Assessments
Sara Pons
Comprehensive Exam Question 1
I am currently in the middle of my 5th year of teaching. I teach special education for grades K, 1, 2, and 4 at Salem Elementary School in Burke County, and we are considered to be a rural school. We have a population close to 600, with a special education population in grades K-5 somewhere around 65, not including those students who receive speech/language services. Our K-2 services are designed to be pull-out services which supplement instruction received within the regular classroom. In 4th grade, the regular teacher, the reading specialist and I work together to serve both identified and non-identified students within the regular classroom setting. Most of the kids that I serve qualify because of learning disabilities. We also have a few kids who are Other Health Impaired (mainly due to issues involving ADD or ADHD) or Educably Mentally Disabled. Therefore, I have a couple of different perspectives and contexts I will be talking about when it comes to my reading program and instruction.
Assessments
Unfortunately, I sometimes spend more time on assessment than teaching. As part of determining which children qualify for special education, I have to do standardized achievement testing. I usually test between 25 and 35 children each year in order to determine if they will qualify for services. When doing achievement testing, I use one of two sets of tests. For younger, lower-achieving students, I administer the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA), the Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA), and the Test of Early Written Language (TEWL). For older students, usually those in mid-second grade and up, I administer the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement. I don’t particularly care for either of these assessments because they do not give an accurate picture of student achievement. They are broad, easy to administer tests which allow us to see if there are discrepancies of 15 points or more in order to place children for special education services. When it comes to making decisions about strengths and needs, these tests do not help at all. They are, however, a necessary evil.
Once a student qualifies for services and starts coming to me for reading, I use several different assessments. Usually, the classroom teacher has recently completed a running record. If I don’t have a recent one, I will complete one on the student. These running records help me to determine what leveled text I can use and where the student can read independently. I like running records because they give me an error rate for each student’s oral reading, and the comprehension component covers so many things, including author’s purpose and making personal connections to the text. This is probably the most important part of the assessment because it allows me to start the student on his or her instructional level for reading instruction. I also do a spelling inventory with each student. These spelling inventories give insight about each student’s level of phonemic awareness. This is important because phonemic awareness is how kids use knowledge about letters and sounds to put them together to read and write successfully. I also use a writing sample from each child. These writing samples help me to see how successfully students use spelling patterns and what spelling patterns they have difficulty with. In addition, these samples help me to see how well the students can express themselves through written work. Most of my kids have very strong verbal skills, but are lacking when it comes to getting their thoughts down on paper. This helps me to plan instruction and mini lessons for writing. Finally, I do a short word recognition test. I usually use a series of Dolch sight words and flash them on cards pretty quickly. This helps me to know which words to include in my reading and phonics activities. Unfortunately, I cannot use these in a spelling list each week for my kids, as they do that in their regular classrooms. However, I can choose texts and use activities that include these high frequency words so that my students become more fluent with them and can easily recognize them when they see them in a text.
I also spend some time giving the K-2 literacy assessments (book and print awareness assessment or the kindergarten 9 week assessment) each quarter. Sometimes I do these for kids in 1st and 2nd grade who might need to be assessed on a kindergarten level, and sometimes I am asked to administer these tests as an aide to the teacher, so that the student can be tested in a more individualized environment. The purpose of these assessments isn’t as specific. They are mainly used to communicate progress on grade level concepts to parents.
Kinds of Reading Instruction
4th Grade Reading Instruction
Because I serve exceptional children, and because the settings in which I serve these children are so varied, I use a variety of instructional methods. I see kids for reading in blocks of 45 minutes. I have children in 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades.
