DOCUMENT RESUME ED 408 561 CS 012 837 IST/KSRA Draft Proposal: Reading Assessment Instrumentation. TITLE Instructional Support System of Pennsylvania, East INSTITUTION Petersburg. PUB DATE 94 NOTE 19p Opinion Papers (120) Classroom PUB TYPE Guides Teacher (052) MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Elementary Education; Performance Based Assessment; *Reading DESCRIPTORS Achievement; *Reading Tests; Teaching Guides; *Test Construction; Test Format Alternative Assessment; Authentic Assessment; Pennsylvania; IDENTIFIERS Student Centered Assessment ABSTRACT Bringing structure to the reading assessment process, this paper presents a draft proposal of an assessment structure which practitioners can follow, one which can be applied systematically within the Instructional Support Team process across Pennsylvania. After some background information, the paper briefly discusses features of effective reading assessment, suggesting that effective reading assessment needs to be continuous, multidimensional, authentic, student centered, and performance based. The paper then presents an evaluation form for reading assessment domains. It next discusses 14 points to remember or clarify in developing the instrumentation. The paper then outlines the 3 steps of the proposed instrumentation (entry, selecting materials, and sampling). A description of how to compile running records of students' reading processes is attached. (RS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * * ******************************************************************************** The Instructional Support Team : "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." 1ST / KSRA U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement ./EDU ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) DRAFT PROPOSAL This document has been reproduced as received from the person or Organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- READING ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTATION Instructional Support Team Project of Pennsylvania 1110 Enterprise Road East Petersburg PA 17520 Lk, Search A Systematic 0 for What Works! #221 8.94 2 AVNLARE BEST COPY ISTIKSRA-DRAFT PROPOSAL INSTRUMENTATION READING ASSESSMENT Background Our Charge struggling in school the general inference Historically, when a child was found Special and with the child?" made and the question asked, "What was wrong was child's the and supposedly fix remedial programs were created to determine "What was wrong with the learning problem. Seldom was the question asked, This question is child's struggle?" environment to cause or contribute to the Support Team Instructional the through systematically now being addressed and searching for Educators are seeking answers to this question (IST) process. classroom environment create opportunities within the order to what works in for each child to be successful. to essential it is As IST becomes a more integral part of the school structure, What high implementation. which foster its attributes those institutionalize While Chapter 342 focuses on providing assistance to exactly does this mean? Within connotation. each identified child, full implementation assumes a broader "How does the school work for the IST framework, the question becomes one of is seen Full implementation is achieved when the IST process: (1) every child?" determine, coordinate, and facilitate what works as a vehicle for helping staff staff facilitating for vehicle used as a child; individual (2) is for each collaboration, teacher development, teacher empowerment and participation in (3) allows for the meaningful and flexible shared training and guided practice; provides valid data coordination of services so that barriers do not exist; and (4) and behavior on demonstrating the positive effects of IST on student learning both an individual and school wide basis. determined by what A large part of the success of the IST process will be challenge facing actually occurs within the context of reading instruction. The thinking and to bring structure to the our IST/KSRA Task Force is to align our decide upon an More specifically, we need to reading assessment process. follow, one which can be applied assessment structure which practitioners can The structure needs to within the IST process across the state. systematically instill administration, assure consistency in training, facilitate in uniformity What we agree upon flexibility. greater accountability, and allow for reasonable since its use instrumentation will be critical as an effective reading assessment throughout Pennsylvania will become part of the larger structure of how schools conduct business both within and beyond the IST process. 1 Assessment Features of Effective Reading grounded in what actually occurs durii Effective reading assessment should be Of necessity, it needs to be: classroom instruction. a dynamic and on-going represents assessment Instructional Continuous. decisions about formative and summative data to guide process of providing the outcomes of performance. curriculum and instruction and to measure nature of assessment and Multidimensional. The continuous and interrelated and repeated samplings of behavior instruction necessitate the need for multiple learning situations. in response to ever changing grounded in life real Instructional assessment must be thoroughly Authentic. for materials using meaningful settings must occur natural in It situations. genuine purposes. the interrelated and reflect Assessment and instruction Centered, Student is centered on the child and continuous process of teaching the child. The process A strategy is a method or technique used is not limited to a particular strategy. A strategy is only one aspect of the process in the process of teaching the child. and not the entire process. effective, teachers and For the assessment process to be Performance Based. expectations and learning standards students need to know what the classroom performance activity. They need to know of the required are for the instructional final product. and have a clear understanding of the instrumentation we agree upon and These features should be imbedded into the addressed. should allow for the following IST questions to be Indicators Process What prior knowledge Where is the with "------.......,, and entry skills does student Content Indicators the student need to be ....""