ASSESSMENT

Assessing Reading Comprehension in Grade 3

Formative assessment moves learning forward. Our Grade 3 teachers gather and reflect on information in order to adjust instructional pacing, content, and strategies. Our students also use assessment information to make adjustments in learning strategies and processes. In ISPP we believe that the following strategies are the most powerful when teachers use them to inform instruction:

■ clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success

■ guiding effective classroom discussions, questions, and learning tasks

■ providing feedback that moves learning forward

■ developing students’ responsibility for their own learning

■ supporting students in their ability to become instructional resources for one another

Our students are actively engaged in the activities and it makes a positive difference in the student learning. Our team believes that in order to become independent learners, our students need to know from the start about what is to be learned.

Therefore, our G3 teachers explain the learning goals and begin to involve the students in co-constructing success criteria and performance indicators. We encourage our students to obtain feedback from others (peers and teachers), ask questions and further clarify the criteria.

In order to enhance our teaching of inferring our Grade 3 Team planned various activities for the students. We began with clarifying the learning intention and modeling the outcomes that would meet the success criteria. The question that we wanted our students to answer was “How to make inferences?” It was modeled during the activity with mystery objects when the students had to use an item as a piece of evidence and infer some information about the owner of the item. It was modeled when the children were engaged in picture reading and inferring stories from the pictures. Finally, it was modeled when the students had to analyze the characters in the story, naming certain traits and providing evidence from the text of the story.

Mr.James scribed the evidence and inferences provided by students.

The children worked in collaborative groups and fed each other’s thinking while sharing their background knowledge, etc.

Alex's group put their heads together and came up with very interesting inferences.

At the end of each activity, our students had a chance to share their learning and reflect on their guesses. The discussions and sharing sessions were always guided by the teacher. The students had a chance to practice giving and receiving feedback in order to move their learning forward.

Miss Lisa guided the sharing sessions, making sure all her students had a chance to speak.

Teachers model assessment of a performance against the established criteria for quality work. Students begin comparing their work and the established criteria by providing themselves and others with feedback as they reflect on their own work and the work of their peers. With some support from the teachers, our students revised their work and some of them moved it closer to the established criteria. Students accomplished this by using their own personal feedback, as well as feedback from their peers and teachers.

Through this modeling of practice, and using feedback to adjust understanding and performance, students can learn not only to self-assess but also to understand the criteria better, manage their learning and consider their next steps.