Chapter 5: Reading Assessment

After reading this chapter I really felt like there were vast improvements I can make in terms of reading instruction and assessment in my classroom.

When I first began teaching I felt this huge conflict between giving time in class to read independently and teaching the curriculum. I tried everything to get kids to take books home and read independently. It just seemed like none of my students were really readers and it killed me. I eventually gave up having students read independently in class because I felt that I needed to provide more of the required curriculum.

I think what I have taken from this chapter more than anything is that reading is ANY form is hugely important for second language learners. However, not all books and text are appropriate to second language learners.

When I was in college I was assigned to tutor a young man who had recently come to Wisconsin from Rwanda. He had arrived about a month before I began working with him and his story was unbelievable. He was 15 and had spent years separated from his family and moving from refugee camp to refugee camp. His family, believing he was dead, had been sponsored to come to Wisconsin and left Rwanda immediately. About a year after their arrival in Wisconsin they received a phone call telling them that their son had been found and that they wanted to send him to join his family as soon as possible.

The young boy landed in Platteville, Wisconsin of all places. My job was to tutor him three times a week and to help him get through his English classes. I was very surprised and dismayed after our first meeting. The school had decided to put him in English classes based solely on his age and not his ability level. The book that the students in that classes were reading was To Kill a Mockingbird. I really was surprised that this student was reading the book to begin with and even more surprised when the teacher saw nothing wrong with a students, with little or no English base reading a book steeped in Southern culture and language. The student’s task was to read the chapter and then answer comprehension questions about what he read.

I wished I could transport myself back to that moment. I knew that this book was not the best book for this student but didn’t feel that I had the authority to tell the teacher how they should be handling this student or what it is they should be doing with him. The student and I struggle through an entire quarter of this book and tried quite hard to get through it.

One thing I also took from this chapter is that it is okay to change up the reading activities in a class. Right now I do Literature Circles in my class and the response has ranged from positive to negative. I do feel that the Literature Circles are extremely valuable in my classroom. The required journal entries ask for a personal reaction, prediction and reflection on the discussion. In addition to the journal responses, students are asked to complete a job that focuses on one particular aspect of reading. Although I really like Literature Circles I realize now that there are a many more ways I can approach reading in my classroom and provide students with an opportunity to discover books more.

I really want to take a couple of steps back in my reading classroom and begin by giving students a self-assessment. I never really have done this and I’m kind of kicking myself right now that I have no idea what types of books some of my students like. I have one student, in particular, who never really seems to like ANYTHING we read in class. A self-assessment seems to be such an easy way to find this out about him.

I also have gotten so many other ideas for integrating independent reading into my classroom. Students need to have an opportunity to talk, in some fashion, about what they are reading. Literature Circles accomplish that but I also see the importance of personal choice in reading material. Since we have just finished up our first whole Literature Circle book I am going to allow students the time and space to read more independently.

I realize now that when my students lay around on the floor reading that there is something important happening. What we need to do as teachers is to find ways and opportunities for students to talk about what they are reading and to respond to the text.

I also really like the idea of reading portfolios in my classroom. I would love students to have a way to showcase what it is they are reading and to give them an opportunity to showcase their reading for others.

ePortfolios

Hey Everyone! In my search for a way to create ePortfolios to use in my classroom I came across this information. I thought it would be helpful for anyone interested in creating an ePortfolio for this class. Although I haven't had time to read it in depth yet it looked promising.

http://eportfolios.googlepages.com/howto

I'm going to play around with this a bit and let everyone know how it goes.

Portfolios

My first encounter with portfolios happened in my sixth grade Language Arts class. Mrs. Marsh was my teacher. What I remember about our portfolios then was that we did not have access to them. Mrs. Marsh was afraid we would lose the pieces. Portfolios were these coveted manila folders that each of our Language Arts teachers seemed to get year after year. I hated writing with a passion in middle school. I never felt like I was a good writer and I was that student in the class doodling or staring at the paper not knowing what to write. Mrs. Marsh would come over at the end of the hour and would look at my blank paper and me and just sigh. Sometimes I think back to myself in Mrs. Marsh’s class when I have a bad day with students and I hear the old adage “what goes around come around”. Sometimes I think God has pointed me on the teacher path just because He knew it was the only way to get back at me and make me pay.

Back to portfolios. So, we would write in Mrs. Marsh’s class and then every once in a while she would hand out “reflection” sheets. She would then pass out the manila folders with our work for that quarter or grading period and our job was to reflect on which one we liked the best and why and which one we liked the least and why. I remember hating these activities. I knew I had to pick one to be the “best” and another to be the “worst” when I knew that all of them were fairly atrocious. I knew the quality of my work was poor and yet I felt like I was phoning it in just to be done with the activity.

