Sample Module
Susan Wegmann - RED4043

Lesson 3.1 - Overview

ASSESSMENT: You can't find a more "hot" topic in education right now. At least once a week, most newspapers in the US will run a story on assessment: pros, cons, and everything in between. My hope is that you will learn key assessment vocabulary by reading Chapter 4 of our text and by completing this lesson. I also hope you will be able to carry on an intelligent conversation about assessment with anyone you meet, based on fact and learning theory, not simply opinion. The quiz at the end of this week will measure your knowledge of the subject.

To start this journey, view this video:

Read ThisRead Chapter 4 of the textbook

 

Learner Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, learners will:

  • understand some of the history of assessment and its implications for content area teachers
  • continue to identify the varying roles of teachers
  • apply key theorists' (Rosenblatt, Vygotsky, and Piaget) ideas about teaching and learning to assessment issues
  • define key assessment terms
  • understand the role of fluency and how this affects assessment

Interesting Websites you may want to peruse:

Lesson 3.2- The "Nuts and bolts" of Standardized Assessment

Ask any politician, teacher, or parent about the biggest movement in education in the past three decades, and more than likely they will reply something about high-stakes assessment or the standardized test movement. At the surface, high-stakes testing seems innocuous: students learn a set of standards and then take a test about the standards at an appointed time. Cut and dry. While this is a simple message, the teaching of standards and assessing them is not simple at all.

A brief look at the history of the development of standards and standardized tests may help you understand the complexity and "high-stakes" that are involved.

 

High Stakes Tests

As the name implies, "high-stakes" tests are just that: tests that carry a lot of weight in determining educational decisions. These "stakes," or test results,  are not only relevant to students but may determine how much money a school will receive from the US government, as well as affect the prestige level of a school. Tests may also be used to determine if students can attend other schools (under the voucher system currently in place in Florida) or if students can be placed in special programs.

To begin, I think we should focus on some vocabulary terms that will keep popping up.

  1. standardized
  2. norm referenced
  3. criteria referenced
  4. high-stakes
  5. authentic
  6. portfolio
  7. rubric
  8. accountability
  9. raw score
  10. percentile score
  11. validity
  12. stanine scores
  13. grade-equivalent score
  14. validity
  15. reliability
  16. formal tests
  17. informal tests

Throughout the next lesson, understanding these terms will be critical, so let's start with some basic definitions:

There are two types of standardized tests we will discuss in this lesson: norm referenced and criteria referenced. Norm referenced test results are based on a huge norming group, in which students of a similar age are compared across state lines. (When I say huge, I mean in the tens of thousands.) You might say that students are compared to what is "normal" for their age. These tests are often multiple choice and can be given at any time of the school year. Criterion referenced test results, on the other hand, are compared to a list of criteria that a particular state or district deems important. The Sunshine State Standards Next Generation (aka CCSS or Common Core) is an example of a list of criteria that has been developed through the years. The standards are often broken into age-equivalent groups (in other words, "all eighth-graders need to know __"). The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, is a criterion referenced test. The FCAT is not a normed reference test, because students' scores are based on a list of criteria, not other students of the same age. Soon, the FCAT will be replaced by the PARCC, which directly measures the CCSS.

Both types of tests (normed and criterion referenced) are used by various states, but recently, criterion referenced tests are the most commonly used. These tests carry high-stakes because of their enormous consequences to students, parents, and schools. In our state, a standardized test can be a deciding factor whether a student progresses to the next grade, whether a school will receive funding for extra curricular activities, or whether a principal can keep their job. Can't get much higher-stakes than these issues!

Dependence on high-stakes standardized assessment is not without controversy. (See "resources" at the end of this section for national organizations websites. On the websites you can find their position statements about standardized testing.) Some states have instead implemented authentic assessment (aka performance assessment), or a type of assessment that measures students' progress by focusing on the process as well as the end result. (Massachusetts, California, New York, etc.) Grant Wiggins has done some excellent research concerning authentic assessment and his ERIC journal article can be found here. During authentic assessment you might see portfolios, or collections of students' work being used to evaluate students. Authentic assessments may take on many forms, but the basic principles are consistent: students show their best work and the focus is on the process, as well as the end product. Students may have a huge part in the decision-making process in portfolio assessment.

