Standard 5:  Assessment

The teacher uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, monitor learner progress, guide planning and instruction, and determine whether the outcomes described in content standards have been met.

Assessment has been one of the most challenging aspects of my teaching experience. Regardless of the challenge a comprehensible assessment poses, I find observing intellectual growth in a student as a byproduct of my instruction to be extremely motivating. Adding depth to knowledge as opposed to breadth, is a goal oriented method of instruction that can be measured by assessment. An understanding of the numerous types of assessment is vital to my ability to correctly interpret the effects of my efforts.  Knowing what type of assessment is best for a lesson, the student, or a class has been helpful in my lesson planning, self-reflection, and instructional adaptability. The results of my assessments have provided evidence of my ability to build on foundational skills. My reading tutoring placement was a mind opening experience in regards to formative assessment.

 Although I’m familiar with formative and summative assessment my ability to assess accurately is in the emergent stage. I don’t believe a student’s ability can measured in metric units. I find quantifying mastery of the mind to be extremely complicated. In my experience, quantitative measures have provided a truer sense of student growth. The Constructivist teaching methods I use, rely on authentic assessment. I believe authentic assessment is the best indicator of student comprehension. However, due to the requirements of initial assessment and state testing, traditional formative assessments have helped and hindered my instruction. Observing and interacting with students has provided insight into what my students have learned and enjoyed from an instructional session.

My tutoring placement Hawthorne Elementary provided an opportunity to administer various testing procedures to struggling reading students. The results of my testing were murky which led me to rethink the usefulness of traditional formative assessment. Considering the short length of time I had with my tutoring students (thirteen-weeks), I administered a series of formative assessments in order to gather enough data to start goal formation and book choice. I had five assessments that helped me understand where my student was according to reading level and personal interest: Where-to-Start Word Test, Sight Word Lists, Words Their Way Spelling Test, Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment, and an Attitude and Interest Survey. The Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment results gave me a broad notion of the reading levels of my students and a place to start.

The spelling lists had a breakdown answer key with specific information on what part of the word the student struggled with and what stage the error indicated on the developmental continuum of learning. I found the spelling test to be an accurate method of assessment due to the link in phonetic stage. An awareness of my student’s stage of phonetic awareness enabled goal and leveled lesson planning that was on par with the student’s needs. Working with my tutoring students on phonetic and structural word study refined their decoding skills; ultimately, my efforts led to their improved fluency and spelling ability. The Running Records, or staged assessments, of my tutoring placement were based on the Fountas and Pinnell System and Words Their Way Assessments.

The constant assessment of reading and spelling were good indicators of fluency and spelling ability, however, I believe full comprehension of the given texts set were lacking due to the limited choices students had in explaining their thinking and making real-world connections e.g., student-to-text and text-to-society. The choices were limited due to the constraints of the placement. In the future I would like to provide more opportunities for my students to make meaningful associations with the longer texts and use of various delivery methods of comprehension. I believe reading units with a theme could be useful in adding meaning. The use of a leveled reading system although approachable, must have many more means of exploration. Ideally, I will use all of the prior assessments in addition to context based multimedia and an interdisciplinary discourse of instruction.  I feel that leveled reading assessment, such as that of my tutoring placement, can be exciting to teach and learn if the appropriate resources are available. An established system of assessment and the discrepancies that may occur within, will continue to provide an optimum evaluation of my student’s knowledge and growth.