Musings from a middle school reading specialist. I encourage my students to read, talk, write, and have fun!
I parent two amazing young-adult daughters with my husband of 30+ years.

September 25, 2012

Assessment Takes Time

Slices of Life stories are hosted by Two Writing Teachers

Names
Data
Faces
Numbers

All these pieces of information are floating around in my head, waking me at 2:00 a.m.

Finish
Decisions
Best Practice
Paper everywhere!
 
As part of the instructional resource team in my building, these past two weeks have been spent on deeper assessment.  The initial screeners (DIBELS, IDEL, AimsWeb) are finished.  Now we are using the Fountas and Pinnell benchmark system to figure out instructional text levels of our students who may need extra resource help.

Accuracy
Comprehension
Decoding
Word lists

I have been pushing myself (and my team - sorry, ladies!) to finish quickly, but I've learned that the quick way isn't the best way.  These assessments take time, and it's time well spent.  We are lucky - the classroom teachers value what we are doing.  I haven't heard anyone questioning our assessment plan or how much time it is taking.  I'm thankful for that!

Carefully
Concisely
Completely

I'm now focused on taking the time to read with each child (no matter how long it takes) to get the most complete picture of their reading, considering all the components.  Assessment leads to instruction.  That's the point.  We're spending our time well.

Trust
Confidence
Patience

4 comments:

  1. My heart felt for you when I read you were awake at 2:00 a.m. I like so much that you finished with three calm words. Taking time is worth it. Hopefully the different pieces collected will help to give the support each learner needs

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to continue to remind myself that everything right now is taking a lot of time and being patient and to less but with quality. September is a challenge. Best luck assessing and using that assessment to do great things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So happy to hear your dedication to taking your time. Too often, we rush through assessment, to meet deadlines, that the assessment doesn't help us much at all. All we accomplish is meeting the deadline.
    Good luck, and may that trust, confidence, and patience continue.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm feeling your pain! But also know that it is so important to take the time to meet with individual readers in order to learn about what they can do and how to move them forward. It's time, a lot of time, but so important because as you said, the assessment leads to instruction. :)

    ReplyDelete