assessment of student learning

In assessing educational initiatives and institutions, student learning and development are of utmost importance. Depending on the learner's level, assessment may take the form of summative, formative, or self-evaluation. 2016 (Dixson & Worrell). The teacher must conduct classroom assessments not only to meet professional standards but also to gauge how well his or her lessons are meeting the requirements of the students.

The assessment of pupils is an essential part of education that is required for their instruction. Since learners have a variety of backgrounds and literacy competences, it is important to establish the baseline performance of the learner before assessing the students' literacy skills. Individual needs of students can be identified by carrying out literacy assessments to provide teachers with the information necessary to develop appropriate lessons and consequently improve instructions for the learners.

Assessment practices at first grade.

Assessment practices are categorized into formal and informal assessments. Formal evaluation refers to standardized methods of rating students and comparing their performances with others through the use of exams whereas informal assessments rely on practical skills displayed by pupils so as determine their capabilities. Formal assessments methods used in first grade include:

Developmental Spelling Assessment

It is a phonics package that assists students to know how words work in languages. The main aim of instructors or teachers on this kind of evaluation is to make students study words and develop a clear understanding of how sound and meaning are brought out by spelling. Students are often grouped in their suitable stages and given time to look at the structure of words and create comparison through sorting. Teachers often monitor the learners' progress by assessing if they can use the words they have studied in both writing and reading.

Spelling in this kind of assessment involves letter naming where teachers instruct on learning of short vowel and beginning sounds. They introduce spellings of short letter vowel sounds at this stage. At the end of this stage, a student can spell many words since they have learned about joining of syllables in words. Development assessment should enable students to have knowledge that meanings and sound are important in the spelling of words.

Development reading assessment

Development reading assessment is a standard reading test often designed to be used in kindergarten through to third grade .Teachers administer development reading assessment to students by letting them read selected words individually and afterward reread them to an examiner or their tutor. The selections of words in first grade are difficult compared to those that students learned in kindergarten. Teachers often develop a reading continuum which consists of different levels ranging from emergent to extended orders.

Learners do exams at each stage, and a report card is prepared to show the marks attained by each student at the end of each stage which often translates to the reading ability of each student. Teachers use these results to evaluate if the students are reading above or below the standards set by the curriculum. It also positions them as to the capabilities stands in imparting knowledge to their students and areas they should improve on. The development reading assessment levels give teachers a chance to re-evaluate their strategies for students not doing well in reading. They can develop extra hours or small groups, select unique materials and teach interventions that will help these students attain the required level.

First-grade students should be able to perform the following task after this assessment comfortably: be able to recognize and read words that they use frequently, he or she should be able with the assistance of the tutor to read new words. First graders should also read word by word of few phrases.

Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS)

PALS, was a program first initiated in the State of Virginia to identify the strength of students in reading as they progress from one level to another. It was designed to cater for preschool students and those in grade 1-3.The screening helped to prevent problems that would later emerge in future in regards to reading. The phonological awareness literacy testing provided a broad evaluation of young student's knowledge of necessary pillars to ensure a predictable reading success in future.

Assessments from this screening where apparently studied by teachers to identify students that needed additional guidance to reach the standards required at that level. Mid-year evaluation is also done to achieve monitoring of identified students' progress throughout the year. PALS notify tutors of what they are required to ensure that students attain the best reading culture in future. PALS for first graders comprise of the following task that the learner should attain before promotion to the next level. The teacher takes a record to know an instructional reading level of a student has achieved as he or she assesses fluency, reading rate, accuracy and comprehension of a student. (Invernizzi, Landrum, Teichman, & Townsend, 2010).

Spelling is also an important part in PALS students are required to spell words representing the phrase required in first grade. Teachers will then give a score depending on the presence of specific phonic features required in first grade. Spelling may be given to individual student or the whole class. Recognition of words in isolation is also a requirement for first graders. The students should be able to read words provided at a particular level. The teacher requires a student to be able to read a given leveled passage orally. Recitation of alphabetical sounds is also part of this screening task.

Reading comprehension assessments

Reading comprehension is another form of formal assessment which involves a teacher writing on the board and letting the students read aloud. In this type of assessment, a teacher distributes comprehension tests and quizzes since it is important in the curriculum to students and makes sure that students know what they are reading. (Leu, et. al, 2011).

A teacher creates simple sentences, for example, I will go to the farm, Tom's dog, our house, and etc. since a learner is interested in things that deal with holidays, animals at this stage. The tutor is required to prepare the student by initially doing several comprehension in class before the test to give them confidence during the test. The teacher should also include clues to the answers so that the exam can be enjoyable. At the end of these exercises, the tutor should be able to know the specific needs of every student in regards to comprehension to help those with problems in the section.

