A 2 day exploration of what works in reading assessment, an emphasis on formative assessment in the fall to guide instruction, and frameworks to support and grow thoughtful readers who choose to read.

1. A Systems Look at Reading
Growth, Continuing the
Conversation
MRCL
Nov 4,5, 2015, Feb 16, 2016
Faye Brownlie
h<p://www.slideshare.net/FayeBrownlie/
mrlc.nov.reading

2. Learning Intentions
• I have a be<er understanding of how to use the data
from my reading assessments to guide my teaching.
• We have a plan to use a performance-based reading
assessment.
• I have a plan to use the IEYE to help guide my
instrucNon.
• I am be<er able to use formaNve assessment, day by
day, in my reading instrucNon.
• As a team, we can describe what counts in quality
reading and how to teach toward this for all students.

3. Consensus Activity
•What does reading mean to you?
•Write down the 1st 5 words that
come to you.

4. • Circle the most powerful word.
• Share your powerful word and tell why it is
powerful.
• Reflect on how similar and different you are in
your group.

5. Reading is understanding.
Reading is thinking.
Reading is making sense in
disciplines.

6. We assess what we value.
Do your assessments reflect what
you value?

7. • “This may be surprising, but there is a growing body of
research showing no consistent rela9onship between
student-text matching and learning.”
• “Except for the earlier men9oned O’Connor study, and that
only with beginning reading levels, there is no credible
evidence suppor9ng learning benefits from teaching kids at
their [reading] levels.”
Tim Shanahan, “Should We Teach Students at Their Reading Levels?” – Reading Today,
Sept/Oct, 2014 (Summary of research address at IRA, New Orleans, 2014)
Ac9va9ng Thinking
Ques9on & Answer Pairs

8. PCAP - 2013
• “…a fair measurement of students' abiliNes to
use their learning skills to solve real-life
situaNons.”

9. • Language arts curricula across Canada idenNfy
-comprehension,
-interpretaNon,
-response and reflecNon
as major organizing aspects of reading literacy.
• PCAP 2013 Contextual Report

10. Comprehension:
• Students understand the explicit and implicit
informaNon provided by the text. In parNcular
they understand the vocabulary, parts,
elements, and events of the text.

11. Interpreta0on:
• Students make meaning by analyzing and
synthesizing the parts/elements/events to
develop a broader perspecNve and/or
meaning for the text. They may idenNfy
theme/thesis and support that with
references to details, events, symbols,
pa<erns, and/or text features.

12. Response to text:
• In responding, the readers engage with the
text in many ways: by making personal
connecNons between aspects of the text and
their own real/vicarious/prior experiences,
knowledge, values, and/or points of view; by
responding emoNonally to central ideas or
aspects of the text; and/or by taking an
evaluaNve stance about the quality or value of
the text, possibly in relaNon to other texts
and/or social or cultural factors.

14. Less Nme on:
• Decoding
• Short test assessment items
• Absenteeism
MB Contextual Report, acer 2007 results

15. A challenge:
• Focus on reasoning
• Evidence-based thinking

16. Assessment: The bridge between teaching and learning.
( Wiliam 2011)

17. Reading Assessment
• The goal of teaching reading is to create
readers who read with understanding and
who choose to read.
• The goal of a formaNve reading assessment is
to determine the strengths and areas to
strengthen of a student’s reading with
understanding.

18. • Assessment should allow students to exhibit
their strengths.
• Students should know the purpose of the
assessment.
• Assessments should mirror the best of what
we know about teaching reading.
• More Nme should be spent on formaNve
assessment than on summaNve assessment.

19. • The skills required for fluency and effecNve
decoding are important as building blocks to
understanding, not as independent aspects of
reading.
• Background knowledge affects understanding
tremendously.
• When assessing fluency, students should have
had an opportunity to pracNce first.

20. • QuesNons that guide assessment:
– What’s working?
– What’s not?
– What’s next?

21. Scanning, Focusing:
Whole Class Reviews – reading
What are the strengths
of the class?
What are the needs of
the class as a whole?
What are your main goals
for the class this year?
Decisions

22. No plan, no point

23. Standard Reading Assessment
• Choose a common piece of text.
• Build background for the reading.
• Have students respond to common prompts.
• Have students read a short secNon aloud and answer several
interview quesNons.
• Code using the Reading Performance Standards
• Described in Student Diversity, 2nd ed – Brownlie, Feniak, Schnellert & in
It’s All about Thinking – collaboraNng to support all learners in English,
Social Studies and HumaniNes – Brownlie & Schnellert & It’s All about
Thinking – collaboraNng to support all learners in Math & Science –
Brownlie, Fullerton, Schnellert & It’s All about Thinking – creaNng
pathways for all learners in the middle years – Schnellert, Watson &
Widdess

