Assessment in Literacy
Assessment and Literacy
Literacy Goals-What are they and why do they matter?
Literacy goals are the foundation of any program aimed at delivering comprehensive
literacy skills to students. Literacy skills are the base of students being able to
take information they are learning and translate it for themselves and apply it
in everyday functional contexts throughout their lives, across all academic subjects.
Three Areas to Consider:
Reading
Writing
Communication (Talk)
As seen in the education based magazine, Literacy Today:
Students need to be actively engaged in the learning process while learning early literacy skills.
Readers who are in engaged:
1. Read everyday
2. Read for a variety of purposes
3. Build on prior knowledge
4. Use strategies to make sense of what they are reading
5. Talk about what they’ve read to others.
Writers who are confident and independent:
1. See writing as a positive and powerful way to communicate
2. Use writing to clarify what they are thinking and to make sense of their world
3. Write for an audience
4. Develop skills and strategies for producing texts that meet expectations of audiences
Effective literacy instruction and learning also incorporates communication
(listening and speaking). In Literacy Today, they focus on the term “Talk”
and say that these opportunities allow students to:
1. Organize their thinking by collaborating, asking questions and brainstorming
2. Express and share points of view and ideas (conferences, discussions)
3. Gather and process information
4. Work through problems and come up with solutions
5. Make connections to prior knowledge
6. Expand their own thinking
7. Present to peers and teachers a final product of work
“What students are talking about, how they talk and the purpose for the talk
determines the degree to which talk supports learning. If teachers want students
to be effective and successful when using talk in classroom activities, they need
to teach, guide and scaffold productive talk.” (Literacy Today: Teacher Inspired ELA Resources, 2019)
Assessment Practices:
Assessment of Learning vs. Assessment for Learning
The difference between Assessment of learning and Assessment for learning is when someone is assessed on what they've learned as a summative final piece of analysis and nothing else will be done with the process, then this is considered Assessment of Learning. Assessment for Learning is when someone is assessed and the results are then used to further instruction for the student and to guide learning paths. While Assessment of Learning holds its place in many circumstances, especially in the Literacy world, we must ensure that our students are being assessed as a way to help define what goals we have and where we need to go together in order for the best learning to occur and for the best teaching practices to take place.
From Literacy Today:
Assessment for learning is...
-built in to the daily teaching and learning process
-non-judgmental
-generally a quick gathering of information about student understanding
-used to adapt our teaching to meet student needs
-a way of better understanding student’s thinking
-what you do with the feedback you get from a variety of instructional strategies and techniques
-done with students to engage them in their own learning
Another Way to See...
Traditional assessments refer to conventional methods of testing, usually standardized and use pen and paper with multiple-choice, true or false or matching type test items.
Authentic assessments refer to assessments wherein students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of what they have learned. https://abdao.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/traditional-vs-authentic-assessment/
Some Ideas about Standardized Testing:
Standardized testing is not the answer, common misconceptions that standardized testing is the only way to gain accurate measurement of students literacy knowledge.
The International Literacy Association has this to say...
"The widespread use of standardized reading tests stems from an insufficient understanding of their limitations. Standardized reading tests are of more use to those outside of classrooms than those in classrooms."
"...if we want our reading instruction programs to foster readers who are (among other things) motivated and engage, highly efficacious, independent, and metacognitive, then standardized reading tests are incapable of providing information related to these important outcomes. The tests will offer only a partial evaluation of successful reading programs."
"A future in which standardized reading tests continue to contribute to our understanding of reading development, complemented by an array of formative classroom-based assessments, is attainable. This future will be challenging to realize, as the current assessment scene reflects the dominance of these tests, often at the expense of valuable alternatives."
"The Roles of Standardized Reading Tests in Schools." (2017) Literacy Leadership Brief. International Literacy Association.
Differentiation is Key!
Knowing your students is one of the key components in culturally responsive teaching strategies. Understanding and being able to connect with students will guide instruction and you will be able to track improvement and growth in a way that will be clear to all stake holders, students and parents alike.
Resources to Consider:
-Classroom Assessment for Learning: Doing it Right- Using it Well. Stiggins, et. al 2012
-"The Roles of Standardized Reading Tests in Schools." (2017) Literacy Leadership Brief. ---International Literacy Association.
Comments
Post a Comment