Module 3 - Article

Formative Assessments: Simply, No Additives Article Reflection
            This article opened up by discussing the reading assessments as a whole and then looked specifically at formative assessments. I agree that reading has to do with “frequent, interactive checks of student understandings, and skills to identify learning needs and to adjust instruction” (p. 534). I feel that I glean a lot of information when conducting an informal assessment during reading workshop. I am able to scaffold learning immediately and help my students whom might be confused on a concept when conducting a formative assessment. My formative assessment can be as simple as a “thumbs down if you are still confused” which helps me close the gaps in my classroom of 31 students. Although I did not know the technical term, I find myself using “feedback loops” where I give my students constant feedback, instructions, and modeling to pull my students into achieving their specific reading goal. I give feedback during individual conferences, small groups, and/or strategy groups. I agree that “Formative assessment needs to occur in a culture that cultivates a learning orientation” (p. 538). I think students will strive to do better when they know specifically what to work on individually. I know that over time and with lots of patience, practice, persistence, and purpose, I can develop into a professional reading teacher who is deeply knowledgeable of all aspects of reading.

Module 3 - PowerPoints

Overview of Assessment PowerPoint
          I agree that assessments should be integrated daily throughout our instructional plans so as we can constantly learn about our students’ weakness/strengths and adjust our teaching accordingly. Assessments give me a chance to reflect on my students’ progress throughout the school year. Students can be moved up or down levels according to their levels of knowledge. I record their progress in my data notebook and frequently conference with my students during reading and writing workshop to update them on their growth. Slide eight reminded me that at the beginning of every school year, teachers receive colored-coded (green – exceeds standards, yellow – meet standards, and red – did not meet standards) “spotlight reports” which are based on the students’ previous CRCT scores. I found it interesting that validity and reliability came up during this slideshow because I just studied these two concepts for ECE 7531 and how they relate to my action research. I believe all assessments should demonstrate validity and reliability because they should fair and encourage further learning. I did not know that “According to No Child Left Behind, ELLs who have been in the U.S. school for at least 10 months are required to be assessed in English reading” (slide 15). I have three ELL students this year and two of them have been in U.S. schools longer than 10 months which means they will take the CRCT with the rest of my students. I think this is unfair because they still do not fully comprehend the English language and have difficulty with lengthy directions. Nevertheless, I will work with all my students so they can perform their personal best on the criterion-referenced test in April.

 

Phonics Evidence and Strategies PowerPoint
          I have to be honest and state that I did not know what slide three said or what it meant. It looked like a foreign language which I guess is what students who do not understand the English language see when they try to read an English book. I agree that phonics is important because one must understand how to decode words since there are numerous different integrations of sounds for each alphabetic letter in the English language. I agree that readers decipher words by using decoding, spelling patterns, analogizing, sight words, and context clues. However, I still have students in fourth grade who struggle with decoding because they do not understand basic phonics instruction. I see several of my students struggling with the itemized difficulties that are listed on slide ten. Every Friday, we have a pre-test for our next week’s spelling words and I am always amazed at some of the ways students spell basic words because they are unaware of phonics. In fact, I still see students write “thay” instead of “they” in their writing pieces. We work on the spelling pattern in whole group every week since most of the students do understand the pattern. Common spelling patterns focus on the six syllable types that were featured on slide 25. In fourth grade, we also focus on prefixes and suffixes with basic root words since that is part of our standards. It is also helps the students break apart more difficult words if they understand and know how to pronounce the affixes correctly. I will continue to work on spelling patterns throughout the week by using our Words Their Way sorts along with reviewing affixes whole group.

Module 3 - Videos

Strengthening Students’ Phonemic Awareness, Grades K - 1
          This video showed a teacher in kindergarten/first grade. The teacher focused on building students’ phonemic awareness by showing sounds and the letters that corresponded with them. She worked in small groups and whole group to focus on phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is vital for learning how to spell and read. I agree that it is difficult to understand the smallest units of speech especially since the English language has a large number of different sounds. Students will build their phonemic awareness as they gain more understanding and control of the sounds and language.