I serve my 4th grade students in an inclusion setting. These students are grouped by ability, and are considered to be the ‘low group’ of 4th grade. All exceptional students identified with reading disabilities or mental disabilities are included in this group, unless they don’t need direct services and are served on a consultative basis. The regular education teacher, one of our school’s reading specialists (formerly the Title One teacher), and I have used several different strategies with this group. At the beginning of the year, we placed our 18 kids into 3 different small groups within the class. We used STAR scores and running records to place the kids in groups so that we could each have one small group at a time. This way, we were able to design lessons for an entire week, concentrating on the specific skills we had talked about during our early planning sessions at the beginning of the year. Once we had finished a week’s worth of lessons with our groups, we would use that same set of lessons, making modifications as needed, to serve the other two groups. We rotated like this for most of the first semester. Over the past few weeks, we have been working on a novel, Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo. We have met to plan activities and lessons, as well as to form discussion questions for the class, but have continued to read the novel with our students in our small groups. Whether we are working on a novel or planning our own lessons, we work
on specific skills, such as inferencing, author’s purpose, fact/opinion, cause/effect, etc. We are able to choose literature, texts, and articles that would go together with these skills, and because we work with our kids in small groups, the kids have more time on task and more availability to the teacher. In Allington’s book, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, he advocates this type of intensive instruction. When larger groups of struggling readers go to the reading specialist or special education teacher, those students do not make adequate gains. (120)
It is extremely important that the students spend enough time actually reading. Fielding argues that “ample text time” is essential so that students have the “opportunity to orchestrate the skills and strategies that are important to proficient reading—including comprehension.” (Fielding, 1994) We are able to provide 45 minutes of reading and direct instruction to our students each day. During the time, that the children are actually reading, we employ the use of several different strategies. Sometimes we do echo reading, as this helps the kids to have a model and helps them to build fluency. (Allington, 79) I will often model a few pages and then have the students finish reading a selection. We also spend some time doing paired readings, in order to give the students time to read aloud, but without the constraints of round robin reading. I especially like this method because I can monitor students while still giving them the opportunity to read aloud, which is often much easier than silent reading for struggling readers. I also like using this method because sometimes I can read individually with a student in order to learn more about the types of miscues they make while reading. In addition, we often re-read texts in order to help students improve comprehension and fluency. This is a very effective strategy that my younger students seem to expect to do, but that my older students often grumble about.
2nd Grade Reading Instruction
I see my 2nd grade students for 45 minutes. These students come to my classroom every day for additional reading instruction. I use many of the same strategies for instruction that I use with my 4th graders, but with several changes. I currently have 9 students for 2nd grade reading. I have them divided into 3 groups based on their running record levels. One of the biggest differences between my 2nd graders and 4th graders is the amount of time spent on oral reading. My students spend a great deal of time reading orally for me for two main reasons. First, when students read orally, I can discover the types of miscues they are making, and this helps me determine the kinds of cues and instruction I need to give my kids, whether it involves reading for meaning within a particular section of the text, or specific word study skills I need to teach. Second, when the students read aloud, I can see how well they monitor their own reading. It is important to know whether students are correcting themselves as they read, because this is an excellent indicator as to whether they are reading for meaning or not.(Rasinski, 2003) Finally, oral reading builds fluency. When reading a leveled text selection, we always spend a minimum of 3 days with the text. My kids often go back and reread sections from the previous day or read sections to me individually just to help them build fluency. The more they read a selection, the more automaticity is involved in putting letters, sounds, words, and phrases together in order to “translate the text into spoken language.” (Fuchs, 2001) If a reader can do this automatically, comprehension will be higher, and I believe that the best way to build this skill is through rereading.