My next big encounter with portfolios was in college. We had to create a portfolio that would be reviewed by the School of Ed people. If they deemed it quality enough they would admit us to the School of Ed. If it wasn’t good enough they would ask you to revise it and set up another interview. For weeks before the interviews and the portfolio presentations every student hoping to get in the School of Ed. was in a flurry. People were printing, cutting, pasting, drawing and printing. Advisors were booked solid and the library was in tatters as the students hoping to get into the School of Ed. prepared their portfolios. The day of the interviews came. We all dressed up. I probably even wore a skirt. We were armed with the portfolios that would show the evaluators that were READY to be teachers. One by one people were called in and a few minutes later they would come back out. Those of us standing in line were starting to feel a bit nervous. Why was the line moving so fast? Soon it was my turn and I walked into the room and sat down. I then noticed something strange about my evaluators. They were all professors, but only one was a professor from the School of Ed. They took my portfolio that I had so laboriously prepared, flipped through it quickly to make sure it had all the required items. Asked me a few questions about why I should be admitted to the School of Ed. and then said “congratulations”. I felt cheated. I was angry. I walked out of there with this huge portfolio that I had really worked to showcase my worth as a future teacher and all I got was a 5 minute audience with the basketball coach. I didn’t have the heart to throw my portfolio away. I still have it in the back of a closet at my mom’s house.

The point I’m trying to make is that just because we use portfolios doesn’t mean that they are effective. In the first instance, I was unmotivated to write and the reflection aspect of the portfolio felt forced and fake. I did not see an improvement in my writing. It had all seemed the same to me. I did the reflection activity, the “biggest” activity associated with the portfolio not because I really wanted to explore the areas I had improved on but because Mrs. Marsh was requiring it for the class and if I came home with any more bad grades my dad would be M-A-D! In the second instance I had put a lot of time and effort into creating the portfolio only to find that the evaluators weren’t even interested in examining the portfolio or asking me any questions related to the portfolio. I felt I had invested a lot of time and the final evaluation was a let down.

As I was reading this chapter I kept envisioning myself implementing portfolios in my classroom. They are a great idea but in all honesty, seems like it will take a lot of work and dedication to put into effect into my classroom. The benefits of portfolios greatly outweigh the work and I am convinced that I need to focus more effort on developing portfolios in my classroom.

I currently use a writing workshop that I found randomly online. I chose that particular format because it was designed to be a 10 day workshop. I know, I know, I know. I should have researched more formats and given more time to choosing the one that I thought would work the best with my learners. The “10-day” portion of the title flashed before me like a neon sign and since the greatest need at that time was to get students through writing pieces as quickly as possible. After using the writing workshop though I really, really found out how much I had lucked out.

This particular writing workshop sets up guidelines and criteria for each piece the student writes, has students set goals, asks students to respond to each other in a peer group and uses mini-lessons to help students achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. The whole purpose of the writing workshop is that students were taking ownership for their writing and moving themselves through the writing process.

As I continued to read this chapter it became evident to me that I already have the structure for using portfolios in place in my classroom. The students have already become accustomed to the format of the writing workshop and at this point I could introduce portfolios into the mix without it being too much.

There are so many different ways that teachers can implement portfolios in their class. I love that this chapter highlighted ways to use the portfolios in math and science classes as well. As a math teacher I often struggle to show my students of the progress they have made. A portfolio would be a perfect way to do this.

I am particularly interested in creating ePortfolios. I have done some research on this subject and would like to begin using them. Since most of my students’ parents have internet access I think this would be a perfect way to showcase what we are doing in school and get parents involved more. It would also allow students an opportunity to readily go back through their pieces and reflect on their writing. If anyone has any ideas or websites they would like to share for ePortfolios I would be happy to have them!

A Big Blog About Both Readings

I have a ton of thoughts about the two readings for today. I decided to try to write one big blog instead of two shorter ones.

First though...some news from Oscarville.

The river has officially been deemed frozen enough for travel and we received mail yesterday. It was the first time in almost a month.

My mom sent four packages and inside one was this...which I put on Macy as soon as possible. Here she is in all her misery.


After the thrill of dressing my dog up wore off I decided it was time to complete my homework for the day.

I began with the Solon-Flores article.

Sigh.

There are so many issues with testing of English Language Learners. Just within the "who" section I realized how deep that idea of "who" goes. We are so accustomed to throwing and group students in neat little categories that we overlook all those things that differentiate our learners. The idea that ELLs are overrepresented in Special Education programs and underrepresented in gifted and talented programs really hit me hard. I get so frustrated with the teachers who constantly bag on their students in terms of what they "can't do" and totally ignore their areas of strength. I think educators really need to support and encourage each other not to look at what ELLs "can't do" but how they "can do it" and differentiate their programs to fit their learner's strengths.

