U07: Assessing and

Teaching Reading

By: Sonya Crone

 The Reading Process and how Reading Happens (Mercer, Pullen 235-236)
• Understanding what occurs in the reading process will help
teachers determine specific areas where students could
potentially be struggling in. By knowing what to look for in
students, teachers can fix the problem quicker and more
efficiently.

• Adam’s Model of the Reading Process- was developed as a

parallel distributed processing model to describe the reading
process. There are four parts to this process:
– Orthographic Processor- receives visual input from print
and sends information to the meaning processor
– Meaning Processor- attaches meaning to word
– Phonological Processor-attaches pronunciation of to word
– Context Processor- facilitates the ongoing coherent
interpretation of text and speeds the work of processing
units

• The four processors create the knowledge of common spelling

patterns, spoken forms of words, word meanings, and context
which together produce reading.
Phonological Emergent Literacy (Mercer, Pullen 240-241)
• Emergent Literacy- Children's early experience with print and writing indicate a child success
on learning how to read.
• Signs of reading Success:
– Letter knowledge
– Phoneme discrimination
– Words consist of discrete units

• Emergency Literacy assessments include assessment of concepts about print and phonological
awareness.
• Phonological Awareness- the ability to perceive that spoken words include a series of
individual sounds including the ability to noticed, think about, and evaluate sounds.
– Decoding- seeing a word and determining the sounds of the letters.
– Encoding- hearing a word and producing the letters that represents.
 Phonological Emergent Literacy (Mercer, Pullen 240-241)
Continued
• Without phonemic awareness- students would not be able to read or write because of their
inability to distinguish sounds.
• Another part to emergent literacy is print knowledge. It is very crucial for children to be
able to identify parts of print in order to read. This could include; cover of book, where
started reading, reading left to write, and knowing the difference between upper and lower
case letters.

Right Click to Play Video

Reading Assessments (Mercer, Pullen 243-263)
• Reading Assessments- point out specific strengths and weaknesses and aid in planning instructional
objectives.

• Without assessments teachers would not be able to track progress, know if a student has mastered a concept,
or know what needs to be taught next in order of student success.

• Formal Reading Assessments- test are for a large group of students where a teacher can compare results of
students.

• Types of Formal Reading Assessments:

– Achievement and Diagnostic Test
– Criterion Reference Test
 Reading Assessments (Mercer, Pullen 243-263) Continued
• Informal Reading Assessments- examining the student’s daily work or administering teacher-constructed test by which can assess any
measurable reading skill.

• Types of Informal Reading Assessments:

– Graded word list
– Informal Reading Inventory
– Curriculum Based Measurement
– Portfolio Assessment
– Cloze Procedure
– Teacher Made Test

Right Click to Play Video

 Different Models of Reading (Mercer, Pullen 237)
• As students progress in reading students will start to
change how they read, forming more complex
reading strategies (models).
• Bottom Up Model-readers proceed from text to
meaning, letters and words are perceived and
decoded so text meaning are comprehended.
• Top-Down Model- readers rely only on prior
knowledge and comprehension of the textual
materials meaning rather than on word recognition.
Right Click to Play Video
• Interactive Model- readers rely on both text and
meaning by shifting between attendance to the text
and what is in their mind.
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic
https://www.k12reader.com/category/reading-games-activities/
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/25-activities-reading-and-writing-fun
https://www.education.com/activity/ela/reading/
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-the-Phonic-Approach-to-Reading?&id=4628230
https://classroom.synonym.com/advantages-disadvantages-literaturebased-approach-teaching-reading-10041541.html
http://www.childrens-books-and-reading.com/whole-language.html
http://reading.uoregon.edu/cia/curricula/core_program.php
https://www.theclassroom.com/researchbased-reading-intervention-strategies-18853.html
https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/EDVAE09C0042EBRILAUSD.pdf
https://www.theclassroom.com/teach-first-grade-reading-4450424.html
In this forum, I want you to discuss important tests that go into Assessing Reading e.g Gates-MacGinitie, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, Kaufman Test of
Educational Achievement -II, Metropolitan Achievement Test-Eighth Edition, Woodcock-Johnson  III Normative Update test of Achievement are some of
the reading survey test with reading subtests: Discuss one these tests and provide your opinion about the contents and how they help in designing a teaching
strategy you will apply in teaching reading and please respond to one other post to earn a full credit.

