The reason for assessing children is to make changes in our instruction. Through coaching and collaborative relationships, we routinely ask ourselves if our instruction is making a difference, and if we believe it is, how do we know? We reflect on our instruction, practices, routines, and our values. The goal of our reflection is student learning. We want to provide children with an education that will give them the tools to be lifelong readers and writers and choose any path in life they wish.
Adopted from How to Align Literacy Instruction, Assessment, and
Standards by Nancy L. Akhavan
Thursday, March 13, 2007
Planning for Guided Reading
In order to plan for Guided Reading lessons in their own classrooms, Katherine Casey models how to gather and use data from a variety of sources to formulate small groups of students that have similar needs. The difference between Guided Experience and Guided Reading as well as the continuum of reading development is also addressed.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Guided Reading with 6th Grade Students Using: "In Your Dreams"
Before observing a Guided Reading lesson, adults are shown the variety of ways to collect data about students to create guided reading groups and inform instruction. Using "In Your Dreams," an article from the leveled magazine X-Zone, Katherine Casey demonstrates a Guided Reading lesson with 6th grade students. Lesson focus: Using text features to support learning and determine main ideas.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Guided Reading with 4th Grade Students Using: "Stormy Weather"
Using "Stormy Weather," an article from a Level Q magazine, X-Zone, Katherine Casey demonstrate a Guided Reading lesson with 4th grade students. Lesson focus: Caputring and questioning what you've learned from informational text.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Using Data to Form Groups for Small Group Instruction Focus: Elementary Schools
Katherine Casey guides participants through the data analysis of a 4th grade class using their CST and DRA scores. Based on the data, Katherine forms 4 small gorups and reviews her rationale in forming these groups. Katherine also explains the small group instruction that will take place in each group (Work Work, Reflection, Fluency, and Guided Writing).
Tuesday, October 26, 2006
Using Data to Form Groups for Small Group Instruction Focus: Middle and High Schools
Katherine Casey guides participants through the data analysis of an 8th grade class using their CST and DRA scores. Based on the data, Katherine forms 3 small groups and reviews her rationale in forming these groups. Katherine also explains the small group instruction that will take place in each group (Oral Reflection, Gathering Information, and Day 2 Oral Reflection). In addition, Katherine tackles the question, "Where does small group instruction fit in?"
Using the DRA2 to Inform Instruction - Middle & High School
Katherine Casey emphasizes that the CST does not provide useful information for students who are struggling i all areas of assessment. Katherine uses the DRA2 on struggling 8th grade students to model a valid information that results from this assessment. She also offers explicit teaching strategies that will help students move forward in their work.
Instructional Planning Based on Data Analysis - Middle & High School
Based on data from an 8th grade classroom, Katherine Casey models how to use this data to get to know students and make instructional decisions. She demonstrates how to examine the data and plot out whole group and small group instructional plans.
Using the DRA to Inform Instruction - Elementary School
Katherine Casey models how to generate whole group and small group instructional plans based on student data. She walks participants through a data analysis using fourth grade students’ scores. Katherine begins by discussing the implications of the students’ data and follows-up with explicit instructional plans both for whole group and small group instruction.
Instructional Planning Based on Data Analysis - Elementary School
Based on data from an 8th grade classroom, Katherine Casey models how to use this data to get to know students and make instructional decisions. She demonstrates how to examine the data and plot out whole group and small group instructional plans.
Planning a Shared Reading Based on Student Needs
Katherine Casey uses data from an 8th grade class to gain a deeper understanding of overall students’ strengths and areas of need. How to compare and contrast ELD levels and analyze state standards in order to impact lesson planning is also modeled. Participants are then led through the planning process for a shared reading lesson using the short story “Mrs. Buell” by Jean little.
Assessing Student Writing
Using a checklist referenced from Carl Anderson’s book, Assessing Writers, Katherine Casey models how to use student writing to make informed decisions about student’s strengths and areas of need. Participants analyze multiple samples of writing from a range of grade levels.
Assessing Students Through Running Records
Literacy Coaches Leya Naulls and Jennifer Richter lead participants through an overview of running records’ components and their associated cueing systems. Katherine Casey models how to analyze the data by focusing student’s strengths and attending to structural, visual, and meaning cues used during the assessment.
Assessing Students Through Informal Interviews
The focus for the day’s staff development is to rethink how we gather information about students using materials we already have and use it in smarter ways. Katherine Casey interviews 3rd grade and 7th grade students while adults take notes to develop theories about each student’s strengths and next steps. Each student interview is analyzed, and the structure of student interviews is discussed.
Analyzing Data to Determine Students' Strengths and Needs Focus: 5th Grade
Katherine Casey demonstrates how to analyze CELDT data and determine students’ strengths and needs. In addition, Katherine models how to take old CELDT data and hook it into ELD standards.