Assessment

Assessment

Synthesis:

Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas Chapter 19

Chapter 19 discusses the issue of struggling readers and especially in regards to assessment. It emphasizes the need for frequent assessment with feedback in order for students and teachers to view growth and to be successful. Assessment data must be applied to teaching. The chapter focuses on the CARI method of assessment as well as vocabulary. Basically, students are assessed through the use of multiple questions to be answered by students, peers, and teachers. Literacy must be defined, measured, and tracked for each content area course. These assessments need to be authentic and meaningful. Teachers need to work within the ZPD in order for students to be successful. This chapter includes several helpful questions in the forms of tables and check-sheets for general education, reading and thinking skills, and content area skills. Also the vocabulary charts and KWLH strategies for each content area are very useable.

Afflerbach

Assessment of reading skills is a complicated task. It often involves teachers asking the correct types of questions. Assessing reading comprehension is very difficult. Usually, a multiple-choice test does not really measure all that a student knows about the content. This text covers different types of assessments. The four main types are: performance, portfolios, observation & questioning, and standardized tests. Performance assessments require rubrics and examples to efficiently implement as well as clear expectations. Student performances are an authentic and engaging way for students to show their understanding of concepts and skills. Portfolios help to show progress and growth and can be arranged in many different ways: either in print format or saved to technology. In addition, observation and questioning can be very in-depth and time consuming but also yield results that show accurate and reliable data from which instructional changes can be made. This can be difficult to do and is greatly helped with written and verbal assessments. Standardized testing has its own pros and cons. Although they are designed to give all students the same equal experience; it does not always adequately measure students reading ability or learning. Some of these tests may still be around for the sake of tradition, and are not always useful for teachers to use the information.

Moje and Hinchman

This text discusses the issue of having cultural responsive practices in pedagogy. Teachers need to know their students. They need to know not only their strengths and weaknesses, but also what kinds of experiences are relevant to them and what cultures shape their identities. Teachers must be careful not to assume these things about their students because they might risk alienating them or embarrassing them. Teachers need to be able to design lessons that center around problems that students find both authentic and interesting: usually these have to do with community issues. Students need the opportunity to experience different perspectives and cultures. Focusing on what students bring to the world and what they are interested in helps them to genuinely become a part of their learning. It is crucial to build a positive classroom in order for students to be successful and to be able tp participate in this type of learning.

Response:

Text to Self: As a hopeful future reading specialist, the Chapter 19 from Hinchman and Sheridan-Thomas is enlightening about the subject of assessment. The Afflerbach text was also helpful in that it went into detail about the different types of assessment which would be useful to me both as a reading specialist and as a teacher to know what options are available.

Text to Text: This text discusses several of the issues we have read about before in regards to struggling students, questions to ask, content area problems, and vocabulary instruction.

Text to World: Assessment is a big part of today’s schools whether we like it or not. Standardized high stakes tests are especially relevant as they have been a source of controversy in recent years. Nevertheless, it is important to look for accurate, reliable, and useable ways to assess student learning. Most importantly, we must be mindful of audiences and include the student in their own learning. Metacognitive thinking should be a crucial aspect of their learning in order to foster accountability.

Questions:

1. How do you engage students in metacognitive thinking in your classroom?

2. What types of assessments do you use/would you like to use?

3. What types of cultural responsive practices do you use/would you like to use?