![]() “Quick fix” programs that focus on skills, not meaning, to be followed with fidelity.Unfair distribution of services – services directed to those students who are closest to passing the test, rather than those who need it most.Teaching to the test despite knowledge of best practices.Standardized tests can lead to many problems: “Not to be minimized, an overemphasis on isolated skills, teaching-to-the-test often crowds out teaching for understanding.” I worry that our assessing and focus on isolated skills sends students mixed messages. Standardized tests lead to big bucks for companies.Lack of trust of teachers leading to a need for “accountability”.In regards to standardized testing Regie feels that there are two larger issues at hand: While listening to a student read I observe and jot down anecdotal notes about how their reading sounds valuing all of the dimensions of fluency. they can falsely inflate the number of students in need of support.they under-value other important dimensions of fluency such as intonation, reading the punctuation marks, and reading in meaningful phrases.they send the message that reading is about speed not meaning.they do not value meaningful comments made by the child or productive problem-solving, multiple attempts (perseverance).Some major flaws with timed reading passages are: ![]() They measure the speed of the reading and neglect all other areas of fluency. ![]() Timed reading passages are supposed to be a measure of fluency but let me be clear- they are not. ![]() To take a closer look at how students are able to use their letter-sound knowledge and problem solve unknown words, I find that taking a running record while the student reads an authentic text to be very useful. I will say that I want all of the interactions children have with text to be meaningful. I am not going to go into the many reasons why assessing students using nonsense words is utter nonsense in this post. A dictated sentence also allows me to see what the child understands regarding concepts about print such as writing left to right, top to bottom, putting spaces between words, etc. A dictated sentence allows me to see how the child works with sounds within a more authentic task. Rather than relying solely on an assessment that times students as they attempt to quickly make letter sounds, I like to administer a dictated sentence. The following are some of the skills frequently tested on screening tools and what I do to gather more information. In order to effectively plan for intervention services, we need to use other tools to help us to dig deeper to find out more specific information about the strengths and needs of our struggling readers. Most universal screening tools are not able to give specific diagnostic information that can inform our instruction. Regie Routman, in her book Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners, writes that information from assessments should “improve the quality of teaching and learning” (p. The idea is that when we screen all students we are able to see the impact of our instruction and identify students who are not progressing at the same rate as their on-grade level peers. Screening tools are considered an important part of Response to Intervention (RTI)/Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS). As a reading interventionist, I am required to administer a universal screening tool to kindergarten through second grade students three times per school year.
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