I have used portfolio assessment in two different schools, one elementary and one middle school. To be quite frank, some of my students were well suited to collect their work and reflect meaningfully on it; others were not as successful. (For more information about implementing portfolio assessment read Box 4.2 p. 118 in our text book. You may also want to access the Practical Assessment for Research and Evaluation website to read about how authentic assessments might "look" in schools.) In my experience performance-based assessments are more time-consuming, but produce more meaningful results about students' learning. In other words, the time spent is worth the results gained.

Several states have tried to move away from standardized assessment and investigated portfolio assessment. Kentucky was moderately successful with their attempts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some administrators in Kentucky mandated that all students would keep a portfolio of their work. The decision was top-down (meaning it came from the administrators and not the teachers) and sounded like a great idea, until it was implemented. Unfortunately, the teachers were not trained in how to collect data and teach students to reflect on their own work. This caused considerable problems and ultimately lead to the demise of portfolio assessment as a major form of assessment in Kentucky. (For more information on this, please see Lizabeth Moore and David R. Russell's article at: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~drrussel/EJ99.html)

Rubric (which means "rule") assessment is also a popular way to informally assess student progress. There are many websites that will help you develop rubrics. (See Rubistar, TeacherVision, and Education World) However, students and teachers often create the most effective rubrics together. In my classroom teaching, I used rubrics extensively because students take on the process of setting the standards as well as the responsibility of meeting them.

Directions for creating a Rubric with students:

  • To begin, try to envision a consummate example of the final product.
  • From there, ask the students to brainstorm a list of the characteristics of the product. Usually the list will contain natural groups of characteristics, such as concepts, skills, mechanics, etc.
  • Group the like items together and assign scores. (You may decide beforehand how many total points the project is worth, then divide accordingly.)

This is one way to produce an informal rubric, yet there are numerous other ones available to use. Your text has two good examples of rubrics on p. 124 and 125. Pay particular attention to the format of the rubrics and their complexity.

In sum, criterion-referenced tests, or those tests on which scores are compared to a list of standards or criteria, are the most commonly used in the US today. The high-stakes nature of the tests is incomparable in their impact to students, schools, administrators, and curricula. At stake are students' passing to the next grades, schools receiving large amounts of money, and students being able to go to different schools. These three issues, plus administrators' "bragging rights" serve to make standardized tests high-stakes. One alternative to high-stakes testing is the use of authentic assessment. Portfolios are an example of authentic assessment, where the focus is on the students' best work (not merely a rough draft) and the process is highlighted, not simply the product graded.

 

Organizations' statements about standardized testing

Lesson 3.3 - US reports that changed the face of assessment

Why Johnny can't read

Most states in the US have adopted standardized assessment as a way of life, to increase accountability between teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Part of the reason for this is that in the 1950s, a document came out that caused sweeping changes in the way schools were run. Why Johnny can't read (Flesch, 1955) was a stinging tome that exposed poor teaching practices, as well as the fact that most schools and teachers did not answer to anyone, in regard to their students' failures. High numbers of students did not have basic literacy skills, even in the higher grades. Accountability was seen as an answer to help raise literacy levels and thereby help teachers and students. Sweeping reform occurred after Johnny was found illiterate, in the way of teaching methods and assessment practices. No longer was it acceptable to pass students to the next grade, based on their height or emotional maturity. No longer did teachers have complete freedom to teach what and when they wanted.

 

A Nation at Risk

More recently, another document that influenced the educational climate was the production of A Nation at Risk. This report by the National Commission on Education (1983) found that schools in the United States were:

  • in jeopardy of losing global standing
  • performing poorly in comparison to other countries
  • deteriorating in quality
  • offering a "diluted" and "diffused" curriculum

As you can imagine, the nation was stunned when this report was published. The National Commission on Education immediately called for changes, in the way of more rigorous standards and accountability mechanisms in order to bring the United States out of its supposed educational recession. The Commission recommended that states institute high standards to homogenize and improve curricula. It also asked that rigorous assessments be conducted to hold schools accountable for meeting those standards. Thus, the modern accountability movement began.

 

Goals 2000

In the early 2000s, then-President Clinton established his Goals 2000: Reforming Education to Improve Student Achievement plan. This Educate America Act contained four elements designed to transform American public schools:

  • First, state governments were required to adopt content standards for public school curricula.
  • Second, students were expected to demonstrate competency over the determined content material as a prerequisite for promotion and graduation.
  • Third, supporters of Goals 2000 sought to create a change in public education that was systemic. That is, changes would affect all aspects of schooling, including textbook development, teacher certification, curriculum content, and student assessment.
  • Fourth, Goals 2000 moved the base of power from the local level to the state and national level.

