Tori's+Journal+3

On Febrary 27, 2009, I observed my third grade classroom in Stadium Elementary School in Cranston, Rhode Island. During my period of observation the students were finishing up on their benchmark tests for their Language Arts curriculum. This school uses Scott Foresman materials for this curriculum. This assessment was done for Unit 3 which focused on people and nature. Throughout the unit students worked in their leveled reading groups to expand understanding. Also, weekly writing workshops done with the reading specialist help to prepare them for their writing prompt portion of the exam. The scores from these benchmark exams will be placed in the students’ folder which moves with them from year to year. The benchmark exam consisted of five parts, each focusing on a different aspect of Language Arts. Part one dealt with comprehension, students were expected to read two short passages both discussing dogs. Each passage was followed by a series of leveled multiple choice questions including retrieval of information from text, and making inferences. Following the two stories and their questions was a short writing prompt asking students to link information from both stories. I feel that this form of assessment for comprehension was well thought out. The incorporation of two levels of questions in addition to an open-ended question could identity the levels of students’ understanding. The second section focused on vocabulary; identifying compound words, and where a definition would be located in the dictionary. These set of questions encouraged students to identify types of words, their definitions, and the functions of the dictionary. Incorporating all of these vocabulary skills rather than just recalling definitions, I find to be more comprehensive. Part three assessed students understanding of phonics. Students were asked to match sounds in different words, identify word meanings and base words. Phonics is an important part of the reading process and should be incorporated in the curriculum. Although phonics was assessed, I have seen little instruction of phonics based curriculum in the class so I wonder if it’s fair to assess students on this if it is not being incorporated in classroom instruction. Part four focused on grammar, usage, and mechanics. Again, I have observed little instruction of grammar in the classroom; this of course does not mean it is not being done, it means it is not being done during my time there. The final section of the test was an writing prompt where students were expected to compare and contrast a person to themselves. Students have been working on comparing and contrasting consistently through their writing workshops and classroom writing time, so I feel this question was a fair question for students to be expected to write about. Overall I believe this form of assessment was fair and students were well prepared throughout the unit.

Back to Tori's Journals