Heather+Clark+2009+URI

journal # 1 ClarkAssessment Journal 1 02/05/09

 EDC 452 Assessment Journal #1 February 5, 2009

The assessment I observed with my cooperating teacher was the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS). This assessment is done in the fall and used as a pre-assessment tool for the new students. Another PALS is administered in the spring as a post test to track the student’s progress. This assessment is conducted by a teacher or assistant teacher. When implementing the assessment the student is asked to spell a word that is read off of the test sheet by the teacher. The student is scored on how many of the sounds or words they spell correctly. The student must reach the benchmark of their grade level by the words spelled correctly. Another portion of this assessment is word recognition. The student is asked to read from a list of preprimer, primer, first grade and so forth up to sixth grade. The student receives a point for words that are recognized and must meet the benchmark that is required for that grade level. The results from this pre-assessment tool are very valuable to the teacher and the student. It gives the teacher an insight as to where the student is as far as phonemic awareness and word recognition which is necessary for reading and writing. The teacher then knows where there is a weakness or a strength and knows where to target instruction with a particular group of students or how to group these students together. The students know how they do on the assessment and they are aware of where they have difficulties but I feel it is important to let the students know that it is not bad to have these difficulties and that this assessment is used to help them and not for them to be discouraged. In the event that a student does not meet the required benchmark they are given a Personal Literacy Plan or PLP. Their progress is tracked more closely and there are assessments made monthly to keep track of the instruction that is given for them to make improvements. <<Back to EDC 452 home page Heather Clark February 20, 2009 Assessment Journal # 2

I observed my cooperating teacher give a lesson on adding –est and –er to words like big, bigger, and biggest. This was part of the spelling words for the week. The teacher gave directions for preparing the paper they were to list their new spelling words on. The students were to list the spelling words on one line and skip one line in between each word. She stated to the students that she was not going to give the directions again and they should listen carefully and ask questions now. Every one seemed to understand the directions and to have added assurance that they could finish the task she listed on the board what they had to do. When the students were allowed to start, many of them would come up to the desk and ask if they did it right. This activity just reinforced the issue that the students were not engaged in this activity and they were not listening to the directions. When I looked around the room at the student’s papers I would guess that more than half of them were unsure of what to do. I would say that this could be an assessment of following directions. As the teacher I would see that the method of explaining I used was ineffective and I would have to change the way I explain this activity and perhaps try to engage the students more.

<<Back to EDC 452 home page Heather Clark February 23, 2009 Assessment Journal #3

The cooperating teacher conducts a reading lesson with the students which also contain the new spelling words. The students and teacher read the story and she has them work on the corresponding workbook. The student all work together on the first page and the second page is done independently. The assessment process that is used is a fill in the blank test. The students must fill in or circle the correct response. This is a way for the teacher to know if the students understand the reading and spelling words and also if they have any comprehension skills and if they were able to following instructions.

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