LING 612 Reading Assessment Ch 5 by O'Malley & Pierce (1996)

I am pleased to say that I am starting to figure out how to assess and use reading activities as assessment tools to show progress. If I want to test students on retell, I provide retell activities for the students to utilize and they also get lessons on how to practice that skill. Everyday reading experiences should include a variety of methods to help students learn to decode and comprehend their reading assignments. Books should be provided for students to explore their interests and anyone can be included in the process of reading, whether it be a parent, teacher, peer, family member, elder or a toy such a toy or snow machine. Kids have great imaginations to create different settings for them to enjoy literature.
Assessment is a tool to help students, parents and teachers learn about the process that students are going through to learn to read. Students that are English language learners are going to have trouble connecting to the mainstream America's genre of reading, but that does not mean that they will not be able to catch up. It takes second language learners an average of 5-7 years to become proficient in a language. During that time, they can read books that they select and ones that they show interest in.
Teacher's roles as data collectors should provide a variety of assessment tools. The chapter has a lot of reading assessment ideas that you can use or adapt for your particular setting. I am going to try to get more familiar with figure 5.20 on pg 126 to get quality information of what is happening with individual student reading strategies and record that in a portfolio that I will use to share with the student, other teachers and parents.
I had a hard time keeping a portfolio in the past because I just saw it as a collection of work that had no meaning to my students but the idea was my own and only I understood it without providing rubics, checklists or other types of documents that helped others who look at the portfolio understand it. I am pleasantly surprised at my alternative approach to the concept of portfolio in the classroom as a teaching and recording tool for both my students and myself.