Teaching and Assessing Language Arts

1. Teaching and Assessing Language Arts Chapter 2

2. Assessing Students’ Learning • Should resemble real language use--authentic • Should be an important part of teaching and learning • Teachers should examine use of language arts and artifacts or products (projects, reading logs, etc.)

3. Authentic Assessment • Use appropriate assessment tools • Use a variety of assessment tools • Align instruction and assessment • Focus on what children can do • Consider processes and products • Guidelines – p. 53

4. Authentic Assessment • Five purposes • To document milestones in students’ language and literacy development • To identify students’ strengths to plan for instruction • To document students’ language arts activities and projects • To determine grades • To help teachers learn more about how students become strategic readers and writers

5. Monitoring Students’ Progress • Classroom observations • Anecdotal notes • Conferences • Types of Conferences – Figure 2-4 – p. 56 • Checklists

6. Portfolios • Systematic and meaningful collections of artifacts documenting children’s learning and development over a period of time. • Students usually choose items to place in their portfolios within the guidelines the teacher provides.

7. Portfolios • Not all work in portfolio needs to be graded • Types of student work to include – p. 58 • Showcase portfolios – “Portfolio Share Days”

8. Self-Assessment • Begins by teacher asking students about their language arts abilities in terms of contrast (book they liked the most/least) • Students identify what they do well in reading and what they need to improve • Conferences can involve self-assessment

9. Self-Assessment • Students write notes on items they choose for their portfolios • Comments on Index cards • Special comment sheets attached to portfolio items

10. Assigning Grades • Assignment checklists • Examples – p. 61 • Rubrics • Examples – pp. 62-63 • General for any writing project • Specific to the assignment • Can also be used for self-assessment • Rubistar

11. Assigning Grades • Use triangulation (3 viewpoints) • Tests • Observations • Anecdotal records • Conferences • Portfolios • Assignment checklists • Rubrics