Chapter 7: Making
Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner
Routman is right to the point when she writes how
assessments are hardly used to inform instruction in the classroom, but rather
assessing just to assess. She makes the point that teachers need to use their
own assessments to drive instruction- assessments that are “worth the time and
yield helpful information.” Routman
advises teachers to gather and analyze data while they are teaching. A great
idea Routman gives is to take informal reading inventories during a reading
conference. She advises to observe children
reading books they are interested in rather than using a test passage. Routman gives additional tips on guiding
students during reading conferences.
Routman includes probing questions, a framework to model your
conferences with, as well was reading goals for students to achieve. Many teachers, Routman writes, are at odds
with district policies that they feel are not the best use of time or
money. Routman suggests that teachers
not stand idly by and accept the curriculum or policies, but advocate for
change. Advocating for best practices
are in the best interest of our children.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is good to observe students when they are engaged with texts that they choose and are interesting to them.
I love how Routman writes to inspire us as teachers to do what is best for students in assessment such as using books they are interested in as their reading passages for testing and to advocate for use of funding in ways that support meaningful instruction and assessment instead of expensive, packaged curriculum.
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