Observation update

It has been a rough journey finding placement for this class. On Friday, I was told I might have placement but the principal has to approve it. This seems to be the problem with every school I've contacted. Although this school did place me for my other class, I am hoping that they can find me a reading teacher that is willing to work with me for this project. I'll keep you all informed.

Relection to podcast

The podcast, Creating a home reading program, the R4 reading program created by educators Michelle J. Kelly and Nicki Clausen-Grace explains how teachers can promote independent reading to make students better readers. R4 stands for read, relax, reflect and respond. At home, students need to find a quiet place to read each night and log the minutes in a reading log. Parents initial the log to confirm that the reading was done. The reflect and respond portion of this program defines it from other programs; it develops students critical thinking skills. Students are given a list of reflection topics called prompts once a week. Students choose a prompt and reflect on what they have read in a journal. The response should be one half to a whole page but can be modified according to student ability and level. The teacher works with students to achieve high quality responses by modeling and reviewing examples. To keep students motivated and interested in reading, the teacher must validate students’ work by commenting in journal entries. Many students look forward to teacher comments and respond positively by reading more. This program requires the cooperation of teachers, parents, and students to successfully achieve reading goals.

I have personally experienced a similar type of reading program with my children. My children were committed to reading and keeping a log that I had to initial every night. On the last night of reading, they were to answer some questions on the reading material and draw a picture that describes the story. I did not know at that time that this was the reflecting and responding portion of the program. The teachers always had a comment or two in the reading journal. They responded to every journal entry to show my children that they were interested in what they wrote. My children were so proud if there was a sticker in the journal and could not wait to show me. This motivated my children to read more and eventually become independent readers.

Many schools use this program or something similar to help students’ literacy and comprehension. It encourages students of all reading levels to develop an interest in reading while validating their efforts. The key to the success of this program is to have parental involvement. The parents need to be aware and supportive of this by establishing a routine time for reading each night. The parents’ initials in the reading log also shows the student that they care and are interested in what they are reading.

Question

What would you do if the parents of your student do not agree with your assessment that their child needs special education services?

Article - The assessment of thoughtful literacy in NAEP: Why the states aren’t measuring up

The article, “The assessment of thoughtful literacy in NAEP: why the states aren’t measuring up,” the authors perform a study to determine the differences between the state achievement tests in reading comprehension and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Framework. It is assumed that these state achievement test are fairly comparable with the NAEP since the educational community agree that reading comprehension involves the reader to use prior knowledge to attain thoughtful and logical answers, thus becoming mature readers. However, this is not the case. Researchers have observed many teachers teaching to the test, which reveals students are memorizing and reciting details instead of thinking and responding to text. In 2005, many states have reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards. The article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are possibly due to the states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act.

To determine if there are superiority differences between state tests and NAEP, the authors collected fourth grade sample state achievement tests in reading comprehension from California, Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Each sample test was classified by item type (open-ended or multiple choice format); item objective (assess vocabulary knowledge, familiarity with genre, text organization, characterization, or text detail); and item purpose and cognitive demand (text emphasis or higher order interpretation items.). The authors considered text emphasis items as those with improbable distractors that require very little thought answering the question. Higher order interpretation items require readers to logically answer questions using their understanding of the text or their personal experiences.

The authors found NAEP used 57% open-ended questions while sample state assessments used and average of 7% to assess comprehension. Although Florida used the most open-ended question, their sample test used less than half the amount of open-ended questions in NAEP.

The use of vocabulary items to assess comprehension was used regularly in the state test, while rarely used by NAEP. California and Wisconsin allotted 25% of comprehension items to vocabulary assessment. The average used by other states was 17%.

NAEP used only 2% of genre items to the ability to identify genre elements. Texas and Wisconsin averaged about the same as NAEP. However, California, Illinois, and North Carolina used more than 15.0% of their items to assess knowledge of genre.

The objective of text organization revealed NAEP and state average used 25% of their items, while Florida used 13% and North Carolina used 10%.

