Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Achievement in Reading

There has been a strong focus on a child’s reading level/age as an indicator of how a child is doing in reading. This is understandable because it is an easily accessible, cut and dried, seemingly objective result that is easily able to be graphed, that enables parents and teachers to make a quick judgement about a child’s progress. However, as an indicator of achievement in reading it is very one-dimensional.

A good thing about National Standards is that it draws attention to the breadth of learning required in the three curriculum areas of reading, writing and mathematics. A running record is just one indicator of achievement in reading and even with that one test there is a huge variation in how that test is administered and interpreted by teachers. There is often a strong focus on decoding – how fluently a child reads the words - but National Standards, and we at Amesbury School, are much more interested in what knowledge and understandings the child is able to draw from what they are reading and then how that knowledge is able to be used in real–life contexts. A running record does not give much indication of this.
National standards is focused on students being able to use strategies, implement skills etc. “consistently, most of the time across a range of curriculum areas”. At Amesbury School we would add to this statement “and in a range of real-life contexts.” Achievement in reading is not just about being able to master a skill, but it’s about the competency required to apply that skill in a range of situations. It is highly possible for a student to come out above the reading level indicator in a running record but not meet the standard. For example, after two years at school it is expected that a student will be reading texts at Turquoise level. However, it is possible that a student could be reading texts above that, but not have achieved many of the other indicators of achievement in reading such as the ability to “Summarise main points”, “Becoming confident at giving an opinion about the author’s message and purpose of the text”, being willing to “evaluate texts with support”, “with support, make simple inferences”, “becoming confident in using a variety of strategies to increase comprehension of texts”, “Make appropriate choices of books for independent reading”. When you look at what a child is expected to be able to do to meet the Standard after two years at school, much more knowledge of what a child is able to do is required than what is tested in a running record.
Therefore, to be able to make a defensible statement about where a child is at in reading in relation to the National Standards – which we are legally required to do – we need to be gathering evidence about how students are using a wide range of reading competencies in a range of contexts not just doing a running record. Our inquiry-based approach is central to enabling this. Inquiries provide the range of “real-life” contexts “across the curriculum” that enable the development of reading competencies, the use of reading competencies and that also enable us to gather evidence and make defensible statements about students’ achievement in relation to the National Standards.
For further information about the kinds of reading competencies required check out our reading matrix (which is currently being reviewed - more for format than content). (https://docs.google.com/a/amesbury.school.nz/file/d/0B3aZXUfDur02MDczMzY5NDAtMDgzMS00Nzk0LTgzNGEtNzQwOTQxZDY0MTc5/edit)
This matrix, along with the Maths and Writing matrices, is being developed into an online tool for assessment, recording evidence of achievement, reporting, homework support and developing personalised learning plans for each student. More about this later.

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