Assessment, which involves collecting information about or evidence of your students' learning, is a continual and integral part of quality teaching. In fact, teaching without continual assessment is akin to "teaching without the children" (Fountas and Pinnell, 2001).

The District Elementary Literacy Assessment Framework prescribes the specific assessments to be used at each grade level across the year. In September, January, and June, teachers conduct universal screenings; they assess all students in the areas of reading, writing, and spelling against established district benchmarks. In the intervening months, teachers use a variety of methods for progress monitoring during the daily reading and writing workshops. Assessment data helps teachers plan whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one instruction. For additional information, visit the district's Response to Intervention page.

Universal Screening Assessments
All classroom teachers use the following tools to assess all students formally three times a year at the grade levels indicated. The same tools are used district-wide.

Language Screening (Entering K) assesses students' expressive and receptive language.

Fine Motor Screening (Entering K) assesses students' ability to perform fine motor tasks.

Concepts of Print (K) assesses students' book-handling skills and knowledge including L-R directionality, front-to-back progression, and awareness of sentences, words, and letters.

Letter/Sound Identification (K-1) assesses students' knowledge of upper and lower case letter names and associated sounds.

Phonological Awareness Assessment (K-1) assesses students' ability to hear and name discrete sounds in spoken language, to segment words into sounds, to blend sounds into words, to produce rhymes and to count syllables.

High-Frequency Word List (K-3+) assesses students' automatic recognition of words that appear most commonly in print.

Words Their Way Spelling Inventory (1-5) assesses students' stages of spelling development.

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (K-5) uses a running record, miscue analysis, fluency rubric, and comprehension conversation to assess students' use of cueing systems; fluency; and comprehension within, about, and beyond fiction and nonfiction texts.

Progress Monitoring Tools

All classroom teachers use the following established tools and methods to monitor and document students' progress across the year and to inform instruction.

AUSSIE Comprehension Strategy Rubric (K-5) tracks students' comprehension development over time. It is not a stand-alone assessment; rather it is a cumulative record of students' demonstrated skills. View the K-2 Early Readers Rubric and the 3-8 Fluent Readers Rubric. See also a set of frequently asked questions about the AUSSIE Comprehension Strategy Rubrics.

Reading Conferences (K-5) are one-on-one conversations in which the teacher probes the student's current reading behaviors (use of cueing systems, word analysis strategies, fluency, comprehension strategies) and teaches him/her something specific that is both immediately useful and generally transferrable.

Informal Running Records (K-5) occur when teachers listen to individual students read a text aloud. Teachers annotate a copy of the text, recording words students read correctly and using a coding system to record students' miscues, omissions, substitutions, and self-corrections. Teachers pose questions to assess students' literal and inferential comprehension of the text.
Additional means of progress monitoring in reading are summarized here.

Other Assessment Tools and Methods

Anecdotal Records

• Anecdotal notes are brief comments about observed behaviors of students. Teachers may record anecdotal notes while observing students during independent reading, reading conferences, partner reading, guided reading, strategy groups and book clubs.
• Behaviors observed range from noting reading stamina, volume and independence as well as use of reading strategies and comprehension strategies. Specifically, the notes taken by the teacher highlight the strategies the student is demonstrating as well as the suggested next steps for instruction.
• Teachers keep anecdotal notes in a variety of ways ranging from paper record keeping to electronically. The following are sample individual and whole-class conferring templates:
• Individual Conferring Template
• Whole-class Conferring Template

Audiotape Recordings

• Audio recordings involve a student making and listening to a recording of his/her oral reading. Teachers and students can listen to audio recordings and note the reader's fluency, reading rate and word accuracy by using a checklist or rubric created by the teacher and students. As with all diagnostic assessments the data gathered from an audio recording is used to plan for follow up instruction.

