Assessment that Informs Instruction Frances Mary D Andrea February, 2015

Transcription

1 Assessment that Informs Instruction Frances Mary D Andrea literacy2@mindspring.com February, 2015 Why do literacy assessment?! Political realities of the times! To understand student development! Determine effectiveness of program! Helps develop IEP goals! Keeps track of student progress! Guides instruction! Motivate students Helps answer these questions:! Where is the student functioning?! What is the next step in instruction! What instructional methods work best for this student at this time?! Assessment is a process, not a product! Importance of progress monitoring! Use of anecdotal records to monitor growth and document needs! Use of commercial assessments as well as informal, teacher-made! Helps team pinpoint specific needs so as to best plan for instruction Principles of Assessment, (Reutzel & Cooter, 1992)! Assessment procedures should help teachers D'Andrea, Feb

2 discover what children can do, not what they cannot do.! Help identify zones of proximal development.! Every assessment procedure should have a specific purpose.! Should provide insights into the process of reading, not only the product.! Assessment should inform teaching.! Assessment strategies should not supplant instruction.! The holistic context of instruction should be considered and assessed.! The only truly valid and competent assessment is individual assessment. Always ask yourself:! What reading/writing processes are we assessing?! What is important to pay attention to when assessing this child s reading and writing and why? Consider...! What might be a vision problem and what might be a reading problem?! Work closely with classroom teacher, reading specialist, others on the team. Struggling/Striving readers! First consider the following:! consistency of braille instruction! method of reading instruction D'Andrea, Feb

3 ! classroom environment! careful diagnostic assessment Mechanics and Ergonomics! Look at ergonomics--is student comfortable?! table/desk height! appropriate support! working distance! Tracking practice and efficient use of both hands smooth, even hand movements minimal backtracking, lack of scrubbing Types of literacy assessment: formal and informal! standardized! interest inventories! criterion referenced! journals! diagnostic reading! samples! retelling! portfolios! cloze procedure! informal reading! observation inventories! interviews! miscue analysis Standardized tests! administered under controlled conditions! specified procedures to follow! also referred to as achievement tests! can be norm referenced tests! provide tables of norms, stanines, percentages! generally not normed on VI kids! a chance for students with disabilities to be compared to peers progress D'Andrea, Feb

4 Concerns about standardized tests! incomplete picture of individual children! not authentic and may not give true picture of abilities! teaching to the test and narrowing of the curriculum! does not provide suggestions for instruction! have been used inappropriately for tracking! for students learning a second medium, making sure they have sufficient skills for reading the test (an accurate measure of learning) Criterion referenced tests! performance compared to objectives or standards! compares student s progress to him or herself, not to others progress! small scale or large scale! may be delivered in standardized conditions Diagnostic reading tests! contains subtests that break down skills! sometimes called screening test, but a true diagnostic test is much more detailed & usually done after a screening! Some blurring of the lines between different types of tests:! Brigance, DIBELS, TPRI... screening, inventory, CRT! Know the purpose of the test & why administered D'Andrea, Feb

5 Phonemic Awareness! Focuses on the sounds of spoken language! Awareness of individual sounds: phonemes! May learn best as onsets-rimes (word families)! Only a few minutes per day! Alone, but also powerful when paired with phonics activities! Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation Today we're going to play a word game. I'm going to say a word and I want you to break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in order. For example, if I say old, you should say /o/-/l/-d/. 22 items with 2, 3, and 4 phonemes. Includes C-V-C words, consonant blends, digraphs such as /th/ Phonics! A strategy for identifying words! Matching sounds to letters: decoding! Immediate identification so can focus on comprehension! tied to automaticity & fluent reading; automatic processing allows for better comprehension & use of background knowledge! contractions often support phonics instruction Assessing Phonics! Pseudoword test: purpose is to see if students can D'Andrea, Feb

6 apply phonics skills! bam, dup, shap, dreb, mabe, snirt! Names Test (Cunningham, 1990) and Early Names Test (Mather, Sammons, & Schwartz, 2006)! Jay Conway, Gus Quincy, Homer Preston! Rob Hap, Brad Tash, Kate Tide Fluency! Automatic processing & identification: Automaticity! Fluency: accuracy, speed, prosody! Fluency combines accuracy, automaticity, and oral reading prosody, which, taken together, facilitate the reader s construction of meaning. It is demonstrated during oral reading through ease of word recognition, appropriate pacing, phrasing, and intonation. It is a factor in both oral and silent reading that can limit or support comprehension. o Kuhn, Schwannenflugel, & Meisinger, 2010 How to measure fluency?! Oral reading fluency! silent reading fluency with comprehension! rubrics for reading behaviors! beyond wpm, measuring:! expression! emphasis! phrasing! noting punctuation D'Andrea, Feb

7 Holistic Oral Reading Fluency Scale National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1995! Level 1: Reads primarily word-by-word. Occasional two-word or three-word phrases may occur but these are infrequent and/or they do not preserve meaningful syntax! Level 2: Reads primarily in two-word phrases with some three- or four-word groupings. Some wordby-word reading may be present. Word groupings may seem awkward and unrelated to larger context of sentence or passage.! Level 3: Reads primarily in three- or four-word phrase groups. Some small groupings may be present. However, the majority of the phrasing seems appropriate and preserves the syntax of the author. Little or no expressive interpretation is present.! Level 4: Reads primarily in larger, meaningful phrase groups. Although some regressions, repetitions, and deviations from text may be present, these do not appear to detract from the overall structure of the story. Preservation of the author s syntax is consistent. Some or most of the story is read with expressive interpretation.! Rubric for Oral Reading, Johns & Berglund, 2010 Vocabulary! Has substantial influence on text comprehension! Relation to background knowledge & experience D'Andrea, Feb

