Assessments

=** Essential Question: What is the role of assessment (formative and summative) in supporting children's literacy development? **=
 * In assessing what students know, we can keep track of their progress. Thus, assessments of all types play a crucial role in the classroom. Assessments support children's literacy development because by assessing our students, we can see their growth, their strengths, and areas where they may struggle. Below are some examples of assessments I gave over the course of the semester. **

 The purpose of this assessment is to see what a student knows about forming words. By saying words out loud and asking children to spell them out, the teacher can see whether or not students are linking sounds and letters properly. In doing this, we can find out what spelling stage a student may be at.  The setting for this assessment is Ms. Reilly's first grade class at Constable Elementary School in South Brunswick, NJ. The student who I assessed was Miriam, a timid student who always tries her best in class. Miriam struggles with word study, as she is pulled out during this time to get extra support. However, Miriam still knows quite a bit about words and sounds.  This assessment requires the teacher to read words out loud for students to spell out on provided paper. Before this process begins, it is important to reassure the student that the assessment will not be graded, but is just so we can find out what they know about words. This way, the student will be able to feel a little more comfortable. Normally, once a student spells five words wrong, the teacher can stop the assessment as the student's spelling stage will be known. However, Ms. Reilly always asks her students to spell twelve words with a paper she provides with twelve spaces. After the teacher is done assessing the student, the teacher begins to check the spelling of the words. The teacher marks the spelling inventory chart by circling certain sounds, such as consonant sounds, short vowel sounds, and diagraphs and blends, that the student did not include in his/her answer. The total is then added up at the bottom of the chart so that the teacher can see what spelling stage the student is currently in.  After giving Miriam the assessment and calculating the totals, I found that she is somewhere in between the early and middle letter name-alphabetic spelling stage. She did not spell any of the twelve words correctly, but did prove that she knows a great deal about sounds and letters. In the first few words, she got most of the beginning and ending sounds correctly. She made guesses for what came in between the two, but I could see the logic behind her responses. For example, she spelled "when" as "wan". The "wh" sound can be a difficult concept for first graders, and the short vowel sound "e" may sound like an "a", depending on how it is pronounced. I also found it interesting that she made some of her letters backwards, such as the letter "p". Overall, I could tell that Miriam knows a great deal about words, and just needs a little more support in knowing her sounds.  I believe that Miriam would benefit from the support she has been getting in the resource room during word study. The more directed attention is important in making sure she feels confident in connecting letters to their proper sounds. Moreover, I would want to keep track of Miriam's improvement by performing these assessments relatively frequently. This word study assessment opened my eyes to the way students may receive words and sounds and the ways in which I may help them understand word study if they are having trouble.

 The purpose of this assessment is to track the student’s progress in their writing ability over a period of time. By looking at a student’s writing over time, I will be able to tell the improvements he/she has made, as well as the students strengths and areas of potential struggle. It is important to keep track of students’ writing individually, as it will help me as a teacher to make sure each student is where they should be.  The student whose work I am observing is a first grader in Ms. Reilly’s class at Constable elementary school. Her name is Katie and she is one of the stronger students in the class, both in personality and academic ability. Katie is strong-willed and always gives her opinion. She is also a determined student who always completes her work and does her best. Katie is certainly a leader and enjoys taking on new responsibilities and challenges. Overall, Katie displays qualities that make her a good student and an active learner.  In order to complete this assessment, I first looked through Katie’s writing folder and pulled a few exercises she completed over a period of time. These exercises all involved her drawing a picture and accompanying it with a written description. The first of these exercises was from the beginning of October and included a short description of what Katie was planning on being for Halloween, along with her own illustration. The next two were from middle-to-late October describing a Disney World trip and a cooking party she held at her house. The last is Katie’s most recent work, which is an account of a recent field trip that her class took to see an Eric Carle play. They were all asked to “expand” their stories by writing a more detailed description of their trip to take up three pages. It is obvious to me that Ms. Reilly’s students are gradually growing over time as writers, as they learn more about writing.  