Fountas and Pinnell / Gates MacGinitie Training
7-30-09 & 7-31-09
Sue Biggam
(Bananagrams – fun game for older kids – kind of simultaneous Scrabble)
OSSU Reading Assessments
Calendar of Assessments
Questions and or Decisions or TO DOs
· Can we add in deadlines to request special needs (accommodations) – regarding the administration of assessments? What about out-of-level – no – following NECAP. Individualized testing - yes, and student reads out loud, can’t be read to the student.
· How do we get together as a school, look at assessment, and make interpretation/instruction decisions? Sue Biggam has more days planned in the SU and we’ll be able to utilize her help as we move forward – i.e.: end of September.
· Do the 3-6th teachers know about the Gates? This committee is the trainer to train everyone.
· NECAP guidelines out to everyone again, to remind how we do the accommodations.
· How will Hazen organize the logistics of the administration…who is responsible? (Jen asked ) Principals at all schools
Gates: -
Scanning form – spelling error on MacGinitie – check this Bill
Bubble sheets – sliders to help kids w/ tracking
Practice Items? There aren’t any made but could we make a practice sheet – to learn how to do the sheet? It’s the multiple lettering that is difficult – and
Gates – 3rd grade – decision is to use book NOT scoring sheets – people will raw score it – sheets will be made which say how many correct? How many incorrect? Do we want to indicate number of items completed or not, bubbled in?
Forms – S in Fall T in Spring
Scoring Guide – Bill worked with it to fix it up – “end of page 1” put bubbles after each question - change I and J font, thin line between sections,
Chance scoring (random guesses) – would have to look at the sheet – wouldn’t get that from the scanning. What if a student doesn’t complete all the items? We should not insist that students fill in every bubble, do as much as they can in the time given.
In the master book page 32 there is a scale score – that shows where they fall
Sue suggests: If a student falls really low in vocabulary – may want to pull it out and see if it is a true Vocabulary issue or reading issue – by having the kids read aloud
Bill will need to type up new directions to keep it standardized for OSSU. This will be for 4th grade and up.
Use the bubble practice process as a guided discovery a week before giving the assessments, particularly for the youngest grades.
Telling kids why you are doing this! Helps them to know why they should
HES has done this…Awards ceremony – to show individual growth – compared to themselves w/ NCEs
Not criterion referenced – so watch the celebration – to chart progress maybe use scale scores –
Reporting to parents won’t happen this year – unless you are already doing this.
Stanines:
Sue: 4th and below is where they feel a closer look is needed – would we look at 3rd and 4th stanine?
Sue shared a data sharing sheet – to use once we have data – Bill will e-mail the data form – can take 45-60 minutes in a data team format
How do we catch the kids who can read short passages, on only at one time of comprehension? Shouldn’t rely on one assessment – other lenses – What would be indicators that might not be picked up – remember the layers of assessment – (ring-toss toy)
Classroom - 90 – 95% assessment should happen w/in the classroom
Building Assessment/District Assessments
NECAP
PowerSchool – building a historical profile for all kids so that we can look back – right now it’s only POA, want to do Aimsweb, writing, math scores, etc. Each year it’ll get better
Pre-school scale of reading descriptors – Sue will bring tomorrow
POA text levels are drifting away
16 is state expectation for target
F & P
Remember that it isn’t a high-stakes assessment…to inform instruction – screener but primarily – teacher judgment can play a role
Key Vocabulary Questioning is optional – but should we pilot it this year with some to see what we think. Sue thinks it is an intriguing
Don’t start timing until J –
Prompts – do open-ended first, then if they don’t converse naturally, use the scripted prompts, but don’t make it like an interrogation.
Stop testing if Student reaches more errors than listed on cover of the book…
· 90% for A - K
· 95% for L – N
Placement level and instructional level are generally the same, but you may need to use judgment to make a different decision on placement.
On the non-fiction text – at Level N – very appealing, student may have slower overall score because they are looking at photos, table of contents, etc.
It would be really important to be sure as the teacher to have read the student book at least and the key understandings at least twice.
You don’t have to answer all the questions that are there…REMEMBER THAT!
Kids can look back in the book – don’t forget that – they just shouldn’t read directly from the book.
There are case studies in the teacher’s guide.
Use the DVD for conferencing examples.
Goal – Classroom teachers to be the ones to administer F & P by May of 2010. Can reading teachers support that work?
Conversations / Debriefing for practice:
Like the higher level questioning, which will lead to higher level teaching?
Kids who have a healthy diet of Non-Fiction do better on standardized
1/3 non-fiction 1/3 fiction 1/3 something else?
1. SU Decision: Holistic Fluency Scale (0,1, 2, 3) used for F & P only the quick one at the end of the piece – for SU-wide expectation to be in PowerSchool – which piece – not the rate
2. SU Decision: Rate is from Dibels Assessment / Aimsweb will be in PowerSchool
3. Building/School Level Decision: – some schools: Aimsweb – can use out of level for individual Progress Monitoring ONLY – Principals are to be involved
4. SU Decision: But 3 times a year – must do on GRADE level – (Benchmark Assessments) which is the check to see it comparatively
5. SU Decision: Transpositions (i.e.: “Dad said” vs. “said Dad”) and Contractions only 1 error
6. SU Decision: include a little more in the introduction to tell student that they will read and then have a conversation.
7. SU Decision: Kindergarten students – start with A
o If s/he can read A: - you can use the word list to figure where to go next
8. SU Decision: When we turn in text levels it will be F & P levels. We won’t be turning in consortium sheets – it’ll be entered electronically.
9. SU Decision: What do we want to track from F & P for K-2 in PowerSchool for historical record purposes?
a. Find one Instructional Level and the highest Independent Level
b. Accuracy
c. Fluency Holistic Score
d. Comprehension
10. SU Decision: What do we want to track from Gates for K-2 in PowerSchool for historical record purposes?
a. Everything
11. SU Decision: Alternate Non-Fiction and Fiction for each child when assessing in the F&P assessment session – (not a particular genre at specific times of the year). The highest Independent Level is the REPORTED Independent Level. The next up is the baseline REPORTED Instructional Level. If you desire to administer additional levels or genres, that’s fine, they aren’t formally reported.
12. SU Decision: Wait until October to make a decision on the POA – Concepts about Print (CAP) – who does them? Do classroom teachers do all the parts of the POA (there are 5 subparts)? It might be best if the responsibility is shared, it sharing a portion of the POA or a heterogeneous group rather than all the lowest kids.