NAEP used more items for characterization and detail (46% and 24%) while the state average was at least 11% below the NAEP for characterization and about 6% for detail.

Data collected by the authors suggest that NAEP and state test use more than half their test to access higher order thinking skills. However, when compared to the actual items used for each objective, NAEP rated higher than the state test. 

 

In conclusion, the authors determined that there are significant differences between NAEP tests and the state test. NAEP allocates more open-ended items for reading assessment, higher order thinking responses, and fewer genre and vocabulary items for comprehension. They suggest that teachers who encourage students to reach a mature reading level will better prepare them for state and national accountability assessments.

Article - Response to Intervention (RTI): What teachers of reading need to know

 In the article “Response to Intervention (RTI): What teachers of reading need to know,” the authors Mesmer and Mesmer provide understandable definitions and processes of RTI in the method of identifying and supporting struggling readers. RTI signifies a key change to the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) by changing the process of which students are identified as special education and providing early intervention to those students in need of special instruction.

The discrepancy model used for identifying students with learning disabilities waits for students to fail before providing instruction. Students are not supported for months until enough data and discussion has been evaluated. RTI is an alternative approach that increases the quality of instruction for struggling readers.

There are five steps in the process of RTI. The fist step is to establish universal literacy practices to identify at risk students. About three times a year, all students are tested on basic literacy skills and their performance is compared to minimal benchmark scores. Students scoring below the benchmark scores receive assistance.

The second step is to implement suitable interventions for students not meeting benchmark scores. The interventions are provided in small group instruction to facilitate skill development for improving reading skills.

The third step is to use progress-monitoring assessments targeting the skills that need improvement. The assessments should occur weekly or biweekly and should be brief, reliable and valid. It should also be sensitive to indications of minor changes in a student’s reading performance.

The fourth step of the RTI process is individualized interventions for students who still struggle after receiving the first few interventions. Additional assessments are required to determine the problem area and should be used by teachers, reading specialists, school psychologist, and with the assistance of parents to collaboratively develop more concentrated intervention strategies. Through out this process, student’s progress is continuously monitored.

If the student has not responded to the interventions implemented after a sufficient amount of time, the decision-making process for special education services is initiated. This is the last step of the RTI process. School professionals and the student’s parents review all assessment data to determine the student’s eligibility for special services. If there are suspicions that other factors, which cannot be explained by a learning disability, maybe the cause for the students unresponsiveness to earlier interventions then additional assessments of the students emotional, behavioral, social, intellectual, and adaptive functioning should be evaluated.

The article further demonstrates how the RTI process is used to help a struggling second grade student. The student is given initial intervention, assessed and monitored, then individualized instruction. The student finally responded to the individualized plan by meeting the benchmark, reading instructionally at grade level with comprehension, and reading 60 WCPM. If it were not for the RTI process, this student would have had to fail before receiving additional support. RTI eliminates that problem by providing instruction as soon as a student displays signs of difficulty.

Video Summary

The video “Using Assessment to Guide Instruction” demonstrates the assessment used by teachers to measure student performance. Dr. Jeanne Paratore leads a workshop of practicing teachers in discussions of assessment strategies used in their classrooms. The teachers reveal how, when, and where they assess their students while Dr. Paratore relates how these assessments directs instruction.

I learned that there are many important aspects to assessment. Although it is very important that assessment need to be done in formal ways, such as running records, assessments need to be done throughout the day during daily classroom routines. The assessments need to reveal how students are doing with comprehension; use of language and word level; reading narrative and expository text; reading with peers or alone. Assessments should be gathered as teachers teach. This ongoing assessment should be used to dictate what is being taught.

During my observation in a first grade class, the teacher sometimes assessed students during centers. While students were busy doing the assigned center, the teacher would formally assess one or more students by doing running records. She would also assess students during the entire day. In fact, when she noticed a student was incorrectly writing the letter "b", she sat with the student during free time and explained to the student the difference between "b" and "d". From there, she gave the students some words to practice with at home.