every student in the classroom, let alone the school, wouldn't be considered a developing reader or writer? How do we know which student would be better than the other to focus on. I agree with Kourtnee that we have been learning how to take notes and gotten comfortable as each semester gets a little more challenging, so I am also excited to start this year!
I had a question similar to Julia's. What qualities are we looking for in a student to determine that they would be a good developing reader/writer to study. Would it be beneficial to study a student who was having a little more difficulty with the reading/writing process? I am really looking forward to getting into the classroom and being able to use the skills I have acquired from this class, as well as my previous cluster.
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