Dawn Mitchell's Blog Post 3 – Debbie Miller’s Section II of No More Independent Reading Without Support and Regie Routman's Chapter 7 – Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

Dawn Mitchell's Blog Post 3 – Debbie Miller’s Section II of No More Independent Reading Without Support and Regie Routman's Chapter 7 – Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

During the month of October our literacy professional development focuses on formative assessment, specifically the benefits of using Running Records and Miscue Analysis to determine not only what reading level a student is on, but more importantly who the student is as a reader, and how the student reads.  This provides us with an opportunity to use this information as a formative assessment tool and also as an instructional tool.

In October’s blendspace you will find a variety of resources including examples of informal reading inventories, videos of students reading to use for miscue analysis, excerpts of articles, and relevant activities to help you to apply authentic reading assessments with your students.

This month I read Section II of Debbie Miller’s No More Independent Reading Without Support and every part in this section spoke to the importance of providing support through instruction and through formative assessment for our students’ independent reading.  In the table provided on page 16, Miller says to grow as independent readers students not only need classroom time to read and choice of what they read, but they also need explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read.  They need to read a large number of books and a variety of texts, and they need teacher monitoring, assessment, and support, as well as opportunities to engage with others to talk about what they’ve read.

Later in this same section, Miller specifically outlines specific actions such as individual schema-based learning, conceptual learning, and transactional learning as effective support structures for supporting student growth.  Miller also listed successful teacher intervention behaviors including teacher responding to student questions, teacher-led discussions, and teacher monitoring and modeling of comprehension strategies as effective as well.  It was no surprise to me that the authors found that, “It is the specific actions that teachers take to support students during silent reading periods that produce significant growth in students’ comprehension.” 

In my own experience as a reading teacher I have seen first-hand how in a reading workshop where the independent reading time is supported with a mini-lesson that provides students a goal or invitation for them to try out a new reading strategy the students have a purpose and a direction for their reading and it is targeted toward their growth.  I’ve also seen when the students during their try it out time during independent reading are supported with formative assessment strategies such as miscue-analysis and conferencing that provide differentiated support work to build a relationship with the student and help them to form their identity as a reader and a writer within a wider collective classroom community of readers and writers.

 I’ve also seen how these formative assessment strategies are also instructional in nature.  The students when they are reading to you and to their peers and/or are discussing what they’ve read benefit tremendously from the experience and we as teachers are able to use that meaningful experience to gauge student understanding and can build on that with the next mini-lesson.

Our reading assessments do not have to be limited by what is criterion or norm referenced or standardized.  In fact, the teacher’s assessments are the ones that provide our students with the most support.  In chapter 7 of Routman’s Reading Essentials, she says “As much as possible, we teachers need to do our own ongoing assessments with our students using materials that students are already reading or are likely to read.  Our own assessments are the ones that really drive instruction.  Someone else’s materials and notes rarely give the full documentation we obtain through first-hand observations of students we know well.” (page 99).

She gives a series of questions in this chapter that I have found helpful to guide my reading assessments: 

                *Is this a valid and useful assessment?

                *How am I using this assessment?

                *What goals am I setting?

                *Who else do I need to inform?

I also really love her Framework for an informal reading conference that she outlines on page 104.  She follows this natural routine in her work with students.

                *Bring me a book that you can read pretty well.

                *Why did you choose this book?

                *What is the reading level of this book for you?

                *Tell me what the book is about so far?

                *Read this part of the book for me.

                *Tell me what you remember about what you just read?

                *Let’s discuss your strengths and what you need to work on. (Sets Strengths and Goals)

                *How long do you think it will take you to complete this book?

Routman says, “Sitting right next to a student, observing him read, probing her thinking, is the best way I know to evaluate all aspects of a child’s reading and move the student forward.  While there are many informal reading inventories available as well as all kinds of formal tests, the most accurate information is obtained by carefully observing the child by your side, in the act of reading.” 

I want to make more opportunities in my work with students to have them engaged as readers and writers and to value the time spent listening, watching, supporting, and coaching them to be read longer, to read stronger, and to foster a love for what they read and what they learn from it. 

Sincerely,

Dawn