Blog 5: Terri Thrailkill, Make Assessment Instruction's Working Partner by Regie Routman

Blog 5 /Terri Thrailkill: Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner by Regie Routman

Until reading this chapter, I mistakenly thought assessment was synonymous with evaluation.  Now I understand that assessing is gathering data and evaluating is analyzing that data. I have often been guilty of assessing without evaluating.  Without analyzing data and using it to inform my instruction, I have wasted precious teaching time.  Regie Routman reminds me that “this is a lost opportunity to support students’ growing competence as readers.”

I agree with Routman’s idea that teachers should do ongoing assessments using materials that their students are already reading or are likely to read. These, not someone else’s materials and notes, can really be used to drive instruction and improve learning.  Assessments should be worth the time it takes and easy to administer.

Routman encourages teachers to make assessment and evaluation a daily routine.  As we are teaching, we should be assessing and evaluating so that we adjust lessons as needed in order to meet the needs of our students.  “We can’t just follow the directions of a manual and hope for the best.”

Routman further explains that “sitting right next to a student, observing him read, probing her thinking, is the best way to evaluate all aspects of a child’s reading and move the student forward.” As a former Reading Recovery teacher, I know that the most accurate information is gained by carefully observing a child in the act of reading. Taking a running record for a younger and developing reader is appropriate in order to go back and do some teaching after the conference.

Individual reading conferences as a regular part of the day is an easy and manageable way to combine assessment with instruction. Routman suggests meeting with struggling readers once a week (and sometimes for a few days in a row) and once a month with other students. Information should also be gathered from observing their responses in shared, guided, and interactive reading, evaluating their written responses and monitoring reading records.  The teacher’s disposition is crucial to the success of conferencing.  It should be and easy and pleasurable process for teacher and student. The student should always bring his book with him to the conference so that the teacher may scan or refer to it as needed. Routman offers a list of helpful questions that may be used to probe for student understanding.  If the student’s understanding is weak, we must figure out the problem by listening to him read a short passage.

Teaching students to choose “just-right” books is important.  Routman contends that “it is our job as knowledgeable professionals to ensure that our students are reading when they are supposed to be reading: that means they are effectively using phonics, word analysis, comprehension strategies, and whatever else they bring to the text to understand it.  Otherwise we are squandering precious time.” Routman offers an easy, step by step framework for an informal reading conference as well as a list of “child-friendly” reading goals that would ensure successful conferences

We must use our informal reading evaluations to do needs-based teaching based on the question “what’s most important to teach at this moment to move him forward”. But, after teaching, we must not automatically assume that students will automatically apply what we demonstrate.  Routman emphasizes our “need to coax them to move to application, both by directly telling them to do so and by making our own application process visible”. Then we must allow them to practice, and check to make sure that application is occurring.

Ongoing accountability should be central to teaching reading.  Documenting student progress at the classroom and school level is necessary in providing data and analysis to back up our instructional decisions.  There must be a balance between formal assessments and informal assessments.  Informal assessments may include reading conferences, running records, and rubrics.  Using assessment to drive instruction is not easy, but should be the goal of every teacher. In this chapter, Routman clearly explains the invaluable partnership between assessment and instruction and offers very practical ideas to make that partnership a reality.