Blog Post #6, Chapter 7, Make Assessment Instruction's Working Partner, Valorie Whiteside

Blog Post #6, Chapter 7, Make Assessment Instruction's Working Partner, Valorie Whiteside

In the elementary school, this is assessment season!  As an ESOL teacher I just spent a month and a half administering ACCESS which is an ESOL (English Language Proficiency) test.  Next coming up in April the students have STAR testing and SC Ready testing.  Then in May the students have SC PASS, Read 180 SRI, testing, and ACT Aspire.  Does any of these test give us immediate guidance to use in our classroom instruction or assessing just to assess how Routman suggest?  As a parent; if my child is not meeting requirements or not on grade level in a certain area I want to know immediately and begin some type of intervention or form an action plan to aid him immediately!  Not next year when the test scores come back and the problem has had more months to get worse instead of improving!  Therefore I agree with Routman when she says that teachers need to use their own assessments to determine instruction that yield helpful information.  I agree with Routman also when she says that teachers need to gather and analyze data while they are teaching.  Teachers can make informal assessment through observation which will give them more feedback than traditional or standardized test.  Through this immediate feedback teachers will know what strengths and weakness the student have.  For example, as a parent, when my son comes home to do his homework and he has an assigned reading.  Sometimes it goes smoothly however, other times it is like pulling teeth to get him through the reading.  My immediate assessment of this problem was that the reading or the level was not too hard, he simply just wasn’t interested in the topic or the text.  When he read books on the same reading level that he is interested in it is equally hard to get through because he is constantly talking about what he is reading and making connections and observations. Which is a good problem to have because this type of reading is more productive because learning is taking place.  The assigned reading went in one ear and out the other.  As a teacher by use of the informal observation assessment you can guide the students reading assuring that the student reads text that interest him as much as possible to ensure that his reading level is constantly rising. 

Routman discusses that teachers should advocate for change instead if sitting idly by and accepting the curriculum or policies.  This idea sounds great in theory however, realistically the teacher runs the risk of being labeled a trouble maker.  Unfortunately I have seen this happen.  I have also seen teachers become Teacher of the Year for the same actions!

While reading ‘Teach Intentionally’ a cord was struck within me.  Routman says during reading conferences with intermediate-grade students, “they can retell the events of the story and say what the character did, but they can rarely talk about why characters behave the way they do, what actions lead to other behavior (cause and effect), or infer character’s intentions, motivations, and feelings.”  I was struck by this statement because I realized something that I have done wrong on occasion.  Teaches can be lulled into a false sense that students have comprehended or reached reading potential when they can retell the story and say what the characters did.  But on a higher level of thinking a student will think about how and why a character is behaving the way that they do and be able to predict how the characters will act.  Then read to see if their prediction was right or do they need to change their opinion.