According to Solano-Flores ELLs don't fit nicely into a one size fits all category. There are many different cultural nuances and specifics that are gravely overlooked in tests. Solano-Flores continues to say that language carries many social connotations in it and that the tests we give many ELLs don't address the social aspects or cultural aspects of language.

Also of concern are the accommodations we give ELLs. Again it is dangerous to lump ELLs into the same category and to just say that they all have the same needs. What test givers often don't realize is that not all our students benefit from the same accommodations. It also infuriates me that many ELLs are simply given SpEd accommodations.

So, I felt a little...well, I don't know...pessimistic about the whole idea of testing and kept thinking of my students and having to watch them take those horrible tests. I think of the kids who fulfill graduation requirements but don't receive a diploma because they cannot pass a high-stakes tests and I get emotional when I think of that. What kind of life are we leaving our students with if at the age of 18 or 19 they already have "failed". What kind of message is that sending this generation of youth?

Then I read the next article and got a little more pumped up. Yeah! I was so happy to see that research had been done in this area in rural Alaska! Finally something that hits home and makes me feel like the students up here aren't being ignored and that this population is being taken in to consideration.

It seems that the there are so many hypocrisies in regards to education. When I first began teaching here I was given advice on how to make my lessons more culturally based and how to integrate culture more into the classroom. Then we give our students high stakes tests that totally disregard culture and the students cultural beliefs and backgrounds. Sometimes I feel teachers are torn between culturally appropriate lessons and lessons that will help them to achieve on the tests and meet AYP. As stated in the article, what usually happens is that culturally appropriate curriculum gets abandoned in favor of test prep. This seems to start a downward cycle of students more and more separated from their culture and given a curriculum they feel more and more unsuccessful with.

Another thing that I connected with in this article was the idea of silence. When I first arrived in my village I was stunned by how quiet my students were. It took me a long time to be able to change my way of thinking and to be okay with walking into a classroom that wasn't overflowing with loud noises and conversations. Also, I've learned to listen more in other ways...that sometimes responses don't have to be verbal to be accurate.

The picture of elders coming into the classroom and working with students is something that I believe should be happening in all cultures but especially with our students.

Testing the Test

Every time I design a test or project I have this underlying sense of dread. What if everyone fails? What if I haven’t prepared students correctly? What if everyone bombs it and I have to make a new test?

I really hate the reading curriculum in our school district. The tests at the end of each unit are constructed mainly of fixed response format items in the form of multiple-choice items, fill in the blank, matching, true/false, short answer and essay. It takes me almost as long to prepare my students for the tests as it does for them to read one or two of the stories in the book and to go through the entire comprehension process. There are many times I hand student a test and I still get incorrect answers to questions I went over in class only a day before and I feel frustrated. As a lover of reading I felt that some of my most wonderful reading moments in school happened when I was allowed to draw my own conclusions and create projects and assignments that showed the rest of the class how I felt about the book and how I related to it. I hated the reading tests that I would get in high school and college where I was supposed to match definitions and talk about the literary elements. Sure, students need to know that stuff, but I think there is a lot to be said in giving them the tools for discovering those things and then allowing them room to discover them. Students are supposed to know about theme and literary elements but I feel that what we are doing is forcing them to regurgitate information instead of discovering it for themselves in a meaningful way.

Another beef I have with our district are the proficiency tests that we give our students. The problem that I have seen so far with tests and giving tests is that most of the time the examiners vary in terms of how they judge the test. Quite often, the way the teacher grades or determines if a student is proficient may not be how the next teacher sees it. This causes a lot of frustration in our district.

One thing I reacted strongly to in this chapter was the idea that tests are validated enough to satisfy the politicians and other stake holders. After watching two students struggle through the HSGQE this past week I can’t help but feel angry that the people who decide if the test is good aren’t the ones sitting in a room for 5 or more hours trying to pass it so they can get a high school diploma. Yet, these students don’t have a say. They aren’t being asked how they felt about the test or given alternative opportunities to show that they are proficient in a content area. I also reacted to the fact that many tests aren’t validated because validation is hard and technical and expensive. I’m glad that all those people were able to get high school diplomas before this silly idea of high stakes testing came into play. Do you think they would still feel it too much of a burden if they had to begin more high stakes tests in their lives. Perhaps every time they wanted a raise or were up for a promotion they had to sit in a little room taking a test that they may or may not be prepared for and have that feeling in the pit of their stomach that they are running out of opportunities to pass the test. Perhaps if they sat in a student’s chair sweating it out they would think differently about the expense of making sure the test is valid.

