Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

August 18, 2012 EDU 741

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

INTRODUCTION
Peter Afflerbach describes reading assessment as allowing us to assess and understand the strengths and needs of each of our students (Afflerbach, 2012, p.4). In a society where assessment has taken a front seat in education, teachers have become accustomed to administering a variety of assessments each day. They pass out the test, look through assessment results, score the data, and repeat. The concept seems easy enough, but Johnston and Costello say it best in their article about literacy assessment. It is not just what gets assessed, but how it is assessed that has implications for what is learned (Johnston & Costello, 2005, p.256). We are now seeing the critical role of assessments and how they can shape the learning environment of our classrooms. Assessments are no longer simply seen as the end of a unit, but rather the map for differentiating our literacy instruction. It informs the teaching that takes place daily, and provides our students with the crucial tools to succeed in literacy by meeting their diverse needs.

QUESTION
When thinking about the academic area of literacy, I pondered over the different types of assessments that are currently being used in K-3 classrooms, as well as the frequency of their administration. This led me to further investigate the great importance of literacy assessment and I set out to pose to my colleagues the measurable question of How does formative and summative assessment drive and inform your classroom literacy instruction?. This would help me understand how effective our own school is at utilizing assessment data to best meet the needs of our diverse readers and writers.

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

SURVEY
My survey, created by SurveyMonkey, contained eight questions in all. The first six were used to pinpoint the formative and summative assessments that are currently being used at Vivian Hussey Primary School, as well as the teachers opinions on the importance of each assessment type and the frequency at which they are used. Multiple choice and open response were used to formulate these results. The last two questions of my survey were open-ended questions, in which participants were asked to use essay boxes to provide information on their literacy assessment belief and additional comments. The survey was presented as follows: 1. How often are formative assessments used in your classroom? -Annually, Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Never 2. 3. What types of formative assessment do you currently use? How useful is formative assessment data when planning literacy instruction? -Very useful, A little useful, Not at all, N/A 4. How often are summative assessments used in your classroom? -Annually, Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Never 5. 6. What types of summative assessment do you currently use? How useful is summative assessment data when planning literacy instruction? -Very useful, A little useful, Not at all, N/A 7. 8. I believe assessment informs literacy instruction in the classroom because... Any additional comments regarding literacy assessment and instruction?

The following link can be used to access this survey...

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WJK3BY8

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

DATA ANALYSIS
In the two week span that my survey was conducted, I was able to receive 11 respondents. These were coincidently, all classrooms teachers from grades K through 3. The survey solidified that participants do indeed administer a variety of summative and formatives assessments throughout the school year and find them to be most beneficial when informing instruction. Participants believed that formative assessments, those used as an assessment for and during learning, were essential in differentiating instruction for individual literacy needs. The following graphs are based on survey results.

Teachers Surveyed 7 5.25 3.5 1.75 0 Daily Weekly Monthly Annually How often are formative assessments used in your classroom? This bar graph indicates that 7 out of the 11 surveyed educators reported that they use some form of formative assessment daily in their classroom during Literacy. Results varied from running records, anecdotal notes, observation checklists, fluency passages, phonics assessments, and sight word lists. Of the teachers who did not use formative assessment daily, 4 reported that

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

they do administer this type of assessment at least once per week. Few teachers accounted that they use formative assessment monthly or annually (2 respondents). Teachers Surveyed 6 4.5 3 1.5 0 Daily Weekly Monthly Annually How often are summative assessments used in your classroom? Summative assessment, the assessment of learning, typically is given at the end of a unit. Due to the nature of this assessment, results varied from formative assessment. This graph shows that NO survey participants stated that they use summative assessment daily in their classroom. One teacher reported that they use summative assessment weekly, while most respondents use it monthly (6 teachers) during their Literacy block. A surprising 3 teachers say they use summative assessment only one time throughout an entire given school year. Some of the summative assessments commonly used were the Developmental Reading Assessment, Observation Survey (Reading Recovery), DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), and yearly sight word lists.

Assessment and Literacy Instruction How useful is literacy assessment when planning literacy instruction?

Tracy Roberts

Summative Assessment ! !

Formative Assessment Not at all A Little Useful Very Useful

9% 36% 55%

100%

Among the 11 survey respondents, there was a large trend as far as usefulness of literacy assessments. ALL participants reported that they find formative assessment to be very useful when planning literacy instruction. This was not the case for summative assessment. A small fraction of respondents (9%) claim that summative assessment is not helpful to them at all when planning their short or long-term literacy instruction. 55% of teachers surveyed commented that they find summative assessment results to be a little useful when targeting instruction. Only 36% of participants stated that they find summative assessment very useful and actually analyze the data derived from these assessments and use it when accommodating or modifying instruction for their students. I truly believe that in conducting this survey, I learned more about my colleagues and their assessment practices from the open-response questions. When left to finish the following statement, I believe assessment informs literacy instruction in the classroom because..., I was able to see what my colleagues deem as the significance of literacy assessments. The most commonly used answer was that it shows you the needs of the student and guides you in the direction needed to help the student continue to grow. One teacher quoted that it can be used to

Assessment and Literacy Instruction

Tracy Roberts

modify and validate instruction, to determine deficits in a student's knowledge base and to adjust instruction accordingly. Other responses include... It helps me know what skills they are using as a reader and what skills need work on. You can assess what strategies a child uses and what you should prompt for next. It tells you what you either need to reteach or move ahead and teach. It let's us know where our students stand and how to meet their needs. It shows you where your students are in their development. Shows you which elements of your instruction are working better than others. It allows me to respond instantly to a child's needs and he/she can learn in a more organic and meaningful way. This survey has showed me that we need Professional Development opportunities OR better summative assessments in place that can be used to truly drive instruction and better our teaching. Teachers seem to be administering the assessments just to administer and that isnt conducive to best practice and effective teaching. With time running against us in a busy school year, teachers should be making the most of all teachable moments. Although not as timely and immediate as formative assessment, summative assessment has an important place in any classroom and should be used to inform instruction as well. Assessment should continue to provide us with the data that is needed for our balanced literacy approach.

Assessment and Literacy Instruction References

Tracy Roberts

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K-12 (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Costello, P., & Johnston, P. (2005). Theory and research into practice: Principles for literacy assessment. Reading Research Quarterly, 40(2), 256-267.