UT&R by Brenda Maurao https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d I included Vanessa’s story in Understanding Texts & Readers because it was while working with her that the importance of understanding text complexity, and the variables to consider besides levels, really cemented for me. It illuminated how dramatically the assessments we use and what we conclude from them can alter a student’s reading trajectory—for better or worse. To begin with Vanessa’s story is also to begin with an actual reader in mind, which is what all of our work should be rooted in as teachers of reading. That is to say that every assessment, practice, and structure we implement in our classrooms should honor our students. en-us 2018-11-01 21:28:58 UTC 2018-11-02 16:11:02 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299852721 This reminded me of many times when upper-grade teachers have approached me and expressed frustration because a child had come out at a particular level on the DRA/BAS assessment but was then unable to comprehend well a chapter book at that same level. This led to conversations about how if that's the instructional ]]> 2018-11-02 15:47:47 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299852721 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299852880 I would first think of an interest survey for all my students- the first week back to school. I would also try a reading motivation survey (Garfield) as this would tell me how students feel about reading in general. Conversations I have with the child and notes would also play into matching books with students. Conferences and conversations with paretns and caregivers would also help me guide the student to choosing books. Then there are assesssments- BAS and not the letter and level but the teaching points and take aways. What is a strength and what is an area(s) to improve. iReady can give me more information on how to match texts to the reader and I could assign certain lessons for that student. I could also have the student use reading A-Z to read and choose texts of their choosing. 

]]> 2018-11-02 15:48:02 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299852880 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299853391 All of our BAS books are short, but then we often send student off with novels to apply the skills across weeks and hundreds of pages. Perhaps we need to start checking in better with students after they finish a book, or while they are. Do they need scaffolds to support them as they read? Do we need to give questions to students as they read?]]> 2018-11-02 15:48:42 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299853391 This has happened very frequently. We have seen this especially with 3rd grade students, who score much higher on the BAS than what teachers are actually seeing in their conferring with these students on longer chapter books. lweinstock https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299853812 2018-11-02 15:49:14 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299853812 I noticed this happening when I was teaching second and third grade in particular. Students had difficulty carrying the story over several chapters and it significantly impacted their comprehension. When given shorter stories (i.e., a picture book) at the same level, they would easily be able to determine story elements, theme, lesson, etc., but in a longer chapter book, they would struggle. Also, this year we are seeing a bigger discrepancy between our BAS scores in K-3 and 4-5 with iReady. I do wonder if this is somehow connected as well to text complexity. kparker48 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854037 2018-11-02 15:49:35 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854037 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854737 It makes me think we need to do a lot of discussions about text bands v.s text level.  It also makes me think about identifying one single level for a student and how we are using that for instruction or finding just right books for kids. 

]]> 2018-11-02 15:50:36 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854737 bmaurao https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854814 I think we have room to grow here. I don't think I considered engagement or thought I could change the text in an assessment to engage students. What does that do to "common" assessments? What would we learn about kids? How could we bring this back to the standards?]]> 2018-11-02 15:50:44 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854814 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854877 Teachers are still just using the level from BAS to group, rather than thinking about what students' strengths and challenges were while reading that text.]]> 2018-11-02 15:50:51 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299854877 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855018 I try to encourage teachers to be flexible in their interpretations of reading inventory results and also emphasize that if that is a child's instructional level, then that implies that they need support to understand the text and that the type of support required may vary from child to child.

]]> 2018-11-02 15:51:03 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855018 lweinstock https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855410 I think this information is incredibly important to share with teachers because I'm not sure they feel comfortable or maybe that they even have "permission" to use data other than i-Ready and BAS to match readers with books.]]> 2018-11-02 15:51:40 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855410 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855848 It makes me think we should talk with students more about books for different purposes.  We have warm up books for fluency or desert books ex. cartoons, fiction books that connect with the unit etc... students book bags should reflect this.  I


]]> 2018-11-02 15:52:24 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299855848 This is a common issue whereas students sometimes can read better sometimes worse than what they have been leveled at. Informal observations about what a student can do is just as valuable as formal assessments. We need to observe and see what a child is showing us. https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299856429 2018-11-02 15:53:18 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299856429 This makes me think about how we can come up with these common whole book assessments for high interest texts that can be used across the district. It feels daunting to ask teachers to take this on but if we had a district folder where we typed out the whole book assessments these could be used with more frequency across the schools. https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299856532 2018-11-02 15:53:29 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299856532 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857061 I would encourage teachers not to pigeon hole students into BAS levels - look at teaching points and next steps to help with book matching. Also, we need to make sure to consider background knowledge and interest. More conversations with students to match readers witih books. 

]]> 2018-11-02 15:54:10 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857061 I think we need to start thinking of the BAS as one piece of information. Teachers in my building heavily rely on it as their sole source of information for guided reading/strategy groups. I think we need to help teachers improve their conferring skills and then show them how to use the information gathering in conferences to support groupings in the classroom. kparker48 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857076 2018-11-02 15:54:11 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857076 lweinstock https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857926 A really important element that effects comprehension is prior knowledge - my question is how do we effectively gather information on this for all of our students in a way that lets us use this information to match students with books.]]> 2018-11-02 15:55:29 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299857926 Teachers trust the data they collect during formal assessments and are often left wondering why a student does not perform consistent with what data says. Teachers often look for reasons wrong with the assessments and administration of assessments to account for the discrepancies. https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858175 2018-11-02 15:55:49 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858175 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858532 Teachers need to feel empowered to use more than just the BAS data. I think teachers feel pressure to always have to defend their groupings with data but if they knew that their anecdotal notes where appropriate to use to create groups I think they would feel empowered in this work. 
 ]]> 2018-11-02 15:56:20 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858532 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858735 Books they have loved reading previously.]]> 2018-11-02 15:56:41 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299858735 Connect with students https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299859763 2018-11-02 15:58:26 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299859763 bmaurao https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860025 Would practices like book talks help?]]> 2018-11-02 15:58:56 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860025 bberkman https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860095 Relationships are so important with our students. Once we really know our students we can say, " I found this perfect book for you!"]]> 2018-11-02 15:59:02 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860095 BAS has definitely been on my mind lately. It gives us so much information about our readers but, as this case study clearly indicates, it's not the only game in town! We need to be constantly doing other assessments and getting to know our readers in other ways. I'm also concerned with the amount of time it takes to find the instructional level for all of our students. bberkman https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860511 2018-11-02 15:59:43 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299860511 bmaurao https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299866129 could we create district book assessment- survey kids/teachers - top 5 - to learn more about kids- pick one grade- ]]> 2018-11-02 16:09:24 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299866129 https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299866859 It makes me think we should identify a group of students like Vanessa to work with closely to inform our own practice and apply our learning.

]]> 2018-11-02 16:10:45 UTC https://padlet.com/bmaurao/4ij7o9fo920d/wish/299866859