Hello, fellow #teachernerds our first book up was a success! Truly, it was great to get to know new people and share thoughts from the reading. It was also a much needed break for this mama! Oh, how I miss adult teacher conversation these days! Those of you that couldn't attend and sent me messages, thank you! Here's the long awaited post...
Chapter 1: Collecting Data- Assessment Lenses and Tools
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." -Vince Lombardi
This gem of a quote kicked off our discussion, and we all agreed this was in need of being posted in our respective buildings. It was also very fitting for this chapter since collecting data can be time consuming and hard work for any teacher, BUT the rewards afterwards are truly worth while to monitor growth and hold celebrations.
It's clear that we all collect data, but knowing the types and how we use them is the key. "If you don't use them, they may start to feel like unnecessary paperwork for both you and your students" (page 1) #truth
Here are the types of lenses and assessments for each discussed in the chapter-
Reading-
- reading engagement(reading interest inventory, book log, and engagement inventory)
- reading fluency (fluency record)
- print work/decoding (running record
- reading comprehension (whole-book and/or short passage stop and jot, turn and talk, and retell through conversation)
- conversation (anecdotal notes from the interactions)
- writing engagement (looking at students' habits i.e. volume of writing, motivation, and use of writing process)
- qualities of good writing (in this order- meaning, structure/organization, elaboration/detail, and conventions)
First off, I loved the way the author set this book up. Her no nonsense writing, examples, sources, and teacher friendly tone was much appreciated. The "Jot Down Your Ideas" sections were excellent discussion points, so it made our conversation really flow. So, major points in my book go to Jennifer Serravallo! It makes this book easy to navigate and serves as a great summer read.
Our group discussed that most of these assessments are utilized in our classrooms whether or not our respective school district mandated them or not. We all agreed that comprehension (the "invisible" lens) was the hardest to assess with some students. Stop and Jot is an area that we discussed utilizing a lot more in the classroom throughout the year. Some shared ways they've modeled the process in class and how the follow through was monitored. It was mentioned that this is a skill to model in the beginning of the year in order to hold students accountable for visible comprehension; after all, we aren't mind readers (though that would make our jobs easier, right?!?!) Anyway, I personally did not use this enough in the classroom, and it was nice to revisit this and view the examples in the book.
As far as fluency, we all really liked the idea of not only marking miscues while a child reads aloud but also marking when the student pauses and jotting down any other habits we noticed while the child read. (Figure 1.4 on page 8)
We found her suggestion of transcribing conversations interesting and possibly a time consuming or distracting instrument. We all agreed we take our students' discussions of a text seriously but weren't sure if it was really in the students' best interest we not give eye contact during the discussion or our full attention because we were trying to transcribe. I mentioned maybe instead of transcribing having students record their group book talks for the teacher to view later. It's something to look into though.
Concerning writing, we discussed the examples given in the chapter. On-demand writing is relatively new to our district, and I'm giving a seminar with a coworker about how to utilize these assessments for instruction in August. I found the qualities of good writing on page 21 to be something we could add to the seminar. We discussed how sometimes those assessments have us looking at everything that's wrong vs. an order of where to start. We are particularly looking forward to how the author approaches this assessment's use for instruction.
Overall, this chapter was a good discussion point for all of us to know our approaches to assessment. There were definitely points where we got off task a bit, but that's to be expected, right? HA! We are looking forward to Chapter 2 to see if we learn or relearn approaches to analyzing the data we collect in the classroom.
I think that's pretty much our discussion in a whole. If I forgot something, please feel free to call me out on it--- no shame here!
Those of you that are joining us virtually, what were some take away moments for you? Anything new you learned or enjoyed revisiting? Any questions you have for the author? Please chime in! We'd love to have your feedback and further our discussion online.
If you didn't get to attend, but want to join next week, we'll see you at 3 o'clock at the Starbucks located in the College Park Shopping Center at 3068 College Park Dr. This location seems more centrally located for the group.
Happy reading and learning (by the pool, at the beach, on the patio, in the shade, on the couch... somewhere fun I hope)!
See you next week my fellow #teachernerds!
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