"In essence, Goals 2000 envisioned a standardized and comprehensive scheme of schooling imposed from the top down by experts and politicians" (Arons, 1997, p.65).

 

No Child Left Behind

In 2001, President George W. Bush's educational act was called No Child Left Behind. It required that each sub-group of children made adequate progress each year, with serious ramifications for children and schools that did not progress. The law also required that parents and students be notified yearly and that schools would be held responsible for failing students' scores.

Each year the No Child Left Behind act requires new phases of implementation. There is a "roadmap" for understanding the act at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/roadmap/roadmap.pdf which gives a plethora of information about when certain types of standardized assessments need to be in place.

 

Blueprint for Reform

President O'bama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, provided for Reauthorization of the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) from 1965. Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation, or LEARN Act, provides $2.35 billion for states to enhance literacy professional development. The LEARN Act focuses on middle and high school literacy learning, areas that previous legislation did not fund well. You may have heard of the "Race to the Top" funding that some schools and universities have won. These are all part of the LEARN Act. Click for a brief description of the Blueprint for Reform.

There are six components of this reform:

1. College and Career-Ready Standards (from which the Common Core State Standards, or CCSS stems)

2. Great teachers and Leaders

3. Raise the Bar and Reward Excellence (from which Race to the top funding stems)

4. Equity and Opportunity

5. Promote Innovation

Please see http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html for much more information.

In Sum. . .

The national reports and presidential acts of the past 50+ years have succeeded in changing the way we assess students of all grade levels. Some of the changes have been necessary and welcome, while others have been met with resistance and opposition. I guess the bottom line is that standardized tests are a way of life in the US educational system and teachers need to be informed about what they do and do not measure. Then teachers can professionally make decisions about their students. The next section addresses some terminology that you need to know about standardized testing. For some of you this will be a review, but for some it will be the first time you have heard some of these terms in relation to education.

Lesson 3.4 Assessment terminology Part I

Lucy Calkins, et al. has the best book I've seen for teachers negotiating standardized tests. In A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Testing: Knowledge is Power (Calkins, Montgomery, Santman, & Falk, 1999), Calkins explains the proactive stance a group of teachers took when faced with implementing standardized tests. She wrote about a group of teachers who met weekly to study the terminology of standardized assessments. They also discussed their roles in assessment. I highly recommend this book to teachers everywhere.

Beginning with a raw score, which is the score a student earns before it is manipulated or analyzed, teachers can make interpretations of students' scores, after they are represented as a percentile, stanine, or grade-equivalent score.

A percentile score is a raw score that has been manipulated to display a score on a common standard, which enables comparison with similar students. For example, a score of 59% means a student scored equal to or higher than 59% of his peers. (Just slightly better than average.)

A stanine score (or standard nine score) is a raw score that has been manipulated to fall on a range of nine equal portions of 100%. Stanines are typically grouped together: 1, 2, 3 stands for roughly below average; 4, 5, 6 stands for roughly average; and 7, 8, 9 stands for roughly above average. (The book describes it slightly differently, with 5 being average, 1-4 below average, and 6-9 above average. Both interpretations are correct.) Therefore, a stanine of 4 means that compared to a norming group (remember, normed groups mean a large number of students in the same grade - normed referenced test) this student is slightly below his peers in performance.

A grade-equivalent score is the least effective score on standardized tests. It is a raw score that has been manipulated to refer to the grade level a student may be performing on. The farther a grade-equivalent score gets away from the actual grade level of the student, the less valid the score is. (Can't you just hear moms and dads bragging, "My 2nd grader scored on the 12th grade-equivalent!")

Raw score, percentile score, stanine score, and grade equivalent scores are often the types of results teachers will receive. Numerous times in my teaching career I was asked to interpret these types of scores to parents. Other important terminology will appear in the next section.

Before we go on, view the video on Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam:

 He says:

Students do not learn what we teach. No matter how carefully we prepare and deliver our lessons, it is impossible to predict with any certainty what students will learn as a result. That is why the most effective formative assessment does not happen after the learning. It happens within and between lessons. In other words, it is embedded in the minute-to-minute and day-by-day practice of teachers. In this session, participants will explore the five key strategies of embedded formative assessment and learn a number of techniques that teachers can use to embed formative assessment in daily practice."

