Literacy Assessments
LGES uses a variety of literacy assessments to make sure we are constantly aware of where students are performing and how we can best serve them. Informal assessments occur daily in our K-6 classrooms and include student observations, work samples, anecdotal notes, checklists, conferences, informal running records, and other grade-level designed measures to provide an ongoing picture of student learning. Our school-wide literacy measures and their administration dates are listed to the right.
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iReady The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment given on the iPad or laptop. The diagnostic adjusts its questions based on your child’s responses. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade, but instead to determine how best to support your child’s learning.
When you look at your child’s diagnostic report you will see a blue bar stretching up towards a green box. The green box indicates an understanding of the current grade level standards. At this point in the year, it is not likely that a student’s bar is in the green since they haven’t been taught much of this material yet.
You will also see several horizontal lines. The larger solid line indicates the middle score target for the end of the year. The smaller solid line is where your child is expected to grow from where they are now with a typical year’s growth. The dashed line indicates a “stretch” growth or a more lofty target to reach. At LGES, we will work towards stretch growth for all students by focusing on the individual needs of each child.
You will see a number of items listed to the right of the graph that have been scored. These Overall Domain scores are in relation to what we would expect a beginning of the year student to know. Green indicates that they’re currently on target for that skill. Yellow indicates an area of need that’s not on level requiring a focus on skills taught from the prior year. Red indicates an area that is more than one year below grade level requiring reteaching and/or intervention.
There is additional information on the report under “Placement by Domain.” It shares what was measured and some areas of focus for your child to help them improve and continue to grow.
The Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System consists of a series of carefully designed benchmark books that measure the level of difficulty at which a student is able to read fiction and nonfiction texts. The books range in difficulty from those for beginning readers (A) to those for advanced readers (Z). They are accompanied by an extensive document, The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K–8: Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support, which lists text characteristics, reading behaviors, and features of comprehension along a grade-by-grade developmental continuum.
A benchmark assessment system is a series of texts that can be used to identify a student's current reading level and progress along a gradient of text levels over time. The word "benchmark" means a standard against which to measure something.
A benchmark assessment system is a series of texts that can be used to identify a student's current reading level and progress along a gradient of text levels over time. The word "benchmark" means a standard against which to measure something.
- Determine your students' independent and instructional reading levels.
- Determine reading placement levels and group students for reading instruction.
- Select texts that will be productive for student's instruction.
- Assess the outcomes of teaching.
- Assess a new student's reading level for independent reading and instruction.
- Identify students who need intervention.
- Document student progress across a school year and across grade levels.
- Inform parent conferences.
Spelling Inventories: Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction has spelling inventories for primary, elementary, and upper-level grades. These spelling inventories are used to help group students by spelling developmental stage. They contain lists of words that were chosen to represent a variety of spelling features at increasing levels of difficulty. These features might include consonants, digraphs, blends, short vowels, and so forth. They relate directly to the stages of spelling development. The words in the spelling inventories are designed to demonstrate students’ knowledge of these key spelling features at the different stages of spelling development.
The Primary Spelling Inventory, or PSI, can be used in kindergarten through third grade. The Upper-Level Spelling Inventory, or USI, can be used in upper elementary, middle school, high school, and postsecondary classrooms.
These inventories are administered like traditional spelling tests, but there are some significant differences. Unlike traditional spelling tests, students do not study the words before the assessment. Also, they are not graded on the activity. To begin a spelling inventory, each word is called aloud and repeated once. The words are spoken naturally, without emphasis on phonemes or syllables. If necessary, teachers can also use a sentence with the word in it to make sure the students know the exact word. If students struggle with the inventory, teachers can administer a lower-level inventory. The inventory can be given to students as a whole group or in small groups. The results of the inventory are used to get a general picture of each student’s spelling development.
The Primary Spelling Inventory, or PSI, can be used in kindergarten through third grade. The Upper-Level Spelling Inventory, or USI, can be used in upper elementary, middle school, high school, and postsecondary classrooms.
These inventories are administered like traditional spelling tests, but there are some significant differences. Unlike traditional spelling tests, students do not study the words before the assessment. Also, they are not graded on the activity. To begin a spelling inventory, each word is called aloud and repeated once. The words are spoken naturally, without emphasis on phonemes or syllables. If necessary, teachers can also use a sentence with the word in it to make sure the students know the exact word. If students struggle with the inventory, teachers can administer a lower-level inventory. The inventory can be given to students as a whole group or in small groups. The results of the inventory are used to get a general picture of each student’s spelling development.
Writing On-Demand Performance Assessment: To begin and end units of study in the three categories of writing, writing prompts have been developed for teachers to collect student writing to assess and interpret. These prompts direct students to build the best piece of writing they can--narrative, information, or opinion/argument, depending on the unit--in forty-five minutes. Then, teachers can take the resulting pieces, match them up to the learning progressions, and track student progress. The prompts given to students are are the same across the school so that the resulting data can be used more widely and to greater effect.
This baseline data helps to inform instruction and allows teachers to see where each student falls along the learning progressions. These assessments involve students writing to a specific yet open-ended prompt asking them to create a piece of writing that shows all they know about writing in this genre. Here, for example is the prompt for an on-demand piece of narrative writing to be used as a performance assessment.
This baseline data helps to inform instruction and allows teachers to see where each student falls along the learning progressions. These assessments involve students writing to a specific yet open-ended prompt asking them to create a piece of writing that shows all they know about writing in this genre. Here, for example is the prompt for an on-demand piece of narrative writing to be used as a performance assessment.
- K-2: Teachers say: “I’m really eager to understand what you can do as writers of narratives, of stories, so today, will you please write the best personal narrative, the best Small Moment story, that you can write. Make this be the story of one time in your life. You might focus on just a scene or two. You’ll have only forty-five minutes to write this true story, so you’ll need to plan, draft, revise, and edit in one sitting. Write in a way that allows you to show off all you know about narrative writing.” Teachers also say: “In your writing, make sure you: Make a beginning of your story, show what happened in order, use details to help readers picture your story, and make an ending for your story"
- Grades 3-6: Teachers say: “I’m really eager to understand what you can do as writers of narratives, of stories, so today, will you please write the best personal narrative, the best Small Moment story, that you can write. Make this be the story of one time in your life. You might focus on just a scene or two. You’ll have only forty-five minutes to write this true story, so you’ll need to plan, draft, revise, and edit in one sitting. Write in a way that allows you to show off all you know about narrative writing.” Teachers also say: “In your writing, make sure you, write a beginning for your story, use transition words to tell what happened in order, elaborate to help readers picture your story, show what your story is really about, and write an ending for your story.”
New York State Grades 3-6 English Language Arts Tests:
The test focuses entirely on the Next Generation Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy, and assesses Reading, Writing, and Language Standards using multiple-choice, short-response, and extended-response questions. All questions are based on close reading of informational and literary texts. All texts are drawn from authentic, grade-level works that are worthwhile to read. Speaking and Listening Standards are not assessed on the state test at this time.
Test Scores:
Parents are provided with an English Language Arts Test Score Report for their child. This report explains a child's scores and lists resources available to support his/her education. Parents are encouraged to refer to this report when talking with their child's teachers and other education providers.
Parents are provided with an English Language Arts Test Score Report for their child. This report explains a child's scores and lists resources available to support his/her education. Parents are encouraged to refer to this report when talking with their child's teachers and other education providers.
The school district receives a number of summary reports containing valuable information for the district, our elementary building, individual grade levels, and classroom teachers to address curriculum needs. Through a comprehensive analysis of the testing data, the principal and teachers evaluate the strengths in our curriculum and address the areas in need of improvement.