8 ! Reciprocal relationship between vocabulary and comprehension! How do we know words? o A continuum:! no knowledge! general sense of connotation! narrow & context bound knowledge! knowledge of word but not readily available to use in context! rich knowledge of word including metaphorical uses (Beck, McKeown, & Omanson, 1987) Vocabulary! Careful selection of words to teach! ecological inventory! environmental print and braille! Introduce new vocabulary with reading! Multiple exposures over time! Use student interest for motivation! Teach metaphors and similes! Use multiple measures to assess! in context vs. standing alone! self-assessment vs. formal test Comprehension! The reason why we read: to understand! Reading amount predicts comprehension.! Requires word recognition! The importance of background knowledge! Requires frequent monitoring D'Andrea, Feb

9 Informal reading inventories! graded word lists, graded passages with comprehension questions, ORF! usually combined with miscue analysis! can be commercially made or teacher made! find independent, instructional, and frustration levels Functioning Levels (Approximate)! Independent Level: Word knowledge 95-99% Comprehension 90% or above! Instructional Level: Word knowledge 90-95% Comprehension 75-90%! Frustration Level: Word knowledge below 90% Comprehension 75% or below Information to gather from IRIs! Insight into processes and strategies children use as they read! Examine word attack skills! Word recognition skills! Reading rate and accuracy! Comprehension: details, inferences! Metacognition and monitoring D'Andrea, Feb

10 Commercial IRIs! Analytical Reading Inventory (Woods & Moe, 2007)! Bader Reading and Language Inventory (Bader, 2005)! Basic Reading Inventory, 10th edition (Johns, 2008)! Classroom Reading Inventory (Silvaroli & Wheelock, 2004)! Comprehensive Reading Inventory (Cooter, Flynt, & Cooter, 2007)! Informal Reading Inventory-BR (Burns & Roe, 2007)! Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006)! Critical Reading Inventory (Applegate, Quinn, Applegate, 2008) General steps for IRI! Select word lists & passages (or use commercial IRI)! Prepare passage for you and student! Record and time student reading; determine ORF! Mark miscues! try to mark while child is reading; but this is why we record! Look for syntactic & semantic acceptability of miscues! Ask child to retell; ask comprehension questions D'Andrea, Feb

11 Word lists! Word attack skills! Automatic recognition of words! Patterns of errors Passages! word list you end on determines first passage student reads! time and record oral reading of passages in wpm or wcpm! can also use passages to assess silent reading and listening comprehension Oral reading fluency (ORF)! Formula given on most commercial IRIs! Can time student reading passage of set number of words! Can do 1 minute timings, 5 minute timings, 10 minute timings; can do orally or silently! Count words correctly read for wcpm! Divide number of words read by number of seconds needed to read, and multiply by 60 to get wcpm! We do not have norms for visually impaired readers Retelling & Comprehension! After student reads passage, check comprehension! Questions and/or retelling! Questions often identified by type! Retelling elements can be scored in a rubric! Elements usually included are: D'Andrea, Feb

12 ! story setting! characters! goal or initiating event! problem or episodes! solution! resolution or ending Miscue analysis! Why miscue rather than mistake?! What miscues to look for:! Substitutions Omissions! Transpositions Repetitions! Corrections Missed lines of text! Hesitations Missed punctuation o Some inventories do not count hesitations, omissions of lines of text, or missed punctuation; I make note of them for our students. Coding miscues! Purpose of coding is to reconstruct how the student read the text! Gives a convenient and consistent way of marking what the student did! With a consistent system, you can then analyze the student s reading and look for patterns Miscue analysis! Does the miscue change meaning?! If not, it s semantically acceptable within the context of the sentence D'Andrea, Feb

13 ! Does the miscue sound like language?! If so, it s syntactically acceptable within the context of the sentence! Does the miscue and the text look and sound alike?! If so, they have high graphic-phonemic similarity Look for Acceptability of Miscues! Miscues are not considered significant If the meaning does not change If they are self-corrected If they are part of the child s dialect If the child figures it out later in the passage! Miscues are considered significant : If the meaning of the sentence changes If a nonword is used If a partial word is used Passages: oral reading patterns! Few miscues, but low comprehension! Many miscues but good comprehension! Good comprehension in story details but difficulty making inferences and predictions.! Student reads with little prosody but acceptable comprehension! Student needs assistance with both word recognition and comprehension Observations! Critically important, and often overlooked! Keeping anecdotal records about students reading D'Andrea, Feb

14 performance as well as assessment data! Ideas: ORF for daily reading, note strategies student used, comprehension & retelling, comments student made including likes & dislikes! Helps in developing quarterly reports & IEPs Periodic work samples! Collect and organize work samples quarterly! Choose a variety of samples to reflect the variety of learning! Share with parents and classroom teacher! Share with next year s teacher Portfolios! Samples are chosen by student! Allows student to reflect and self-monitor progress! Great to share with family and other teachers; child can present him/herself Assessment Tips:! Involve others in the assessment process! Follow student over time & get multiple measures! Develop an understanding of reading/writing process! Keep accurate and detailed notes & records! Note ORF, vocabulary, decoding info, hand movements, etc.! Encourage student to self-evaluate! If a dual media student, note particularly the reading speed in both media and look for patterns. D'Andrea, Feb