Literacy Reflection #5

I think that Flint Chapter 9 was very interesting in talking about the effective assessment practices for reading and writing. My fourth grade class just took a reading and math benchmark last week, which was a summative assessment. When I went to school that Wednesday the students were taking the reading part of the benchmark. It was really interesting have to proctor an exam and see the students struggle to get through that exam. While I do understand the point of standardized multiple choice tests, I do not feel that if fully shows the knowledge your students.

I do find the use of alternative assessments very helpful. In the book it talks about using running records, and this can be very helpful especially during guided reading time. I know that when I do my guided reason lesson on Wednesday I will be using a running record. I also think that it is very important to have a portfolio system set up in your classroom. I know that many teachers don't do them because they can be very time consuming, but it's important to have a collection of each student's work that can show their progress.