At least once a week, I always do a guided reading activity which involves a read aloud. By reading a text aloud, I can use more appealing texts for my readers who struggle. Finding these types of high-interest, more difficult texts gives my students exposure to literature that they would not normally be able to read. Sometimes, we simply read the book and do a text talk while we read. This allows kids to interact with and discuss a text, which is essential to comprehension. In fact, text talks are beneficial because they force students to rely on the text itself rather than the pictures or other cues to construct meaning. They allow the kids to interact with the teacher and the text in a meaningful discussion, all while engaging in a text that would be too difficult for them to read independently. (Beck, 2001) I can also use these texts to talk about story elements, and to help the kids identify those elements. Often, we do some kind of graphic organizer or written response activity to examine the story or characters more closely. These activities are often brainstormed together and because we do them together, my kids have a model through my input, and are also given the opportunity to talk about what they have gained from the text. They often make really good text to text or text to self connections through these activities, and look forward to Fridays when we do these things. For informational texts, we often compile lists of facts or compare facts and opinions about the subject of the text. Because I have such a limited amount of time, this is one way that I can include elements of the Four Block approach to guided reading, which encourages the use of multilevel texts. (Cunningham)
1st Grade Reading Instruction
My first graders often need a lot of support with learning the alphabet and sounds. I spend a lot of time working on readiness skills and book awareness concepts with these students. My first graders are at the Initial Reading stage, in which the most important step is “learning the arbitrary set of letters and associating these with the corresponding parts of spoken words.” (Chall, 1983) If students don’t have knowledge of what the letters are and how they sound, they are unable to put them together to form words when they read or write. This year, I have used the Letterland program to teach the alphabet. My kids have really enjoyed the characters and have seemed to have an easier time making associations between the letter names and sounds. The songs and stories that go along with each character are also very motivational. I usually do one letter a week, but I can’t stretch my Letterland materials that far. In addition to the Letterland materials, I have a series of alphabet books that are very easy to read and repetitive. I have the kids make those books and circle the letter we are working on for that week within the book. We read it each day together, and on Fridays I let the kids read it to me individually if they wish. We also have a poem focusing on the letter of the week and an activity that goes with it. We practice awareness skills with that. I’ll ask students to find the beginning of the poem, or where I should stop reading. They identify the title, find certain letters, and some of my kids can identify some sight words. I read it the first time through as a model, and then we read it together. We usually do this a few times through. I have kept these throughout the year and when we finish the alphabet, each student will have a poem book to take home. We also do picture sorts and word sorts together which include past letters and the letter we are working on for the week. These are important because they help kids make connections between the letters and sounds we are learning and things they find in their everyday environment. These types of activities also allow children to work specifically on letter-sound associations, and this is a critical skill, especially for children with disabilities. (Joseph, 2002) I also do read alouds with my first graders, and we do text talks, but my purpose is a little different. My group of first graders this year is lower than in years past, and they have significant speech and language delays. As I provide a model for reading by reading aloud to my students, I am giving them the opportunity to hear the way language sounds as words are put together fluently, and I am also giving them exposure to words to help build their vocabularies. According to Beck, (2001) read alouds, especially when done with a text talk, can greatly enhance a child’s language development. That is essential for this group of kids, whose average level of receptive language is around the 3 year mark.
Word study and spelling
I don’t actually do spelling lists with my students. My first graders aren’t ready for them, and my second and fourth graders do them within their regular classes. Within their classes, though, my second graders are given a combination of word families and high frequency sight words. My fourth graders are given lists of high frequency words as well. Though my main focus is on reading instruction, I do try to include word study into my lessons. I do these types of activities with my second graders. Each week, I choose a word family to work on. Most of these have been short vowel families due to my students’ needs and abilities. In the words block, students “learn to read and spell high-frequency words and learn the patterns which allow them to decode and spell lots of words.” (Cunningham) I accomplish this task by teaching specific word families each week. I have the Scholastic Word Family Tales books, and with the set I also received master copies to make mini-book copies of the texts so that each student has a copy. On the first day, we echo read the story. Students find the word family words within the text and highlight them independently. The next day, we go through and read the word family words and I reread the story while the students follow along. On the third day, we usually do the riddles that come with the story and tap out the word family words. I lead this activity and the students follow along with me. On the fourth day, we usually brainstorm a list of words for the word family and the students fill these words in on a WORDO board, which is similar to a BINGO card. On Friday, we do a word sort with our current word family and others that we have already covered. We often try to play WORDO on that day as well, which helps me to see how well the kids are reading their word family words while they are enjoying a game. Because my kids have spelling and word wall words within their regular classes, this is one way for me to do word study with them. We usually spend about 15 minutes each day on these activities, and it’s a way for me to keep my students engaged while I work with my small groups.
