Introduction

Hello! My name is Rebecca Gerard, and I am a graduate student at the University of Florida. Welcome to my professional blog.  I have and will be posting assignments from various colleges classes I take in order to earn my masters degree in reading.  Most are learning logs from required and recommended readings. 

My family lives in the Florida panhandle.  We live about five minutes from the most beautiful, peaceful beaches.  The beach is one of my favorite places to be.  I grew up in western New York State, and I have also lived in the Tampa Bay area and southern Alaska. 

I received my Bachelors degree from St. John Fisher College, and then went on to teach at a local head start for three years.  I have taught kindergarten for three years in Florida.  I am currently homeschooling my seven year old daughter.  This spring, I will be teaching readers theater to a small group of six through nine year olds at the homeschool coop we attend. 

I enjoy cooking, sewing, swimming, and spending time with my family.  We have one cat and two miniature dachshunds. 

One day, I hope to write children's books, become a reading coach, or teach college classes.

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 5 (weeks 14-15)

"The literature on school-level reform presents multiple studies on the complexities of school-level change, specifically school infrastructure arguments" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 23).  Research also shows that restructuring alone will not help (Baccellieri, 2010).

"The nature of relationships among the adults within a school is another critical factor related to the success of reform efforts" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 23).  Collaborative leadership practices are imperative. 

Baccellieri (2010) states that some literature suggests that in order to make significant change in the culture of a school, multiple rather than a single reform strategy must be implemented so the reform will take hold.

     In developing a framework aimed at improving teaching and learning leading to improved student
     achievement, the five core principles as stated by Baccellieri (2010) are as follows: 

1. Improve student learning by improving classroom instruction...
2. Improve classroom instruction through teacher learning of  new knowledge, skills, and dispositions...
3. Support teacher learning through professional learning communities...
4. Structure professional learning communities by providing teachers with the time and resources to discuss student learning outcomes and how to improve those outcomes...
5. Encourage shared discussion of standards-based formative assessments, including student writing, conducted in a professional learning community supported by multiple systems and structures, which can lead to changes in classroom practice. (p.31-32)

 "The term professional learning community is self-defining" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 47).

"Isolation is the enemy of improvement" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 72).

In order for teacher meetings and collaborative efforts to improve teaching and learning, a climate of trust an mutual respect is vital.  Curriculum consistency within and across grades is important and providing new instruction materials may be an important first step (Baccellieri, 2010).

Teachers need to have opportunities to talk about and reflect on their practices.  These types of conversations foster change (Baccellieri, 2010).

"Acceptance of collective responsibility for improving teaching and learning is an important characteristic of a professional learning community" (Baccellieri, 2010, p. 121). Innovation with a view to improve student achievement is fundamental to gaining teachers' growing expertise and skill in a PLC (Baccellieri, 2010).

     Data demonstrate that by making connections among the degree of rigor expected of the student
     work, the focus for weekly grade-level team meetings, and teacher professional development
     workshops, this reform has the potential to accelerate the quality of teacher conversations on    
     teaching and learning. (p. 146-147)

This approach also has the potential to providing educaaators the ability to address student learning needs today rather than waiting for the reform to become established (Baccellieri, 2010).




References

Baccellieri, P. (2010). Professional learning communities: Using data in decision making to improve student learning. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.

 

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 4 (weeks 11-13)

Response to Intervention (RTI) normally involves three tiers of support.  The first tier "represents instruction and services available to all students, generally provided at the classroom level" (Brozo, 2009-2010).  Brozo (2009-2010) goes on to explain the second tier's objective is to work short-term with small groups of students who need help.  Tier three involves the more intense level of instruction.  It is usually carried out on a one-to-one basis.  The tier of support a student is placed in depends on their needs with the least amount of extra support provided for the student to make successful gains (Brozo, 2009-2010).

Interestingly, the majority of research done on RTI is at the elementary level.  As a result, middle and high schools have been forced to devise their own intervention plans.  Three vital questions for secondary professionals when considering how they are going to devise an RTI-like program include:

1. Is RTI a feasible structure for secondary literacy?
2. Is RTI the most effective model for a comprehensive secondary literacy program?
3. Can RTI provide responsive literacy instruction for all students (Brozo, 2009-2010)?

RTI's goal is to prevent reading difficulties.  There are many details that need to be worked out in order to insure that RTI can be successful at the secondary level, and all teachers must be on board and commited to making RTI work (Brozo, 2009-2010).

