Strategies to assess children’s reading

In order to carry out formative assessment, you need to ensure that the children are actively engaged in an activity. Carefully read through Table 6.1, which summarises some strategies to assess reading.

Table 6.1: Strategies to assess reading

Preparation before lessonsStrategies during lessonsNext steps
Plan to use child’s prior learning – from class or homework tasks.Keep a copy of the ‘stages of reading development’ chart to hand while walking around the classroom.Review all children’s progress in reading. Highlight focus children’s learning successes.
Collaborate with colleagues; discuss reading activities and assessment strategies.As you teach the whole class, observe how well children are reading. Make notes when you can.Identify next steps for the reading activity and include them in next week’s planning.
Choose which lessons to make notes on reading progress (not just in English lessons).Observe children working in groups and assess their collaboration skills, listening skills and speaking skills. Make notes when you can.Look for opportunities to revisit the learning, such as sharing stories or practising reading aloud. Ask and answer questions about the stories.
Decide which aspects of reading will be the focus for assessment.Join in with a group, listen and check focus children’s response to the reading task.Visit the ASb website to find some more books for the class.
Create a whole-class record book (and single child record sheets, if appropriate).Ask the children questions about the reading task and responses to their own learning.Ask the children to write their own stories and post them to the ASb website.
Laminate a copy of the ‘stages of reading development’ chart to keep on the teacher’s desk.Make sure to notice the reading progress in all lessons, such as science, maths and home language opportunities.Look at the reading record book frequently. Which children are of concern? Plan to work in a small group with these children.
Use the ‘stages of reading development’ chart to plan a reading focus for your lessons, for example reading aloud.Do not always ask the good readers to answer: use paired or small group activities so that every child is involved.For children with reading problems, plan extra small group lessons or extra help during lessons.
Organise class into mixed-ability groups.Make notes on the progress of the focus child in the record book.In some lessons, plan activities to focus on different stages of reading and group readers, such as in red (‘Pre’), yellow (‘Beg’), green (‘Ind’) pairs or groups.
Decide which child to assess before a lesson begins. Identify these children as ‘focus’ child.During small group or pair work, walk around the classroom to observe how children are reading.Use the ‘stages of reading development’ chart to plan for next steps.
Plan into the lesson pair or small group reading activities.If adults or older children are helping groups (for example, leading a shared reading story), give them a written copy of the lesson focus so that they don’t forget the focus of the learning.Use children’s pictures and sentences to create storybooks for the class to enjoy.
Arrange for extra adults or an older child to help with small group work.Ask adults or older children to share their observations of the child’s learning in reading.Identify the good readers and find extra reading books. Ask the community for help. Download storybooks from the ASb website onto a phone or school laptop.
Choose a story to read aloud. Decide on five questions (open and closed) to ask as you read the story.Read aloud the story to the class. Ask the five questions and let children share their ideas in pairs before answering.Make a note of which children answered the questions. Create a new list of children to ask ready for the next lesson.

Activity 6.6: Strategies to assess reading

(We recommend you spend 60 minutes on this activity)

Now read Case Study 6.4. As you read, write down the opportunities that the teacher, Mrs Ndaba, will have to assess the children’s reading. Use Table 6.1 to help you.

Discussion

The activity in ‘Stories taken apart and put together’ gives all the children the chance to read aloud in a safe environment. The independent readers are able to help the others. You can listen as you walk around and note who is having difficulty reading their sentence. If you focus on one group and listen to the discussion, you will be able to tell who has understood the story and how they decide which order the sentences should be in.

If you were to replicate ‘Collecting local stories’, as you moved around the room you would see what the children decided to draw or write. This would tell you how well they understood the stories. By listening to pairs talking, you would be able to assess some of the beginning readers as they read the words written by the independent readers.

Now read Case Study 6.4 and try the activity that follows.

Case Study 6.4: Two examples of using stories

Stories taken apart and put together

Mrs Ndaba’s Grade 6 class had brought stories from home and illustrated them. On each page, they had written a sentence and drawn a picture to match it. The pages had been tied together to make books.

Her colleague, Ms Mdlalose, who taught the Grade 3s, had seen the illustrated stories, and asked to borrow them for a reading activity with her children. Mrs Ndaba came and watched.

Ms Mdlalose divided her class into five groups. She gave each group a story but she untied the pages. She then gave each child in the group one page of the story, making sure that she mixed the order of the pages. Each child had to read the sentence on their page to the group. The group discussed the sentences to decide which order the sentences should go in.

Ms Mdlalose asked one child from each group to read their group’s story to the class and they commented about the order. As a class, they selected their favourite story and prepared a five-minute drama to perform this story.

Collecting local stories

I asked my Grade 2 children to learn a story from their family members or neighbours. I gave them about a week to collect and learn the story. I then invited one or two children a day to tell their story to the class, using different voices, gestures and actions to accompany it. Not everyone was confident enough to do this, so I let them choose whether or not they wanted to. For each story, I wrote a few key words on the chalkboard.

The children told their stories in their local language. Afterwards, I asked the class to draw pictures of the key events or main characters in a story they had heard. If they were confident, I encouraged them to write down some of the key words. Working in pairs, I let the independent readers share their words and pictures with a beginning reader, getting the beginning reader to try and read the written words. Sometimes I challenged them to think of key words in the story that begin with a certain letter. (For example, Baron told a story about a monkey, so I asked them to try and find words beginning with ‘m’.)

By sharing the stories from their communities with their peers, this activity builds connections among the children in the class.

This case study is also available to download.