Okay, don’t get me started
on summative testing that doesn’t inform instruction. That is one test on one day, and that type of
test is not indicative of anything other than simple application and
reasoning. Can you tell I am a huge
proponent of formative assessment? And
in this hypothetical vignette, I am supposed to teach at a school where a
majority of students failed the summative test?
I think I would have my work cut out for me if the school placed a huge
emphasis on test scores, especially if those scores were linked to my
professional performance or evaluation.
Universal literacy strategies that I would employ would
involve reading and writing integration throughout several domains ALL DAY, EVERY
DAY. I am assuming the students did not
meet the standards in reading, so obviously what was being done before wasn’t
working. Outside the classroom, I would begin with myself by knowing my
strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I
would research situations similar to the one I would be in to find significant,
valid, reliable, and effective strategies.
Fostering the love of literacy and literacy practices in the home would
be my next endeavor. Through home visits
and connections to resources, a rapport and trust relationship would be
developed and nurtured all year with two-way open communication. Inside
the classroom, I would apply strategies in an action-based research
approach, observing what worked and what didn’t work to further drive my
instructional practices. I would base
many of my activities on best practices and assess them formatively all year
long. Students would work with art,
music, drama, and technology to enhance their engagement, particularly through
the use of comprehensive literacy program components.
At the end of the year, I would base my own performance
and my students’ performance on their love of reading and engagement in the
literacy process, rather than relying on a one-time summative assessment
piece. My goal would be to create a
caring environment (Noddings, 2002) in which my students felt loved,
comfortable, and open to share with classmates.
Noddings, N. (2002). Educating moral people: A
caring alternative to character education. New York: Teachers College
Press.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI agree about summative assessment because you never know what happened with a student the night before the test or if they were upset about something non-school related that day. I think what they achieve in your classroom day-to-day is way more important to how you should guide your instruction. The main goal in literacy instruction is for our students to be actively engaged while gaining meaning from their text.