Journal+Six_Nicole

On Friday March 20th I visited my cooperating teacher’s fourth grade classroom at Raymond C. LaPerche Elementary. During this visit, I observed the teacher using a type of informal assessment by observing students during what she called “group reading.” The classroom was split into three different reading groups in respect to their reading level. The reading levels were labeled one, two, and three. The three different books being read by groups were Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, and Chocolate War. The students sat with their group in their designated reading area in the room and took turns reading out loud for twenty minutes.

Students are observed constantly by the teacher during the twenty minutes of reading time. Even though this is a time where the teacher can usually catch up on correcting work and preparing for the next lesson, she claims she always leaves time to observe her students while they read. The teacher listens to the fluency of the students reading aloud while also watching other students body language to make sure they are following along. The teacher mostly focuses on students’ eyes as they follow along with the person reading aloud. By looking at the students’ eyes, she can detect issues such as the reader reading too fast or loss of interest in the story.

I think using observation as a form of informal assessment is a simple yet effective way to assess students. Using observations is one of the most commonly used form of assessment in the classroom and is a great way to support, evaluate, and compare with the written work students hand in. What I would suggest the teacher did when observing students was record the observations she was noticing as she witnessed them. That way, there would be less room for error and memory loss when the teacher attempts to record what she saw over an hour ago. I would suggest creating a graphic organizer with all of the students’ names and create categories such as fluency, attention span on listening, attitude, and overall participation. As far as the assessment itself, I know reading aloud is essential to the learning process and I think this twenty minute reading period really compliments the silent reading time students have. This way, students can experience both types of reading styles to give them a chance to improve and work on their reading.