#2 - Testing, Testing, ABC

My experience with assessments in Literacy education is rather limited, consisting mostly of observation and analysis. Though I do have a couple of years of experience in the classroom, my role in assessments has been limited because I have always been an assistant teacher. The responsibility for assessing students reading and writing abilities has rightfully been, in my opinion, the role of the more experienced educator in the classroom. This is because, I believe, it is an extremely tricky endeavor. It is difficult to accurately judge where a child’s level is, largely because kids are generally very good at “faking it” – copying what they have heard adults write and say. For example, the first thing an emergent reader often “reads” is a storybook that has been read to them so many times that they have memorized it. Thankfully, this appears to be an area of extensive research, so as beginning teachers, we have many resources at hand to help us decode the mystery.

At the second grade level, where I am getting my student teaching experience, I am amazed by the variance in skills and knowledge when it comes to reading and writing. In addition to the problems related to learning English as a second language, there is just a huge range of exposure to language across the grade. It is obvious, at this age, which children have been read to when young and which have not. Similarly, there are some children who are comfortable with writing, and others who are terrified by it. This is the most concerning thing to me. With a little extra attention, it seems to me that a second grader can catch up relatively quickly in his/her reading abilities, but based on my experience with third and fourth graders, it seems much harder to correct bad habits or attitudes in writing. Writing, a task which involves both brain hemispheres, requires emotion, intuition, and abstract and metaphorical thinking, all while utilizing learned structures, conventions, and fine motor and graphic skills. This balance is something that if not acquired early on, can be severely limiting to a child’s development in all areas of education, not just in relation to literacy.

Assessments are critical to literacy education for two main reasons. Not only does the child need to be assessed in order to determine the correct course of education for them in the future, but the teacher and curriculum likewise need to be continually assessed in order to improve further practice. For the student, first we need to know what prior knowledge or skills they bring to the table. When this is accomplished, we need to judge how their ideas and thought processes are developing. Finally, we need to understand what they have understood. What have they learned and what will they be able to apply to successive lessons? For the teacher and the curriculum, we simply need to understand how to improve practice. William Ayers writes in his 2001 book To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher “good teaching is forever pursuing better teaching; it is always dynamic and in motion, always growing, learning, developing, searching for a better way… Good teachers, then, are what they are not yet, and so their first and firmest rule is to reach.” Assessment, in sum, is just as important for the teacher as it is for the student, and cannot be ignored or glossed over.

Blog #1 - Old Dog, New Trick

My goals and intentions for this semester, regarding literacy instruction and assessment, are pretty easy to sum up: I have a lot to learn. Although I have two and a half years of classroom teaching experience, I have always followed the lead of my cooperating teacher in assessing students reading and writing skills, and planning lessons and curricula. Whereas some teaching skills, such as classroom management, interacting with students, or structuring daily routines, can be developed intuitively, acquired primarily through experience, or even come naturally, this is definitely not the case when it comes to literacy. Based on my limited experience and studies in the field of literacy, it is an extremely complicated puzzle to decipher. When you add to the equation the limited resources, large class sizes, and language issues faced in New York’s public schools, it becomes an immensely intimidating challenge to think about accurately assessing and instructing every child in one’s class. There is also the mountain of scholarly research, studies, theories, and schools of thought to consider, when trying to develop one’s own plan of attack.

In my estimation, the big questions facing us in this respect are:
1. How do I accurately assess each child’s reading and writing level or skills, given the constraints facing teachers today, such as limited support systems and materials?
2. How does a teacher fairly and effectively address the strengths and weaknesses of every child in his/her classroom, given the same constraints mentioned above?
3. How do I as a teacher plan my time to allow for thorough, effective, and accurate assessments and instruction, without neglecting the needs of a single child?
4. In deference to the New York State Education Departments adopted standards for literacy education, how do I plan my curriculum to properly train students in reading, writing, and speaking, for information, understanding, literary response, expression, critical analysis, evaluation, and social interaction?


I hope that though the course of this semester, I can learn enough about various assessments, lessons, and literacy instruction methods to begin answering the above questions.

My student teaching classroom also promises to be an extremely valuable source of information and instruction for me over the next few months. PS124 in Chinatown offers a unique environment for the study of literacy education. Although there are many children who are English Language Learners, as a rule the children are motivated, hard-working, and excited to be in school. Parents are also generally heavily invested in their children’s educations. I was tempted to study the child in my class who has just moved here from China, but was persuaded that this would be too challenging a task. He unfortunately does not yet know more than a few words, and is still unfamiliar with the alphabet or counting in English. I’m sure he would be a fascinating case study, but I am concerned that I would not be able to even get through any assessments with him. Instead, I have chosen to work with a boy I will call Matthew. He has a functional grasp of the English language, but struggles heavily with vocabulary, syntax, and sentence structure. Consequently, his reading and writing levels are significantly below grade level. His good attitude and strong work ethic should make him a great subject for my case study.

An old dog learning a new trick, this is my first attempt at blogging. Although without the structure of a traditional essay or reflection piece, I kind of feel like I have been rambling a bit, but I am excited about exploring this new medium for expression. I sincerely hope that I have not bored anyone to tears, but I am confident that this will prove an effective means of reflecting on my experience as a student and as a teacher.