Multiplicity

Here is a picture of me and Macy reading this article. If you can notice, she's lost a little bit of weight. She loves carrots. She also really loves the concept of "multiplism".

As we were reading this Macy and I were discussing some of the assessments I use in my classes. One class I really would love to develop stronger assessment methods for is my writing class. I often feel that I need to constantly edit and help the students revise everything they write. I often forget that every once in awhile I need to give them an assessment to see what they can do on-demand without my help. There is just as much value in allowing them to make mistakes and not talking about them as are there are in discussing key issues in their papers.

Again, the ideas of portfolios came up and again, lol, if anyone has some advice or websites I can visit to get some help in starting the implemetation of portfolios in my own clasroom I would greatly appreciate it.

One thing that I seem to tend to forget as a teacher sometimes is that we are constantly assessing the language use of our students. Today I had studnets define "apartheid" and they all looked in their books and copied down the definition the book gave. I then had them create a concept map on the board of all their different definitions. The final step was to have them partner up and pretend that I was a 10 year old and they had to explain the "book" definition in simpler terms. Many of my students struggled the activity and it really made me understand that this concept of apartheid was still new and unfamiliar to them. Although it was a quick and relatively unintrusive assessment I still was assessing where my students were in terms of understanding and defining this concept.

Top Design

In the past few years LKSD has attempted to include more authentic assessment in our curriculum. The theory and ideal behind the phase system was to create more authentic assessments for students that aligned with the state and district standards. However, the implementation of the phase system has had quite a few...hiccups (I'm being nice) .

However, I applaud the LKSD's District Office staff for one very valuable experience that I really wish they would continue. Every fall, the DO would ask students to participate in a district wide writing assessment. The students would respond, on demand to a writing prompt at their phase level. We would then send the writing samples in to the DO to be assessed at the Writing Assessment Training.

I was unable to attend the writing assessment training for two years due to the fact that the river was freezing up and we were stuck in Oscarville. Last year I was fortunate to hitchhike a helicopter ride to the assessment and found it one of the most valuable trainings I have participated in since coming to work in LKSD.

For three days teachers from all over the district joined together to grade all assessments. We were trained how to assess the papers using the same analytical scoring guide we used in our classrooms. For three days we debated, argued and reasoned with each other about how to score and why we chose to score the way we did. When I was reading this chapter I kept seeing myself at the training and although I did feel that the training was valuable while I was there I now see the value of it even more so and really wish that it was something that the district chose to keep going.

I'm kind of saddened that LKSD chose to not participate in this type of training any longer because it cost too much to fly in and house teachers for the three days. However, a few teachers from neighboring villages to Oscarville have expressed interest in doing our own little writing assessment and continuing the tradition on a much smaller scale.

One idea from this reading that I thought was so important was the idea that we need to take the assessments ourselves and score our own papers. It seems like such a no brainer that we put ourselves in our students' positions to try to understand what it is we are asking them to do.

One more idea that struck home with me is the idea that not all problems with assessments are going to be solved simply by switching to authentic assessments. I find that many of the assessments created with the phase system are much harder than some of the multiple choice tests at the end of a chapter. One example is that many of the reading assessments are very highly-language dependent. I spend much of my time showing students how to construct answers to certain questions just so they know how to answer them on the test and have a model of how to answer those questions. Although I do feel that it is necessary to show students how to answer questions on a test I feel that I spend more time showing them how to answer the test questions sometimes than I do on talking about the literature or having them create a project or participate in other meaningful activities.

Grades...I feel pretty strongly about grades. I often get frustrated at the fact that I have to sit down and do so many grade calculation for each of the classes I teach but the students seem to care very little about their grades. Grades really do not motivate me as a learner and in high school and even college grades meant very little to me. I don't get motivated by seeing A's on a report card. When I was in college I often felt like I did some mediocre work that received good grades and some pretty good work that got some hard criticism from my professors.

As a teacher I find that many of my students are not really all that motivated by grades. Most of them don't come in with their parents to conferences and when I do sit down and talk to them they nod their head and tell me what I want to hear and then walk away to do something else but their homework. It's frustrating. I want students to care about their grades but more importantly I want them to be motivated to do homework and to set goals for themselves.

What I would really like to be a part of in my school and district is to design more authentic assessments for our learners. I really wish that the district would lead unserviced in how we can guide and coach students to set their own goals and to become motivated learners and how we can create better authentic assessments.

Also, after reading this article I really, really, really, want to use portfolios and have the students present their portfolios to the community at the end of the year. If anyone uses electronic portfolios I would love to pick your brain!