A Final Thought

Prior to the beginning of class, I was nervous about administering assessments. I had only informal experience with these tests. In September, I received my student’s scores from the end of second grade. My school uses the Stanford Reading Evaluation as an assessment tool. If I had not had the last, I might not have looked twice at the assessments. I was never fully explained what to make of these results and a bit overwhelmed. But this class has truly taught me a lot. I had once viewed literacy assessments as something that was given a few times a year and never utilized by the teachers. But, I quickly changed my attitude as I grew as an assessor.

My favorite assessment was the writing assessment. It was amazing how valuable and useful, the 6-Trait Writing Assessment was. As I was going over my writing sample, I felt confident in dissecting my student’s writing. These traits can be applied directly to a rubric for evaluating writing samples. In my own classroom, my third graders have been writing a lot more and I found this assessment useful in everyday class business. For me, this is the true value of an assessment. I have been collecting samples of my student’s writing and this is a great way to keep track of their growth and needs.

As a result, I am more curious how to create better writing techniques. My students still struggle with the concept of indenting! I am eager to learn how elicit as much information from a student as possible from a student. I plan on using the 6-Trait Writing Tool as a way to explain to parents about how students need to improve their writing skills.After interpreting the results, the next step is to plan for the student’s literacy development. There are so many different types of instruction; it really can be a daunting task for a teacher to determine what will work best with the student. After determining my student’s strengths and weakness, I was successfully able to return to the readings and map out a plan of instruction.

One of the most interesting aspects of the case study was seeing how every assessment relates to one another. In order to truly understand a student’s thinking, you need a collection of assessments. I found it really interesting how if a student struggles with phonics, it can affect one’s entire literacy growth and development. My student’s were similar across the assessments as he struggled with short vowel sounds. As a product of the New York Public School system, I was not as deeply entrenched in phonics as my student’s are today. I am curious if I would have developed differently as a reader and writer if I had a stronger background in phonics.

I truly have every intent to utilize these newfound skills in my classroom. I would love to assess my student’s on all of the different tests. On the day I was administering the Z-Test, a few of my more gifted students saw the Z cards on my test. It was really interesting to see their reactions to the test. Without explaining any directions to them (except to return to their seats, of course!), they assumed they had to fix the mistakes. I was impressed with their automatic decoding skills and their ability to create new words. This got me to wonder about how often children who are on or above grade level are tested for literacy assessments. I think it just as important to ensure that these children are being looked at in the same detailed light as the struggling readers.

Finally, I have one major question on literacy assessments. How can a single classroom teacher successfully and accurately assess every one of her students? In many of the clips we viewed throughout the semester, there was a study being conducted with or without the teacher. If we can assume that all teachers are dedicated to her students, how can they find the time? I understand that these assessments are meant to be done in a rapid fashion. I feel there needs to be a better system in place in order to help the classroom teacher give out and interpret assessments. Furthermore, no child thinks or learns in the same way. After the teacher gages the results, they must form class plans to fit the needs of these diverse learners. We are constantly learned about how to modify the classroom for diverse learners whether they are IEP learners, ESL, Visual Learners, and so on, but where do we find the time to fit in a needs based curriculum. These are the tough questions that need to be answered!

Overall, this has been a positive experience. I have gained a deeper understanding into the work of a child’s mind. I find myself relating back to the different assessments as I examine my students' work. Literacy assessments are a powerful and revealing indicator to mark the process of a young and developing reader. The assessments are a valuable resource and I plan to use them as much as I can in my own career as an educator.

Learning and Growing

It seems like a lifetime since I handed out the student interview. But, I have finally finished all of my assessments. I gave the Reading Comprehension assessment yesterday and need a little more time to analyze it. If time permits, I may give my student another writing sample. His writing sample was quite different from the story he retold back to me. I just want to make sure that he understood the task that was being asked of him. I have seen other writing samples from his classroom teacher and they are remarkably different than the one that I collected. I have a strong hunch that he might have been feeling a tad bit lazy that day. It is interesting to note all of the different patterns across the different assessments. During the course of the semester, I have learned a great deal about my student. TJ has a great love of learning but he loves learning what he wants to know about. I have really learned a lot about his strengths and weaknesses as a reader. Right now, I have noticed that one of his strongest points is blending beginning and end sounds while he struggles with short vowel sounds.

I have learned a lot about myself as a teacher and an assessor. As I started going through the assessments, I realized that I need to be patient with myself. There are so many different vocabulary words and literacy concepts; I am worried about not using the proper terminology in my paper. There is not one precise way to interpret an assessment. This was an important learning experience for me. I have gathered an entire semester worth of material and feel comfortable interpreting all of the information from phonological awareness right down to the running record. I have also learned a great deal about literary assessments. They truly offer a great insight into the thinking of an individual child. It is a valuable and much more personal tool for a teacher to use. Literary assessments are a great stepping stone to planning reading and writing lessons. As I was going through my assessments, I kept thinking about what I would do to correct his errors and how I would develop an effective lesson plan to build his skills.

Overall, my experience with giving out assessments has been very positive. I feel that I have received accurate test results because my student was very cooperative. Some of my biggest challenges have been taking notes during the whole process. He works a lot faster than I could copy. I was improving over the course of the semester with taking notes without disrupting the flow of the assessment. Over the course of the semester, I learned that it was best to write down as much as possible while everything was still fresh in my mind.

Working and consulting with your colleagues is a great way to fully dissect and interpret all of your assessments. It is always refreshing to have other people realize the same trends as you. It also gives you a fresh perspective on assessments that you administered months ago. This is a great way for future teachers to learn about working together. It is important for teachers to develop a good working relationship with each other. This is a great system of support for both the teachers and the students!