Hi,
Daphne Greenberg and others of us (e.g., National Research Council, 2012) have noted the challenges with current adult standardized, norm-referenced assessments of reading components. Usually these assessments are used in the summative sense. We have concerns about the psychometric qualities of the standardized measures. Daphne's presentation last week at an American Educational Research Association session reminded again of these issues at many levels of instruments and the process.
Given these challenges with the standardized measures that might be used in a summative assessment, I'm wondering how staff make formative assessments of learners progress in the acquisition of reading components (e.g., word decoding, fluency, and knowledge of and use of reading comprehension strategies).
How do you tackle this tricky issue? If we can't accurately, efficiently, and reliably assess the outcomes of our instructional activities on a regular basis (e.g, after five hours of instruction), how can we plan the next steps or evaluate the quality of our efforts?
I bet some of you have come up with some clever formative assessment approaches that engage the learners and provide valuable feedback to the instructors and learners.
Here's for more great ideas! 
Regards,
Daryl
Reading and Writing SME
Comments
Greetings,
I'm impressed that my earlier posting has had so many views (approx. 620) and surmise that the topic might be of interest.
On the other hand, the responses of how the formative assessment is approached in your programs is very limited. What's needed here? My experience is that instructors talk about how they individualize their instruction to meet learners' need and to motivate them. How are we going to approach these formative assessments so that the instructional activities and curricular choices are targeted to the learners' needs?
Regards
Daryl
I teach a beginning literacy class. Formative assessment is imperative because every student is at a different place. To meet individual needs I prepare small learning packages based on the work they are doing. If they are a gardener the material is based on simple gardening terms as well as story etc.. If they are caregivers I prepare a small package related to their work and when their skills have developed they write their own personal work story. THis is in addition to the total class lesson.
Shirley,
Thank you for your note. Your efforts around individual learning packages is admirable. I'm sure that you can introduce vocabulary terms or fluency drills that would be targeted to the learners. Does your formative assessment of the content (e.g., gardening, caregiving) also follow that individualized approach?
Do you also have some small or large group activities that might focus on phonemic awareness, decoding skills, or reading comprehension strategies?
Regards, Daryl
Reading and Writing SME
General formative assessment is done at the beginning of each 8 week session (I use materials per Lincs course on Formative assessment). Formative assessment does occur when the learning packages are introduced. All students do not receive packages. They aren't ready for them.
There is total class time spent in vocabulary development, pronunciation, decoding skills, and reading comprehension. These classes will have a wide range of student abilities. The classes may have students who have never been to school, have no knowledge of the Roman alphabet etc. so reading is usually taught within the context of basic life skills.
Regards, Shirley
Shirley,
I'm a little curious to learn more about your program.
I gather that you have scheduled or managed enrollment (as opposed to open-entry) since you mentioned that assessments occur at the beginning of each 8 week session. Are your instructional packages designed for an eight week interval with 32 hours of instruction (4 hours/week)?
You mentioned that "total class time" is spent on some reading components. So, is that whole group instruction and then individual attention and instructional approachers is given to learners who might be the lowest of your low students? That just sounds like a challenging arrangement. You must be super-organized and have a strong sense of the teaching craft!
Also, are you using the STAR program that others had mentioned? I trying to get a sense of the larger reading instructional and curricular program that provides the framework for what your reading instruction across the NRS levels.
Thank you for your posts. You are challenging me to think of instruction and formative assessment in a different perspective.
Regards,
Daryl
Moderator for the Reading and Writing community
Hello Shirley (and all), It's good to hear that the formative assessment course has been so useful to you. When working with immigrants who are emergent readers, it is especially important to build literacy skills on an oral language foundation with themes that are relevant to learners in their daily lives. What are some of the themes that you have found to be successful, Shirley?
Are there are other teachers on this list who are working with immigrant emergent readers, i.e., those who have had limited or interrupted formal education? What strategies have you found to be most helpful and important in teaching these adults to build print literacy in English?
Cheers, Susan
Moderator, Assessment COP
Hi Daryl, I know there are a number of folks who have been trained on using the approach to reading instruction as outlined in the STAR (Student Achievement in Reading) training modules. Diagnostic and formative assessments are well integrated into instruction in STAR. It would be great to hear from folks who are using this approach to teach reading. What's working well? What are the challenges, if any? What have you learned about teaching reading and the importance of diagnostic and formative assessment?
Cheers, Susan
Moderator, Assessment COP