*. respect to what successful? is being taught? What does the teacher want the student to know or demonstrate? How was the learning \How did the activity adjusted to How will the student respond performance /match the student's to the specific entry skills and prior the student intervention? 4......,. knowledge? be monitored 2 Domains Assessment Reading Date Grade Text Name Summary of Findings Essential Domains & Recommendations Procedures & Options Language Base Book Introduction Does the student have the Concepts of Print concepts & background Before, During & knowledge for the task? After Reading Word Recognition Knowns/Unknowns Does the student have the Accuracy Percent sight word pool to read Error Rate the selection? Self-Corrections Word Study (Analysis) Meaning Cues Does the student use a Visual Cues system for figuring out Structure Cues unknown words? Oral Fluency Time Samplings Does the student read Tape Recordings with adequate phrasing Fluency Rubrics and expression? Fluency Silent Time Samplings Does the student read Dialogues with adequate speed Tape Recordings silently? Fluency Rubrics Comprehending Retellings Can the student remember Unaided & Aided and tell about what he or she read? Metacognition Think Alouds Does the student Interviews Process demonstrate strategic Self-Questioning reading? 3 6 Points to Remember or Clarify in Instrumentation the Developing assessment structure which they Support team members need a reading 1. without too and one which they can implement can consistently follow best 1ST results occur It has been our experience that the much difficulty. follow a recommended structure. when team members consistently provide an accurate baseline as well The reading assessment process must 2. student's reading per- base to measure changes in the as an on-going data of quantitative data which The process must generate the types formance. of change to insure accountability. provide for measurable demonstrations necessitates greater observation to The initial stage of the 1ST process 3. It of reading instruction. is determine the developmental appropriateness the child is functioning, the process must not enough to determine where environment impacts upon the child. also determine how the learning Learning and sampling. Instructional assessment requires continuous 4. necessity require continuous teaching are dynamic processes which of in a vacuum. The sampling. Instructional assessment does not occurs instruction of the classroom. process is connected to the on-going of instruction requires that The dynamic and multidimensional nature 5. will maintain the reading assessment instrumentation we agree upon and In the words of Valencia, McGinley, some degree of flexibility. (1990): Pearson be knowledgeable 'Those who accept the responsibility of being 'assessors' must times, we enter into the about the content and processes they are assessing...At At other times and tasks in mind. assessment situation with prespecified criteria observers of students in their natural learning we are simply knowledgeable understanding and add environment, we look for patterns that will enlighten our And at other times, we interact with students, to our assessment portfolio. listening to them with the prompting them, guiding them, questioning them, and (p. 4). skills of a knowledgeable educator". where optimal The instructional level is a learning and teaching zone 6. instructional level does conditions for learning occur. Working at one's level in a particular book. The not mean reading at a particular grade of "fit" where the instructional level concept is a mental perception will be successful student feel comfortable knowing that he or she performing the activity. 4 6 instrumentation which supports good In agreeing upon an assessment 7. of repeat a common "flaw" instruction, we must be very careful not to The flaw which we are refetring to normative/standardized testing. This student at a frustrational level. is the practice of abandoning the does not support good instruction. is a poor assessment practice and advocating for the removal of By acknowledging this flaw, we are not value for summative testing normative/standardize testing which has questionable value in Summative testing, however, is of purposes. guiding classroom instruction. when in the assessor's There are times in the reading assessment process 8. reading performance using is appropriate to sample the student's view it view There are other times in the assessor's new and unfamiliar material. student's reading performance using is appropriate to sample the when it feel But under most circumstances, the assessor may familiar material. profession- The decision depend upon the is appropriate to do both. that it goal, and the comfort level of al judgment of the assessor, the assessment student. the is appropriate to when it There are also times during the reading process 9. There student's listening comprehension. read to the student to assess the has comprehension is assessed after the student are other times when is assessed after There are other times where comprehension read aloud. The decisions as to which type the student has completed silent reading. the