Looking for a way to eliminate time spent assessing your middle grade readers? I might have the answer you have been looking for! After a year of searching, piloting, and working endlessly for a cure to the time consuming task of individually assessing each of my students once a month
I HAVE THE ANSWER !
Best part? It's...FREE!
Materials Needed For Digital Assessing:
Any of the following devices:
-iPads
-Chromebooks
-Laptops
-Desktops
Classkick (FREE on Web or iTunes) Learn More About Classkick? Click HERE
(Chromebooks/Laptops/Desktops)
(iPads)
-Classkick App (iTunes Store)
Leveled Passages For Each Month:
-We use the DRA2 Monthly Monitoring Passages
-There are leveled passage at Reading A-Z
-Easy CBM has leveled passages
This is how you set it up:
Step 1:
Choose a passage for each month.
Step 2:
Make a Classkick assessment (assignment) using the monthly passage.
Step 3:
Assign the assessment (assignment) to students with a code.
Step 4:
Teach students how to add audio.
Adding Audio to an Assignment:
1. Go to the page you are to read orally.
2. Click on the microphone icon
3. A recording bar will appear
4. Move the bar so it is not covering any print
5. Click record
6. Read the passage orally
7. Click stop
Step 5:
Have students answer comprehension questions about the passage (if desired).
1. Provide the questions on the following page.
2. Students can provide all questions orally using the microphone
3. Students can type their answers into the page
Step 6:
Have students fill out an assessment reflection page.
Include a few questions on the last page providing students with prompts that will assist them in reflecting upon their assessment success.
Step 7:
Listen to the audio and score the assessment accordingly.
Step 8:
Conference with the student.
1. Listen to the recording together.
2. Discuss the miscues and other reading behaviors noticed.
3. Discuss possible strategies.
4. Set goals
5. Record scores on graphs each month
6. Compare and discuss graphs
The following are screen shots from my laptop version of my Classkick assessment. They will give you a sense of how to set up your assessment.
(Full Assessment View on Teacher Login)
(First Page View-I use a bold color for easy locating)
(First Page-I include audio and written directions)
(Reading passage inserted using an camera taken image and turned on its side for larger viewing)
(Post-reading questions with more audio and written directions)
(Optional Student Reflection Page-students can record audio or type answers)
I piloted this and found that passages at the same level and same genre scored extremely similar for a majority of the students whether using in person version or the digital version. If the process is taught and mastered before doing an assessment completely independently, students can successfully take these oral reading assessments independently using these digital tools.
It can be presented and utilized as a center or completed simultaneously with students using their own devices. I have found that by spreading students out, and using headphones, the process works very successfully.
Digital Oral Reading Assessment Positives?
1. Time! (I am a reading specialist ,so all of my students need to be assessed orally once a month. I cut my assessment time from 5 sessions per group to 1 session per group. This freed up some time for us to add more individual conferencing and goal setting!)
2. The oral assessments are recorded for use when necessary. It is extremely powerful to have students listen to themselves read and it sets the stage for meaningful discussions about reading miscues and strategies that were observed.
3. There will be a digital record of all students' oral reading assessments stored in one easy to find place. No more lugging around binders and folders full of assessment data!
4. I have found that when my students know they are being recorded, they perform better!
5. The objective of monthly oral reading assessments is to assess oral reading fluency and comprehension. The goal is not for students to read to a crowd or in front of a listener. When students can record their oral reading assessments in a private setting, some have less anxiety and therefore perform better.
I am absolutely loving using my devices for monthly oral reading assessments. It was well worth all of the searching, trial and error, and frustration.
My hope is to provide hard working teachers with ideas for maximizing their teaching potential and freeing up precious time allowing us to do all we can to meet students' individual reading needs.
My hope is this tool or the idea will help you in some way. Good luck! Please...let me know how this idea works out for you!
UPDATE:
I am going to show you how to set this up and do this in a Periscope tomorrow afternoon. Follow me @link2teach on periscope to view. I will also discuss it in more depth on iteachtvnetwork's Facebook Live on Monday, September 12th at 6pm CST! See you there!
Want to save yourself time and also gain some great additional tools to go along with this assessment idea? Grab this full tutorial including videos, posters, and much more in my TpT store. Click on the image to see the product.
Until the next post...
