Thematic Course on Supporting Students with SEN

Literacy Assessment Dr. J. Robertson

Hong Kong, July 24, 2014

What we know about Assessment and Learning

Formative assessment and assessment practices have the largest impact on student achievement across different subjects, age groups, and across different countries

Wiliam (2011)

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“Assessment explicitly designed to promote learning is the single most powerful tool we have for raising achievement.”

credit Black and Wiliam (1998)

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“If we can do something with assessment information beyond using it to figure grades, we can improve learning.”

Chappuis

Literacy Assessments for

• Oral Language/Listening • Phonemic Awareness• Phonics• Vocabulary • Reading Fluency • Reading Comprehension• Writing

Diagnostic Assessment

• Activate prior knowledge• Assess current skills and understanding in 3

ways:-through written work-through performance assessment and observation-through oral assessment: questioning, conferencing, discussion, etc.

Assessment of Early Literacy Concepts

• Research provides evidence that specific early literacy concepts can predict young students' later reading achievement (DeBruinParecki, 2004). These reading concepts include letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension. An effective reading program includes assessments of all of these concepts for several purposes.

Purposes of Early Literacy Assessments

1. to identify skills that need review. Assessment provides teachers with information on what skills students have and have not mastered. It is needed to help teachers know the skill levels of their students, since students have varying experiences and knowledge.

2. to monitor student progress. A teacher can learn which students need review before covering additional content and which students are ready to move forward.

3. to guide teacher instruction. Through consistent assessment, a teacher can make informed decisions about what instruction is appropriate for each student.

Purposes of Early Literacy Assessments

4. to demonstrate the effectiveness of instruction. The information gained from assessment allows teachers to know if all students are mastering the content covered. It is important for teachers to use instructional time effectively, and this can be done when teachers are knowledgeable about what their students are ready to learn and what they already know. 5. to provide teachers with information on how instruction can be improved.

The Value of Reading Assessment

• Dr. Richard McCallum discusses reading assessment and instruction and how together they can become a powerful tool in the process of learning to read. He also explains the different types of assessment and how they affect reading instruction.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OK_F4JwFyU• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2aTqS9KtqQ• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embOSW-ab9k

Group Discussion• What is the purpose of reading

assessment? • What do we mean by the “Assessment-

Instruction Cycle?• What are the various types of reading

assessment?• What do we mean by process vs.

process?

Determine where the difficulty is…

• underdeveloped skills in oral/written language?

• letters?

• sounds?

• understanding narrative /expository text? where? in what setting?

Evaluation and Planning

is there automaticity with sight words? which ones?

what strategies are used to decode an unknown

word? can they blend … cvc, ccvc, cvcv etc

do they have difficulty using context clues?

can they activate prior knowledge before/during/ after reading?

Evaluation and Planning

can they create a visual?

can they infer/ form conclusions/ make critical judgments?

do they ask questions of themselves /author as they read?

are they word callers? (read words but no not think about the meaning)

can they identify the main idea

Evaluating and Planning

Common Assessments Phonemic Awareness• Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA)• Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA)• Kindergarten Reading Assessmenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

_VEGWaqgZRs

Letter/Sound Knowledge • Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)• Early Reading Diagnostic Assessment (ERDA)• Letter identification • High Frequency/Sight Words • Hearing and writing sounds in words (sentence dictation)• Intermediate Student Reading Assessmenthttp

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDZlUXUwRYk

Common Assessments

Decoding/Reading Fluency • Conferences and Guided Reading• Running RecordsReading Comprehension• Conferences • Observations • Oral and Written responses• Graphic Organizers

WHAT’S IMPORTANT WHEN WE ARE LISTENINGTO SOMEONE READ TO US?

CRITERIA DETAILS• look at the reader

• sit in a way that everyone can listen and see

• think about what you are hearing

• look at the reader as they read

• sit on our bottoms

• listen carefully so you can answer questions

• look at the pictures

• keep our hands and feet to ourselves• don’t get in someone’s space• sit still so others can see

• make pictures in your brain• you can ask a question

Oral Language /Listening

Inside the Black Box (1998)

• Wiliam and Black recommended practices such as – Comment-only marking (no grading)– Specific, actionable feedback rather than vague,

abstract observations– Self or peer assessment - students tend to be

franker about each other than teachers – open-ended questioning, which reveals a grasp of

concepts rather than regurgitation of facts

BBC Series: The Classroom Experiment

• Purpose: to increase student engagement • Elimination of hands-up practice in all classes• Implementation of new teaching strategies:

popsicle sticks, white boards, traffic lights, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25d9aC1GZA

Oral Language, Phonemic Awareness, Decoding/Phonics, Fluency, Comprehension

Check Your Windshield

Take a minute and reflect on your understanding of ______________________.

(A) Clear? (B) Buggy? (C) Muddy?

Do you need more time to work on or to understand ______________________?

How’s the pace?

(A) Yes! Losing me

(B) Just right (C) It’s dragging

Running Records Explained • Dr. Andy Johnson, Reading Specialist is Professor

of Literacy in the Department of Special Education at Minnesota State University. He is also the Director of the Capstone Literacy Center where he works with students with reading disabilities.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjBOnufWF8o

• Check out his website at www.OPDT-Johnson.com

Struggling readers benefit from small group or one-on-one instruction and assessment

Running Record Demonstration

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO-4OYiJiUA• How did the teacher introduce this assessment? • What kind of positive feedback did she give to the

student?• What suggestions did she give him to move his

learning forward?• Practice doing the Running Record for this

student• What support/instruction does he need next?