Lesson 3.5 - Assessment Terminology - Part II

Standardized tests have inherent checks and balances: validity and reliability serve to enhance the standardization of tests.

Validity deals with the question "Does this test measure what it is supposed to measure?" A test is considered valid, if the questions match the expectations of the test maker. Construct, content, and predictive validity all three answer different aspects of the above question. Construct validity deals with the ideas on the test, according to the concepts it is supposed to measure. A test is said to have content validity if its questions come from the content that was expected. Finally predictive validity answers the question, "Can my students' performance on this test, predict future performance in the content area?" These three aspects of validity focus on the content of the course, not the consistency or stability of the test.

A test is considered consistent or stable if it has reliability. Reliability (sometimes referred to as "test-retest reliability") deals with the idea that students can take the same or similar test under different circumstances and score the same score.

Your textbook, pp. 92-94 (9th Ed pp. 110-113) has a good review of these terms and may help you understand these ideas further.

Reliability and validity are often controversial in standardized testing situations. Multicultural issues often arise:

  1. Will the reliability of this test be compromised when testing English as Second Language (ESL) learners?
  2. Can the non-mainstream culture group perform as well as the mainstream group?
  3. Is this test valid, even though ESL learners may not be able to communicate as effectively in English?

Lesson 3.6 Authentic Assessment and Fluency

Evaluating students' abilities in 'real-world' contexts is the focus for authentic assessment, aka: performance based assessment. Students use authentic tasks to display their learning. In authentic assessment the learning process is honored as much as the finished product. 

In authentic assessment, students:

  • explain math problems that have real-world applications
  • do social-science research
  • write reports and stories
  • conduct science experiments
  • read and interpret ?real? literature

The Authentic Assessment Toolbox is a website that details authentic assessment definitions, rationale, and a great section that allows you to create your own rubrics (analytic and holistic). In it, Jonathan Meuller contrasts authentic assessment with traditional assessment in the following ways: (traditional assessment is described first)

  1. selecting a response to performing a task
  2. contrived to real-life
  3. recall/recognition of knowledge to construction/application of knowledge
  4. teacher structured to student structured
  5. indirect evidence to direct evidence

In this age of technology, it is wonderful to have sources like the Internet, which can provide numerous examples and activities to promote authentic assessment. I have listed a few of my favorites below. Before going on, please view the video titled,

13. Assessment Overview: Beyond Standardized Testing

at http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/assessment/id395540712 (you will need an iTunes download, which you can use from PCs or Macs.)

Fluency

When assessing students, another critical thought becomes crystal clear: if students do not have fluency with the information being tested, they will not perform well on the assessment.

Often overlooked, the ability to read fluently is a vital skill, especially in content areas. Some say fluency has been overlooked because it is intuitive, but some researchers argue that it is the most important part of reading to learn.

According to Maryann Wolfe (http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/new-research-old-problem-brief-history-fluency), "reading fluency refers to the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with good expression so that time can be allocated to understanding what is read." Some even say that readers have about 7 seconds to interpret, understand, and "file away" each word, before short term memory begins to cloud. In other words, students need to be able to read from the beginning of a sentence to the end within a short period of time, so that the meaning of the sentence is captured and retained.

From the Wolf article again:

In its beginnings, reading fluency is the product of the initial development of accuracy and the subsequent development of automaticity in underlying sublexical processes, lexical processes, and their integration in single-word reading and connected text. These include perceptual, phonological, orthographic, and morphological processes at the letter-, letter-pattern, and word-level; as well as semantic and syntactic processes at the word-level and connected-text level. After it is fully developed, reading fluency refers to a level of accuracy and rate, where decoding is relatively effortless; where oral reading is smooth and accurate with correct prosody; and where attention can be allocated to comprehension. (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001, p. 219)

"Automaticity" may be a new word to you, but it is probably easy to see how reading must become "automatic" in order to have full comprehension and fluency.

Right now, please read "A Focus on Fluency" from the ERIC database. This article describes one teacher's use of fluency to impact students' learning. Please expect at least one question on the next quiz based on this document. You may want to make an electronic copy of this document to have available for the quiz.

References

Griffith, L. W. and Rasinski, T. V. (2004), A Focus on Fluency: How One Teacher Incorporated Fluency With Her Reading Curriculum. The Reading Teacher, 58: 126–137. doi: 10.1598/RT.58.2.1

Osborn, J. & Lehr, F. (2003). A focus on fluency. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED481962.pdf

Wolf, M. & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading. (Special Issue on Fluency. Editors: E. Kameenui & D. Simmons). 5: 211-238.