     "The key principle of RTI² is that any intervention is predicated on the notion that Tier 1 core
     instruction is responsive, standards-based, and data-driven... instruction be scaffolded so that
     students on all points of the learning continuum can benefit from the educational environment of
     the general education classroom." (Fischer & Frey, 2010, p. 25)
 

References

Brozo, W. G. (2009-2010). Response to intervention or responsive instruction?  Challenges and possibilites of response to intervention for adolescent literacy.  Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53 (4), 277-281.


Fischer, D. & Frey, N. (2010). Enhancing RTI: How to ensure success with effective classroom instruction and intervention.Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Article: What Reflects a Great School? Not Test Scores

Assessments and schools

 I found this article recently and found it quite interesting.  Whole-school achievement was discussed.  The three interconnected factors considered essential are trust, collaboration, and authenticity.  

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 3 (weeks 8-10)

Many schools have more recently reorganized their schedules to allow for professional learning communities (PLCs) to allow for common planning among teachers (Boudett, 2014).  Making time to meet in PLCs can be challenging, but meeting once or twice a month as a team with an agenda will be helpful.  In my experience, it can be challenging to bring everything together from the various members to create a collaborative plan to move forward.  Too often we are working so hard independently, and we forget we are all working towards the same goal of students moving successfully through school.

Some tips for creating an effective data display include the following:

• providing a complete title
• name of assessment and subject
• what grade level was tested?
• name of school
• dates of assessments
• how many students were tested?

• chart should be simple and easy to read
• chart style should be appropriate for intended purpose
• space and color used well
• appropriate font size
• appropriate labels included
• data-point values (Boudett, 2014).

Just get started.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Often times, the idea of needing to be sure you include everything can be enough to completely overwhelm even the most level headed person.  It is not possible to include every single thing when digging into data.  Take one problem and work through that.  Often that one simple problem will address many other related problems.  The important thing to remember is to just get started (Boudett, 2014).

"The problem of practice is directly related to the learner-centered problem; based on evidence found when examining instruction; within the school's control' a statement about practice, not a question; and specific and small" (Boudett, 2014).

Four main tasks to help investigate instruction and articulate problem of practice:

1. Link learning and teaching
2. Develop skill of observing practice
3. Develop shared understanding of effective practice
4. Analyze current practice (Boudett, 2014).

Developing an action plan is not a singular item to be done.  In fact, it is one step in a process.  Plan, solve, look back on plan and results, understand and learn, and then plan once again.  This should be a part of a continuous cycle.

It is imperative for school leaders to "communicate the action plan clearly, integrate the plan into the ongoing work of the school a,d use teams for support and internal accountability" (Boudett, 2014).  Everyone needs to be on the same page and working towards accomplishing the main objective.



References

Boudett, K. P., City, E. A., Murnane, R. J. (2014). Data Wise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
     Education Press.

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 2 (weeks 5-7)

"We need to have teachers that are expertly trained to do the best daily assessments as they can.  That informs their instruction which should lead to the best achievement among all students" (Afflerbach, 2012). 

"We want critical readers" (Afflerbach, 2012).  We want children to think about and apply higher level skills to what they are reading.  This skill must be explicitly taught and reinforced as children are taught how to read.  Interestingly, Afflerbach discussed how children make a switch from learning to reading to reading to learn around third grade, yet he pointed out how students do not or at least should not be no longer learning to read.  As they read higher level texts, they are learning new skills and strategies pertaining to the particular type of text they are reading.

"Schools should help students master basic reading skills, build sight word vocabularies, independently determine the meaning of a vocabulary word, read as quickly and accurately as the current task demands" and learn to comprehend literally, infrentially, and critically (Afflerbach, 2012).

It is unethical  to use a single measure to determine achievement, teacher goodness, and school accountability (Afflerbach, 2012).  Does this happen?  Unfortunately, it is something that occurs in our schools.  Another point I would like to address is how it is unethical when teacher goodness is determined for one (the current) teacher based on an assessment that covers more than one year's worth of material. 

According to Black and Wiliam (1998), formative assessment is at the heart of effective teaching.  It is imperative teachers are aware of their students progress and difficulties when it comes to learning so they can adjust their teaching to meet their students needs. 

The six characteristics of high-quality classroom-based formative assessments include:

1. involves frequent, short-cycle assessment
2. can take a variety of forms
3. have clear, well-defined targets
4. provide sufficient detail about student understanding, knowledge, and skill to propse next instructional steps
5. followed by appropriate types of feedback and instructional adjustments
6. involve students in self- and peer-assessment (Torgesen & Miller, 2009).