Writing portfolios

Writing portfolios is another form of formal assessment for first-grade students. The teacher gives writing materials to students for them to draw, write words and names related to what they have learned in class. These portfolios should be interesting to the student. They mostly include drawings and paintings of animals, nature, parts of plants and their names and then pin them to the wall. Different colors should be used in shading, and for indicating various parts of the drawings to make the first-grade student enjoy the assessment. The teacher should then evaluate the performance of students and carry out the necessary changes to his or her teaching methods

Informal assessment

Content learned and students’ performance in class, rather than examinations, guide informal evaluations of learners. It is often done in a quiet environment so that students can have a comfortable surrounding during testing for better results. Each should be given this assessment. There are tools used in informal assessment in establishing components of reading. The following are the methods for informal assessment applicable in first grade.

Word recognition

In this type of assessment, a teacher seeks to ensure that a student can read sight words. These words should be words frequently used. When introducing this lesson to students a teacher should add only three unfamiliar words to make it easily understandable to a child, a teacher holds a flash card and let a child read it aloud. The lesson should be brief and be able to form a familiarity with the three new words. Reviewing the three words in the next lesson is an important aspect as it seeks to know the student's ability to remember what he or she saw and read in the previous lesson.

If all the students have grasped the three words, a teacher reinforces it with sight words games so as the child repeats the words while having fun. A student may make a mistake while pronouncing the sight words because of confusion; the teacher should use the right procedure for correcting the student by not scolding them but by holding the flash card with a different sight word and after that deal with the student in a private session

Reading conferencing

Reading conferencing is an informal way of assessing and instructing students. The teacher selects and holds a conference with four or three students. These meetings are usually brief and focused. The students are taught to monitor and self-correct their reading. Those who have achieved better reading skills are introduced to comprehension of new genres

Strategies by tutors in reading conferencing are: making sure the students know a word and understand its meaning; the child should re-read the sentences or words if he or she does not comprehend what it means. Writing the words she or he as a difficult with on paper to check with their conferencing partners is also important. The teacher should also encourage students to form a picture in their mind of the meaning of these sentences and words. Different books and genres should be used for over duration of time as the students recite what they have learned both at home and school. At the end of every conference, a teacher will have established the needs of every student in regards to reading so assist the students with difficulty with fluency. (Bennett, 2011).

Running records

It is a form of informal assessment that helps a teacher to identify best a pattern in which an individual student uses to make a meaning of words and texts. It is often conducted continuously and is based on the curriculum. It gives a graphic view of how a student has developed ways of reading orally. It also identifies the pattern which was effectively used by the student and those which were ineffective. This type of assessment help teachers to figure out how to teach decoding styles or strategies, patterns to use to improve reading and what support the students require to improve their reading culture.

The running record is a simple assessment method of determining the degree of literacy in students, where a teacher gives a student a sentence to read and attentively take notes on the pronunciations made by the student. The educator takes notes of the words correctly pronounced, words said instead of the correct word, and words stated wrongly and corrected by the student as they read along. The teacher should also record those mispronounced.

When taking a running record a teacher do it at a faster rate to catch up with the speed the child is reading a sentence with since the more miscues and mistakes he or she records the better it will be in trying to better the students learning behavior. Once a teacher has completed taking the running record, he or she takes time to go over them so has to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the students accurately.

The information gathered will be very significant in planning the next approach of introducing other instruction to the first graders. To determine the percentage scored by a student in running records a teacher takes the number of words read correctly by a student and divide by the number the piece of work contained and the number he or she gets is then multiplied by 100.That will give the percentage a student has scored. The score will help an educator design different approach to individual students as far as reading is concern

Conclusion

Assessment of first-grade students is an important aspect in the learning future of every student. Teachers can ascertain if their teaching methods are effective, the need to stick or change their strategies. Both formal and informal assessment results to better reading future for students if their results are interpreted and applied accordingly to an individual student.

References

Bennett, R. E. (2011). Formative assessment: A critical review. Assessment in Education:

Principles, Policy & Practice, 18(1), 5-25.

Dixson, D. D., & Worrell, F. C. (2016). Formative and summative assessment in the

classroom. Theory into practice, 55(2), 153-159.

Invernizzi, M., Landrum, T. J., Teichman, A., & Townsend, M. (2010). Increased

implementation of emergent literacy screening in pre-kindergarten. Early Childhood

Education Journal, 37(6), 437-446.

Leu, D. J., Gregory McVerry, J., Ian O'Byrne, W., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett‐Cacopardo,

H., & Forzani, E. (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding

the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1), 5-14.