Kinds of materials
I use a broad range of materials with my students. I do believe that kids need to have lots of materials available to pique their interests. Allington argues that “kids need access to books that entice them, attract them to reading.” (2001) I firmly believe that part of my job is to get my kids interested in reading. One way that I provide my kids with access to lots of materials is by building my classroom library. I am constantly adding new titles that I know will be interesting to my students. I include magazines and newspapers in my classroom library as well. Kids love to read things that they see their parents reading, and I try to get my hands on as many newspapers and magazines as I can because they don’t seem to hold up to my eager students’ hands. I keep a variety of word puzzles, word games, cards, and board games in my classroom. My kids love nothing more than to have a free day when they can play reading games. I also have cards that can be made into games which introduce synonyms, antonyms, rhyming pairs, and contractions.
I pull instructional materials from a variety of sources. Our school is fortunate enough to have a book room which includes sets of leveled text books, as well as popular series titles. The book room “provides a wider access at lower expense than traditional plans that purchased multiple copies of identical books for each classroom.” (Allington, 2001) Because we all share books, when we come up with ideas or activities to use with a text, we leave an extra copy in the baggie for the next person to use. This has been a wonderful way to share teaching ideas, and the kids are motivated because we have such a variety of interesting titles for each level.
This year, our principal purchased Letterland materials for the two reading specialists and me. I have used it with my kindergarten and first grade students. I have the letter and picture cards, as well as a poster of the Letterland characters for my wall, cassette recordings of letter songs, workbooks, the Letterland storybook, and blackline masters with pictures which my students and I use for writing. I can’t say enough good things about this program. My students have been able to pick up on letters and make associations so well that it has really surprised me! This has really been a very motivational program, and I have been very pleased with it.
To supplement the Letterland program, I use activities, mini-books, and poems from Roberta Seckler Brown and Susan Carey’s book, Hands-On Alphabet Activities for Young Children: A Whole Language Plus Phonics Approach to Reading. The alphabet books and poems that I use each week with my first graders are contained in this book. This has been an invaluable resource for me because even my lowest kids have books that they can finger point and read with. We use these mainly for book and print awareness activities, and by the end of the week, when my kids can read them without help, they love to go ‘show off’ for their homeroom teachers.
For most of my word study lessons, I use the Scholastic Word Family Tales books. I like these because there’s usually an actual plot with story elements we can discuss to go with each word family. Often, books that focus on phonics or word study skills don’t have much of a story to them. These books are different, and I can use them to help my students identify character, setting, problem, and solution.
For my younger kids, I use books and a web-based program from . The materials used to be free, but now there is a slight charge to receive the materials. They are phonics based books that are accompanied by a workbook. The books are presented in an interactive format online, where the kids can click on a word if they have trouble pronouncing it and see the animated characters. The website also includes interactive games to go along with the vowel sound or pattern covered in each story. The first five books in the series focus on short vowel sounds and patterns, the next five focus on long vowel sounds and patterns, and the last five books deal with irregular vowel patterns and digraphs. This program is a fun, motivational way for my kids to read and interact with the text.
Diverse Levels and Instructional Needs
I always have a wide range of levels and needs in my classes. Sometimes, I have kids who don’t know their letters to kids who are reading close to grade level in one group of 10. Grouping these kids for instruction is a necessity. I usually use students’ running records, spelling inventories, and writing samples to form my groups. I do keep these groups flexible, and move students around as much as I need to. In fact, I had a student who was one of my lowest readers in the 2nd grade group at the beginning of the year, and now she is in one of my higher groups! I try to do as much small group instruction as I can. “Small group instruction offers an environment for teachers to provide students extensive opportunities to express what they know and receive feedback from other students and the teacher.” (Vaughn, 2001) In the regular classroom, higher-achieving children can overshadow kids who are struggling for a number of reasons. The struggling kids may be unsure of their answers, may need more teacher support, or may just need to have guidance with their discussion. By doing small group instruction, my kids can have more direct teacher time, and receive more qualitative instruction during their time with me. Vaughn found that students who received small-group instruction within their classroom “learned significantly more than students who were not instructed in small groups.” (2001) The key to having successful small groups, though, is by making sure that the other students are engaged in meaningful activities while I am meeting with small groups. It is during this time that my children are working on their word study or writing activities related to their texts. Vaughn also warns that when using small group instruction, teachers must examine their roles carefully to decide whether they will be facilitator or if they will provide direct instruction. I do a combination of both of these. When we first start a new text, I provide much of the instruction and lead the group, but as my kids become more comfortable through rereading, I back off and act mainly as the facilitator so that my students can have the opportunity to discuss parts of the text that they find interesting.
