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Students go into the class room as an individual who is diverse educationally reasons being that not all students are the same. Every student learns at their own pace, which means that their knowledge of reading could more or less than other students around them. My view is that assessments majority of the time can upset students, confuse them, stress them out, and make them feel like they aren't doing well. It is important keep consistency when doing assessments so it becomes a part of a routine within the classroom, but also a way for students to adjust to taking assessments as well. With results showing the strengths or weaknesses in a students reading its also important to take those strengths and weaknesses into consideration that way the proper lessons can be created to help with strengthening those weaknesses within the students reading. It is also important to let students parents or guardians know about their child and where their skill is at that way the students can strengthen skills at home. Communicating is also a key component.

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Early Reading Assessment: A Guiding Tool for Instruction (Michelle)

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Early Reading Assessment: A Guiding Tool for Instruction (Michelle)

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According to the text, the first step in implementing good reading instruction is to determine the student baseline performance. From what I have been taught and from my own experience, students come into the classroom with different backgrounds and skills in literacy. As such, assessment has become an essential element in driving instruction as it is a tool that will help teachers develop prescriptive teaching methods.

It is important to perform the initial assessment that reflects the student's baseline performance, which will aid in developing a reading curriculum that will support their needs and areas of development. Then, it is even more important to follow up with their progress through ongoing assessments, which should reflect their improvement in literacy.

Initially, my knowledge on teaching reading was very limited because reading/ELA is not a strong subject of mine. However, after this article, I learned that literacy is spread across many concepts: letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension. There are so many concepts and skills that a learner must master in order to develop fluency in literacy, so I realized that there is so much pressure in needing to effectively teach this subject. After, this article, I saw the importance in targeting each of these literacy concepts as well as HOW to teach and evaluate my students' understanding within each literacy domain.

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After reading this article, I am taking away valuable tools that I know that I will use in my own classroom in the near future. Diagnostic assessments are instrumental in shaping effective instruction and developing prescriptive teaching methods, especially in the context of reading education. These assessments serve as a lens through which educators can pinpoint the specific strengths and weaknesses of each student in essential reading skills like letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Loaded with this insightful data, teachers can adapt their instructional strategies to cater to the unique needs of each student. Whether it's providing extra support for a struggling reader in phonemic awareness or offering more challenging material for an advanced student, diagnostic assessments guide educators in crafting individualized learning experiences. These assessments also play an important role in goal-setting, allowing teachers to establish realistic and personalized benchmarks for student progress. They enable continuous progress monitoring, ensuring that adjustments can be made promptly if a particular teaching approach isn't yielding the desired results. Diagnostic assessments drive the use of prescriptive teaching methods, where instruction is finely tuned to address the specific requirements of each learner, promoting a more inclusive and effective reading education.

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guide Tool for Instruction (Marissa Flynn)

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guide Tool for Instruction (Marissa Flynn)

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Diagnostic assessments drive instruction and develop prescriptive teaching methods by allowing for a greater understanding of student's academic performance. The article mentions that students enter the classroom with diverse backgrounds and various levels of literacy skills making it necessary for a teacher to be able to provide for each students' needs (The Access Center, 2023). Diagnostic assessments allow for teachers to understand the levels of needs for all students in which they can alter their lessons to include all students' needs. By assessing students frequently, it can help better a learning environment by implementing ways to improve skills. This will then allow for students to get the resources they need to have a better performance of understanding.

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guide Tool for Instruction (Rebeca Diaz)

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guide Tool for Instruction (Rebeca Diaz)

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Diagnostic assessments are a key element in the American curriculum. As mentioned in the article we use diagnostic assessments for many differnet reasons in the class. The article mentioned the following five reasons for using these assessments, "to idenitfy skills that need review....to monitor student progress...to guide teacher instruction...to demonstrate the effectiveness of teacher instruction... to provide teachers with information on how instruction can be improved" (Wren, 2004). These reasons are why teachers create their lesson plans around diagnostic assessments to meet these standards and needs. Assessments all for parents, teacher and students to know the strengths and weakeness as well as the areas to work on for the student. When it comes to teaching reading I do belive this is a very complex topic that is taught over a few grade levels for a reason. Reading is the one essential element that is everywhere in our lives which is why it is so important. After reading the article I do believe my views have remained the same. We test students on different subparts of reading to insure that they have all the basics down before we move on. This helps understand the level of the student and to make sure that they aren't falling behind. If a student is falling behind these assessments help us identofy where and how we can help.