By looking through Katie’s folder, I can tell that she is really beginning to improve as a writer. The first sample I looked at was very simple and did not have much description. She described her Halloween costume in two basic sentences and did not include much detail. The second and third samples I pulled had four sentences each. The second sample described a cooking party she had with her friends and included some detail as to what kind of cookies were made and who made the cookies. I was impressed by the third sample, which described a trip to Disney World. She included who she went with, as well as her experience seeing and talking to the evil step sisters from //Cinderella//. These two details are more specific and show me that her writing is beginning to grow and expand. The fourth sample is Katie’s most recent work about their class field trip. She wrote three pages, each describing a different part of the field trip, specified by Ms. Reilly. In comparing this last piece to the earliest one, Katie’s growth is evident. In these past two months, Ms. Reilly has clearly been teaching them increasingly more about the writing process and what it takes to be a good writer.  From looking over these writing samples, I can tell that Ms. Reilly is gradually transforming her students into good writers. Katie clearly understands what good writing looks like and is gradually moving forward in her writing. I would continue to challenge Katie overtime by increasingly giving her writing assignments that include more detail. I think it is important to challenge all students to do their best work, and since Katie has such a strong personality, I know she would be able to handle more difficult tasks. Furthermore, it is important for the whole class to gradually write with more detail and learn why it is important. I think accompanying writing lessons along with detailed stories is a good idea because students can see how authors write with more detail to make their stories more interesting to read. Writing is a gradual process and in looking at Katie’s work, I can tell that she is learning more from Ms. Reilly with each given writing workshop.
 * Writing Analysis **

 The purpose of this oral assessment is to observe and record the different types of speech that are present in the classroom. The different types of communication range from self-talk to communication with peers and adults. This assessment can help the observer get an idea of how one student is using oral language functions or how the class as a whole communicates.  The setting of this assessment is Ms. Reilly’s first grade classroom at Constable Elementary School in South Brunswick, NJ. It was interesting to see the different types of communication displayed by each student, as Ms. Reilly’s class is made up of a very active group of students. I made sure to make note of the oral functions of the class as a whole, but I paid particular attention to Miriam. Miriam is a shy, soft-spoken little girl in Ms. Reilly’s class. She is a good student, but is pulled out of the classroom each day for word study to get the extra help she needs. When she comes back from the resource room, she usually catches up with the class by first observing what her classmates are doing and then doing it herself. Overall, Miriam always tries her best and always does her classwork to the best of her ability.  The method in which this assessment tool was presented was through the use of note-taking on certain points of interest, as well as a checklist of different types of oral functions one might see in a classroom. In the “Talk Contents” section of the assessment, the observer may take notes on several oral functions including self-talk, one-to-one with adult, one-to-one with peers; self-chosen peer group, teacher-chosen peer group, small instructional group; whole group and play settings. The next section of the assessment is entitled “Oral Language Functions: Classroom Observation”. The observer can check off any of several types of oral function that are displayed in the classroom. This list includes sharing stories, retelling events, reporting information; explaining how to do or make something, expressing language and literacy knowledge, building productive learning relationships with peers and adults; creating imaginative worlds, taking social action, planning events; enjoying language for aesthetic value, describing sensory experiences, expressing feelings, empathy, emotional identification, expressing points of view; taking leadership, asking questions, building collaborative relations, and responding to peers’ and teachers’ questions and requests for information. There is also room to add on other oral functions the observer noticed on his/her own. There are parts of the two sections that overlap, but this oral assessment is a great tool to see what types of oral functions are used by the class as a whole, as well as focusing in on one student individually.  