DOCUMENT RESUME TM 029 615 ED 429 084 Thompson, Lesley D.; Dobkins, Eve, Ed. AUTHOR The Journey of a Reader: K-12 Assessment Tasks and Tools. TITLE Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR. INSTITUTION Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), SPONS AGENCY Washington, DC. 1999-01-00 PUB DATE 251p. NOTE RJ96006501 CONTRACT Guides - Non-Classroom (055) PUB TYPE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Curriculum; Educational Assessment; Elementary Secondary DESCRIPTORS Education; Models; *Reading Instruction; *Reading Skills; Reading Tests ABSTRACT reading down An assessment model is presented that breaks and assessable. The six into six discrete skill areas that are both teachable (2) establishing (1) decoding conventions; traits of an effective reader are: (4) developing interpretation; (5) (3) realizing content; comprehension; Chapter 1 integrating for synthesis; and (6) critiquing for evaluation. devoted to explains and develops these traits. Chapters 2 through 5 are effective teaching specific grade levels, outlining reading development and the intermediate and for kindergarten through grade 2, grades 3 through 5, Each of the middle school years, and high school and later years. outline reading grade-specific chapters contains a four-part framework to theoretical review of research assessment and instruction. Each contains a the grade levels, activities, samples of student work, six lesson plans for readers at that grade and a list of recommended books appropriate for student reading level. Seven appendixes contain a reader interest survey, a effective reader at development continuum, discussions of the traits of an (Contains 6 figures and 38 the various grade levels, and three sample texts. references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** C1 MEM MEM. U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 01fice of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization ?Longinating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy " itog.t . ; v.... I 1 4 41.1. 4, is ...4 1 rr, , e a 111 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE The Journey of Reader: a K-12 Assessment Tasks and Tools By Lesley D. Thompson, Ph.D. Senior Associate for Assessment and Evaluation Edited by Eve Dobkins January 1999 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory 101 SW Main Street Suite 500 Portland, Oregon 97204 (503) 275-9500; Fax (503) 275-0450 http://www.nwrel.org Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) AYALA COPY WIT 3 © 1998 NWREL. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be included in any documents to be published or sold without express written permission from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Permission is hereby granted, however, to reproduce any use by students and sections pertaining to classroom teachers. This publication is sponsored wholly or in part by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, under contract RJ96006501. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of any individual laboratory, the Department of Education, or any other agency of the U.S. Government. Acknowledgements I would like to gratefully acknowledge the kindness of teachers in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Washington who unselfishly opened the doors of their classrooms to our research. Thanks go also to the students who opened their minds and hearts to the together. Your reflections, your essays and stories we read thoughts, your values, and your reading responses made our samples "come alive." Finally, to the schools, districts, and states who recognize the power and authenticity of "critical reading" the course for our journey of a you are the pioneers. You have set reader. Many thanks, 4441-9 J"*12441% Lesley D. Thompson The Journey of a Reader: K-12 Assessment Tasks and Tools Table of Contents Page Foreword i iii Introduction Chapter One The Role of Theory and Practice in Assessing and Instructing Reading 1 Chapter Two 47 The K-3 Classroom: Giving Them Roots and Wings Chapter Three 85 The Grade 3-5 Classroom: Moving Beyond Narrative Texts Chapter Four 115 The Middle-School Years: Reading Across the Content Areas Chapter Five 145 High School and Beyond: Reading for School-to-Work and Higher Education 189 Glossary of Reading Assessment Terms 195 Bibliography Appendices 6 Foreword The Journey of Readers in Kennewick, Washington: "We work hard to teach our students in the early years to read printed words and symbols on a page but how do we teach them the skills needed to be lifelong critical readers?" This became a frequent concern of teachers in our district. Staff knew that students needed instruction in critical reading, but we lacked specific instructional strategies, a common "reading" language, commitment from teachers in all content areas, and the assessment tools to really do an effective job. The Traits of an Effective Reader and students in the Kennewick School were developed at just the right time for teachers District! Is reading to learn different than learning to read? Yes! Primary teachers in our district goal: 90 percent of all third- graders are working very hard to reach our third grade reading reading on grade level. The curriculum, assessment, and instruction are all in place in the primary grades to help make this goal a future reality. However, what does it take to teach students to become critical readers? How do organized, sequential process? Is reading we help them become better readers in an in the content areas a different skill than reading literature? These questions have been ongoing in our district, and in a multitude of districts across Washington State, as students are required to meet high state standards in reading. No longer are tests just asking students to read a passage and select a multiple-choice response! Students are being asked reading skills. The NWREL workshops to answer questions in which they must apply their with Dr. Lesley Thompson have helped our district make a giant step towards understanding how to teach students critical reading skills. How can I possibly teach one more thing? This is a common, and very truthful, lament of district teachers in today's classrooms. As we stumble through state standards and new required to get students to get state test results, and the benchmarks and components students to these goals, we are all experiencing real pressures to get students to be successful with the tougher standards. Our teachers are discovering that instruction in the reading traits is not "more"but it provides an excellent model and a common language to teach reading more effectively. 