25. • Connec9ons: How does what you read connect
with what you already knew?
• Summarizing: Choose a way to show the main
ideas and details in what you read.
• Inferencing: Read between the lines to find
something that you believe to be true, but that
isn’t actually said. Explain your reasoning.
• Vocabulary: Here are 3 challenging words from
the text. Explain what you think they mean.
• Reflec9ng: Was this easy or hard to understand?
How did you help your self understand?
(SD, p.23)

26. Interview QuesNons
• When you come to a challenging word, how do
you figure it out?
• If your reading does not make sense, what do you
do?
• What is this selecNon mainly about?
• What surprised you about this selecNon? Why?
• (Its All about Thinking, p.32)

27. Read Aloud
• Select a porNon of the text for students to read
aloud.
• Record miscues as they student reads. Watch for
a pa<ern.
• Give the student a compliment on his oral
reading.
• Chose one of the following descriptors:
– HalNng, careful, confident/fluent, expressive
(Its All about Thinking, p.32)

28. Assessment FOR Learning
• DescripNve scoring
• Coding in teams
• Class/grade profile of strengths and areas of
need
• AcNon plans developed - what’s next?
• Individual students idenNfied for further
assessment

31. Grade 4 Grade 5
+’s Can use a web
Can organize informaNon
Make simple connecNons
Foci Text Features – can’t use them
to extract informaNon
Strategies – need them
+’s Check for understanding but may
not use strategies
Can use note-making frame
Foci Note-making in own words
Strategies needed
Maid Ideas/Details
Text Features
Grade 6 Grade 7
+’s One or two strategies
Get gist – don’t misread
Some main ideas
Simple inferences
Make simple connecNons
Foci Need more strategies
Lack details and thoroughness in
note-making
Support inferences
Need to connect more widely
+’s One or two strategies
Get gist – check for
understanding
Main ideas
More thoughoul inferences
ConnecNons have impact on
understanding
Foci Evidence and detail in note-
making
Personal opinion, with
evidence

32. “Students taught by teachers who used
assessment for learning achieved in six or
seven months what would otherwise have
taken a year.”
-Black & Wiliam (1998).
“Feedback [is] in the top ten influences on
achievement. Where is the student going?
How is the student going? Where to next?”
-Ha`e (2012).

33. McKinsey Report, 2007
• The top-performing school systems recognize
that the only way to improve outcomes is to
improve instrucNon: learning occurs when
students and teachers interact, and thus to
improve learning implies improving the quality
of that interacNon.

34. How the world’s most improved
school systems keep getting better
–McKinsey, 2010
Three changes collaboraNve pracNce brought about:
1. Teachers moved from being private emperors to
making their pracNce public and the enNre teaching
populaNon sharing responsibility for student learning.
2. Focus shiced from what teachers teach to what
students learn.
3. Systems developed a model of ‘good instrucNon’ and
teachers became custodians of the model. (p. 79-81)

35. 1. Learning Intentions
“Students can reach any target as long
as it holds sNll for them.” - SNggins -
2. Criteria
Work with learners to develop criteria so they know what quality looks
like.
3. Questions
Increase quality quesNons to
show evidence of learning
Whose quesNons? Who answers?

36. 4. Descrip9ve Feedback
Timely, relevant, personal, descripNve
feedback contributes most
powerfully to student learning!
5. Self & Peer Assessment
Involve learners more in self & peer assessment
6. Ownership
Have students understand their
learning and
Communicate It with others

37. Do your students receive
individual feedback from you in
every class?

38. IEYE
• Groups of 3
• Read your IEYE
• This is a contextualized example of instrucNon and
performance at the end of the year.
– What is this IEYE?
– Why it is important?
– If this is what kids need to be able to do by the end of the
year, what teaching pracNces set them up for success?
– How is this reflected in your classroom?
– What do you need to do more of, more ocen?
– 30 minutes – 2:05

39. “Every Child, Every Day” – Richard Allington and
Rachael Gabriel
In EducaNonal Leadership, March 2012
6 elements of instrucNon for ALL students!

40. 1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.
2. Every child reads accurately.
3. Every child reads something he or she
understands.
4. Every child writes about something personally
meaningful.
5. Every child talks with peers about reading and
wriNng.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud.

41. • Reading Next: A Vision for Action and
Research in Middle and High School
Literacy – Biancarosa & Snow, 2004
• Instructional improvements

42. 1. Direct, explicit comprehension instrucNon
2. EffecNve instrucNonal principles embedded in
context
3. MoNvaNon and self-directed learning
4. Text-based collaboraNve learning
5. Strategic tutoring
6. Diverse texts
7. Intensive wriNng
8. A technology component
9. Ongoing formaNve assessment of students

43. Reading Moves: What NOT to Do –
Allington, EL, Oct 2014, Vol 72, #2
• InterrupNng students to correct their mistakes
during oral reading
– More oral reading that ever in the past 4 decades
– Good readers read more silently than struggling
• Twice as many words/minute read silently
• Asked to read aloud less ocen
– Difference in interrupNon
• Good: self-regulaNon and what makes sense
• Struggling: sounds and le<ers

