I found myself connecting with a large amount of the assessment sites discussed within Book Club Plus. I have found these different assessments occurring frequently within my classroom. There were three main assessment sites I found myself connecting with the most in regards to my classroom. They were Reading Logs, from the idea of students being able to write and communicate ideas. Secondly, Guided reading groups, which focuses on reading in which students can make meaning from a variety of texts. Lastly, the assessment speedwriting is something that occurs within my classroom which focuses on students being able to write for different purposes and audiences.
To start off with, reading logs are an assessment that goes on in my classroom on a weekly basis. Students are expected to read 150 minutes from Monday to Monday of each week. Along with reading 150 minutes they also must answer comprehension questions to go along with their reading and are given guiding questions on the back of their reading log sheet. This stays consistent throughout the entire year, students are expected to complete this log each week as well as have it signed by a parent. Failure to do so results in staying in during recess as well as having to complete it along with the new one for the week. I find the reading log to be very important for some children because otherwise they simply would not read. It is important for the students to be held accountable to read each week no matter what. In regards to being a helpful assessment of my student’s literacy learning, I do not seeing it being incredibly beneficial and telling very much about my students. Students are only expected to write one sentence for each of the guided questions that go along with the book or books they are reading during that week’ s reading log. I do not find there to be much information I can take away or assess from these logs other than if a student is reading or not, what they are reading and a little bit on the side of if they are understanding what they are reading, Overall I think it is a very critical weekly routine, but as far as being a very beneficial tool for assessing, I do not believe it is that strong of an assessment.
Secondly, guided reading groups are another type of assessment that occurs in my classroom. This is an important part of reading workshop and something that happens on a daily basis. Each guided reading group is given a different book they are to read as well as worksheets, questions and writing prompts to work on while reading the book. We have not gotten very far into guided reading groups but I believe as it progresses it will be an incredible assessment tool for students’ literacy learning. This is a much more focuses and individualized way of assessing students progress in the specific aspect of literacy we are having them focus in on and working on in their reading group. I feel that this smaller group atmosphere and each group working on what they need specifically to better their literacy learning is a very efficient and productive form of literacy assessment. I look forward to see how guided reading groups progress throughout the year and how I am able to see growth in my students in the many different areas they are focusing on through these groups.
Lastly, speed writing is the other assessment tool I have experienced in my classroom. I believe it to be very beneficial as well in some aspects. It can be a great tool to see what students are able to write on the spot without a prompt or large amount of time to form thoughts and ideas. This is a way for the teacher to see what students need significant help and practice with their writing. Although quick writes do not necessarily focus on development of stories, details and focusing in on events, I believe it is a good assessment to see easily what students need more writing experience and practice. Although it does not weed out good writers and bad writers, it does allow the teacher/reader to see how easy it is for a student to be able to write for different purposes. This is a practiced skill and something that is easily accessed through speed writing. Therefore I believe it is a beneficial assessment for looking at student written work.
Like your classroom, reading logs and guided reading groups are beneficial assessments used within our literacy blocks. Reading logs are a great tool in keeping track of students’ reading and holding them accountable. We have run into problems though with students parents signing them before students have even finished reading for the week. While it’s a quick fix for the parents it’s not benefiting their child. I agree too that writing only a sentence isn’t the best way of assessing what a student comprehends while their reading but at the same time you don’t want to ask them to write pages and pages. I think a good way to fix this would to use a different graphic organizer each week or have a few different ones that students can choose from. This allows the student to go into more detail and really exhibit how they are interacting with the text. If tweaked a little I think the reading logs could be used in a more proactive way.
ReplyDeleteGuided reading groups (in my opinion) are the best ways to assess students. You really get to know what students are struggling with and find the best way to help them with that particular issue or strategy. It allows you to really focus on what they need. Seeing students progress over the weeks or years is a great way to show if what your doing is helping them or what else they are still struggling with. As for speed writing, it isn’t really incorporated into our assessments. Like you said it’s a great way to quickly see what the students are thinking about strategies or lessons you have taught. Perhaps this is something I can mention to my MT and we can try using it during our guided reading or writers workshop times.
While reading your blog post this week, I was growing more and more frustrated. Out of the three assessments that you discussed, I have only had the opportunity to observe and analyze one of them. For the past three weeks, my fourth graders have done reading logs every week for which they have to read a total of 100 minutes from Monday-Monday. There are not any questions for them to answer or notes for them to take. I agree with you that reading logs are not the best form of assessment, especially when the simple log does not hold the students accountable to any questions or writing responses about the books that they are reading. We have some students who record 200 + minutes a week of reading, and we have some who record 40 without a parent signature (we have even had an incident where the student tried to forge his mother's signature).
ReplyDeleteMy mentor teacher has talked about the guided reading groups that we will have "eventually." We are just now finishing up testing to determine reading levels for several students. I am extremely anxious to watch guided reading in the works. She seems excited to start the guided reading groups and really start working with the students on helping them raise their ability, but I'd like to see her move faster in actually implementing it. Our reading and writing block is almost entirely dedicated to independent reading and free-writing as of now, and I have seen very little assessments tools being used with the entire class (with the exception of MEAP practice). I'd like to hear more about how you use speed writing in your classroom. I could see this assessment form working with most of my fourth-graders, but several of them struggle to even write a few sentences during free writing without one-on-one assistance.