7 But I teach social studies, and now you want me to teach reading? How often have we heard this comment in our middle and high schools? The very clear message is that we are all teachers of reading. Social studies teachers, math teachers, science teachers, and vocational teachers voiced a giant "aha!" when they discovered that the lessons and rubrics provided with the Traits of an Effective Reader would make a difference in their content area classrooms. The research, student examples, lessons, and assessment tools can be applied equally to literature as well as to content area reading. Will the Reading Traits make a difference in Kennewick? Yes! We think the Traits of an Effective Reader will become as powerful of an institution in our district as the NWREL Six Traits of Writing! It's been exciting to attend the district and building meetings and listen to how the lessons are being applied in a variety of content area classroomswe are truly on our way! Thank you, Lesley, for organizing the teaching of reading into an understandable, teacher- friendly format! The "journey of a reader" has begun in our district! Bev Henderson Assessment and Staff Development Coordinator Kennewick School District Kennewick, Washington 8 Introduction Reading is about more than just reading the symbols and letters on the page. When good readers read, they read critically, they read deeply, they apply information and pull on their experience to understand the world of ideas and subjects. As educators, we want all readers to know and be able to develop the skills of critical reading. At the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, we have spent two years studying how readers develop critical reading skills, how teachers convey those skills, and, finally, how those skills are assessed in both a classroom environment and a large-scale forum. Our compilation of data has led us to the publication of this book. Again and again as we studied classrooms around the country, educators commented, "The teaching of reading is so vast. Just when I think I have covered comprehension thoroughly, I realize that my students may comprehend the material, but they now need to learn how to apply their reading; they need to learn how to deepen their reading. It just seems there is always more to do." In order to serve the needs of educators to assessand thus instructcritical reading performance in student readers, we have developed an assessment model that breaks reading down into a manageable group of teachableand thus assessableskills. This is where the assessment model the Traits of an Effective Reader, comes in. By separating reading performance into six discrete skill areasor "traits"we have identified what good readers do, and we are able to describe "good reading" to readers who read on a variety of ability levels. The six traits of an effective reader are Decoding Conventions, Establishing Comprehension, Realizing Context, Developing Interpretation, Integrating for Synthesis, and Critiquing for Evaluation. Comments by Effective Readers Who Are Using the Traits Decoding Conventions: "I think this is a book written about the author by the author; it' s called autobiography, I think. I know it, because he uses the word 'I.' " 9 Establishing Comprehension: "The first turning moment was when the fire started and the second would be when they had to get out of the burning building; the final turning moment is when they found the cats." Rea&ing Context: "The hot tin sheds and the white false fronts of the store really stick out for methey are just so Southern-sounding." Developing Interpretation: "I think these people are breaking the law on purpose; I learned in my biography on Martin Luther King that some of his followers would purposely break the law to stand up for what they believed in." Integrating for Synthesis: " Nativity' was real to me; Baby Wolf was just a story." Critiquing for Evaluation: "You have to go beyond what's on a piece of paper You have to look at the author and see if he is biased." The Philosophy As you use this book to increase your knowledge of reading assessment and instruction, classroom. This you may notice that many activities are ones that you already use in your is exactly what we would expect! But do notice that there is a difference between traditional reading activities and the Traits of an Effective Reader reading activities. The difference is the use of a common languagethe criteria associated with reading skillsbetween teachers and students. By using the trait terms and their accompanying list of skills, students understand the indicators of good reading. They can use a scoring guide to evaluate their own performance and set goals to improve their reading. In essence, they have moved from a passive reading experience to an active one. We have included in this book the K-3 developmental continuum and the two grade 4- 12 scoring guides for literary and informational texts we recommend for teachers to use activities, to assess student reading performance. Further, we have included many of an assessment models, and even 24 actual lesson plans that illustrate the Traits Effective Reader in the classroom. As you build a thorough reading assessment plan in your own classroom, think of creating readers who can demonstrate both a breadth and a depth of reading skills. We've