Achievement test assess a students ability in various academic areas, their goal is to obtain overall reading achievement. Achievement and reading survey
tests can help determine which students are experiencing reading difficulties and which are not (Mercer, Pullen 244). The achievement test I did further
research on was Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. In this test students are being tested on assessing word analysis, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. I would
have my students take this test to determine what they have learned, how they compare to other students, and what they still need to work on. This test is
very useful in the younger grades because that is when the most reading development begins. It is important to catch any reading development issues early
so kids have time to correct their reading issues. As one can see this test would probably be taken either once a year or twice a year one time in the
beginning and one time at the end. Overall, I feel as though teachers do not get a say on what achievement test the students will have to take. Who
determines what achievement test the students will take will probably be based on the state and the school a teacher is from.
http://hmhco-v1.prod.webpr.hmhco.com/hmh-assessments-disabled/achievement/itbs#tab-scoring-services
 Components of Effective Research-Based Reading
Instruction Involving Students with Special Needs
• Researched Based instructional Reading components- are research and proven, effective strategies that promote successful reading in students. These
components conclude:

• Instructional Strategies- are very important to students with special needs, by using a standard lesson, and having the teacher model specific steps to
take while reading students are able to visually see what needs to happen in order to read. Likewise the students can see what makes up the important
prior knowledge steps to reading. From the article it stated that fixed instruction, or teaching each, verbal feedback throughout a lesson is a
successful intervention strategy (Sosnowski).

• Development of Cognitive Processing- shows that modeling self-assessment and self-awareness in the classroom help with reading. The teacher
might state the methods she will use before encountering a difficult text, and acknowledging where she might struggle (Sosnowski). For students
with special needs giving pointers on how to solve and figure out a problem on their own will increase academic growth because they will not be as
dependent on the teacher.

• Individual Student Practice- this component gives opportunity for repeated practice of individual skills. Comprehension questions help increase
overall vocabulary skills an reading comprehension. The more practice students have the more comfortable and confident they will be.

• Group Work- small groups of three to four students are most effective for group work in reading instruction. If working in pairs the stronger reader
can help with any difficult words, ask questions about the text and model reading strategies. By working in groups the class in becoming
differentiated.
The Function of Various Evidenced-Based Reading
Components
• Evidenced-Based Reading Components- refer to practices that have been shown to be successful in
improving reading achievement. The success of these practices is demonstrated
• According to, “What Is Evidence-Based Reading Instruction and How Do You Know It When You
See It?” there are four key component areas of reading: alphabetics (phonemic awareness, phonics,
decoding), fluency (the ability to read accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with prosody),
vocabulary, and comprehension (Bell, Dolainski). In the book there are 5 key components;
phonological awareness training, phonics instruction, fluency instruction, vocabulary instruction,
and comprehension instruction (Mercer, Pullen 263). Both ideas of evidence reading components
are very similar to each other.
• Learners’ strengths and weaknesses need to be assessed in each of the four components. Instruction
should be based on assessment results. Instruction should be, sequenced, direct, and explicit.
Instruction and materials need to be engaging and relevant to learners’ needs. Teachers must
continuously be monitoring student progress in order to gauge its effectiveness (Bell, Dolainski).
Reading Activities Improve Reading Instruction for
Struggling Readers
• Reading activities help improve reading
skills in many ways, these activities
enhance motivation, help students self-
correct, gives teacher ability to
personalize instruction, and gives
practice to phonological awareness,
word attack, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension (Mercer, Pullen 300).
• From personal experience, when I Right Click to Play Video
struggled with reading I enjoyed the
activities more than the lesson because I
did not realize I was actually learning.
How do we Assess and Teach Reading? Thoughts
• Overall after reading Chapters 7 and 8 I made the connection that without
assessments before reading, students cannot be taught reading properly.
Assessments in the classroom give teachers the starting point of what to
address in their students. Similarly, teachers need to know proper reading
strategies and what makes up how to read in order to dissect what each
student will need in their school learning plan. Reading is the key to all
subjects taught in school.
 References
• Early Literacy: Phonological Awareness [Video file]. (2014, October 13). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NjVIgkNtRg
• Formal vs Informal Assessment & Examples [Video file]. (2017, January 22). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WDfT46nijA
• Kit Bell & Stephen Dolainski.Retrieved from
https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/EDVAE09C0042EBRILAUSD.pdf
• Mercer, C. D., Mercer, A. R., & Pullen, P. C. (2010). Teaching Students with Learning Problems. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Reading Models [Video file]. (2016, December 16). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=u5vHoFxoDqc
• Reading Strategies and Activities for ESL/ELL Classrooms [Video file]. (2016, September 28). Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbBbmPOdJXg
• Sosnowski, J. (2013, August 13). Research-Based Reading Intervention Strategies. Retrieved from
https://www.theclassroom.com/researchbased-reading-intervention-strategies-18853.html