Rachael Somes EDU 744 Case Study Part 3 ~ Using Effective Assessments April 12, 2012

The student for this case study assignment has been the topic of conversation on

many occasions during weekly PLC vertically assembled meetings. There are a number of interventions in place already for this student and areas of concern have been noted and are being worked upon. With this being said, the formative assessment of using a running record has proved to be the rst assessment that has proven effective in evaluating literacy issues with this student. Running Records A running record is an assessing method to determine a students percentage of

accuracy and the types of errors that are made within a given text. A teacher will nd assessing using a running record very useful in a number of different ways. First, it helps the teacher/educator determine if a given text is too hard, too easy, or just right for a student. It also helps to guide the teacher in discovering areas in which the student can improve. Running records can be performed on a student on a regular basis or more intermittently to check for progress and trends. Running records serve as an extremely purposeful, ongoing formative

assessment continuously throughout the school year. Since both the Reading Recovery teacher and myself have collected weekly running records on this student, it makes it very easy to notice trends and areas of strength and weakness with regards to reading. Through this formative assessment, it has been noted that Elizabeth* needs extra support in short and long vowel word work as well as decoding strategies.

Running records have disclosed that Elizabeth is hesitant to decode using onset

and rime. We are working on this strategy using the cue break it to help Elizabeth become more solid. Texts are being chosen that lend themselves specically to this strategy and which include words that can can be chunked easily. Through running records it has been noted that in order to make Elizabeths reading strategies more automatic, we need to be very deliberate and isolated about which strategy is being focused on for the time of intervention. It has been observed through watching and learning from recorded guided

reading lessons, partnered with the correlating running record assessments, that another one of Elizabeths areas of need is in becoming more of an independent reader and there is a need for her to take an ownership in her reading, to use her own cues. She has become very efcient at developing strategies when reading if a teacher is reading with her, yet not on her own. There is a lot she does not control yet and this has become evident though ongoing running records. This assessment is being chosen due to the fact that it is efcient and very telling of what the student is doing well and what they are needing more instruction in and around. With that being said, a running record is only as good at the interpretation of the errors that are being made in the text so that the educator knows where to go next. According to Johnston (2010), If a teacher is unable to explain how assessment is used to inform instruction, then the assessment is of little value (p. 133). Running records serve a dual purpose in this case study as a tool for progress

monitoring. Throughout the school year, in our district, there are nine given data collection points where running records are taken and accuracy scores and times are

reported. These scores are then laid out on the ongoing literacy wall. It is very easy to see at each data point if students are meeting or not meeting the benchmark for any given point in the school year. Daily Reading Assessment (DRA) The DRA is a summative assessment was used at the start of the school year

and that will be used to determine text level on every child in the second grade classroom, Elizabeth included, at the end of the school year as well. The DRA is a timed assessment that takes a closer look at a number of different aspects of a reader. It measures reading engagement, oral reading uency, and comprehension. There is also a teacher analysis piece that requires the teacher to analyze and interpret different miscues that were made during the reading. A continuum is provided that is used to score each section of the DRA. Scores are determined as to if students fall within the intervention, instructional, independent or advanced range. This assessment is administered at the start of each school year to plan for

instruction. It is then administered in the Spring, at the end of the school year. As a district we are mandated to give this assessment and all teachers in grades 2-5 are given a two week window in which to gather the data and submit the ndings. The DRA is a very scripted test in which you present to the student in the exact way which is written. For an english learning student, it may be required to have a teacher read the prompts to them in their rst language in order to level the playing eld for them to be successful. The DRA assessment can be used to validate reading level and check in on the

comprehension skills of Elizabeth. Since running records have determined many on set

and rime errors as well as a longer time needed to nish a text, the DRA would be conducive to check in on this comprehension piece to see if meaning is being lost during Elizabeths reading. Phoneme Segmentation Test This test assesses a students ability to successfully break up a word into its

sound components, or phonemes. Since Elizabeth is showing that this tends to be a weakness when reading, as shown by the errors occurring in the weekly running records, this test will work to identify if the interventions surrounding this break it strategy have worked effectively. This is not an assessment that is required in the school district but it is felt that it

would be greatly benecial to note the progress that Elizabeth is making using the specic instruction currently being taught around this strategy. This is a very quick assessment to administer and weekly progress monitoring

would be benecial. By keeping track of weekly gains through the gathered data, it will be possible to chart Elizabeths growth in this area. Formatively, the Phoneme Segmentation Test will help to determine if ELizabeth

is becoming more skilled and automatic in this strategy when words are in isolation. Rebecca Sittons Cloze Story Word Test Assessments Through this ongoing, weekly formative assessment it is possible to see if

Elizabeth understands the material that the teacher has presented. The teacher can then identify concepts and material that needs to be claried or revisited. This assessment is dictated by the teacher to the student and students write their sight

words and spelling words in context. The Sitton Cloze Word Test uses students missed words as their individualized spelling plan for spelling words. Information about the missed words are then used to target specic lessons that are needed most for each student. The Sitton Spelling Program is a district mandated program and spelling cloze

word tests are saved, growth is charted, and tests are then passed along to the next years teacher in order to give them a wealth of information and insight as to what each student specically needs. Missed words are recorded on a Words to Learn sheet that is sent home

regularly with student to enforce at home practice. They are also recorded in each students Spelling Notebook in order to maintain an ongoing running record of what words students need to still work on the most. This connects to Elizabeths literacy needs because one thing that running

records have shown is that Elizabeth needs to increase her reading uency. By working with these Sitton spelling words and becoming more solid in the reading and spelling of these priority words, word recognition will become more automatic while reading. By using these formative assessments, the teacher is able to specically pinpoint what words Elizabeth needs to focus on in order to become more automatic. References Johnston, P.H. (2010). RTI in Literacy-Responsive and Comprehensive. International Reading Association, Inc. Newark, DE