Documenting and Assessing Responses to Literature and Comprehension Strategy Use

Documenting and Assessing Responses to Literature and Comprehension Strategy Use EDC423 Dr. Julie Coiro

Quick Write: Documenting Responses to Literature • Think about all the different ways that students might respond to the books they read. In the next three minutes, work with a partner to brainstorm as many ways as possible to “document” these reader responses in ways that can improve your teaching and learning.

Documenting Good Teaching and Learning in A Reading Class • Teacher responds to student journal • Mailing labels • Dated to compare over time

Documenting Good Teaching and Learning in A Reading Class • Color-coded stickers on journals • Portfolio – writing samples • Draw a picture and summarize in caption • During reading summaries/monitoring • Student checklists and reflections to help set goals • Selecting main ideas/quotes & reflection

Today’s Learning Objectives • 1. Identify principles of assessment in response-based reading programs • 2. Describe what and how you would document reading performance and growth over time (in a response-based program) • 3. Practice documenting response type and comprehension strategy use in student journal entries and using this data to inform your feedback and instruction • 4. ** See the connections between these ideas and your lesson plans (response objectives, assessment ideas, rubrics, etc)

Principles of Assessment • The purpose of response-based assessment is to improve teaching and learning. • Assessment should be consistent with curricular goals (individual choice, interests, and performance over time) to create lifelong learners, not just good test-takers. • Response-based assessment should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data (e.g., reader response portfolio - p. 441-442)

Patterns of Response to Literature (beginning of semester) Hancock, Chapter 1

What should you document in a Reader Response program? • Document program opportunities AND individual student performance (linked to specific book titles over the course of the year) • Listening behavior • Contact with Books (browsing, attention, proximity) • Impulse to Share (partner read, share/discuss) • Actions and Drama (readers theater, role playing) • Art, Music, and Constructed Products (draw,cook) • Oral Response (retell, lit conversations, prompts) • Written Response (response journals, adapting writing using literature models) Hancock p. 421 and 423

How might you document reader response? • Response Checklists - p. 421 and 423 • Teacher Anecdotal Records - observations (stickies, mailing labels) accumulated by date (pair with students’ personal reflections over time) • Daily reading logs (track # and type of books) • Literature Circle Conversations (peer and self evaluation) - see also “Grand Conversations” • Literature response files (track varied types of responses) • Visual graph of strategy use • Subjective guidelines about quality of response (p. 424 and p. 430)

Literature Response Journals – contain elements of… • Personal meaning-making responses • Monitoring understanding – I see that… • Making inferences – I think.. • Making, validating, or invalidating predictions – I predict … • Expressing wonder or confusion – I wonder… • Character and plot involvement • Character interaction – 1st person – If I were him… • Character assessment/judgment – That character is.. • Story Involvement – pos/neg reactions as the plot unfolds… • Literary evaluation • Literary criticism – author’s craft or style EXTRA: Hancock article (1993) – see p. 472 for guidelines

Literature Response Journals(Hancock, 2008, p. 278-279) • How do you begin to design literature journal prompts? • Experiential prompts (connect to personal experiences) • Aesthetic prompts (emotional interactions and character feelings) • Cognitive prompts (inferences, M&MDAVIS) • Interpretative prompts (personal judgment about meaning/message & characters) • Consider these ideas for your “response objective” and center activity in your lesson plans!

Activity: Documenting Response and Strategy Use in Literature Journals • 1. Trade your Book Activity 9 (Running Out of Time journal entries) with a partner • 2. Look for evidence of Hancock’s response categories (Pers Meaning, Char/Plot, Lit Eval); code all in the margin with PM, CP, and/or LE • 3. Look for evidence of M&MDAVIS strategy use; code all strategies in the margin with a single letter for each • 4. Note patterns of individual readers; Then write a short summary of observations in your own notebook and what you might teach next • 5. Discuss patterns across the group as a whole

Coding Categories for Literature Response Journals • PM: Personal meaning-making responses • Monitoring understanding • Making inferences • Making, validating, or invalidating predictions • Expressing wonder or confusion • CP: Character and plot involvement • Character interaction or assessment/judgment • Story Involvement • LE: Literary evaluation • Literary criticism • Comprehension Strategy Use • M: Monitoring • MC: Making connections • D: Determining Impt. Ideas • A: Asking Questions • V: Visualizing • I: Inferencing • S: Summarizing Hancock article (1993) Kelly & Clausen Grace (2008)

Documenting Response Diversity and Strategy Use How would this data inform the feedback you give to a particular student? What you teach next? To whom?

Homework • Tues, Nov. 23 • Read Ch. 8 (Multicultural/International Lit) • *** Hand In Lesson Plan • Nov. 30: MEET WITH YOUR GROUP! for projects • Read Ch. 12 (Responding with drama, art, and music) • Study for Quiz #2 (Nov. 19) • Dec. 2: Quiz, Work on Book Festival Projects (if needed) • Dec. 7 and 9: • Book Activity 11: International Children’s Digital Library • Book Activity 12: Poster Presentation

Documenting and Assessing Responses to Literature and Comprehension Strategy Use