Nicole Brown, Blog Post 7: Routman, Ch. 7 “Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner”

Lorrie Shepard states, “Assessments should bring about benefits for children, or data should not be collected at all.” I believe this is so true! I think teachers are natural born data collectors. They kid watch all the time, conference with their students, work with them in small groups and individually. This data they collect is so much more meaningful than a benchmark test. Yes, a benchmark test can give us a quick snapshot of where our students are, but it does not give our teachers a road map like formative data can.

Routman suggests making assessment and evaluation a daily routine. I believe one cannot rely on prepackaged programs and not modify them for our students. We have no way of knowing what our students can and will understand until we work with them. I believe that we teach STUDENTS and not PROGRAMS. If we use programs, we must be able to modify that program to meet the varied needs of our students!

I found it interesting that Routman says, “Once a child is a good reader, usually by the middle of second grade, I do not require oral reading in (a reading) conference.” I tend to disagree with this! There is so much to be gained by listening to a child read…even an older child. One can glean so much from listening to how the child uses intonation, phrasing, and when appropriate when he/she has miscues and how he/she handles those miscues.

Emphasizing goals for students is an important part of conferencing. If students do not have something to work on, they will keep doing the same things conference after conference. I believe another important part is follow up. If students have set a goal, the teacher needs to follow up and “check in” on the student’s progress. When and if that goal is met, the student can move on to the next goal!