Assessments are one aspect that can be seen within a classroom multiple times a day. Even though teachers may have different ways of going about how they assess their students, they are extremely important. In Marie M. Clay’s Running Records For Classroom Teachers, she offers readers and inside look on key ideas about using running records and how to take, score, and interpret reliable records. A running record is used to capture the behavior of a student in order for a teacher to interpret what the child was probably doing. Two things to avoid when using running records are printed text and tape recorders. I had not thought about this before considering running records but I believe this to be very true. There is not enough room on a pre-printed page of text for a teacher to record all the unusual things that can occur. Even though a tape recorder may seem easier at first, it limits the analysis because a tape does not record visual information such as the child’s movement and facial expressions. I really enjoyed reading Running Records For Classroom Teachers because it is filled with great ideas on how to record what you see, how to score errors and self-corrections, and how to interpret a running record.
Lori Jamison Rog and Wilfred Burton discuss the types of texts that are appropriate for students at various stages of their reading development and share our criteria for determining the difficulty levels of early reading materials in their article Matching Texts and Readers: Leveling Early Reading Materials for Assessment and Instruction. They bring by asking the question what is a “just-right” text? All students should be receiving instruction for reading in texts at their instructional reading levels. I found the part of the article discussing what level books look like very interesting because I was not sure what each level consisted of. I loved how the article goes through every level describing what they look like and what level the vocabulary, print, predictability, illustrations, and content and concepts are. This is a fantastic article that I found to be very resourceful and interesting!
In Looking Inside Classrooms: Reflecting on the “how” as well as the “what” in effective reading instruction, the authors discuss the finding from a 1 year study that’s purpose was to evaluate the impact of all aspects of school reform on student performance. This article creates the idea that it is important to know the “how” and the “what” when it comes to teaching reading skills to students. Without the knowledge of how a word sounds or what it means, teachers cannot effectively teach reading to students. Honestly this article I thought was very useful because some people may not realize how important it is to know how and what is important when teaching reading skills. Classroom literacy instruction needs to reflect best practices as identified in the research. Therefore, it is crucial for teachers to know how to teach reading and what to teach.
Richard A. Allington article, The Schools we Have. The Schools we Need., really stood out to me because I felt like I could relate to what he was saying through my experiences in the classroom. The section of his article that stood out the most was Books vs. Blanks. This sections touched on how, even though students are reading and writing 10% more than 10 years ago, they are not getting enough time during the school day to read and write. School consists of many worksheets, for instance fill in the blanks. These worksheets take up time that could be devoted to reading and writing. I believe that reading and writing are the stems to all subject areas and with a lack of practice children will be less likely to succeed. This truly bothers me but I feel like as a future educator times are about to change and everything that we have learned will be applied and made effective. I cannot wait to be in my own classroom and try all of these techniques and strategies.
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