When reading Tompkins: Chapter 5, Developing Fluent Readers and Writers, I realized there are many different ways to assess students in fluency and word identification. In Tompkins, they explain how fluency fits into a balanced literacy program. Tompkins explains that there are ten different components that help with learning and developing fluency and word identification. The following Components include:
1. Reading
2. Phonics and Others skills
3. Strategies
4. Vocabulary
5. Comprehension
6. Literature
7. Content-Area Study
8. Oral Language
9. Writing
10. Spelling
After reading this chapter, and observing my fifth grade classroom, I have realized that not all students should be assessed the same. All students work best in their own way. For example, some students like to take tests, others like to write essays, and like me some students prefer to do projects as an assessment. We all excel in different ways, because our minds all think in different ways.
Assessments should have variety throughout students as well as grades. For example, teachers are most likely not going to assess kindergarten students the same as fifth grade students. Finding time to do assessments was also a concern for me. Do you assess students all together or individually? And if you assess students individually, how do you assess in a way that is time efficient? Assessing also goes along with time and classroom management. One thing as a teacher you should take time to think about.
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It is definitely true that all students should be assessed in ways that would be best for that individual student. However, I have some of the same concerns as you. How do you find the time to assess all students, or even the resources. If you are giving all students a different type of test, how do you go about helping each student or coming up with a standard grading rubric so that the grading is fair. One idea I have is to perhaps assess the class using various tyoes of assessments throughout the year so that all students find a type that workds for them. Then drop so many of the lowest scores. This way, if a student, for example, dies really bad on essay tests, there would have only been one or two essay teasts given and maybe, those would be the tests the student would drop and the scores wouldn't matter any way.
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