Reading Logs

• Reading logs are tools used to track students' reading volume and stamina as well as reading interests (e.g., genre, author, theme and topic). Reading volume and stamina, along with reading appropriate books, reading with fluency and reading with critical literacy are directly linked to reading proficiency and therefore it is important for students to monitor their reading habits (Allington, 2001).
• Reading logs vary in format and differ across the grades. To assess a student's reading stamina and volume it is important that the reading log template has students record text level, number of pages read, and the number of minutes read.
• Teachers and students can review and analyze reading logs together during conferences, small group instruction to assess student reading volume, stamina and interest. Students can also review their logs independently and write a reflection about their reading habits as well as use the data to set goals.
• Listed below are sample reading logs K-5, a list of things to notice when reviewing completed logs and the research findings of Richard Allington regarding reading volume.
• Engagement Observation Form
• Emergent Reading Log
• Transitional Reader Reading Log
• Rereading Log
• Upper Grade Reading Log
• Upper Grade Reading Log with Goal
• Predictable Problems and Teaching Points for Assessing Reading Logs
• Allington Reading Volume Chart

Writing About Reading

• Students respond to their reading in a different ways (talking, sketching, coding, jotting) including writing about reading. Writing about reading is a way for students to monitor comprehension, share thinking and gather ideas for partnerships and book clubs. Students writing about reading may be formal or informal ranging asking questions, jotting new learning, ideas and reactions to texts read. Students may record their thinking on Post-its, graphic organizers or reading notebooks or in a reader's notebook. Students often use a coding system to jot their thinking in a efficient and purposeful manner.
• As a way to scaffold the process of writing about reading, teachers begin by modeling different ways to respond to texts read during read aloud and shared reading. Students practice writing about reading during guided reading and independent reading.

Observational Checklists

• Checklists are another tool teachers and students use to keep track of student reading behaviors, habits and use of strategies. Teachers may create checklists to monitor student progress during reading conferences, guided reading, strategy groups, reading partnerships and book clubs. Students may use checklists to self-assess their reading habits, behaviors and strategy use. Data gathered from checklists is used to plan for follow up instruction as well as determine reading goals for students.

Writing Assessment Tools and Methods
All classroom teachers use a variety of tools and methods to assess and document students' development as writers. Teachers use the data to plan for whole class, small group and one-on-one targeted instruction.
Progress monitoring methods teachers may use are summarized below.

Writing Conferences

• Writing conferences are opportunities for teachers to meet with students one-on-one to identify their individual writing strengths, areas of need and provide appropriate instruction. Similar to reading conferences, writing conferences have a predictable structure which includes research, decide, teach, guided practice and link. (For more information please view the Workshop Model page.)
• Artifacts such as writer's notebooks, drafts and planners may be used in conferences to assess the writing needs and determine next steps for teaching.

Small Group Instruction

• Teachers use ongoing data gathered to plan, facilitate and provide small group instruction to students with similar writing needs. Guided writing groups and writing strategy groups are types of small group instructional practices. Effective small group instruction includes explicit instruction (modeling strategy), guided practice and a link to remind students to transfer the strategy taught to other pieces of writing.

Anecdotal Records

• Anecdotal notes are brief comments about observed behaviors of students.
• Behaviors observed range from studying students initiatives as writers (purpose, genre, audience), how well students write (meaning, genre, structure, detail, voice, conventions) and students writing processes (rehearsal, drafting, revision, editing).
• Specifically, the notes taken by the teacher highlight the strategies the student is demonstrating as well as the suggested next steps for instruction.
• Teachers may record anecdotal notes while observing students during independent writing, conferences, guided writing, and strategy groups as well as by reading students' writing notebooks, drafts, and published pieces.
• Teachers keep anecdotal notes in a variety of ways ranging from paper record keeping to electronically. The following are sample individual and whole-class conferring templates:
• Individual Conferring Template
• Whole Class Conferring Template

Observational Checkslists

• Observational checklists are another tool teachers and students use to keep track of student writing behaviors, habits, use of writing strategies.
• Teachers may create checklists to monitor student progress during conferences, guided writing groups, or strategy groups. Students may use checklists to self-assess their writing habits, behaviors, use of writing strategies. Data gathered from checklists is used to plan for follow up instruction as well as determine individual writing goals for students.

