Literacy+Assessment

= Literacy Assessment = =//It is assessment which helps us distinguish between teaching and learning.//=

[[image:as_for_of.jpg align="right"]]Assessment[[image:assessment_cartoon.jpg width="379" height="495" align="left"]]
Assessment for improved student learning and deep understanding requires a range of assessment practices to be used with three overarching purposes:

- Assessment **FOR learning** - occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching - Assessment **AS learning** - occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals - Assessment **OF learning** - occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards.

Check out the following document to give you an idea of the assessment you would be using throughout the year using 'for, as & of'.



Assessment FOR
= OBSERVATIONAL SURVEY - for Foundation/Prep to Grade 2 (below reading level 15) = >  An Excel spreadsheet of all the observational data (including CAPS), can be purchased from Monika for $5.50 on her website (www.monikagruss.com.au - go to resources). > > > Below are some documents that you may find useful to assess & analyse data to guide your teaching: > >   > >  For Spreadsheet see resources at: www.monikagruss.com.au > > > Due to this I developed a similar test but using words from the Oxford list along with words from the Magic 100 Words which cover 1/3 of most read words (research conducted on Australian students in 2007). Both of these tests (Clay, 1963, and Gruss, 2013) are below for you to use. > >
 * **CAPS** assessment grid. After completing the Concepts About Print assessment, fill in the attached grid so you can identify your students needs. The specific needs can be used as a whole class focus during Shared Reading, or for a small teaching group.
 * **Running Records** There are a few different kits that allow you to assess student's reading text levels. The two most popular kits are the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) or the PM Benchmarking Kit that is commonly used by Reading Recovery teachers. Each kit offers you the chance to assess students using a running record sheet to determine student's text level and particular strategies to use.
 * **Letter Identification** is a useful tool to analyse correct and incorrect responses along with observations of the student's behavior in order to inform instructional priorities for that student. Below is the marking sheet as well as an excel document you could use to collate all students data to form differentiated groups.
 * **Word Test** The word test is also known as a 'ready to read' word test. This test informs teachers if students are ready to move into guided reading. The words from this test was generated from the high frequency words from the 'ready to read' series from Auckland in 1963.

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 * **Writing Vocabulary Observation** In this test teachers observe students as they write a bank of words they might know. Teachers look for letter formation, how many letter forms they use and how many words they can write from memory. The data from this test is valuable for forming differentiated writing groups.

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 * **Hearing and Recording Sounds** In this test, the teacher asks the child to record a dictated sentence. The student scores a point for each sound (phonemes) by letter (graphemes) they use. This test can give you valuable information in regards to sounds they hear (sound letter relationship).

= Other Worthwhile tests after students have passed reading level 15 = > > The following documents are from BURT: > > >
 * **BURT Word Test** The Burt word test is a reading test that is administered to each child individually. The assessment provides a decoding reading age as well as a correlation between chronological and decoding age. This can be used to inform teachers where they are on the continuum and to make plans to create teaching and learning plans to cater for each individual/group of students (differentiate).
 * **SA Spelling Test** Some teachers like to use the SA spelling test as it identifies student knowledge of spelling conventions and can assist teachers in developing initial spelling groups. The document below outlines the test and provides a table to determines the students approximate spelling age.

> For those of you that like using PROBE to assess your student' level of comprehension, these documents may be of some help for using your assessment FOR planning. > > For more information or resources for PROBE, check out this website: [] > > > **Comprehension Checklist & Conferencing**. This is a great checklist of all the areas you need to think of in all 6 of Di Snowball's Comprehension Strategies. Some teachers like to put this checklist in their Conferencing Book to keep track of what has been taught and as a reminder of the students that require more help in each comprehension area. >
 * **Probe**. **P**rose, **R**eading, **O**bservation, **B**ehavior & **E**valuation. [[image:probe_taxonomy_diagram.jpg align="right"]]
 * **CARS** allows teachers to identify students comprehension using 12 different reading strategies. Some of these include: main idea, predictions, compare and contrast, sequencing and cause and effect. For more information on CARS, see the Hawker and Brownlow website: @http://www.hbe.com.au/series-cars-and-stars.html
 * **ANECDOTAL RECORDS FROM DAILY CONFERENCING**

This professional reading is a worthwhile read about conferencing students in grades 5 - 8.

Assessment AS

 * Student Criteria** - Following is some criteria & rubrics I have developed. Feel free to use them, or alter them to suit your grade.

NAPLAN Preparation
The WMR has prepared a document to assist teachers and schools for the preparation of NAPLAN. This document explains how to use reading comprehension and numeracy to improve outcomes gained in high stake tests such as NAPLAN. The document acts as an integral part of teacher's work program instead of teaching to the test. It is a good document and will assist teachers greatly for planning.