Using Quick Checks to Drive Instruction
Let’s talk assessments and get straight to the point: We can’t have meaningful, effective instruction without assessments. If instruction is the sail of a boat, assessments are the winds that drive and guide it. Before we can teach effectively, we need to know the needs of our students as well as their capabilities. Let’s chat!
Assessments are important because they:
identify strengths and weaknesses
Inform instruction
track progress
guide intervention
support differentiation
inform curriculum planning
The Benefit of Assessments
Assessments identify strengths and weaknesses.
Literacy assessments help us pinpoint a students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading, writing, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and other literacy-related areas.
We must identify strengths and weaknesses before we begin our instructional planning so we are making the most of our instructional time.
If we begin our instruction unaware of a student’s strengths and weaknesses, two things can happen. The first is that we risk teaching students something in-depth that they already know about and therefore we “waste” precious instruction time and the opportunity for them to learn something new. The second risk we take is that we potentially teach struggling students material that they are not yet ready for, or that they would need scaffolding to understand.
Assessments inform instruction.
When we are able to understand where students excel and where they struggle, we can adjust their teaching strategies to provide targeted support and even enrichment.
Assessments allow us to divide students into small and large groups based upon what they need to learn. This knowledge allows teachers to tailor instruction to meet each student’s specific needs.
Assessments track progress.
Assessments provide data on students’ progress over time, allowing educators to track growth and monitor the effectiveness of interventions.
Progress monitoring is essential for evaluating the impact of instruction. It allows us to make data-driven decisions and tune our instruction to where it needs to be.
Assessments guide intervention.
We are able to use these assessments to guide what specific interventions struggling students may need.
When we address a weakness, we are then able to provide specific support for them so that they can succeed.
Assessments support differentiation.
Literacy assessments do this by identifying areas of need and guide the development of targeted interventions.
When we address a weakness, we can provide additional support within the classroom.
We can tailor and “edit” our lessons to ensure that all students’ needs are being met in our classroom and that all of our diverse learners have the opportunity to succeed.
Assessments inform curriculum planning.
Assessments also inform resource allocation by highlighting areas of the curriculum that may need adjusting or enhancing.
Assessments give us results where we can identify areas of focus for instruction and curriculum development.
We need to intentionally look at our data, find the gaps, and choose a curriculum to fill in those gaps.
Types of Assessments:
Universal Screeners
This is where we start. These types of assessments are also known as benchmarks.
They help us identify which students are on track and which may need more support.
Diagnostic Assessments
These are assessments that happen after a universal screener.
These assessments require you to put on your detective hat and find your magnifying glass, because they tell us exactly what each student needs.
Diagnostic tests are pre-tests that give us insight and “zoom in” on a students’ strengths and weaknesses, which guide us to our targeted instruction.
For example, if a universal screener tells us a student is struggling with comprehension, the diagnostic screener will really nail down their weakness. Is it really comprehension, or is it a lack of fluency or decoding skills? In order to know, I may check the following data points:
Listening comprehension
Oral reading fluency
Spelling and decoding
Phonemic awareness
Letter name and sound knowledge
If a student is struggling with decoding, assessing their letter name and sound knowledge, as well as their ability to blend and segment, will tell me exactly what the problem is. It all fits together like a puzzle!
Progress monitoring
This type of assessment happens after the universal and diagnostic screeners.
I love to think of this as a “GPS system” for learning. It helps us track students’ growth over time and tells us if our instruction and interventions are working.
Wiley Blevens reminds us that phonics instruction is an ongoing journey, not a one-time event.
Progress monitoring allows us to circle back, check-in, review, and ensure that our instruction is making a difference in the lives of our readers.
This type of monitoring also is data-driven and helps us with our instruction. When we regularly assess a student’s progress, we can adjust our teaching strategies and provide targeted support. Look at it as fine-tuning a recipe until it’s perfect.
Tools and Resources
Check out my Phonics Quick Checks for the best starting place! They are easy to use and, yep, you guessed it - quick!
Check out my Phonemic Awareness Screener for free!
My Phonics Screener for Units 2-4 assesses both decoding and encoding.
Also check out my Letter Name/Sound Check (5 Word CVC).
Remember that reading is not a race - it’s a journey. When we embrace ongoing assessments in our classroom as well as data-driven instruction, we can ensure that we are delivering the best possible instruction to our students - no matter where they are.