I also try to address individual needs by reading with my kids one-on-one as much as possible. I have a few students who have started to bring books with them to my class just so they can read to me. I have found that my kids love to have my undivided attention. They like to know that they are showing off a little bit to impress me as well. Usually, as we are finishing a book, I will have my kids read independently with me. I do this to help them build fluency, but also so I can see the types of miscues they are making and how well they are reading for meaning on their own. Sometimes, this can be masked in a small group. In a way, this works as an assessment, but I find that it is also an invaluable way to provide instruction as well. One-on-one instruction tends to be much more meaningful for the student, as it is centered on the things that they are doing as a reader. In fact, “many professionals perceive one-on-one instruction as essential for students who are failing to learn to read, and most professionals consider one-on-one instruction to be the preferred procedure for enhancing outcomes in reading.” (Vaughn, 2001)
All of my students struggle in some way. The best kind of support I can provide for them is to provide texts that they can read easily. My students know all too well how frustrating reading can be. I want to make reading a positive experience so that they come to enjoy it outside of school. By providing them with motivational activities and materials, I hope to build their confidence and foster the same love for reading that I have.
Conclusion
One thing I wish I had with my students is more time. I try to cram as much as I possibly can into 45 minute blocks, but there’s just no way I can cover everything I would like to. I would love to spend more time on phonics and word study, but at this point, it’s more important for my kids to have the opportunity to read as much as they possibly can. I feel fortunate that I have numerous materials available, and that my principal is so willing to do whatever she can to help my kid succeed. My primary goal is to create readers who can interpret, summarize, and synthesize the materials they have read. I want them to be thoughtful readers who don’t just read to say every word, but read to gain insight or information, whether it’s for a specific purpose or just for fun. It sounds much easier than it actually is, and sometimes, I never know if my kids ever get it. This paper was supposed to include ways that I would ideally teach reading, but the reality is that my students are not what you would call ideal. They have real issues and problems that I can’t even imagine. My ideal would be for my job not to exist, as crazy as that may sound. It can be heartbreaking to see a child struggle over and over again to read the words on one page, and it can seem like an insurmountable task to be that child’s teacher. Progress is slow for my kids, but to see real progress is the best reward. The best I can do is to employ the best strategies I know to teach these kids how to read, and I believe that I have included those things in this paper.
References
Allington, R. (2001). What really matters for struggling readers: designing research-based programs. New York: Longman.
Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2001). Text talk: capturing the benefits of read-aloud experiences for young children. The Reading Teacher, 55(1), 10-20.
Chall, J. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw Hill.
Cunningham, P. (n.d.). Four blocks: working with words. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2005, from Four Blocks Web site: .
Cunningham, Pl. (n.d.) Four blocks: guided reading. Retrieved Feb. 21, 2005, from Four Blocks Web site:
.
Fielding, L. G., & Pearson, P. D. (1994). Reading comprehension: what works. Educational Leadership, 51(5), 62-68.
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs D., Hosp M. K., and Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: a theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), 239-256.
Joseph, L. M. (2002). Helping children link sound to print: phonics procedures for small group or whole class settings. Intervention in School and Clinic, 37(4), 217-221.
Rasinski, T. V., & Hoffman, J. V. (2003). Oral reading in the school literacy curriculum. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(4), 510-522.
Vaughn, S., Hughes, M., & Moody S. (2001). Instructional grouping for reading for students with ld: implications for practice. Intervention in School and Clinic, 36(3), 131-137.
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