I agree with Heather... even though we know the results are skewed due to situation and familiarity, we still need somewhere to start. We get kids from 6 sending schools plus those from outside our district. We use initial testing (Gates) to spot the dramatic problems, those kids we need to get to immediatly. We use this, along with elementary records and state test scores to verify each other. We also do a good deal of kid watching before we do anything.
Karen Onyx Carusi Middle School -----Original Message----- From: Heather Poland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades. <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 11:24 am Subject: Re: [LIT] initial assessments I agree that kids aren't warmed up to you in the beginning, and that can kew the results somewhat. However, I think it is important to so ssessments at the beginning to get an idea of what they can do. It will ive you a starting place. Sure, some of the kids you will quickly find out hey can do more than their initial assessment, and that's fine. In my Reading Clinic grad class we discussed this because we tutored a tudent intensely, one-to-one behind two-way glass. We discussed how they ouldn't be warmed up to you, but those initial assessments still are very mportant. For that class, because of the limited amount of time in a emester, we had to start the assessments right away. In my own classes, I sually wait a week, but not usually more than that. On 10/8/07, Pam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Lynn writes: i have found that initial assessments are always skewed. the kids are not comfortable with me at the beginning of the year and i think that has a lot to do with they way they perform on fluency, for example. does anyone else find that to be true? Pam writes: I agree. I give multiple intelligence survey and learning preference survey. The school requires a Lexile. However, I hold off until I've been with the kids for about a month. By then, they are comfortable & realize that I want to help them. I then do individual running records (takes forever), but is a good way to document. I try to do these once per quarter on all students, but more frequently on my struggling readers. I also do individual & small group conferences on writing needs. These are determined from the students' actual writing (essay, journals, narrative, etc) - these are sometimes grammar based and other times revolve around specific needs per the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. I found I get more bang for my buck if I hold off and do ice breakers, team building activities, and tons of repeated review of class procedures and expectations. :o) Pam/6th gr./FL An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. Anatole France (1844 - 1924) ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive -- Heather "The world of books is the most remarkable creation of an. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments all; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; ew races build others. But in the world of books are olumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet ive on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were ritten, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men enturies dead." --Clarence Day "While the rhetoric is highly effective, remarkably little ood evidence exists that there's any educational substance ehind the accountability and testing movement." Peter Sacks, Standardized Minds "When our children fail competency tests the schools lose unding. When our missiles fail tests, we increase unding. " Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Presidential Candidate ______________________________________________ he Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
