Keeping Us Aware

Janet Kelly
Read/Write/Now Springfield, MA

Ongoing assessment is essential for learners and teachers. Effective ongoing assesssment helps keep learners aware of their own progress and development. It also keeps teachers aware of learners' needs, which is vital to planning relevant and effective activities. At Read/ Write/Now, we have been using a variety of tools as part of ongoing assessment. Some of them are used primarily by teachers, some are used by learners, and some are shared. As much as possible, the tools and process of ongoing assessment are integrated into the curriculum.

The key element that gives assessment meaning is consistent communication with every learner. This is formalized in conferences and with the help of particular forms, but the communication about learning that happens among learners and between learners and teachers is largely informal and happens in virtually every aspect of classroom life. Classes are small (usually not more than 12 learners in a class) and teachers and trained tutors are accessible and interested in what learners have to say about their lives, the things they care about, and what they think about their own learning.

Looking back at dialogue journals and the work in a learner's writing folder can be used to see writing development. Showing a learner, who is discouraged about spelling, the first entry s/he made in a dialogue journal or the first draft of an earlier piece of writing and comparing it with the current work is a tangible and very convincing way to document the progress s/he has made.

Periodic review of students' learning contracts to look at progress toward meeting goals and to revise goals or plans to meet them are also part of ongoing assessment in our program. This winter, we began the class cycle with a 20 minute individual conference with each learner. Since all were returning students, we used the conferences to review their goals with them and revise their learning contracts as needed. With a few learners whose attendance and commitment had been a problem during the previous cycle, the conferences were an opportunity to discuss any barriers to their learning and ways to overcome the barriers, with a clear plan of things we could do and things they could do. This seemed to work well. It gave both teachers and learners an opportunity to articulate wl\af our individual and shared responsibilities are as members of a learning community.

The Tools

The tools and organizers we use as part of ongoing assessment are:

• miscue analysis
• booklist
• reading conference record
• reading progress checklist
• teacher's log
• learning log
• math activities record
• writing progress checklist
• writing process checklist
• spelling self-test
• writing conference record
• dialoguejournals

This may seem like a lot of paper, and it is. At this point, all of these forms are useful to our program. We are continually struggling to strike an appropriate balance between "wouldn't it be wonderful if we could write down everything that shows what people are learning and they could share in the process" and the real limitations of time. What is most important to keep asking ourselves is, "Who and what is this for?" If a particular tool or process makes sense in the light of that question--if it serves the purpose of telling learners and teachers more about learners' progress--it stays until we find something better.

The Portfolio

Read/Write/Now uses a portfolio approach to maintain a comprehensive record of ongoing assessment. A learner's portfolio is added to and shared with the learner during regular conferences throughout the class cycle and at other times when a learner needs to see concrete evidence of his/her progress. The portfolio can also be used to document progress to funders. Although this approach tends to be more comprehensive than many funders have time or interest in seeing, it helps to organize evaluation materials in a way that makes writing narrative summaries for funding reports easier.

Sample materials used at Read/Write/Now for ongoing assessment follow. Descriptions of "what, why, how, and when" precede each form. (Note: Electronic versions of many of these forms are not available online. Contact SABES for a copy.)

Booklist

What: form foir learners to keep track of books they read in and out of class; part of assessment portfolio

Why: to show learners concrete evidence of accomplishment in reading; to help teachers identify interests of readers to help make recommendations for tother books

How: learner is encoursged to keep list in folder and add title as s/he finsishes book

When: ongoing

Reading Progress Checklist

What: teacher's short checklist for assess- ment of individualleamer' s reading behavior and development over period of class cycle

Why: to organize and categorize reading assessment information in an accessible for- mat; to help teachers plan strategy lessons and activities for individuals and reading groups

How: teacher considers learner's reading behavior in class, reading conferences, mis- cue analysis, learner's self-assessment, and responses to modified Burke Interview*

When: after learner has been in classes for .approximately three weeks and after above activities are completed; repeated at end of cycle to assess changes

Reading Conference Record

What: a form to be used by either teachers or readers to record questions, observations, and reflections about sustained reading

Why: for readers to keep a running record of words they want to find out about, questions they have about what they are reading, pages read, etc. For teachers to keep a running record of individual reading confer- ences, learners' experience of reading particular texts, problem words, observations about strategies used during brief oral reading samples, responses to stories, evidence of comprehension in retelling

How: readers or teachers use each page to record reading responses or conference results for two different class days. Reading conference records for each learner are kept and used as part of.their assessment portfolios (See also, appendix 1 in hard copy, II Suggestions for Individual Reading Conferences. ")

When: whenever individual reading conferences are done; usually once weekly when individual sustained silent reading replaces reading in sma11 groups

Top of Page

Teacher's Log: Observations and Reflections

What: a running log of observations, anecdotes, and critical incidents related to learners' reading, writing, and other development. Each page has room for brief notes on six learners: observations, reflections, and ideas for what to do next either in response to the particular need noted or in general.

