Hunters Creek Elementary
Literacy Page Reading Writing ESL Parents Resources and Citations Literacy Specialist	Assessments In the end, all learners need your energy, your heart, and your mind. They have that in common because they are young humans. How they need you, however, differs. Carol Ann Tomlinson, How to Differentiate in Mixed-Ability Classrooms: 2^nd Edition, 2001, p. 15 The Reading First Initiative has defined four purposes of assessments in an effective comprehensive reading program. Outcome-Assessments that provide bottom line evaluation of the effectiveness of the reading program. Screening-Assessments that are administered to determine which children are at risk for reading difficulty and who will need additional intervention. Diagnosis-Assessments that help teachers plan instruction by providing in-depth information about students’ skills and instructional needs. Progress Monitoring-Assessments that determine if students are making adequate progress or need more intervention to achieve grade level reading outcomes. Comprehension assessments can be conducted through story retelling. Assessment questions can reveal knowledge about reading and reading strategies or problems with comprehension, word meaning, decoding, and other elements of reading behavior. Literacy assessment logs and writing logs allow teachers to see the application of reading, spelling, and writing strategies. Understanding of reading and creating stories is evident when analysis of logs and journals takes place. Not only can assessment of comprehension take place, but word use, mechanics, strategy use, and synthesis are noticeable when reading and writing are merged. Formal reading and writing assessments are used to determine appropriate placement for guided reading groups and assisted writing groups. The assessments can be used during parent conferences and team meetings to show a student’s growth and progress. Marie Clay is a proponent of running records as a tool for assessing the use of reading strategies during oral reading of texts. A running record provides information regarding self-correction, reading fluency rate, accuracy, and other reading behaviors. Teachers analyze information about strategies and problem solving skills. Writing rubrics help teachers assess the writing strategies used on a piece of writing. The purpose of writing, writing process, and conventions are also analyzed to better understand the needs and strengths of student writers. Informal reading and writing assessments are ongoing as the teacher directly instructs and modifies lessons during guided reading, reading conferences, literacy circles, assisted writing, writers’ workshop, and group instruction. These daily observations guide lesson topics and decisions related to the processing of information in reading and writing.
	SBISD library resource page. Go to the Language Arts Field to find assessment information and forms for Reading, Writing, and Language Arts.
	Observation Survey forms in English and Spanish
	Developmental Reading Assessment Comprehension Sheet TAKS Writing Rubric
	Elementary Grading Guidelines for SBISD
	TAKS tool compiled by Michele Burta and other Literacy Coaches.
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