Seabury+Journal+3

** I worked with a small reading group today. We read a short story as a group. I had the students follow along and read the story aloud as I read. We read the story a second time to ensure comprehension. After we read the story twice, we used it to answer multiple choice questions from a work book. The questions asked the students to recall information from the passage they had read. An example of a question asked is “What was the main idea of the story?” There were four multiple choice options. We read each possible answer aloud as a group. The students were asked to choose the best answer and circle it.

After each question was answered, we took time to share and discuss our answers. When a student told me their answer, I asked them why they chose it. By doing this, the students were forced to create justification for their answers.

Many of the students were able top choose the correct answer the first time around. If a student was not able to choose the correct answer originally, when I asked them why they chose the answer they did they realized it was incorrect. This was an informal assessment for me to see where the students stood in reading comprehension. This exercise was practice for students. My cooperating teacher checks the work books once a week to insure that the students are putting in effort and improving. If students perform to the best of their ability, the teacher does not grade the accuracy of the work. I think that this assessment is useful in a first grade setting simply as preparation for all of the standardized testing they will endure throughout the rest of their academic careers. I think it is important for students to be exposed to this format of questions. That being said, multiple choice tests are not practical for all first graders to take. The students in my reading group are not strong enough readers to comprehend the questions being asked or the possible answers. Have the students take a multiple choice test independently at this age would be virtually impossible. It would also be very difficult to administer the multiple choice test to a larger group of students when they need so much assistance. I do not think I would use this type of assessment in my own first grade classroom unless it was with a small group of students that I was able to assist. In order for this to be possible, the other students would have to be doing an engaging independent assignment or with an aid. Multiple choice assessments seem impractical to use in a first grade classroom unless you have help from other staff members to engage the students who are not in the reading group taking the test. ** << Back to EDC 452 home page << Section 1 <<Abbey Journals