 

Phoneme Segmentation Assessment Video Reflection
          This video demonstrated how the teacher used blocks to break up phonemes in basic words. However, within the first minute, I found something that I would change. The teacher used the blocks facing her. The teacher pointed to the blocks from right to left instead of mirroring what the student should do which would be left to right (the way we read). It was almost like the student was spelling the word backwards because she started with a block to the right then built it to the left. I was excited when the student enunciated the second word “shop” and realized that “sh” made one sound because it is a blend. As the video progresses, the child starts to manipulate the blocks to her liking. She started to move them right to left because it is the way we read but the teacher took the blocks back up to the middle of the table. At times, I felt that they could have use a different manipulative that would have been less distracting. The child had difficulties with shorter words that had more blends like “flew”, “chalk”, and “bolt”. This video reminded me of the Fundations program that is offered at my school for primary grade students. Overall, this video helps teachers distinguish if students have the basic phoneme segmentation.

Module 2 - Reading Inventory Demo Video Reflection

       I enjoyed watching this video because it was useful and informational. I will conduct a reading survey verbally using the Fountas & Pinnell questions as a guide. The teacher at the beginning of the video sounded like she was also asking a couple of questions from this survey. The teacher asked the student to read the word list. I noticed that she said that the student can “skip” any difficult words. I would want my students to try out the words instead of just saying “skip” to words they are able to sound out. I think this word list would be her instructional or frustration level because she had to sound out and think about most of the words. She also skipped two words after attempting the beginning sounds of those words. I did like how she corrected herself on the first word “focus”. I could tell that she was breaking the words into syllables or beginning/ending sounds. I would encourage my tutee to try all of the words on the list so I can gather a word automaticity rate along with levels for frustration, independent reading and instructional reading.

Module 2 - Reflections on both PowerPoints

Strategies that Support Emergent Readers PowerPoint Reflection

            The first slide made me smile because I use quick writes with my own students. However, it was difficult when I tried to reflect on my own literacy experiences in my past. I cannot remember anything significant before the fourth grade. I know that I did not like to read or write when I was younger because I had a speech impendent. I had difficulty with fluency and comprehension because of this. I feel that the three predictors of early success in reading are alphabetic/letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and the formation of writing letters. I think all three of these are important for a child to be successful with literacy. I enjoyed the slides that refreshed my memory about Piaget and Vygotsky because I tend to agree with Vygotsky that “language comes out of a need to communicate with others.” I always enjoy reviewing the stages of literacy because it is interesting to observe a child and see which stage they are currently characterized as and see if they move back or forward between the stages. It is vital that all students understand the concepts of print so they can read texts. However, I find the Yopp-Singer Segmentation Test to be difficult because, like me, some students have never learned phonics. I found it interesting to read about the different strategy activities for phonemic and phonological awareness. I still use reading aloud in my fourth grade class to build on the students’ vocabulary knowledge along with reading strategies/skills.

 

Assessment of Reading and Writing Process PowerPoint Reflection

            I appreciated reading this PowerPoint slideshow because it helped me review the different assessments that can be employed for reading and writing. When I assess a child’s vocabulary knowledge, I often catch myself listening to their everyday conversations to hear the words which they are the most familiar. This also allows me to hear if there is a dialect present with the student’s language. I have never heard of the “Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test” but I wonder if that is because I am an intermediate grade teacher. I agree that writing can be an assessment in itself. I often use journals in my class where students complete quick writes which helps me assess their process with writing. I often will use the county rubrics or use a holistic scoring. I frequently let me students see the rubrics before publishing a piece so they know how I will score their writing. The slide detailing the Analytic Scoring Rubric for Expository Prose reminded me of the 6+1 Writing Traits that I use during writing workshop. I make sure to focus on ideas, organization, voice, fluency, word choice, conventions, handwriting, and presentation throughout the entire school year. I have always kept portfolios for students but mine include all academic areas. I want to see my students’ growth in all areas, especially reading and writing. The students even enjoy reviewing their portfolio to see how much they have grown through the school year. This year I am having my students keep a binder of all their writing since I have 31 students. We review their writing samples throughout the school year and I copy any that catches my eye for my personal portfolios.

