Literacy assessment

1. 21st Century Language
and Literacy
Assessment
Gemma Marie C.
Baltazar

2. T I F F A N Y G R A C E U Y

3. Think and
Reflect

4. Conflicts between knowledge about
reading and assessment practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
RESEARCH SAYS: YET:
Prior knowledge
is important to
reading
Our tests use a
lot of short
passages on a
comprehension. lot of topics.

5. Conflicts between knowledge
about reading and assessment
practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
RESEARCH SAYS: YET:
Inference is an Our tests rely
essential part of greatly on literal
comprehension. comprehension.

6. Conflicts between knowledge about
reading and assessment practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
RESEARCH SAYS: YET:
The diversity in prior
knowledge across
Our tests use multiple
choice items with only
individuals and varied one correct answer.
causal relations in
human experience
invite many possible
answers to a
question.

7. Conflicts between knowledge about
reading and assessment practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
RESEARCH SAYS: YET:
The ability to
synthesize
various parts of
the text is a
hallmark of good
readers.
Our tests rarely
go beyond
information from finding the main
idea of a
paragraph or
passage.

8. Conflicts between knowledge about
reading and assessment practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
YET:
RESEARCH
SAYS:
Good reading
involves the
integration of
many component
skills that
interplay with one
another in a variety
of ways.
Our tests fragment
reading into isolated
skills and report
performance on each.

9. Conflicts between knowledge about
reading and assessment practices
(Valencia and Pearson (1990))
YET:
RESEARCH SAYS:
Skilled readers are
fluent; word
identification is so
automatic to allow
cognitive resources
to be used for
comprehension.
Oral reading fluency
is rarely considered
in our tests.

10. Literacy Assessment:
A Time For Change

11. Do we need change in
language and literacy
assessment?

12. A big and
loud
YES!!!

13. Is there a need for change in
literacy assessment?
•Pikulsky expressed an emphatic “YES!”
in specifying needed changes:
• Broadened assessment perspectives.
• Shift from being test-centered to student-
centered;
• Reflect the dynamic and interactive
nature of the reading process.

14. Reform in Language
and Literacy
Assessment

15. • ...since the goal of literacy
instruction is to develop
strategic readers, literacy
assessment should look into
metacognitive behaviors that
make strategic readers.

16. So, what is a strategic
reader?
•Strategic readers understand that
reading should make sense.
•Strategic readers are motivated,
active learners.
•Strategic readers are independent
readers.

17. • Strategic reading should be our goal
for literacy instruction,
and hence, it should be the basis of
all assessment.
- Winograd (1991)

18. What are the
Characteristics of
Literacy
Assessment?

19. Literacy Assessment
should be...

20. • Based on
current
research and
theory.

21. •Reflect the complex and
dynamic
interrelationship of
reading, writing and language
abilities.

22. •Incorporate a variety of
observations, and include
high quality text and a range
of authentic literacy tasks.

23. •Reflect age
appropriate literacy
tasks for students.

24. •Reveal change
over time at the
level of the
learners.

25. •Not be biased
toward students.

26. Principles of
Literacy
Assessment:
Whole Language
Classroom

27. •Assessment strategies
must honor the
wholeness of language.

28. • Reading and
writing are viewed
as processes.

29. •Teacher intuition
is a valuable
assessment tool.

30. •Teacher
observation is at
the center of
assessment.

31. • Assessment in
reading and writing
must reflect what we
know about the
reading process.

32. •Norm-referenced
achievement testing is
no help to the whole
language teacher.

33. •Assessment
instruments are
varied and literacy is
assessed in a variety
of contexts.

34. •Assessment is
integral to
instruction.

35. • Assessment strategies
are developmentally
and culturally
appropriate.

36. •Assessment occurs
continuously.

37. •Assessment must
reveal students’
strengths.

38. Is it time to welcome
and use informal
literacy assessment?

39. Think and
reflect...

40. •Reading is a dynamic process
where the reader interacts with
the text and the context. Thus,
literacy assessment must also be
d y n a m i c a n d
i n t e r a c t i v e .

