Module 3: Assessment

1. Module 3: Assessment Adolescent Literacy – Professional Development Unit 3, Session 2

2. Guiding Questions • Session 2 Key Questions • What is screening and why do we do it? • What is diagnostic assessment and why do we do it? • What kinds of screening and diagnostic assessments can we use? • Session 2 Objectives • Participants will learn about the role screening and diagnostic assessment play in guiding instruction for struggling students and students with learning disabilities. • Participants will practice administering curriculum-based measurements for reading.

3. Activity • Spend some time at the beginning of the session reporting out on the After the Session Activities from the last meeting. • Assessment Vocabulary Probe

4. Screening Screening is: • For all students • A quick assessment that gauges students’ skill level • Ideally conducted at the beginning of the school year, and can be done periodically throughout the year • Usually focused on reading fluency

5. Screening: Students At Risk • Screening helps identify students who may need extra or different instruction, or further evaluation. • In addition to below average performance on measures of reading fluency and/or reading comprehension, look at: • Scores below “Proficient” on previous year’s MCAS • Below average performance on other standardized achievement tests • Teacher reports

6. Two Types of Screening • Curriculum-Based Measures • Teacher-created passages gleaned from grade-level texts • Scores interpreted in relation to school created norms, or, more commonly, the guides provided by the Florida Institute for Reading Research • Standardized Measures • Commercially available • Normed on large groups

7. Activity CBM: Oral Reading Fluency • This is an example of a CBM (curriculum-based measurement) for ORF (oral reading fluency) • Assess each other. • Reform into different pairs. • Discuss the experience with a partner. • As a tester (What information do you get?) • As a reader (How did this assessment experience feel? How might it have felt if you performed differently?)

8. Activity CBM: Maze Comprehension • This is an example of CBM • Maze passages are selected and created from grade-level texts • Assess each other. • Reform into different pairs. • Discuss the experience with a partner: • As a tester (What information do you get?) • As a reader (How did this assessment experience feel? How might it have felt if you performed differently?)

9. Divide into Two At-Risk Groups

10. Example Formal Measure • TOSWRF: Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency • Ages: 6–6 through 17–11 • Testing Time:3 minutes for a single form or 10 minutes for both forms • Administration:Group or individual • The Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF) measures a student's ability to recognize printed words accurately and efficiently.

11. Example Formal Measure • TOSCRF: Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency • Ages: 7–0 through 18–11 • Testing Time:10 minutes • Administration:Individual or Group • Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency (TOSCRF) measures a student's essential contextual reading abilities (i.e., word identification, word meaning, word building, sentence structure, comprehension, and fluency).

12. Know What Data the Instrument Provides

13. Targeted Screening/Diagnostic Information • Students whose scores on screenings put them at risk for poor academic performance must be further evaluated. • The goal of screening is simply to highlight who is at risk. • Screening does not guide instruction. • Close observation of student performance in class, and analysis of student work samples should always be part of this next level of evaluation.

14. Diagnostic Information is Necessary • Reading difficulty can take a variety of forms. We must know where to begin instructing the student. Targeted assessment and close observation can provide the diagnostic information to guide instruction. • What are the students specific areas of need in reading fluency? In reading comprehension? In writing? In listening and speaking?

15. Analysis of Errors • Expertise in language components enable assessors to analyze patterns of student errors to determine targeted areas for instruction. For example: • Student skips words, phrases, or lines of text. • Student omits prefixes or suffixes from words. • Student misreads multisyllabic words. • Student reads with little inflection or lack of response to punctuation.

16. Activity • Categorizing Reading Errors • Form three groups. • Using the handout, categorize the oral reading errors from the example assessment.

17. Informal Reading Inventory • Qualitative Reading Inventory – 5th edition • Informal assessment instrument • Similar to CBM but not CBM

18. Receptive Language • PPVT-4 Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test • Ages : 2–6 through 90+ years • Administration: The PPVT-4 takes about 10 to 15 minutes • The PPVT-4 assesses oral comprehension/vocabulary development.

19. Receptive/Expressive Language • CREVT-2: Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test – Second Edition • Ages: 4–0 through 89–11 • Administration: Individual; takes 20 to 30 minutes • CREVT-2 measures receptive and expressive oral vocabulary.

20. Phonological Processing • Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LAC-3) • Ages: 5–0 through 18–11 • Administration: Individual; 20-30 minutes • The LAC-3 measures an individual's ability to perceive and conceptualize speech sounds using a visual medium.

21. Phonological Processing • CTOPP: Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing • Ages: 5–0 through 24–11 • Administration: Individual; 30 minutes • CTOPP assesses phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming.

22. Written Language • TOWL-4: Test of Written Language — Fourth Edition • Ages:  9–0 through 17–11 • Administration:  Individual or group;60–90 minutes • TOWL-4 identifies students who write poorly, determines students’ particular strengths and weaknesses in various writing abilities, and documents students’ progress in special writing programs.

23. Written Expression • WPT: Writing Process Test • Ages: 8 through 19 • Administration: Individual; 45 minutes • WPT is a direct measure of writing that requires the student to plan, write, and revise an original composition. The WPT assesses both written product and writing process.

24. Other Areas We Should Assess

25. On Literacy Assessment • Our assessments must inform us about student characteristics, which can help us provide the most appropriate reading instruction and experiences. • The related cognitive, affective, and experiential domains “represent important and powerful aspects of student learning, and they must be addressed if we are to have any hope of meeting struggling adolescent readers’ needs.”

26. The Affective Domain • Motivation to read • Reading self-concept • General motivational style • Reading interests

27. The Experiential Domain • Learning styles and thinking styles • Past school experiences • Parental involvement • Cultural background and expectations • Mental and physical health

28. Activity • Take the Motivation to Read Profile Survey. • Pair up with a partner and engage in the Motivation to Read Profile Conversational Interview.

29. For Next Time • Read the assigned readings. • Consider taking the online thinking styles inventory at http://www.ldrc.ca/projects/tscale/ • Determine one aspect of your school assessment plan that needs work. Get information about one of the assessments mentioned and be ready to share out to the group about what the assessment tests, for what age group it would be appropriate, how long it takes, how much training is required, and the cost. • Create, administer, and score a CBM oral reading assessment and maze assessment to a group of students and come to the next session prepared to discuss what you learned.