professional judgment of of situation is called for depends again upon the comfort level of the student. the assessor, the assessment goal, and measuring comprehension within Retelling is the agreed upon strategy for 10. It can be provides great flexibility. our instrumentation. This strategy reading, and silent reading. used repeatedly for assessing listening, oral and aided questioning as a means It also lends itself to the use of unaided with content and can be of assessing the student's ability to interact systematic data collection. easily adapted to the use of a rubric for extension of reading as well as The sampling of written work is a natural 11. For example, writing can expressing comprehension. a natural vehicle for taking predictive activity, during reading as note occur before reading as a It can also be used as activity. activity, and after reading as a summative journal writing. Those involved in the 1ST an independent activity as in sampling of written work and of linking process should encourage the writing to other forms of communication. for assessing fluency, While there was no clear support among our group 12. students and it serves as a motivational tool for we did acknowledge that 5 7 that there are useful vehicle for expressing to teachers a communication We felt that fluency, automaticity. strategies for developing fluency and instrumentation and be the primary thrust of our however, should not flexible allowing We agreed that we should remain measurement efforts. rubrics as sampling, tape recording or teachers the choice of using time We acknowledged that fluency flexible reading. measures of fluent and when how when students are disfluent and does become an important issue rather than to what they read. they read calls attention to them teachers, of reading strategies, support With a large and diverse number 13. and other team members could reading specialists, classroom teachers more conducive for assess- profit from clarifying which strategies are both, and which conducive for instruction, which do ment, which are more tend to build off one another. admin- reading specialists, for example, to is a common practice among It 14. If school personnel (IRIs) to students. ister Informal Reading Inventories additional information, helps them to that this practice gives them feel difficulty of materials which are substantiate the approximate reading them with other useful information, appropriate for students, and provides IRI procedures as part of their we see no reason for them not to use portfolios. assessment 6 Instrumentation Propcsed Entry (Step 1) involves of the reading assessment process During the entry phase, the first step which the student the learning environment in forming general impressions about environment and interviews Observations of the classroom is asked to function. student take place at this time. with the teacher and with the Observation Classroom (While we do not recommend the observation, use of any specific teacher interview, or student interview technique, method, or examples have instrumentation; the been provided illustrating methods types of questions and which seem appropriate. This is often a matter of experience and preference). personal Interviews Teacher Interviews Student 7 9 V Hypothesis Forming (Step 2) Material Selecting teacher can begin the process of Before the reading specialist or the support he or she must have access to the student's reading performance, assessing materials. available reading in use in selecting reading material currently The selection process starts with should also be made available An array of other reading material the classroom. This material may consist of literature data. collecting to choose from when If particular basal reading series. trade books, or readers from a based texts, science or due to a content area problem such as the IST referral happens to be still be used for assessment purposes. social studies, the content material can familiar and unfamiliar passages, and when The materials should contain both latter case, the student may In this appropriate, student self-selected passages. selection to find a story or passage of choose a trade book or browse through a his or her liking. of that there are hosts instruction is The luxury of reading assessment and their levels of arranged according to to choose from which can be materials closely select material which This process enables the teacher to difficulty. If the student has been observed in the level. match the student's instructional select appropriate reading will be easier to classroom prior to it assessment, material. required in professional judgment is Regardless of the procedure, preferred in the assessment to be used with the student selecting the reading material by the by the assessment goal and tempered process. This judgment is guided If the assessor interview process. knowledge gained during the observation and printed information and comprehends wants to know how the student processes material cannot be too challenging or what is read, for example, the selection of already knows that the grade level it will destroy comprehension. If the assessor but wants to on his or her own, material is too difficult for the student to understand the material when is it determine whether or not the student can can the actual material used in read to them, then the assessor would want to use the classroom. be used to segment materials that There are also mediating strategies which can substantial information difficult for the student to read which provide are too the student attempt to read the without having to frustrate the student by having to be knowledgeable is an example of why the assessor needs This material. using when assessing. about the content and strategies they are 8