Practice:

• Running Record Example• Goal: Fluency

• On the Road• Before taking off, always look around to see that

the road is clear. Keep your eyes and ears open. You should not listen to your headlights while riding. You need to be able to hear the traffic. This will help you to become a safe cyclist.

Other Formative Assessments• Summaries and Reflections Students stop and reflect,

make sense of what they have heard or read, derive personal meaning from their learning experiences, and/or increase their metacognitive skills.

• Lists, Charts, and Graphic Organizers Students will organize information, make connections, and note relationships through the use of various graphic organizers.

• Visual Representations of Information Students will use both words and pictures to make connections and increase memory, facilitating retrieval of information later on. This "dual coding" helps teachers address classroom diversity, preferences in learning style, and different ways of "knowing.”

• Collaborative Activities Students have the opportunity to move and/or communicate with others as they develop and demonstrate their understanding of concepts.

Summaries and Reflections

• Students stop and reflect on their learning • Focus on personal meaning/understanding • Increase Metacognitive skills• Examples:

– Dry erase boards– Quick Write/Draw – S-O-S Summary – 3-2-1 Summary– The Important Thing

Dry Erase White Boards

Formative Assessment Immediate feedback“Entrance” or “Exit” Slips

Quick Writes

• QuickWrites involve asking a question, giving people a set amount of time for responding (usually between one to ten minutes), and either hearing or reading the responses.

• The quickwrite can be modified endlessly, depending on circumstances. – critical thinking warm-ups: use the quickwrite at the start of a class to get

students focussed on a new concept, or the material from last class, or preparatory reading material, etc.

– student-directed quickwrites: have students lead the quickwrite session, having prepared a question in advance and thought through a method for fielding the responses

– class-closers: as with the warm-ups, use the quickwrite to prompt reflection through summary, synthesis, explanation, a question

3-2-1 Summary

• A strategy for closure at the end of a lesson, lecture or after reading.

• How Does It Work?Students fill out a 3-2-1 chart with this:

• 3 FACTS• 2 QUESTIONS• 1 PERSONAL CONNECTION• http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool

/3-2-1

Lots of Examples and Graphic Organizers Online!

FactStorming in English Language Arts

• Choose 3 Themes • Sequence 5 Events • Illustrate 3 Symbols• Choose 3 Actions the main

character took

• FactStorming Graphic Organizer

Text to Text Connections

What the bird symbolize in each of these stories?

What Children Said…• "Andrew kept telling the bird, 'Fly

away home!'. That's the title." "The bird is representing Andrew and his dad, because it was stuck in the airport, but it got out. Maybe someday, they could get out too." "Andrew keeps seeing the bird hit the window and get knocked down. His family's situation is similar, because his dad keeps trying to find a better job, but in a way, keeps getting knocked down." "Someday, they want to 'fly away home' to a new apartment." "The bird's wing is broken/injured, so it limits the bird's ability to go home. Andrew's family has a 'broken wing' because they don't have enough money for rent to be able to go home."

What Grade 1 Children Said…

“The sparrows are flying. The people were happy because the birds eat less wheat. The people started killing the sparrows because they started eating more wheat and then there was no more food left for the people.”

My picture is telling us that we should care for everything because everything cares about us. The sparrow eats the worm and worm eats the wheat and human eats the wheat, which is all part of a food chain. We have to care about everything so we don’t hurt mother natures feelings.”

Other Summary Assessments

• The Important Thing• Entrance/Exit Slips• Acrostic poems • KWL• Anticipation Guide• 6 Word Memoirs• Venn Diagrams• Inside Outside Circles

COMMENTS ONLY MARKING

TASK

STUDENT

TWO things you have done well

ONE area that needs improvement

TRY this for you next step

Date: Class:

Use of feedback

CRITERIA COMMENTS by teacher self peer

______________________________________________________________________________

Activity _____________ Date _____________

Next Time

______________________________________________________________________________

+

+

2 Positives++

1 Suggestion

COMMENTS ONLY

3 highlights show where you best met criteria

1 arrow Shows where your work needs improvement

Next Step:___________________________________________

What is Our Goal as Educators?

How about:• To have all students working at or above

grade level?• Demonstrating proficiency or excellence?• Doing so independently?• But not all students respond to the same

instructional approach …

The “zone of proximal development” Lev Vygotsky

• What do students currently know and what can students currently do?

• Where do I want them to get to?• How big is the gap?• How do I ensure the gap is just right to

challenge students in a way that maximizes learning?

Differentiated Assessment Practices

Scaffolding Struggling Learners • Offer direct teaching (different approaches)• Allow student to work with a partner• Allow student to use notes, texts, resources• Provide models and exemplars • Give clear, step-by-step instructions• Provide sentence frames, sentence strips, vocabulary lists• Use graphic organizers to help organize thinking, reading, writing • Provide visuals, diagrams and pictures • Use cloze paragraphs for students with very limited language • Provide coaching and guiding questions• Allow additional time or a different (quiet) location

3-2-1 Summary for Today

• 3 Things You Have Learned about Assessment • 2 Questions You Still Have• 1 Opinion/Connection

This Afternoon

• Group work on Reading-Writing Connection presentations