Module 2 - Emergent Writing in the Primary Grades Article Reflection

            I completed an undergraduate class at KSU that focused on analyzing students’ writings and drawings. I cannot remember the specifics of the class but I remember looking at students’ sentences/drawings and predicting which stage they were exhibiting. Marie Clay wrote a book called What Did I Write? which sounds like a great examination of children and their writing development.  I agree that children (English and Spanish speaking) grow immensely through the primary grades in their reading and writing skills. At times, it can be difficult to decipher their words and sentences but with practice/experience it becomes easier. This article had two tables from the Blackburn-Cramp Development Writing Scale (which we will use in this reading endorsement class) and the Ferreiro-Teberosky model. Blackburn-Cramp is used for English speaking students in grades one and below, whereas the Ferreiro-Teberosky model is used for students learning to write in Spanish. Both of the charts showed similarities. I agree that language is social and we use it to communicate which relates to Vygotsky’s theory. Language activities are vital for emergent readers and writers, which is why building a writing community in the classroom is essential.

Module 2 - Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instructions Article Reflection

I thought this article about assessing students’ performances was informative. As teachers, we are continuously assessing our students via informal and formal assessments. We need to know our students’ strengths and weaknesses as well as how to improve our instructions so as we meet every child’s need in our classrooms. I agree that there is too much attention on testing and I fear that sometimes I am not collecting data correctly or even using it effectively. My class size increased from 20 to 31 students in the past two years of teaching and collecting/analyzing data scares me this year because of the amount of students and their individual needs and weaknesses has a wide range. I enjoyed reading that Popham and others still agree that formative assessments help with large student gains when used appropriately. I buy sticky notes by the bulk because my students and I use them constantly. My students use them to record their thinking while reading. Also, I use them to record data, their thinking, reminders, etc. However, I am searching for a new method to collect data because I have so many sticky notes and have not found an efficient way of arranging them in a data notebook. I agree with Risko when she explained the design of multimodal assessments. I recently completed a literature review on the “Internet Generation” which included what the students’ elementary teachers are currently teaching. These students need the use of technology throughout their education which means teachers need to utilize and understand technology, also. Overall, the goal for collecting data is to identify our students’ learning conditions and tailor our instructions to meet their needs, so we can promote their highest level of thinking while learning new information.

Module 2 - Chapter 5 & 6 of the Opitz book Reflection

       Chapter five was a great review of several informal assessments that can be used for a variety of ages. The three main questions that need to be asked and answered when selecting the best method are: What do I want to know? Why do I want to know? How can I best discover the information? I enjoyed reading the scenario at the beginning of this chapter because I can relate to it this year with one of my students. However, this student’s teacher from last year experienced the same behavior that I have been seeing and the parents agree that this behavior is present at home. I plan on using some informal assessments on him throughout this school year to help find his strengths/weaknesses since he is already on tier 3 for RTI. I enjoyed reading about the portfolios since I have always kept a personal portfolio to watch a students’ growth. I keep writing samples, tests, e-mails, etc. in their portfolio and share parts of their portfolio with the students at the end of the school year so they can also see their growth. I use observations, checklists, and anecdotal notes the most. I use observations because I want to know how children perform in a variety of contexts. Also, I use anecdotal notes because it is impossible to remember everything I see throughout the school day with every student. My anecdotal notes are taken on sticky notes, ripped out sheets of paper and my phone’s notepad application. It is difficult to organize all of my notes into one area. One of my goals this year is to keep my anecdotal notes on one clipboard so they do not become misplaced or disorganized. Overall, informal assessments offer valid information regarding students’ characteristics.
       I can relate to the opening scenario in chapter 6 because my fourth grade teacher was the reason I wanted to become a teacher. I have always wanted to work with children and make a difference. I am always happy to talk about my teaching profession with others. I initially taught second grade, but in 2011 I became a fourth grade teacher. Fourth grade students have to take the dreaded CRCT in Georgia. This frightened me because there is a lot of anxiety surrounding standardized tests. First, it is problematic for the students because there is a lot of pressure on them to pass the test which may cause test anxiety. And secondly, in addition to feeling as if they failed their students, the teachers are apprehensive about their students’ scores because of the impact it may have on them if their students do not meet the standards. Optiz mentions the TerraNova CAT, Metropolitan Achievement Tests, and the Stanford Achievement Tests. However, I have never heard of any of these tests. In fact, I am still learning about the standardized tests that are given to our students at my current school. I know the students in third and fifth grade take the CoGAT and ITBS but I am not familiar with the scoring or reasoning for those tests. I enjoyed reading the section about criterion-referenced tests because that is what my fourth graders take every April.