Assessment Ch.

What are the principles of effective classroom reading assessments?

- Help teachers decide strategies should be adopted to improve their classroom.
- The Principles are:
1. Assessment should inform and improve teaching- does it help
make important instructional decisions. The process begins with
understanding and required state standards and what is known about
student’s available knowledge. Next teacher forms hypothesis about each
students reading development.
2. Assessment procedures should help teachers discover what
children can and cannot do- once teacher understands strengths It becomes
much easier to decide which learning experience should be taught.
3. Every assessment procedure should have a specific purpose-
selecting assessment activities is an integral part of providing high-quality
instruction. Need to have a clear purpose for the assessment.

4. Classroom assessment should be linked to accountability

standards and provide insight into the reading process- Accountability
Standards- Standards established by states and professional organizers that
provide evidence based reading skill benchmarks and should be monitored
regularly.
5. Assessment procedures should help identify zones of proximal
development-Vygotsky discussed notions of zone proximal development.
To identity a students, teacher needs to determine what children can
already do thus what new skills to learn next.
6. Assessment shouldn’t suppant instruction- mandated testing
can overwhelm teachers and take over classroom. Assessment program
should complement instructional and grow naturally from it.
7. Effective classroom assessment makes use of both valid and
reliable instruments. Reliability measures in a stable and consistent
manner one that repeats the same results with the same children. Validity
indicates degree to which test measure what developer claims they
measure.

What are the four purposes of classroom reading assessment? What is the example of
each?
1. Outcome Assessment- results of reading programs in
terms of student test scores and hard data. Example Federal
reading first or No Child Left Behind.
2. Screening Assessment- initial information about students
reading development, it should be quick and provide reliable
information. Example is kid watching
 3. Diagnostic Assessment- In-depth information about
students strengths and needs. Sometimes you need someone
specially certified to do this because of skill and time investment.
Example ask the questions about their interest ect. Teachers
need insight to students background knowledge and oral abilities
4. Progress monitoring system- essential part of a reading
teachers daily plan, it provides ongoing and timely feedback on
individual students respond to teaching also known as Response
to intervention. Example following learning stages to see how
reading develops

What commercial reading tests are available for classroom use?

Burk Reading Interview
- Insight to how students see themselves as readers and reading tasks in general.
- Burk Procedure:
1. When you’re reading and come to a word you don’t know
what do you do? What else can you do?
2. Which of your friends is a good reader and why do you
think that?
3. Do you think you teacher ever has trouble with reading a
word? If so what do you think she does when it happens?
4. If you knew one of your friends was having problems
reading, what would you do to help?
5. How would a teacher help you friend with reading
problems?
6. How do you think you learn to read?
7. Are you a good reader?
8. What would you like to be able to do better as a reader?
Flynt and Cooter Interest Inventory
Collect responses to and create a grid for your class. List names on the
side and question on the top. After class has all been surveyed compile
data and make a class profile.
Self-Rating Scales
No one knows better than the child on how well they are doing so ask
them. In older level elementary you can use student self-rating scales in
which they complete a questionnaire.
Background knowledge
Children’s background knowledge is an important contributor of
comprehension. Procedure by Langer is to assess content and amount of
background knowledge on a selected topic, theme, etc.
First: Select story for students to read.
Construct: a list of about 5-10 specific vocabulary terms or story concepts
related to the topic or event to be experienced in a story.
Ask: students to respond in writing or in discussion
Add: all students prior knowledge together and divide out by the number
 of question to see where they stand compare results to the prior
knowledge chart.
Family Surveys
Is a brief questionnaire to adult in family given periodically to maintain
connection between home and school.
Screening and Checklist
Many teachers create their own screening and checklists using reading
benchmarks.
Lamme and Hysmith- developed scale that identifies key developmental
behaviors in emergent readers.
Adaptations to the scale are:
11. Student reads fluently from books and reading materials.
10. Student seeks out new sources of information and volunteers to
share information.
9. Developed ability to independently use context clues, sentence
structure and analysis, and phonics analysis to new context.
8 student reads new text with some problems and requires little
adult help.
7 Student reads familiar stories fluently.
6 Student reads word-by-word and can recognize words in new
context.
5 Students memorize text and pretend to read
4 participates in reading by providing words that rhyme and
predictable text.
3 Students talk/describe pictures and pretends to read the story.
2 student watch’s pictures as adult reads the story.
1 Student listens to story but does not look at pictures.
Key to effective expository
Text instruction in accurate identification of the type of nonfiction text
that students are able to read effectively a well as forms and writing that ar
difficult to comprehend.
Expository Text Frames
Good in identifying different types of text patterns that may be
troublesome for students. To develop your own need to select a reading,
have a personal computer, and printer. Should have an example for every
text before doing the primary one. Before asking question list the major
vocabulary concepts. Discuss what they know and display it. Once the
text is read go through the process aloud to show them how to complete
the text frame. Finally have them read the new text you prepared for
them.
CARI Content Area Reading Inventory
Is a teacher made inventory and includes three different sections and are:
1. ability to use common textbooks and supplemental research
aids.
2. knowledge of important vocabulary and skills like context
clues
 3. Comprehension skills
IRI Informal Reading Inventory
Individually administer test often has graded word lists and story passages
It is one of the best tools for observing and analyzing reading preformance
Teachers guide to Reading Test-List several advantages and unique
features of IRI.
Example of IRI’s
-Comprehension Reading Inventory: Measure reading
development uses alphatetics, vocabulary knowledge,
comptrehension, record running, fluency,and misque analysis into
and effective reading assignment.
-Developmental Reading Assessment: an informal reading
inventory offering graded reading passages for students to read .
The English-Espanol Reading Inventory Easy to use tool offer
complete informal reading inventories for pre-kindergarten through
grade 12.
-Curriculum based measurement-measure student skill
development in the areas of reading, fluency, spelling, math, and
written language. Three areas:
1. Reading fluency measure how many words a student
correctly reads in one minute
2. spelling measure present words. Scored for words
spelled correctly.
3. student given a story starter and is given three minutes
to write a story. Work stored for total words written
words spelled correctly and correct reading sequence.
Used to screen students who may be at risk for reading difficulty
and to monitor student progress and response to instructional
interventions Screenings conducted 3 times a year.
-Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skill DIBELS-
Designed to assess 3 of the 5 big ideas Phonological awareness,
alphabetic principle, and oral reading influency.
-Texas Primary Reading Inventory-assessment tool and provides
pictures of students reading progress in kindergarten first and
second grades. Is administered individually by classroom teachers
and measure graphophenemic knowledge, phonemic awareness,
and word reading.
Students assessed across seven measures
1. book/print knowledge
2. phonemic awareness
3. listening comprehension
4. graphophenomic knowledge
5. reading accuracy
6. reading fluency
7. readubg comprehension
What is student and classroom profiling? How is profiling used to form needs-based
reading groups?
- Charting reading skills students have learned and need to acquire, both
individually and as a class
- To profile you need:
1. Student profile document- to record individual strengths and needs in
some detail. On a student profile form you need the
date the teacher observed the student, and the
degree to which the student could demonstrate the
skill. These help teachers see where students need
help and can also show parents how well their
student is doing in that subject.
2. Class profile document- helps organize the entire class’s data for the
formation of needs-based reading groups. It also
shows spots where instruction my be lacking.

What is meant by IF-THEN Thinking?

-Teachers ability to analyze a reading assessment and translate information into a
plan for instruction.
-IF you have identified a specific learning need in reading for students, THEN
which reading skills and strategies are appropriate to offer the students next in
your classroom instruction?