Quarterly Reading Assessments...take 1

So far so good with the quarterly reading assessments. All tests are in and scanned. Scoring should finish tomorrow morning and then reports will go out. The reports will detail how each student scored sorted by standard and indicator. I realize many of these assigned values are given to you based on just one or two items....but at this point it is the system we have. Now once you have the reports in your hands I hope you take some group/team time to review the scores and see what areas are weak and need to be improved. Perhaps you can do a focused activity on a small group of students on one item while a teammate takes some of your students who are struggling with a different concept. Take advantage of each other's expertise and share what is working. The sharing, give-and-take is essential in a professional learning community. We have a structure that affords us time to be together with our teammates daily so let's take advantage of it.

But what about the kids who are weak in almost all indicators? How do we best serve those students. Perhaps the indicators are essentially meaningless for these students...because their foundational reading skills are lacking or poorly developed. How do we best serve these students? First, we have to figure out how to identify the specific needs of these students. We are looking at tools that might give us this additional insight AND then suggest interventions to help us meet the students at their level of instructional readiness. If you have heard of any products/tools out there then please send them my way as we need your expertise.