In an exchange in yesterday’s blog post, I wrote the following:
Juliette…I wanted to plan for something more holistic. This was my first attempt at having everyone reading the same text. I usually just work off whatever students are reading independently. I’m thinking of doing several different kinds of assessments in the fall so that I have a better picture of my students as readers and so that I am better prepared when I’m told I need to do the same assessment for each student. I want to collect my own data as well.
So, what I’m thinking.
I will start off the year with get-to-know-you interviews. Some questions I might ask are: (1) Tell me about the last book you finished. (2) What are you reading now? (3) What will you read next? (4) What are some of your favorite genres? Authors? Series? (5) What would you like to get better at as a reader?
Next, I plan to conduct brief one-on-one conferences as often as possible where I will ask: (1) How’s it going? (2) What are you reading? (3) Do you need any help? Or Have you tried (whatever the strategy or mini lesson that I taught that day or week)?
Then, I want to do slightly more formal reading interviews like the ones I wrote about here.
Finally, I will need to do reading assessments mandated by my school board. I will reserve judgement on those until I find out what they entail. Let’s just say that the fact that they’re mandated makes me a little nervous.
For now, that is a quick sketch of my reading assessment plan for the year.
What are your thoughts on this? I look forward to reading your comments and, especially, your pushback!
Cross posted to The Two Writing Teachers Tuesday Slice of Life Story Challenge.
Elisa Waingort 
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