Assessment -Driven Instruction

               

               A sneak peek at Hildi Perez’s reading sessions has shown how shared reading, guided reading, differentiated instruction and assessments are basic components of her daily lessons. Formal and informal assessments play an integral role in her instructional decisions. She uses these assessments to compare a student’s strengths or weaknesses with her/his peers.

SHARED READING:

                Ms. Perez has all her students join her on the rug for a shared lesson on “Hot Dogs Forever”.  The class reads the poem aloud, along with their teacher, while she models expression and annunciates each word. The students are all reading at the same pace, since Ms. Perez is leading them with her pointer and loud voice. This allows for those students with a slower fluency to confidently keep up without feeling pressure from the quick readers.

Ms. Perez wisely selected her poem, one that focuses on phonological awareness of rhyming words. She guides them through the lesson, building on phonics rules previously learned, such as short vowel o and consonant blends. When a student has a difficult time answering a question, Ms. Perez responds, “I love how you’re trying,” and prompts him to the correct answer.

Shared reading is beneficial for numerous reasons. Firstly, every child can follow along, while observing the teacher read the text with fluency and expression. Secondly, it improves the concentration and comprehension level of the students’. I noticed how all students, even the weaker ones, are tuned-in since the teacher is there to conduct the speed. This pedagogical method also strengthens the fluency of every reader in the class.

GUIDED READING:

                Ms. Perez forms her guided reading groups with precision, grouping them according to their various instructional needs. She guides them through the book and offers prompts and clues as needed by individual students. Ms. Perez’s instructional support builds her students’ reading strategies. She constantly asks her students to identify the strategy they used when answering a question. She comments, “I noticed she did something good readers do,” thereby getting them to think of how they got to the answer. Verbalizing the strategy helps the students internalize it so they can apply it in the future. She provides them with the proper tools to become independent and proficient readers.

                Additionally, Ms. Perez gets the maximum information from her students while walking them through the book. When a student has difficulty reading a word she breaks it down by showing him a familiar word within the word. After assisting them in decoding, she helps her students understand the text, using background knowledge, and form connections. She invites them to use prediction, and ask and answer their own thinking questions. She gets the children thinking by asking, “What do you see...?” “Why do you think…?” While guiding her students through the process of constructing meaning from text, Ms. Perez provides her students with the proper skills for independent reading.

DIFFRENTIATED INSTRUCTION:

                Ms. Perez tailors her instruction to meet individual needs. The weaker students get a chance to improve their skills through the “making words activity” with a student teacher. During this session the students work on decoding and encoding words on their level. Focusing on the appropriate areas of perfection, allows each child to stretch to their fullest potential.

                The fluent, independent readers in the class are peered up to work on a more challenging project. They are provided with high level books, suited to the topic of their interest. She joins reading and writing in one project. They are taught how to takes notes, by jotting down the important points they read about. The students organize their gathered information into categories and create their own book. Ms. Perez’s use of differentiated instruction allows for every member of her class to achieve success on a personal level.

ASSESSMENT:

                Ms. Perez uses ongoing individual assessment to track her students’ progress. Assessments take place at the start of the school year, December, March, and then again in June. She keeps a running record on a graph that includes the name of each student and the title of every book in the assessment process. She takes note of the child’s comprehension and marks miscues. The class profile can help her when grouping students for guided reading or learning centers. Additionally, the assessment data helps her with her instructional decisions; what should be taught and how it should be delivered.

                I do believe that ongoing assessment should be incorporated in every classroom. Therefore, I use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System periodically to track my students’ progress and to differentiate instruction in my own classroom.