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| How-To: Teach Literacy Instruction
and Teacher Collaboration |
How To Quantify
Reading Progress With A Letter Grade While Teaching In A Reading Workshop
Sarah Picard
As a reading resources teacher, I measure children's progress in many
ways. When I see children begging for the next book in the Horrible
Harry series, asking about Henry and Mudge's next adventure, or cheering
on Little Willy against Stone Fox, I know I have done something right.
However, each quarter those report cards stare me in the face and
I am forced to quantify a child's reading progress into a number or
letter grade. Each year I wonder how I can do this better. I scratch
my head, thinking about ways to communicate progress and assess reading
behaviors that are often difficult to quantify.
In an ideal world we could all describe children's progress by describing
their ability to use reading strategies independently. But many upper
grade teachers need to give grades. My best advice to you is to use
rubrics that clearly define reading behaviors to the children and
their parents, and then describe the approximations of the behaviors
at each point level. I have attached
a rubric for independent reading. I have used a version of this
rubric with third and fifth grade students. They have told me that
it is a useful feedback tool for their own reading. I find it to be
easy to check, not too time consuming, and informative for my future
teaching. |
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