Resources

  • Math rubrics to save us time?who say that ?Rubrics are powerful evaluation tools because they:
    • Reduce anxiety over expectations
    • "Make grading criteria known to students"
    • "Drive curriculum and pedagogy"
    • "Reduce teacher subjectivity"
    • "Ensure accountability"
  • From Houghton Mifflin Company: Understanding Authentic Classroom-Based Literacy Assessment
    Provides answers to such questions as:
    • What Is Authentic Assessment?
    • Why Is It Important to Align Instruction and Assessment?
    • Why Does Assessment Need to Be Ongoing?
    • What Are the Different Forms of Authentic Assessment?
    • Why Is Student Self-Assessment Important?
    • Authentic Classroom Assessment in Action: Ms. Rodriguez's Classroom
    • How Can Teachers Become More Effective and Efficient at Classroom-Based Assessment?
  • Rubrics and Authentic Assessment in the History Classroom
    This document was written to help social studies teachers, but the techniques can be used by any history teacher.
  • Performance Assessment for Science Teachers
    An article on how using rubrics in science classes
  • Authentic Assessment Toolbox
    This is a how-to hypertext on creating authentic tasks, rubrics and standards for measuring and improving student learning.
  • Kathy Schrock's Guide on Assessment
    This is a collection of assessment rubrics and graphic organizers that may be helpful to you as you design your own.
  • Grant Wiggins The Case for Authentic Assessment is a wonderful article that offers support for using authentic assessment.

Lesson 3.7 Reading Theories and Assessment

Literacy is the state of being able to participate fully in a to-and-fro interplay between person and text.

How do we measure this participation in the interplay? How can assessments reflect the complicated nature of reading processes? That's the $64,000 question! Teachers have wrestled with this for years and are still negotiating this issue.

Vygotsky

What would theorists like Vygotsky posit about assessment in the US, if he were alive to be a guest speaker in this course? Vygotsky might say that our evaluation of learners must be as close to the real learning process as possible. In other words, the way we test needs to be similar to the classroom environment in which students learn. Imagine what this type of evaluation would look like - students being tested conversationally, with test administrators who know each child and who are willing to listen to their explanations, not simply grade them on a standard answer. Vygotsky's notion of the ZPD might also come into play. Within the ZPD, there is a striving to learn at the student's own pace which inherently includes motivation. He might say that the best testing situation builds on this motivation to learn and the pride students might feel after having learned something new. This way a test is more like a "brag session" and less like a punishment. Do standardized tests acknowledge social interaction and the ZPD?

Piaget

Similarly, Piaget would say that as new information is learned it is constructed by the child and either assimilated or accommodated into "file folder" like portions of the brain. He might say that evaluation of learning needs to tap into the cognitive structures created by children. (what exactly are those structures filled with? Are they correctly assimilated?) He focused on keeping learning in balance. Equilibration, or the point at which new learning is successfully assimilated or accommodated, can inform assessment.

"Teachers should be able to assess the child's present cognitive level; their strengths and weaknesses. Instruction should be individualized as much as possible and children should have opportunities to communicate with one another, to argue and debate issues. He saw teachers as facilitators of knowledge - they are there to guide and stimulate the students. Allow children to make mistakes and learn from them. (Wanda Ginn at http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html)"

So, according to Piaget, the role of the teacher in assessment becomes clear: measure what the student has learned by tapping into the processes they went through to learn.

Reader Response Theorists

Reader response theorists would agree that successful assessment needs to tap into the processes of reading, not simply the end result. Rosenblatt's notion of the linguistic experiential reservoir, which is different for each child, informs assessment as well. Critics of standardized testing often raise the point that standardized testing is unfair to cultural minorities. (See National Association of Bilingual Educators' website for a scathing article by Ken Goodman about the Perfect Literacy Test about the DIBELs test.)

