Module 1 Learning Summary

Favorite Part: My favorite topics from this module were the Assessing Reading Skills video and the Assessment powerpoint.  I enjoyed the video because of the actual example that it provided.  It was a great example of what reading assessment should look like.  It is wonderful that the student in the video was making progress due to the continuous assessment and referencing of data that her teacher was completing.  I also liked the assessment powerpoint.  I liked the presentation of information, and I pulled out a few ideas that really stuck with me.  My favorite part of the powerpoint was the idea that success motivates students to work towards future success, and teachers can help students become successful through building on their existing knowledge and talents.   

Learning Summary:  This module provided a large amount of information.  The overarching idea of each aspect of this module was the importance of constant and continual assessment.  Although frequent assessment is time consuming, I’m convinced after these readings and video that the benefit and outcome of assessment will be worth the additional time.  

I also learned about the teacher role I typically assume.  Using the Opitz book as a guide, I would classify myself as a planner.  As much as I plan to address needs of my students in advance, I also focus on “unplanned, intentional” instruction (Opitz, p. 23).  I like to teach minilessons based on issues I may see common in many students.  I won’t usually know what issues will arise during any given lesson, so I like to take time to stop and talk about how we can be intentional in correcting our problems.  

Opitz, Michael F., Dorothy Rubin, and James A. Erekson. Reading Diagnosis and Improvement: Assessment and Instruction. 6th ed. Boston, Mass.: Pearson, 2011. Print.

Smith, R., Johnson, M., & Thompson, K. D. (2012). Data, our GPS. Educational Leadership, 69(5), 56-59.

Module 1 Assessment Powerpoint

I really enjoyed reading through the assessment powerpoint.  It was a great representation of some important ideas.  What I found most interesting pertained to ELLs.  The idea that “ELL students who struggle on an English reading test does not make them struggling readers” made me think.  Typically, when we give students a reading test, including ELL students, we want to base our assessment of their knowledge of reading on how fluently they read and how easily they decode words.  While that would be representative of their command of the English language, it is not representative of their ability to read.  A way to assess an ELL’s reading fluency and ability to decode words would be to give the same assessment, but in that child’s native language.  A little later in the powerpoint, it is mentioned that success itself is the best motivator for students.  If these ELL students are successful in reading their native language in various assessments, they will have a heightened sense of confidence and assurance when reading. 

Text and Article Comparison

I think that chapters one and two of the Opitz book and the article Data, Our GPS complement each other well.  The book is very informative in terms of making aspects of reading clear.  As the article focused on an English language learner’s experience, the book defined ELLs and gave a great guide of levels of language proficiency.  The article does a great job of putting ideas into practice.  Sergio’s needs are discovered and addressed quickly.  

I liked that the Smith article addressed a teacher’s role in learning as well.  I remember admiring a math teacher that said if everyone in the class doesn’t understand something, then she knew that she hadn’t done her job of explaining it.  I so admire the teachers in the article for coming together to share ideas and strategies.  I also love the “Our Kids, Not My Kids” section.   My school has a huge focus on out of classroom support.  Teachers can suggest students for tutorials that occur daily or weekly.  Students from all classrooms on the grade level come together, and are given more intentional and individualized lessons.  These students can exit tutorials just as easily as they enter, so I feel that my school has an “our kids” type of attitude. 

Watch and Learn: Assessing Reading Skills

This video was very insightful to me.  It was interesting that this student is 10 years old, so she is probably in 4^th or 5^th grade, and had such distinct areas of strengths and weaknesses.  The idea that a student can perform in the 94% of math and 12% of reading simultaneously is interesting. 

Frequent and ongoing assessment used consistently with this student was aiding in the progress Becca was making.  Dr. Lyon stressed the importance of diagnosing reading issues and being proactive in quickly working on and “fixing” those problem areas.  Frequent testing and monitoring seems like the best way to help struggling readers become stronger readers. 

It’s interesting to me that Dr. Lyon mentioned how reading is an emotional issue.  As a fifth grade teacher, I have seen this first hand, just within the first weeks of school.  My students have come to my classroom with a few students from their class the previous year.  The students want to impress each other, and of course, all students want to look and sound like they understand all aspects of learning.  When it comes time for students to read aloud, I can visibly see an uncomfortable shift in some students.  The way students slink into and try to become one with their chairs becomes so evident in the time that the class works to read a text aloud.

Activity #4 on page 14 (Opitz)

Use table 1.1, “Summary of Proficient and Less Proficient Reading Behaviors,” to observe a reader.  Highlight the characteristics you notice and provide an example of what you see.  

In my science class this past week, my students have had many opportunities to read aloud.  One student that I observed as she read is a proficient reader.  Science terms, especially those pertaining to our unit of study on cells, are very specific.  Many words such as mitochondria, chromosomes, and chloroplast are topic specific words that the students are unfamiliar with.  As this student read, I could tell she was chunking parts of unknown words.  This is a characteristic of a proficient reader because she wasn’t sounding out new words letter-by-letter.  Her reading wasn’t without miscues, but she did correct those that affected meaning.  She would reread a few words or a part of a sentence until what she was saying made sense to her.  As she finished reading the text, she was able to clearly recall information, showing that she had gained meaning from the text.