Effective Reading Assessment in First Grade 1Effective Reading Assessment in First GradePaige Nicole KoomlerEDUC 340Professor Heather SchillingMay 8, 2009Effective Reading Assessment in First Grade 2Abstract:Assessment impacts instruction in all areas of the classroom. In first grade, where reading is the single most important part of the curriculum, assessing literacy becomes critical. Reading assessment must achieve several goals, such as connecting to instruction, layering and follow literary standards. Reading assessment should not only reflect teaching and also further develop reading skills at this crucial stage. To create a solid evaluation plan for reading, teachers need to include a variety of acceptable assessment tools, including running records, Informal Reading Inventory, benchmarks and informal observation. By using a range of assessment forms, teachers will be able to effectively monitor reading for all students, regardless of learning style, strengths and weaknesses.Effective Reading Assessment in First Grade 3Effective Reading Assessment in First GradeWhen children start school and complete their first couple years, they learn something so important that they will use it every single day for the rest of their lives. Throughout life, we use reading so frequently that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to succeed in our society without it. First grade teachers have an incredible responsibility to nurture and further develop the literacy skills that their students acquired in kindergarten, and in order to do this, teachers need to use efficient reading assessment. “Assessment is one of the most important and pressing issues facing the literacy community” (Afflerbach 1994, p. 1). In first grade classrooms, it is critical to evaluate students reading progress using a variety of techniques, including running records and casual observation, to ensure that the assessment not only advances student reading skills, but also guides curriculum and literary instruction. As a part of daily routine, teachers assess their students in all aspects of their learning. With reading, assessment is not as clear cut as a right or wrong answer, complicating the process. Reading assessment includes all, “activities that represent literacy behavior, and that reflect the actual learning and instructional activities of the classroom” (Afflerbach, 1994). Teachers must assess their students, and then use their results in a positive way to improve their instruction. According to Paramore (2007), “it’s not the assessments themselves- whether large-scale, high stakes or classroom based- that improve student achievement. It is how they are used to inform teaching and learning.” Clearly, assessment presents a very important challenge for teachers and becomes part of the reading curriculum, especially for young students learning to read.In recent years, assessment’s role in the classroom has changed dramatically. This increase of focus on assessment does not surprise many education researchers. According toEffective Reading Assessment in First Grade 4author Susan Glazer, our society has become obsessed with assessment in all aspects. “Our nation is test crazy. We assess constantly and measure almost everything… Teachers are expected merely to get the students to perform well on tests,” (Paratore p. 8) she writes. In this modern results-based society, teachers often times get caught up in producing a letter grade, forgetting the main objectives of assessment and what is most important, student learning. Author Sheila Valencia states that assessment has a clear goal in what it is meant to accomplish. “The goal of classroom assessment is to promote student learning, not simply document it,” she writes (Paratore p. 228). This idea centers on the fact that assessment can be used for more than just the purpose of noting student progress, and that it should be used also to create curriculum and individualize instruction. Evaluation has become more of a top priority in classrooms, often overcoming significant topics, such as classroom management and curriculum planning. Based on the goals of reading assessment, first grade teachers use many different types of reading assessment. Schools often require certain types, while teachers also often create their own assessment. Assessment comes in two forms: formal and informal. With reading, formal assessment would be nearly impossible, as learning to read is subjective and deciding what the student needs to improve on is most important. Informal assessment works best, as teachers are right there listening to the child, and can diagnose what the student is struggling with. Based on information from current first grade teachers, we will see that the many forms vary in utility and successfulness in the classroom. A few of the most frequent types will be discussed, beginning with external types, which are not currently used in first grade, and moving to internal types, which include the running record, informal reading inventory and benchmark assessment.Internal assessment has a direct influence in first grade classrooms. However, external formal assessment has a direct influence on daily curriculum and instruction for all teachers atEffective Reading Assessment in First Grade 5grade three and above. This is the grade level when state-mandated standardized testing occurs, such as the ISTEP test in Indiana’s school systems. This type of assessment does not directly affect a first grade reading education or the teachers delivering it. The instruction and assessment that occur in first grade are meant to prepare students for the standardized testing they will complete in grade three and after. So, internal assessments are used very frequently by first grade teachers. In these types, teachers are expected to create assessment specific to the learning and curriculum being used in her classroom. Internal assessment involves several aspects. First, it must include a tie to the curriculum. It must also be more specific than external testing, focusing on both process and product of reading. Finally, reading assessment must encourage teacher-student interaction and include direct feedback for instructors (Paratore 2007, p. 4). Internal reading assessment occurs daily in first grade classrooms. The most commonly used form is the running record, which originated as an assessment tool in Reading Recovery programs (Fawson 2006). This is a