The bottom line: any assessment must do several things:

  1. Measure what the student has been taught. (validity)
  2. Consistently evaluate learning (reliability)
  3. Give students an opportunity to show what they know
  4. Take note of the processes of the student's learning, not just the end result

Taking Piaget's, Vygotsky's, and Rosenblatt's theories together, it seems that performance assessments (i.e. portfolios, projects, open-ended assignments) are a better way to assess than standardized assessments. But, how can we ensure that teachers and principals follow systematic evaluation processes during performance assessments? Performance assessments, also known as authentic assessment or alternative assessment, requires students to complete a task, rather than choose from a pre-determined list of answers. Rubrics are one answer to this dilemma, as they provide some measure of organization and generalizability. But, how can students in different states be compared to each other using performance-based assessments?

Most often, teachers employ a combination of "objective" (i.e. multiple choice or true/false) questions along with performance-based assessments. I have followed this model to create this course. You will be assessed on open-ended questions (i.e. discussion board entries, projects) as well as objective measures (i.e. quizzes). In this way, I hope to meet all of the assessment "bottom lines" above.

Teachers in the school system will also get standardized test results, which will ideally be used to inform their instruction. (Unfortunately, the results are often returned in the summer or too late in the school year to affect any change in instruction.) One difficulty in dealing with standardized tests is that teachers must prepare students for a test the teachers themselves did not create. If the test is a criterion-referenced test, teachers may focus on the criteria. (Most principals in the state of FL insist that teachers write the Sunshine State Standards Next Generation directly on their lesson plans, to ensure they are covering the standards.) This may lead to hyper-preparation periods directly before the tests, which may not successfully prepare students and may also elevate the stress levels of both teachers and students. But, teachers have an ethical responsibility to prepare students for the tests they will have to take. Do standardized tests, such as the FCAT, fit the "bottom lines" of testing?

The realm of assessment is vast, and too lengthy to be covered in this brief lesson. However, if you are interested in learning more about all types of assessment, I suggest a Google search using the following terms: standardized tests, performance-based assessment, standards, accountability, or assessment measures.

 

References

  • Calkins, L.M., Montgomery, K., Santman, D., & Falk, B. (1999). A teacher's guide to standardized testing: Knowledge is power. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
  • Flesch, R. (1955). Why Johnny can't read and what you can do about it. NY: Harper and Row.
  • National Commission on Education. (1983). A nation at risk. Downloaded at: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html

Lesson 3.8 - Assignments

 


Here is the Course Schedule.

Lesson 3

For this lesson, please read Chapter 4 (9th Ed. chap 4) in your text and Lesson 3 on this website. Both readings will be reflected on the first Quiz this week. (Having them read by Tuesday may make your schedule a bit easier.)

Discussion Board 2: Fluency

On the discussion board post your thoughts on the following agree/disagree statement, based on the readings. Be sure to mention a. reading rate, b. phonological processing, and c. construction of meaning in your answer:

"Fluency has no bearing on comprehension of text and literacy development in a content area classroom."

Note: You will compile all discussion board entries for Lesson 7 and Lesson 10. You will use the Comment feature of a Word document to show evidence that you have learned about Competencies 1 and 2 of the Reading Endorsement Competencies for the state of FL. You will also fill out a Checklist, describing which discussion board entry and date that you discussed each reading endorsement competency. SO, before? you post any discussion board entry, review the "Reading Endorsement Competencies 1 and 2 Matrix for RED 4043" and the "Reading Endorsement Competencies checklist" which are both found in Lesson 2, Lesson 7, and Lesson 10's document list. This document has the wording for important elements in reading education, and it will provide you a "heads up" for the Discussion Board Reflection Paper you will need to create. I have also included the directions for the paper in Lesson 2 and on Lesson 10's Assignment page, for your information.

Please post your answers in the Db2 discussion topic. Post a reply to at least three classmates. Initial answers need to be posted by Thursday, midnight of this week. Replies to classmates need to be posted by Saturday, midnight of this week.

Quiz 1

Take Quiz 1 before Saturday, midnight of this week. You will have 2 attempts at this quiz and it will be available for 30 minutes. The highest score you make is the one that will count. Please complete both attempts.

Db 2 Fluency

Post your thoughts on the following statement, based on the readings. Mention

  1. reading rate,
  2. phonological processing, and
  3. construction of meaning in your answer:

"Fluency has no bearing on comprehension of text and literacy development in a content area classroom."

Then, post a reply to at least three classmates.

Competencies 1.C.1, 1.C.2, and 1.F.3

Quiz 1

Instructions:

Questions Limits Points Due Date Availability
17 Questions 30 Minutes Allowed Attempts: 2 17 pts possible Sep 15 at 9:59pm after Sep 8 at 5am