44. • Asking students low-level quesNons acer
they’ve finished reading
– “not a single study demonstrates that this pracNce
actually leads to improved reading
comprehension”
– Need literate conversaNons
• WriNng acer reading
• Having conversaNons about texts students have read
• Higher-order quesNons

45. Structures and Strategies

46. Literacy Centres, Gr 1/2
with Lisa Schwartz
• Begin with whole class modeling of flexible
use of strategies
• OpportuniNes for guided pracNce – 10
minutes per centre
• Reflect, whole group: something you learned
or a challenge you solved in reading/wriNng

52. snow
cocoa
outside
slide

53. Engaging in Literate
Conversations

54. Browsing Bags – gr. 2/3
• Early readers: just right books, repeated
readings of the same books, expert books
(perhaps from GR)
• More developed readers: a variety of different
genres
• Read to self, read to a friend, read to an adult
• ReflecNon: I liked. I learned. I am wondering
about.

55. Browsing Bags

62. The Life Cycle of a Salmon
Jennifer Forbes & Cathy Van der Mark,
Gr. 3, Smithers
Learning IntenNon:
-idenNfy powerful words to increase our
vocabulary when describing the life cycle of a
salmon
2 hours

64. • Partner talk – review life cycle
• Introduce new vocabulary
• Predict from book cover
• Thinking page to collect words, 3 chunks
1) Sumi feels, sees and hears
2) Sumi’s environment
3) choose: either or 1 or 2 or Sumi’s changes

65. • Acer each chunk, students share their words
with their partner, then teacher collects as a
class
• Write, using powerful words to show how
Sumi:
– Feels, sees, hears
– Changes physically
– Her environment
••Circle your powerful words

66. • haunches
• cedar
• secreted
• lingered
• mucous
• fragrance
• algae
• larvae

70. Encouraging Literate Conversations
• The post-it note explosion☺
– The author used exquisite language.
– The author created strong emoNon in you!
– You have a clear image.
– You have a quesNon.
– What happened causes you to say “Wow!”
– You have found phrase you want to use.
– From Student Diversity, 2nd ed.

71. Sunshine Coast – Gr 8/9 books
• The Universe vs Alex Woods
• The Last Thirteen
• Blue Gold
• Steelheart
• This Dark endeavor
• The Edge of Nowhere

72. Reflections after 1st conversation:
What makes a group work well?
• Mary and Sage in Blue Gold
– We listened to everyone and usually agreed.
– We were always sharing our opinions and being
honest (not holding back what we thought)
– We were very relaxed and not afraid to argue.
– We shared perspecNves.

73. Reflections after 1st conversation:
What makes a group work well?
• Enga
– We all definitely disagreed. Devin thought that David
was nervous and Hayden thought that he wasn’t.
– We used specific vocabulary and checked the book.
– I could hear everyone. We were audible.
• Liam
– I said that I thought it was weird that Sam the main
character predicted what was going to happen – and
we all talked about that.
– Eye contact

74. Grade 9 Science – Starleigh Grass &
Mindy Casselman
Electricity
• The Challenge:
• Many of the students are disengaged and
dislike ‘book learning’. They acquire more
knowledge, concept and skill when they are
acNve, collaboraNve and reading in chunks.
• Starleigh and Mindy in It’s All about Thinking (Math and Science), 2011.

75. Essential Question
• If we understand how materials hold and
transfer electric charge, can we store and
move electric charge using common
materials?

76. • Individually, brainstorm what you can recall
about the characterisNcs of an atom.
• Meet in groups of 3 to add to and revise your
list.
• Compare this list to the master list.
• …(word derivaNons, label an atom…)
• Exit slip: 2 characterisNcs you want to
remember about atoms.

77. The Atom
• All ma<er is made of atoms.
• Atoms have electrons, neutrons, and protons. Electrons
move, protons and neutrons do not move.
• Atoms have negaNve and posiNve charges.
• Electrons have a negaNve charge; protons have a posiNve
charge.
• Protons and neutrons are located at the centre of the atom,
in the nucleus.
• Electrons orbit around the outside of the nucleus, in energy
“shells.”
• An object can be negaNvely or posiNvely charged,
depending on the raNo of protons and neutrons.

78. Resources
• Assessment & Instruc0on of ESL Learners – Brownlie, Feniak,
& McCarthy, 2004
• Grand Conversa0ons, ThoughMul Responses – a unique
approach to literature circles – Brownlie, 2005
• Student Diversity, 2nd ed. – Brownlie, Feniak & Schnellert,
2006
• Reading and Responding, gr. 4,5,&6 – Brownlie & Jeroski,
2006
• It’s All about Thinking – collabora0ng to support all learners
(in English, Social Studies and Humani0es) – Brownlie &
Schnellert, 2009
• It’s All about Thinking – collabora0ng to support all learners
(in Math and Science) - Brownlie, Fullerton & Schnellert, 2011
• Learning in Safe Schools, 2nd ed – Brownlie & King, Oct., 2011