41. And so?

42. It is time to embrace and
use informal or
alternative language
and literacy
assessment.

43. And why?

44. •It allows learners to constantly
evaluate their performance as
they engage in, discuss, reflect
on, transform, and apply what
they learned.

45. SO, LITERACY
ASSESSMENT
SHOULD BE?

46. •Literacy assessment
should be
performance-based.

47. Why performance-
based assessment?

48. DeLain (1995) says: Performance-
based assessment is...
• Aligned with instruction and simulates the
instructional environment.
• It provides students opportunities to express or
represent their knowledge in different ways.
• It provides better indicators of the depth of the
student’s knowledge.
• It stretches students’ minds by requiring them to
construct, design, compose, model, build their
response—rather than select it from an array of
choices.

49. Take a look...

50. Alternative
Assessment of
Vocabulary
Development:
A Framework

51. Remember Farr and Carey
• Vocabulary is not a unitary behavior. Thus
assessment of vocabulary may take many
forms.
• Reading vocabulary is part of reading
instruction, thus, it is an area that should be
assessed.
• Vocabulary is best taught in context. Thus, it
should also be assessed in context.

52. The Word Bank and Semantic Map
Abilities Assessed: Student’s Task:
Depth and breadth of vocabulary a. Write as many words as you
can think of that are related
to the topic/title.
(Give them time to write until
they have 20-50 words)
Precision of vocabulary Place your words in a semantic
map.
Fluency of vocabulary Write 1 or 2 paragraphs using
the words in your semantic map.

53. Rate as follows:
Depth and breadth
(No. of related words
listed)
Fair Good Very Good
Precision
(Correct clustering)
Fair Good Very Good
Fluency
(Correctness of use)
Fair Good Very Good

54. Alternative
Assessment of
Reading
Comprehension:
A Framework

55. Metacomprehension strategies:
• Predicting
• Verifying
• Previewing
• Purpose setting
• Self-questioning
• Drawing from background knowledge
• Summarizing
• Applying fix-up strategies

56. Story Retelling
(Marrow & Smith, 1990)
• This is a free recall test, both product- and process-
oriented. The student recalls the events in the story
(product). He monitors and self-corrects his
memory of the events (process).
• The retelling may be oral and tape-recorded (for
younger and less able students), or written (for
older and more able students). The oral and/or
written protocols are evaluated using the story
retelling analysis chart.

57. Abilities Assessed: Student’s Task:
Recall events in sequence Read the story carefully.
Self-monitoring Then retell the story as you
understood it.
Self-correction
Interpret events

58. •The quality of the retelling may
also be rated using a 3 – or 5-
point rating scale, instead of
simply giving 1 point for the
presence of every criterion in
the student’s retelling.

59. Roger farr’s
“d r e a m a b o u t
l i t e r a c y
assessment”

60. Farr “dreams” that
literacy assessment:

61. Will help teachers plan
instruction.

62. Will be based in trust on
teacher’s judgment

63. Will guide learners to
identify their own
strengths

64. Will support each learner
in becoming the best
that he can be

65. Will emphasize what
learners can do, rather
than simply what they
know

66. Will h o n o r what
learners can do, rather
than destroythem for
what they cannot
do.

67. One last time...
TRAD OR NONTRAD?
What words best describe
traditional assessment? How about
nontraditional assessment? Write as
many as you can for each.
Traditional Nontraditional

68. Traditional (T) Nontraditional (NT)
Cognitive
Counter-productive
Formal
Isolated items
Limited
Machine-scored
Product-oriented
Simple recall
Single answer
Standardized
Summative
Test-centered
timed
Authentic
Continuous
Dynamic
Engaging
Holistic
Informal
Interactive
In context
Metacognitive
Multi-dimensional
Open-ended
Performance-based
Process-oriented
Purposeful
Student-centered

69. Rate yourself. Which one are you?
• If you checked: You’re a
Born Winner
8-10 Ts & 8-10
NTs
5-7 Ts & 5-7 NTs
1-4 Ts and 1-4
NTs
Struggling
Winner
Born Loser (try
harder)