Respond To Intervention: What Teachers of Reading Need to Know

Respond To Intervention: What Teachers of Reading Need to Know

In this article it goes in-depth into RTI and the major steps in the intervention process. Respond to Intervention or RTI as it is known as is the initial referral and identification process for students suspected of having learning disabilities. This article gave a lot of key points in the intervention process. In the article it focuses on the measured response of the intervention rather than focusing mainly on standardized testing, which I believe is extremely important. I believe that there should be many different ways to assess a student rather then just sticking a test in front of them. The article also described how in order to know that the intervention is working effectively there has to be a way to see if the students academic performance has improved. I believe that is the main purpose of RTI, which should be too make sure that the student is improving academically on grade level.

The Assessment of Thoughtful Literacy in NAEP: Why the States Aren't Measuring up.

The Assessment of Thoughtful Literacy in NAEP: Why the States Aren't Measuring up.

This article describes the major differences between the NAEP test and the state test that are given to students to assess their reading level. The article states that the state tests do not measure up to the NAEP. The NAEP assess in a more open-ended way compared to the multiple choice format on the state tests. NAEP places a great deal more emphasis upon a readers ability to construct and explain a response to text, whereas the state test place a higher premium upon a readers ability to recognize a response and distinguish it from other less adequate responses. NAEP de-emphasizes vocabulary items and the sample of the state tests uses them regularly in comprehension assessment. NAEP calls for a higher order interpretation more than twice as frequently as the highest ranked state test. NAEP uses far more open-ended items in its assessment of reading, uses far fewer vocabulary and genre items, and demands far more thoughtful response than any of the state tests. A significant advantage of NAEP is related to the complaint voice by many educators. Many teachers say that assessment is driving curriculum , and teachers are being pressured to teach to the test rather than toward the achievement of a set of clearly articulated goals.

Why do think the state tests are still being given, if the NAEP works better from what the article is describing?

Using Assessment to Guide Instruction

This video session was extremely informative and enlightening. The basis of this session was to analyze the ways to use assessment to create more effective instructional activities. Assessment in the video was considered consequential because the teacher that is assessing the student is using that information for the basis of their future instructional activities. This is important because then you can further assess how the student is progressing with the new instructional activities. In the video session many teachers demonstrated the way they assessed their students, which included kid watching ( where the teacher would watch two children every other week). The great part about this particular assessment is that the teacher uses that assessment to create instructional activities for the class. I believe this assessment gives the teacher a better idea of what levels of reading his/her students are on. Another assessment tool used was jobs within the classroom . In this assessment the teacher can see how the students interact with one another while completing their given task. I believe this tool can be useful for a teacher to learn about his/her students strengths and weaknesses. Another assessment tool was monitoring. In monitoring students, the teacher can see where the student needs extra assistance.

I have learned a great deal from this video session. I learned how to assess a students reading skills using 5 main points which include; word knowledge, fluency, comprehension, writing, and language. The main point that I got from the 5 main points was that having teacher/student conferences can make a tremendous difference because the teacher begins to know and understand his/her students which in turn leads to better instructional activities.

ELL survey

• I have some experience interacting with children from a different cultural and linguistic background because I usually interact with my boyfriends younger cousin Erica, who is not yet proficient in speaking or writing in english.
• I can remember working with her on completing her vocabulary homework. When she first came from El Salvador about 4 months ago she was really struggling to get the lanugage and vocabulary down.
• In teaching ELL students in classroom I have not really had the opportunity to do that.
• In the case of Erica, She was so driven to learn the language and read in english. Everytime I would come over she would have me read a story to her. She was always trying to pronouce different words that she heard on t.v. When we were reading if she recognized a word that look familiar, she would say it in spanish and I would tell her the word in english.
• Ell students usally encounter alot of difficulties in school like not being able to complete the assignment because they do not understand the instructions.
• Classroom teachers resolve ELL difficulties by assigning different materials to better assist the student such as vocabulary list for different lessons.
• An intervention strategy that can be incoporated is seeking different resources for the student such as reading courses outside of the classroom.