Why: to help teachers use what learners do and say about their own learning to direct curriculum planning, as well as to keep a record of learners' stories about literacy growth and barriers to literacy in and out of class to help us respond with relevant activities

How: teachers reflect and write briefly about an agreed upon number of learners. We use our reading groups since it works out to be about the same number of students in each group.

When: logs are done as soon as possible after the class ends, but sometimes that means doing the logs at home or on the next day before planning the day's classes

Learning log

What: a tog or journal in which learners reflect on their learning for the week by responding to four questions

Why: to provide a format for learners to think about their learning on paper, complain, criticize, feel good about accomplishments, recognize progress, and look ahead to what they'd like to learn next

How: time for writing in learning logs is set aside during the last class period of the week; logs are handed in to teachers who read entries and respond briefly; multiple copies of the logs are made and stapled together with cover sheets to make a booklet

When: weekly throughout the class cycle

Math Activities Record

What: a plan for learners' math instruction and for noting what got done, how it went, and any ideas for planning math activities for next session

Why: to aid in planning saml group work and individual math work and to have a record of learners' math work

How: can be used by the teacher for individual leanerners or for a group; can also be used by learners to help them keep track of goals they have set for themselves

When: before class and at the end of every math session during a session

Writing Progess Checklist (See hard copy)

Spelling Self- Test

What: a form to help learners focus on a reasonable number of words to study and test themselves on, if desired

Why: to meet learners I need to focus on spelling improvement by providing a format to encourage learners to select words to learn to spell from their own writing

How: learners use forms independently, sometimes in conjunction with group lessons on ways to study spelling; learners may have another learner "test" them by dictating their words to them; correct spellings are copied on left hand list, then folded over for self-test on the right side; learner checks own work by by unfelding the page

When: depends on learners I needs; usually, lists of seven or fewer words are studied for a week; form used as needed

Dialogue Journals

What: simple yet powerful tools for developing learners' confidence and literacy skills; a great way for teachers and learners to get to know each other. Dialogue journals are, as their name implies, a conversation on paper between two people.

Why: to provide an opportunity for reading and writing for communication; to act as a "warm-up" to writing in the sense that no judgements or corrections are made. Despite the lack of editing, journal entries over time almost always show progressive development toward more conventional spelling, punctuation, and grammar . This is probably due to many factors, one of which may be the teachers's modelling of conventional spelling, etc. Dialogue journals are also places where issues and problems that are bothering learners can be safely aired and not lost in the shuffle.

How: journals are made of lined paper stapled together with colored paper covers. Each teacher writes to a group of learners, ending the entry with a question for the learner to respond to in writing. Journals are left in students' mailboxes. Learners read their journals on their own if they can, get help with the reading if needed, and respond in writing with teacher I s help if needed. Learners are asked to end their entries with a question for the teacher and put the journals in teachers I mailboxes.

When: can be incorporated into any program at any time. We use the first 20 minutes or so of each class period for dialogue journals since there are often latecomers and journal writing is an individual activity. It also works as a good "warm up" activity for further reading and writing; Teachers respond in the journals before the next class; this sometimes means taking the journals home. We rotate the groups of learners which teachers write to every eight weeks or so.

Janet Kelly is an ABE literacy teacher and project director at Read/Write/Now in Springfield.

Note:

All of the materials included in this article, as well as other curricuulum materials, can.also be found in- the ABE Language Arts Curriculum Kit sponsored by SABES .The 0-4 Kit is available through the SABES Regional Support Centers at Holyoke Community College (Holyoke), Quinsigamond Community College (Worcester), Bristol Community College (Fall River), Northern Essex Community College (Lawrence), and the Adult Literacy Resource Institute (Boston).

Originally published in Adventures in Assessment, Volume 2 (May 1992),
SABES/World Education, Boston, MA, Copyright 2003.

Funding support for the publication of this document on the Web provided in part by the Ohio State Literacy Resource Center as part of the LINCS Assessment Special Collection.