In completing this assessment, I found that many of the points on the lists in both sections are part of the daily routine in Ms. Reilly’s classroom. When students worked individually, there was a great deal of self-talk going on. I noticed in particular that when Miriam came back from the resource room and joined her classmates in completing her word study assignment for the day, she talked herself through sorting out the different words that were in her manila envelope in the back of her word study notebook. There was one-to-one communication going on with the students and either Ms. Reilly, Lindsey, or myself as we went around to monitor students’ progress on individual assignments. While I did not observe any self-chosen peer groups, I did observe a math lesson in which Ms. Reilly paired students up to play a math game that involved counting and graphing. The students needed to cooperate with their respective partners in order to play the game. For the most part, students were paired up with partners with similar personalities. Miriam was with another quieter student and the two of them seemed to communicate well together in order to play the game fairly and within the allotted time. As for whole group activities, there were several to observe. The first of these was morning meeting. The students gathered on the rug to read the morning message, go over the day’s agenda, and document the weather and date. Morning meeting also consists of a share time, where students are assigned days to talk about any subject they wish. Students usually retell events, one of the items on the checklist in the second section of the assessment. Retelling events, I believe, involves sharing a story and reporting information. After a student is done sharing, three students, chosen by the student giving his/ her share, is allowed to ask questions or give comments. This activity engages the class socially and teaches them about communicating through conversation. This form of oral function checks off two items on the checklist (asking questions and responding to peers’ and teachers’ questions and requests for information). Since Thursday was not Miriam’s day to share, I waited to see if she would ask a question or give a comment. Since Miriam is soft-spoken she did neither, but I could definitely tell that she was listening respectfully to her classmates. A variety of oral functions take place in Ms. Reilly’s classroom, from the beginning of the day until the very end.
 * Oral Assessment **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The purpose of a running record is to check up on a student’s reading ability. The teacher administering the test can listen to the child’s fluidity while reading, as well as notice any patterns and words the student may be uncomfortable with. A running record is a good assessment to administer about 3 or 4 times a year. The teacher can track the student’s progress over time, noting any improvements or areas of need. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> My younger cousin, Cara, helped me complete this running record. Cara is a third grader at Saint Ann’s School in Lawrenceville, NJ. Cara is comfortable and talkative around people she knows and is a pleasure to be around. At school, she is shy and attentive. Cara has an IEP and gets extra support to help her with reading and is pulled out of class during this time. Outside of school, Cara is tutored by a one-on-one reading specialist. While she used to be unconfident about her reading ability, Cara has come a long way and her improvements are evident. I performed this running record with her at her home in Ewing after she got home from school. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I handed Cara a passage entitled “Wool: From Sheep to You” and asked her to read it out loud to me the best she could. As she read the passage, I made marks to indicate words she pronounced wrong, skipped, or places in the passage where she corrected herself. I also noted if there were parts of the passage where she hesitated and if she ran over any punctuation without making the proper pauses. After she finished reading the entire passage, I asked her a few questions to make sure she comprehended what she read. This included asking Cara what the passage was about, how we get wool from sheep, and what wool is used for. I made some final marks and concluded the running record. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I found that Cara read with read with relatively good fluidity. There were only a few moments where she hesitated and she only ran over punctuation once (line 12). However, she did have trouble pronouncing some of the words in the passage, particularly those that are larger or have blends in them. Some examples of words she had trouble with are electric, shear, combed, and strands. Furthermore, she skipped the first sentence in the last paragraph and also inserted an extra word (you; line 17). Once she was finished reading, I asked her questions about the passage. She was able to tell me what the passage was about, but needed to read over some parts of the passage again to answer how we get wool from sheep and what it is used for. That told me that she was concerned more about reading the words correctly, rather than comprehending the text. Although she was in a comfortable setting, I could tell Cara got a little anxious about reading out loud. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Based on these findings, I would make sure that Cara continues to have extra practice and support with word study. She could use the extra help with word families and blends, as this reinforcement will make her a better reader. I would also want to make sure Cara has extra practice reading independently to herself, and also out loud to the teacher during independent reading time. This will help her feel more confident in her reading ability. I also think she would benefit from assignments that measure comprehension to make sure she understands what she is reading. I think extra reinforcement will help Cara become a stronger and more confident reader.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Running Record **