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Based on the article, I think it is important to note that assessments are necessary to assess each individual’s need, especially when students are at different levels of mastery. It provides the teacher with insight on what information, scaffolding strategies, and instruction are needed to help students who are either struggling or need more assistance to master the standard/instruction. It is also a great tool to help teachers, students, and parents/guardians see the progress of students and demonstrate that they are knowledgeable and are learning instruction effectively. Since the teacher will have their progress, then the teacher will be able to reflect to see if students would benefit from small groups, 1:1 intervention, or a different approach to the curriculum itself. Something to consider when utilizing assessments is that each student has their own strengths and weaknesses and depending on how the assessments are structured, it might not allow students to showcase their strengths. In addition, teachers should be provided with tools to be able to effectively assess students, both informally and formally. After all, assessments are there as resources to showcase how well students are understanding and applying their skills and knowledge.

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Article --> Early Reading Assessment: A Guiding Tool for Instruction

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Article --> Early Reading Assessment: A Guiding Tool for Instruction

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Article to Read

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Armstrong, Thomas (1994). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Balanced Reading.com. Retrieved November 16, 2004, from: http://www.balancedreading.com/assessment.html

Big Ideas in Early Reading, University of Oregon. Retrieved November 16, 2004, from: http://reading.uoregon.edu/cia/assessment/index.php

DeBruinParecki, A. (2004). Evaluating early literacy skills and providing instruction in a meaningful context. High/Scope Resource: A Magazine for Educators, 23(3), 510.

Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1992). Identifying a measure for monitoring student reading progress. School Psychology Review, 21(1), 4559.

Gardner, Howard (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic.

High-stakes assessments in reading: A position statement of the International Reading Association. Retrieved November 16, 2004, from: http://www.reading.org/pdf/high_stakes.pdf

Rhodes, L. K., & Shankin, N. L. (1993). Windows into literacy: Assessing learners K8. Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH.

Skiba, R. J., Simmons, A. B., Ritter, S., Kohler, K. R., & Wu, T. C. (2003). The psychology of disproportionality: Minority placement in context. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 6, 2740.

Torgeson, J. K. (1998). Catch them before they fall: Identification and assessment to prevent reading failure in young children. Retrieved November 16, 2004 from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article.php?ID=411

Wren, S. (2004, November). Descriptions of early reading assessments. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Retrieved November 16, 2004 from: http://www.balancedreading.com/ assessment/assessment.pdf

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Early Reading Assessment: A Guiding Tool for Instruction

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How do you choose the best method for measuring reading progress? This brief article describes which assessments to use for different reading skills so that you can make sure all students are making progress towards becoming readers!

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guiding Tool for Instruction

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Early Reading Assessments: A Guiding Tool for Instruction

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Right away the article begins by stating that, "Assessment is an essential element of education used to guide instruction (Wren, 2004), and it really is spot on!  Some of the issues that come out of this are: are students being overly assessed?  Are teachers taking the time to analyze data and make informed decisions?  Are multitiered interventions being implemented?  My views on teaching reading do encompass the parts mentioned in the article.  There are different assessments to measure different skills.  It's important to take the time to not only assess but also make assessments another natural part of the learning process because some students do get frustrated and don't take the tests seriously enough, therefore producing inaccurate results.  So, just as tests are important for identifying student strengths and needs, it's equally important to relay the message that it's consistently important for students to do their best.  The comprehension assessment is one that I believe needs more attention because so much of early DIBELS is spent on phonemic awareness and phonics and later on fluency, that it does go by the wayside.  Then, by the time students are in second grade and higher, students who have difficulties with reading comprehension and reading have to work harder to meet the benchmark.  My views didn't change after the article.  It only reinforced my belief in their importance.  The only caveat to this is to implement time for data analysis to make adjustments to teaching cycles.  However, the difficulty lies with pacing plans and keeping up with them.
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