Literacy+Assessment

Authors: Matt & Rebecca Professional Resources: For our final project, we decided to complete a **Primary Language Record** for one of our current 6th grade students after reading an article by Beverly Falk about how to do more authentic literacy assessment with our students.

(Falk, B. (1998). Looking at students and their work: Supporting diverse learners with the Primary Language Record. In D. Allen (Ed.), //Assessing student learning: From grading to understanding// (pp. 40-65). New York: Teachers College Press.)

The Primary Language Record is a literacy assessment designed by Beverly Falk which analyzes students' language and literacy through close observation and record-keeping in multiple contexts. The Primary Language Record provides a holistic framework of understanding how students listen, speak, read, write, process language at home, in school, across disciplines and peer groups in order to better develop coherent approaches to differentiated instruction. Teachers share the PLR from year to year in order to address instructional challenges progressively and begin with the assumption that literacy and language instruction should not be deficit-based.

The key ideas and practices involved in a PLR ask teachers to do and think about the following:
 * to note languages understood, read, spoken, written
 * describe hearing/vision/coordination affecting child's language/literacy
 * discuss language and literacy with parents in conference, record discussion points
 * discuss language and literacy with child in conference, record discussion points
 * comment on child's development and use of spoken language in different social and curriculum contexts, in English and/other community languages: evidence of talk for learning and thinking; range and variety of talk for particular purposes, experience and confidence in talking and listening with different people in different settings
 * interview key players: what experiences and teaching have helped the student/would help the student develop in this area? record outcomes of discussions with teacher, staff, parents
 * comment on child's progress and development as a reader in English and/or other community languages: the stage at which the child is operating; the range, quantity and variety of reading in all areas of the curriculum; the child's pleasure and involvement in story and reading, alone or with others; the range of strategies used when reading and the child's ability to reflect critically on what is read.
 * (same deal with writing- multiple context observations, interviews, description)
 * diary of talking and listening with peers, with one peer, with adults, in social contexts, etc.,

You can read her article about the PLR and see a blank template here: Student Resources:

Here are some resources that we will recommend to our student's teachers next year. We believe these are appropriate approaches to address the literacy development of our student when he becomes a 7th grader.

Matt's Resource Room: Successful Learning Group

Successful Learning Group is a professional development company which trains teachers to teach literacy to low-performing readers. I have experienced firsthand the results of this PD and it far surpasses any PD I have had in the past in terms of practicality, effectiveness, and individualization. This professional development involves a long term relationship between an experienced literacy teacher and teachers who are learning to teach reading more effectively. The literacy teacher visits regularly and observes/runs small reading groups. As an observer/co-teacher you are able to fully grasp the philosophical approach to teaching reading and writing. If I had to summarize the philosophy in a nutshell it is: Your role as a teacher is as a facilitator; One who guides students towards using their knowledge to figure out what they don't know.

This book, a transcribed conversation between Paolo Freire and Myles Horton is a must-read for any teacher.
 * Horton, M. and Freire, P.** (1990). We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change (BrendaBell, John Gaventa and John Peters, Eds.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Rebecca's Resource Room:

I think Kylene Beers' book, __When Kids Can't Read__ is an invaluable resource for teachers who are working with more "dependent" readers. Our student will greatly benefit from his future teachers Beers, K. (2002). //When kids can’t read: What teachers can do//. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

[|When Kids Can't Read]

We also want to recommend that his teachers watch this video from F.A.T. City that Richard Lavoie put together to help teachers and family members understand their LD students. This is very helpful to understand the problems with the ways many of us teach Reading Comprehension. and this one about visual perception. media type="youtube" key="WbLAt2Hc7Rw" height="315" width="420"media type="youtube" key="O4f4rX0XEBA" height="315" width="420" ... and finally, Kathleen Kesson's article for a primer on how to think about descriptive inquiry when teaching in urban schools. We have officially become believers.

(Kesson, K.,Traugh, C. and Perez, F. Descriptive Inquiry as Contemplative Practice //Teachers College Record// Volume 108 Number 9, 2006, p. 1862-1880)

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