English
We understand that assessment in each and every area of the Curriculum has come a long way in education. We do not simply use one test result to see how well our students are going in an area of learning. Rather each of our teachers has a thoroughly informed picture of their students strengths and challenges built over time as the school year goes on.
Getting to this place where our teachers know their students so well is assisted by contemporary and flexible testing practices. At St Anthony's one of these that we use forreading is titled the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). DIBELS testing takes place three times a year for each of our students, and are a series of short quick assessments that take place between the teacher and their students. Tests look slightly different depending on the year level of our students, and the data is collected and tracked across the year. This also includes data from previous school years as well as we track the growth of each of our learners.
Let's go through some of the key skills that this assessment keeps track of when it comes to reading!
Phonemic Awareness:
Mostly relevant to our younger students, this involves a child's ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in a word that is spoken to them aloud.
Example- The teacher says to the student the word "Who", and asks them to repeat all of the sounds they hear. (h/oo)
Letter Naming Fluency:
Another skill that is usually tested with younger students, this is the ability to say the name of both upper and lower case letters of the alphabet. As you can imagine, this is an important part of decoding words, as well as spelling and writing.
Phonics
Phonics involves learning the individual sounds in read words, including by using an understanding of the sounds that letters make. An interesting part of this test is what is called nonsense words. These are completely made up words, however students are tasked with reasoning how they would be said aloud based on their spelling.
Example- Reading the nonsense words hon (h/o/n) or kort (k/or/t).
Reading Fluency
This involves the amount of words read correctly in a set amount of time, tracking the errors but also total of words. This includes both lists of separate words, as well as shorter passages of text.
Comprehension
This relates to a students ability to understand what they are reading in a text and is more relevant for our older students . DIBELS tests this in a very interesting way. Rather than ask students to discuss something they have just read, it rather provides them with a written text with missing words. Students are required to use the context of what they are reading, and select from one of three words what will complete the sentence so it makes sense.
Example- The animal ran (down/since/often) the muddy hiking trail all the (last/out/way) to the dock by the lake.
Students understand that these tests are a regular part of our learning, and they are not aimed to be stressful at all. Students are told the exact thing that we discuss here, that they simply help paint the picture of how they are going, combined with so many other things teachers see during a school day.
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday break full of reading, watching movies, chatting to friends and family and more English related skills! We can't wait to launch into term four.
Take care,
Tim O'Mahoney
English Leader