Creating Useful Assessment
I address the student's ability to discuss and comprehend these concepts of literature through both the writing and the oral discussion. The forms that I briefly described above are what I use to formally assess my students' progress. I include a monthly example of each of the forms in the students' portfolios as they are introduced and I also grade one whole group lesson of each on a rubric at least once a semester. As the year progresses, so do the forms. A new type of graphic organizer is introduced for each introduction of a literary element, and as time passes students will have icons or other crutches taken away for the elements that are worked with early on. The format and elements addressed will vary in the portfolio, but the basic idea of this type of written response stays the same.
The rubric is teacher created. Usually it is created in collaboration with other teachers on the grade level. I find it most useful when we come up with a general rubric that can address any written response to literature and then fine-tune that general rubric for whatever skill or response we are trying to elicit. A few teachers I know have their students begin creating rubrics as the year progresses. I have not done this but I think it sounds like a wonderful way to empower students in their learning, and would be especially effective in the older grades, say second and third grade. How you create a rubric is not important. What is important is that your rubric is addressing what you are trying to assess. That it is understandable to you and anyone else who will be looking at the scores, and gives you a clear picture of your students' progress.
For example, an initial assessment I have created has been on characterization. On the organizer the students have to identify the main character, and use a word to describe that character. The rubric has three levels, 0 being the lowest and 2 the highest. In order to receive a two the student must identify the main character with writing and/or drawing, and use one word that appropriately describes the character.
To prepare students for this assessment we identify main characters as a group during book talk, and have already generated lists of descriptive words for these characters. When the students are assessed, they are reminded of these exercises, but are read a new book in which they have to identify the character and a find word to describe him on their own. Thus if the students were read The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, and they identified Ferdinand as the main character and described him as sweet, they would receive a 2 on the assessment.
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