Assessment! Ch. 2 of The Next Step In Guided Reading…

To read a full chapter 2 run down please visit #guidedreadinggal Laura at Where the Magic Happens

This is an incredible post which you should really check out!

 

Chapter 1 presented by my bloggy #guidedreadinggals buddy is in the books and there was a lot to be learned about setting up a classroom for guided reading.  Chapter 2 is all about the next logical step to getting started and that is Assessment…I had an epiphany when reading this chapter (I really felt like Jan Richardson was channeling me as she wrote this book).  Assessment does not look the same at all grade levels and you really can’t use the same assessment tools with kinders as you would use with a fourth grader!  There, I said it!  It is out in the world and I can never reel those words back in!  But, I don’t think I want to either.  K’s and 1’s have a very specific set of reading assessments which are going to include phonemic awareness and phonetic principals like sounds and letter identification, then onto sight words if they have control of letter sounds and identification.  Dictated sentences, a writing sample and an oral running record from text…Shewwwww!  I am tired and I haven’t give any of those tests yet!  What I thought was interesting was the stark contrast in the assessments given to intermediate students.  This is where I have spent the bulk of my teaching career, is with age group, so these were simple for me to churn out…Jan Richardson says the best assessment we can give is a leveled passage with comprehension questions.  I go a bit deeper than just that.  I take a running record with it, I assess fluency, I do a simple retelling and then if all that checks out then I can ask those burning comprehension questions.  As I read further in, I found there to be little more to it…there is a process for assessing below grade level decoders of text and then a process for those students on or above intermediate grade level…

I was left with a burning question and this is still burning even with having given reading assessments for the last 15 years…How many comprehension questions?  And do you ask them orally or do you send them off to answer those on their own?  What do you think?  Do you think comprehension questions are necessary if the student can retell or give the main idea?  My school says four to five questions but it has to be a uniformed decision of our school so we have reliable data.  As far as how the comprehension questions are answered for me, depends on the age and reading level of the reader.  If I don’t think they will have issue, then I will allow them to work on the questions while I assess another student.  If I am not feeling it, then I will ask the questions myself.  I always make note of this in my assessment notebook tab for this student.  What do you think?  I am interested and I want your thoughts!  You can leave your comments here with me or head over to the We <3 Guided Reading Facebook group and join in the discussion over there as well.  Search us with the tag #guidedreadinggals

So, thanks for hanging with me today!  As a show of thanks, I wanted to share a tool that I have used for years for tracking data. This is my Assessment and Progress Monitoring Kit.   It is a great visual tool for showing where students fall in their reading journey and how for they have to move in order to be on grade level.  This tool is what I use to track my students assessment results.  I keep it in a binder under a tab for each student and fill in their results.  I then have a useful tool for communication with parents and my running progress monitoring for progress reports and RtI.  You can get if for free for the next 24 hours and after that the link will expire and you can get in my store.  Either click the link above or the picture will take you there as well…