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.

Teachers as Readers: How has what I read changed over time?

 I have continued reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd along with various news articles and blogs.  A few of my favorite blogs include the following:

• Andrea Dekker
• Make It Love It
• Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Pioneer Woman
• Green Kid Crafts Blog

I was going through my "blog roll" and many of the blogs that I used to read are no longer active.  Several are things I'm no longer interested in (blogs geared towards parenting babies, toddlers, and preschoolers), or rather things that I've moved past. 
I can remember reading Nancy Drew and Babysitter Club books as a preteen.  The characters in books and relationships between characters that was most interesting for me to learn about as I read.  Even as an adult, most of the books, news articles, blog entries I'm drawn to revolve around human behavior and interactions.

Learning Log: Article on Literacy Coaches

L'Allier, Elish-Piper, and Bean (2010)'s article discussed the important traits and qualifications of effective literacy coaches.  I found it interesting how much more effective literacy coaches are if they have a reading teachers endorsement, certification, or master's degree.  Of course, that makes sense that someone who has taken many classes specifically in reading to be more effective that someone who has not.  I know that it's not necessarily a requirement for schools to hire someone with these qualifications.  I would imagine that would be because there aren't enough teachers with those qualifications, but I'm not entirely sure.  Next, L'Allier et al., (2010) defined teacher-oriented coaches as those who spent between 41% and 52% of their time interacting with teachers.  L'Allier et al., (2010) look at the results of several studies whose results indicated that students benefited the most when coaches' time is spent working directly with teachers to help them improve their teaching.  More gains in reading were seen when coaches could be considered teacher-orientated coaches.  All the coaches I have known have expressed at one time or another how numerous their obligations were.  The 7 guiding principles are as follows:

1. coaching requires specialized knowledge
2. time working with teachers is the focus of coaching
3. collaborative relationships are essential for coaching
4. coaching that supports student reading achievement focuses on a set of core activities
5. coaching must be both intentional and opportunistic
6. coaches must be literacy leaders 
7. coaching evolves over time

References:

L'Allier,  S., Elish-Piper, L., & Bean, R. M. (2010). What matters for elementary literacy coaching?
        Guiding principles for instructional improvement and student achievement. The 
        Reading Teacher, 63(7), pp. 544-554.

Learning Log: Chapter 12

According to Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011), the responsibilities of a literacy coach can be staggering.  What makes a good literacy coach?  Based upon my past experiences, I decided to compile a list of attributes that I found to be helpful with literacy coaches I have personally worked with.

• willing to work one-on-one with me
• modeled various types of lessons when requested
• maintained confidentiality
• would seek out additional information if unsure of something
• helped guide me through the process of assessments
• provided timely feedback including helpful suggestions
• easy to talk with
• provided training, resources
• attended grade level meetings
• observed, non-intrusive
• shared materials such as teacher resource books and books to read to the class

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Why do people journal?

I have been reading  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd these last couple of weeks.  In addition, I have read various news articles.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed keeping journals.  I can remember keeping different journals in classes thoughout my schooling.  In addition, I often would write in a diary or something similar.  Several years ago, I started blogging and that has become to way I frequently journal.  I enjoy being able to write down my thoughts and feelings, writing about things that are new and different for me, including photos or other small artifacts.  One of the things I most enjoy about journalling (is that a word?) is being able to look back on what I have written.  Whether it's a week later or several years later, I have always enjoyed being able to look back and see what was going on at a particular point in my life.  I can't ever remember keeping a journal to document what I'm reading (besides for classes of course!).  The times I do keep some sort of journal for a class, I have found that I do end up understanding the reading material better and also I usually think beyond the text.

Learning Log: Article on Vocabulary

This particular article describes a model that one teacher uses in her third grade classroom to explicitly teach vocabulary.  There was some discussion on whether it would be better to allow students to incidentally learn new words or whether it should be through focused vocabulary instruction.  Several of the activities described in the article are things that I have used myself or can adapt and use such as the tic-tac-toe activity using new and previous vocabulary words and illustrating vocabulary words.  I like the idea of having the word box that students can contribute to, allowing students to help pick out the words they will learn about.  This particular model seems easy to set up, maintain, and use in a classroom.  I can see it being beneficial to student learning and vocabulary development.


References:

Feezell, G. (2012). Robust Vocabulary Instruction In A Readers' Workshop. The Reading Teacher 66
             (3), 233-237.

Learning Log: Chapter 9

According to Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011), "Writing facilitates learning by helping students to explore, clarify, and think deeply about the ideas and concepts they encounter in reading" (p. 279).  For the most part, I've taught kindergarten and preschool.  The students I've taught are in the very early stages of learning how to write.  We've always focused on modeling the writing process for students, teaching the writing crafts, allowing students to choose their topics, exposing them to different types of writing (fiction, non-fiction, persuasive, etc.), allowing students to choose their own topics, and giving time every single day to allow students to work on learning how to write.  More recently, there has been a bigger push to incorporate writing into every subject area.  We had journals for each of the subjects in the kindergarten classroom I taught in last year. 

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.