Student Writing

• Teachers use students' ongoing writing (drafts, writer's notebooks, published pieces) to assess and plan for whole class, small group instruction and one-on-one writing conferences.
• Teachers analyze writing pieces by looking at the various qualities of writing which include the following: meaning (Does the writer communicate meaning?), genre (Does the writer demonstrate knowledge of the genre?), structure (Does the writer structure his/her writing?), detail (Does the writer write with purposeful detail?), voice (Is the voice of the writer evident?), and conventions (Does the writer use conventional grammar, punctuation and spelling?).

On Demand Writing Assessments

• On demand writing assessments are a diagnostic assessment that teachers typically administer at the beginning, middle and end of the year as a way to assess what the students can do independently. Teachers will assess the writing strategies students use independently as well as their ability to take a piece through the writing process (rehearsing, drafting and revising).
• On demand writing assessments are unique because students are given a prompt and spend one to two writing workshops composing a response on their own. Sample prompts include the following: (1) "Think of a true story of one time in your life that you remember and write about with all the detail that you can remember" (2) "There are often people in our lives who are really important to us. Write about one moment you spent with a person who really matters to you. Tell the story of that moment."

Writer's Notebooks

• The writer's notebook is a tool used by students in the intermediate grades whereas primary writers use booklets (of varying page length) and writing folders.
• Students use their writer's notebook during the collecting and rehearsing stages of the writing process. A writer's notebook, in other words, is a place students collect artifacts, ideas and compose entries as they "try out" possible writing ideas. After students collect and rehearse a variety of ideas and move into the drafting phase of the writing process they move out of the writer's notebook into drafting paper. Students may work on composing several drafts based on the ideas and entries gathered in the notebook and will choose a draft to extensively develop, revise and edit as they move through the final stages of the writing process. As students move the grades the use of the conventions becomes more sophisticated. To learn more about the grade level expectations for conventions view the district writing conventions continuum.

Writing Rubrics

• A rubric is a tool used for analyzing student writing. Rubrics are unique and particularly effective because they include the specific criteria for a piece of work.
• During a unit of study in writing teachers will often create a rubric for both the teacher and students use to assess the published piece. Creating rubrics with students is effective because it can be tailored to a particular unit of study or genre as well as be written in student friendly language.
• The AUSSIE Writing Rubrics K-5 are being used by many teachers as a way to assess student writing and growth over time. The rubrics are grade level specific and can be used to assess writing that spans all genres. Specifically the rubrics focus on a student's level of proficiency (performing well below grade level, approaching grade level, performing at grade level, exceeding grade level) in the following areas: habits, ideas and voice, organization, language features, revision, and conventions.

Writing Continua

• A continuum is a tool teachers use to determine a student's stage of writing development. Teachers use the indicators described for each stage to determine the writer's phase of development. Similar to reading, oral language and spelling development, all students move through the writing stages of development. The rate with which a student moves from one stage to the next will differ from student to student.

• One recommended continuum is The First Steps Writing Developmental Continuum which describes the writing stages of development as follows: Phase 1 Role Play Writing, Phase 2 Experimental Writing, Phase 3 Early Writing, Phase 4 Conventional Writing, Phase 5 Proficient Writing and Phase 6 Advanced Writing. Teachers assess student writing by identifying the indicators the writer is demonstrating in four distinct areas: (1) content, organization and contextual understandings, (2) concepts and conventions, (3) strategies and (4) attitude.
  
  
• Another recommended continuum is the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Narrative Continuum K-8. This continuum for assessing writing reflects the developmental stages young writers move through during their elementary and intermediate years. When assessing student writing teachers look at the indicators listed for each of the twelve stages of development. Teachers assess student writing specifically by looking at the indicators the writer is demonstratating in four areas: structure, elaboration/show don't tell, concept of writing/craft and meaning/significance. Teachers find this continuum particularly helpful because included with the continuum are two anchor student samples for each of the writing stages. For additional information please visit the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Web site .

 

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