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Claim: As a literacy leader, I assess and analyze students knowledge and skills in order to plan
for instruction.

Name: Reyna Reyes

ILA Standards:

I. Foundational Knowledge

II. Curriculum and Instruction

III. Assessment and Evaluation

As a literacy leader, I assess and analyze students knowledge and skills in order to plan

for instruction. Assessments in education are very important to the community whether the

person is a student, teacher, parent, administrator, politician, or a taxpayer. These people that

make up the community have different reasons for wanting to know about assessments. For

example, a student wants to know about the progress they are making in class and to motivate

themselves to keep learning. In addition, a politician wants to inform his audience how the

money is being spent in schools. Furthermore, I as a teacher have been working with students

and using multiple assessments to find their strengths and needs. According to Flippo (2014),

Assessment are observations, samplings, and other informal and formal, written, oral, or

performance-type testing that a teacher might do in order to gather information about a childs

abilities, interests, motivations, feelings, attitudes, strategies, skills, and special cultural or

sociocultural considerations (p. 4). I will be sharing examples from my coursework that

demonstrate my expertise on assessment.

My knowledge on assessments began to take shape in my reading assessment coursework

as I read Assessing Readers, Assessment for Reading Instruction, Running Records for classroom

Teachers, and reflecting on my readings. I began to understand the various types of assessment
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tools such as standardized, formal, informal, and self-assessments. These types of assessments

inform me about classroom instruction, and it helps me identify learners that are in need of

intervention. I am now able to effectively plan and implement an individualized lesson plan and

communicate the outcomes of assessments to students, families, and stakeholders.

The following is an example of communicating the outcomes of assessments in a case

study report. In addition, I have provided instructional recommendations based on the analyze

assessments.

Figure 1 READ 5443 Assignment: Reader Case Study

I knew very little about the second grader when I began to work with the student. First, I

began with an interest inventory called Developing a Reader Profile: From Assessment to

Instruction by Constance Weaver (2009). To know more about the students literacy practices,

interest, attitude, and motivation. Based on the interest inventory data, I was able to select
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appropriate texts that were interesting to the student. Then I administered an informal reading

inventory called Qualitative Reading Inventory (Les & Caldwell, 2011). This inventory gave me

data on words my student could identify, and how well the student could comprehend the text. I

was also able to identify my students instructional and frustration level. Then I collected a few

writing samples from my student and analyzed them using the Qualitative Spelling Checklist

Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston (2012). I analyzed the students spelling and placed

her in the Within Word Pattern category. After evaluating the results from the assessments, I was

able to identify the students strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, I then wrote instructional

recommendations. Finally, this data was used to construct a case study report to communicate the

results to stakeholders or parents in a written format and to create an individualized lesson plan.

After analyzing a variety of assessments I was able to identify my students strengths and

weakness. The following excerpt is from my reading practicum course it shows how I

administered a variety of assessments and evaluated the results from the assessments that target

specific literacy components. Based on the students strengths and weakness areas I constructed

an individual lesson plan. In addition, I am able to support my rationales with research and

theories to what I am teaching.

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Figure 2 READ 5463 Assignment: Lesson plan Practicum

Figure 3 READ 5463 Assignment: Assessments

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Figure 4 READ 5463 Assignment: Practicum Lesson Plan

My reflections after the lesson plan explains the positive experience my student and I

had. Knowing students strengths and weakness can help teachers to create meaningful and

successful lesson plans like I had with my student. His learning was more motivated and he was

guiding his own instruction because the lesson was more hands on and in his interest.

In conclusion, as a literacy leader, I assess and analyze students knowledge and skills in

order to plan for instruction. Assessments are very critical because teachers need to collect data

to help their students figure out how to help them, demonstrate their growth, set measurable

goals, and build self esteem. Furthermore, I believe that every student should have multiple

opportunities to demonstrate what they know. The teacher needs to provide a variety of

assessments. I have definitely made progress in this area, and I am more able to analyze the

assessments. I can identify my students strengths and weakness areas and integrate those areas

in lesson plans and support my rationales with theories.

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References

Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, and Johnston (2012). Qualitative spelling checklist. Boston, MA:

Pearson Education

Clay, M. M. (2005). An observation survey: Of early literacy achievement. (2nd ed.). Portsmount,

NH: Heinemann.

Flippo, F. R. (2014). Assessing readers: Qualitative diagnosis and instruction. (2nd ed.). New

York, NY: Routledge.

Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2011). Qualitative reading inventory-5. Boston, MA: Allyn and

Bacon.

Pinnell, S. G., & Fountas, C. I. (1998). Word matters: Teaching phonics and spelling in the

reading/writing classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Weaver, C. (2009). Reading process. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.