Blog 4: Chapter 10-Assessment

According to Johnson and Keier (2010), "Formative, ongoing assessments by teachers and students
based on daily work need to be the mainstay." Our day to day teaching should not be determined by
results of standardized tests or computerized end of book tests because the data is just not enough to
guide instruction (Johnson and Keier, 2010). In this chapter, Johnson and Keier (2010) state that
literacy behaviors from students should be observed by teachers throughout the day during reading,
writing, and conferencing. Teachers should make notes on the behaviors they observe (Johnson and Keier, 2010). The observations show students who are struggling, as well as students who are ready to move on. I use this information in my classroom to determine my small groups, whether it is for text levels or reading strategies. In this chapter, I love this quote from Fountas and Pinnell, "You cannot see into children's minds, but their behaviors can guide your teaching decision" (Johnson and Keier, 2010). This quote means a lot to me because I believe when we observe our students reading behaviors and analyze the behaviors it shows us some of what goes on in their mind while reading. Based on the text, I agree that teachers should focus on all readers, but more time should be spent with the struggling readers. In my classroom, I meet with my struggling readers three times a week and my other groups one to two times a week. I assign my strong group of readers a book to read during the week. When they meet with me they discuss the book and strategies or skills they used while reading. When I work with my struggling readers, I model how to use strategies, and allow practice time as I listen to one child read a page or pages. Then, we discuss the strategies and how they were effective. Some of the assessment tools discussed were informal assessments such as anecdotal notes during conferences, shared reading, guided reading, and writing. Formal assessments discussed were benchmarks, running records, and adopted tests (Johnson and Keier, 2010). I actually thought running records were formal and informal. I thought running records from classroom leveled texts were informal, and assessments such as Fountas and Pinnell were the formal running records. This is something I am curious about. Although I have been teaching for six years I just learned the importance of conferences about two years ago. I would hear about it during professional development, but finally was show how to conduct a conference two years ago. This year my conferences are even better because I had a lot of practice. One "ah-ha" moment for me after reading the chapter was making sure the student is actually enjoying the book. I always focus on the strategies that I loss focus on the student's enjoyment. The text discussed the issue of finger pointing while reading. I can relate because I had a parent just this past week who asked me if it was okay to have his daughter point while she read because constantly loss her place or skipped lines while reading. I told him I do not encourage it because it slows down the reader. I told him to just encourage her to reread when he notices her error. Lastly, I like how this chapter discussed how to organize assessment data.. I am in the process of reorganizing my data notebook to include a binder with notebook tabs that include: class grid forms, class list for each month, guided reading planning sheet, and individual student forms. At my new school the data notebook was already created, but I plan to reorganize it to meet my expectations so that I can manage it better and monitor my students growth better.