Allington (2002) explains three things that exemplary teacher do to overcome the hurtle of textbooks that are too difficult for students.  First, they "created a multi-sourced and multi-leveled curriculum that did not rely on traditional content-area textbooks" (Allington, 2002).  They used the textbooks still but only as one component of the materials they used.  Secondly, they allowed students to have a choice as they learn and demonstrate what they have learned.  Finally, these teachers provided individualized instruction depending on students' needs.

Applegate, Quinn, & Applegate (2006) list the "eight profiles of thinking that surface when students are given higher order questions" as literalists, fuzzy thinkers, left fielders, quiz contestants, politicians, dodgers, authors, minimalists.  Interventions are listed for each of the specific profiles.  Working through these obstacles and interventions can help move the students towards effective, rewarding, and engaged reading.

Dennis (2009-2010) discusses a struggle many teachers face--a tension between what we are supposed to teach and what we know our students need.  It is imperative that students are looked at individually and instruction is based on their needs and abilities.  Too often, students are taught based on a preset program created for all struggling readers.  Not individualizing student learning is detrimental and can prevent students from growing and learning to their potential.  Dennis (2009-2010) provided a recommendation for a five step process to "match adolescents' unique literacy needs and involve the entire school community." 


References

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Assessments. IRA Podcast. Podcast retrieved from http://www.reading.org
     /downloads/podcasts/II-Afflerbach.mp3
Allington, R. (2002). You can't learn from much from books you can't read. Educational Leadership,
     15-19.
Applegate, M. D., Quinn, K. B., & Applegate, A. J.  (2006). Profiles in comprehension. International 
     Reading Association, 48-57.
Black,  P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom
     assessment. The Phi Delta Kappan, 80 (2), 139-144.
Dennis, D. (2009-2010). "I'm not stupid": How assessment drives (in)appropriate reading instruction.
     Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(4), 283-290.
Torgesen, J. K. & Miller, D. H. (2009). Assessments to guide adolescent literacy instruction. Florida 
     Center for Reading Research Center on Instruction.

RED 6540 Assessment in Literacy: Blog Post 1 (weeks 1-4)

"A valid test measures what it was designed to measure," and "a reliable test is consistent... yields similar results over time with similar students under similar situations" (Caldwell, 2008).  Validity and reliability are two distinctly different concepts  when it comes to studying assessments, yet they seem to be concepts that are often used interchangeably or plainly just misunderstood.

The first step of the assessment process is to pinpoint the "good reader behaviors you are teaching and assessing" and tie those in with the standards.  Secondly, you must collect evidence that is appropriate to what you are assessing.  Next, you analyze the evidence.  Lastly, you must decide the performance of each student and the effectiveness of your instruction. 

Should incompletes be factored into a student's grade?  Should effort or attendance be factored into a student's grade?  The grade would certainly be more valid with all assignments completed so that the grade can be a true reflection of one's ability (Caldwell, 2008).  How is this something that can be enforced though?  How can students' effort be given credit if only one grade may be given? 

Few items with "finer-grained levels of detail" lead to lower levels of reliability in tests, yet those few items have a very good potential for being more instructionally useful. (Boudett, City, Murnane, 2014).

The logographic stage of reading words is when "children identify words much as they identify pictures."  Instead of matching letters and sounds, they use visual cues (Caldwell & Leslie, 2009).

Students then move into the alphabetic stage of word learning.  They start to associate some of the letters with the sound they hear but in an incomplete way.  Next they move into a controlled word recognition stage.  During this stage, students begin sounding out words but this ends up being a very "labor-intensive process."  The next stage is automatic word recognition.  Word recognition becomes effortless and the reading rate begins to increase.  Oral reading becomes more expressive.  Eventually, they are able to read more difficult words and sound out longer, unfamiliar words.  Strategic reading is the stage where students have "efficient word identification in place... turn their attention to strategies for more advance comprehension" (Caldwell & Leslie, 2009).

References

Boudett, K. P., City, E. A., Murnane, R. J. (2014). Data Wise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard  
     Education Press.
Caldwell, J. S. & Leslie, L. (2009). Patterns of reading difficulty Intervention Strategies to Follow
     Informal Reading Inventory Assessment: So What Do I Do Now? USA: Pearson Higher Ed.
Invernizzi, M. A., Landrum, T. J., Howell, J. L., & Warley, H. P. (2005). Toward the peaceful
     coexistence of test developers, policymakers, and teachers in an era of accountability. The
     Reading Teacher, 58(7), 610-618.