Comments on: Open letter to Sarah Carlin Ames

By: marcia

marcia — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:55:45 +0000

Yes, I understand that. Hopefully the SF frenzy will vanish with time.

By: Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:33:20 +0000

Marcia – I love both “Strategies that Work” and “Mosaic of Thought.” In fact, I’m using both books as guides for how to teach my daughter to read and write! Your school is lucky to have the ability to use this approach and to limit testing to the level you mention. At Chief Jo (and other schools), reading and writing are much more phonics-based and worksheet heavy, thanks to the adoption of the new Scott Foresman curriculum, Reading Street. Testing is also much heavier and plays a greater role in determining the fate of kids as learners.

By: marcia

marcia — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:07:01 +0000

Peter, in kindergarten I do the DRA three times. In first grade and second they do it four, but I believe they only report data to the district three times. At our school we use Strageies that Work and Mosaic of Thought to guide our teaching of comprehension. We start talking about inference and making connections in Kindergarten. It isn’t all about decoding…but I think it depends on the school. Decoding is only one small part of reading. I had a little guy this year who just whizzed through a level 16, which is first grade benchmark for the DRA, but he couldn’t tell me anything about the story. So that’s where I focused my instruction with him, and encouraged his parents to do the same.

By: clarification, please

clarification, please — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:59:58 +0000

By mistake, do they simply mean reading the words aloud correctly or identifying them, or do they require a paraphrased understanding of the statement. If a student cannot tell you the meaning of the words, or at least express a contextual understanding, then there is clearly a mistake in comprehension of the words. Reading is communication, after all.

By: Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:49:54 +0000

Marica – how often is the DRA – Developmental Reading Assessment – given at your school? At others? I know that schools like Chief Jo elect to give students extra assessments like the DIBELS. And, according to Ken Goodman, a reading expert and one of the godfathers of whole language instruction, the tests have become a de facto curriculum in which the emphasis on speed convinces students that the goal in reading is to be able to read fast and that understanding is of secondary importance. Not sure exactly how this plays out in PPS as a whole and at each school in particular. Would love to hear from more teachers on this.

The district’s Comprehension Scoring Guide has the expectation that (1) all kids are supposed to be at the same level at the same time and (2) that something as complex as comprehension can be reduced to either “adequate” or “very good” via a generic scoring guide that asks children to do things like recall events from a story, recite key details, answer literal questions, and make inferences. They are given points for each correct answer. Note also that “fluency” is defined as being able to read quickly without making mistakes. I would quibble with this definition.

By: marcia

marcia — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:10:01 +0000

Peter, I am not sure about more assessments in our grade level at our school. But maybe, depending on the kid. In the primary grades at our school, the focus is on identifying the kids who need help and trying to get them assistance. This might entail more testing, for example, screening to see if they qualify for assistance in the learning center. Kids who are struggling with reading are given additional help from the reading specialist. They would still be given the same assessments as the other kids, although I might check in with them more frequently in some areas to see how they are progressing.

By: Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:29:03 +0000

Marcia – can you say more about what happens to the kids who are not “at benchmark”? The research I’ve read on this reveals that a disproportionately large percentage of kids not “at benchmark” are low-income minorities. Based on the research I’ve done, the teachers I talk to, and my own experience in the schools I’ve been a part of, the kids not “at benchmark” — again, mostly low-income minorities — are taught in a more test-centric manner, i.e., the kids take more assessments during the year and what they are taught and how they are taught is largely determined by these assessments. Has this been the experience that you and your colleagues have had?

By: marcia

marcia — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:35:24 +0000

Got your meaning. My take is..if a child is ready to read and write, that’s wonderful…I’ll take them there. I love to teach reading and writing. And we have a good time with it. I had a great percentage of my class reach benchmarks beyond grade level last year.. they were a pretty high performing group. However! If they are not ready …(kids develop differently…they might just be moving more slowly, or they might have undiagnosed learning disabilities, etc etc) then as it stands now it shows up on our data sheet as a percentage of kids not at benchmark…(accountability and all…and we..the teachers are just naughty naughty!!) and that is just wrong. It didn’t used to be that way. There is no room for the individuality of the learner now. I try to celebrate whatever level the child is at. If we are sharing our writing and one kid is writing a novel..that’s GREAT! If another one figured out how to sound out “dog” that’s GREAT! too.

By: Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:28:38 +0000

woops! I meant to say the 1st grade curriculum is now the Kindergarten curriculum.

By: Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:27:04 +0000

Marcia – thanks for the clarification. What’s your take on the push-down of the curriculum, i.e., the Kindergarten curriculum is now the 1st grade curriculum, and what used to be Kindergarten is now pre-K.
I wrote about the history of the term “Kindergarten readiness” here on my blog, so I won’t repeat what I said here.