Instructing and Assessing Comprehension

       The education system provides opportunities for students identified as struggling readers to achieve academic success by training teachers on different instructional methods and approaches to contribute and gauge students reading growth. Instruction and assessment are operating partners contributing to developing students reading comprehension skills. As reading is the basis for mastering all subsequent curricular areas, it is the educator’s responsibility to implement classroom activities and teach comprehension strategies to struggling readers. Response to Intervention (RTI) is a term representing the variety of instructional and assessment strategies that can be used with all students depending on their developmental needs. (Afflerback, 2012). Throughout our text, detailed instructional methods and well-functioning strategies are discussed to develop students as accomplished readers.

            RTI involves placing students based on their developmental abilities and needs recognized by the classroom teacher. If a student is able to successfully progress through the reading curriculum they are placed in Tier 1. Tier 2 is available for students who have not progress based on the expectations of Tier 1. Furthermore, struggling students requiring more intensive instructional interventions and working with a reading specialist are placed in Tier 3. Tier 3 focuses on specific needs for the struggling reader, whether that’s vocabulary development, phonics awareness, fluency, motivation, etc. A diagnostic assessment is conducted to address students reading abilities and where to place them if they exhibit problematic areas needing intervention. To ensure the at-risk student’s needs are being addressed, the teacher monitors their progress and gauges how well they are progressing in relation to their diagnostic results and curricular goals. (Afflerback, 2012). RTI is an effective resource in recognizing the needs of a struggling student and implementing the appropriate strategies and interventions to help them become better readers.

            Several of the assessments discussed in our text require a substantial amount of training and professional development. With that said, a significant amount of time is needed for these interventions to be effective for students. “An assessment [is] designed to yield information to inform our understanding of students’ present needs and challenges and teachers’ related instruction,” (Afflerback, 2012). Furthermore, each assessment focuses on particular reading skills based on the students needs. Therefore, the validity of the assessments is based on different conceptualizations. I feel that Afflerback teaches new educators the strategies and appropriate interventions to focus on the identified problematic areas of their students. However, it seems very challenging in the testing grades to be able to follow curriculum and prepare a large sized, diverse student body for testing when individualized instruction is needed for the struggling students. Dr. Ken Robinson, a well-known author and educational expert, refers to himself as a progressive viewed educator, opposing all traditional teaching methods. The traditional model of teaching is to instruct material for our core academic subjects that will be reflected on our state tests. This method of teaching can prevent the opportunity for creating an engaging, interactive environment that utilizes a blend of child-directed and teacher-directed curriculum. Without building relationships in the classroom, there is no connection; there is no school family. In my opinion this takes away the quality behind education. Our student's are more than just peers among each other forced to participate in an educational environment. They are young minds ready to be molded. They are sponges, soaking in the information they are exposed to from their environments.

In conclusion, I feel that our students need to feel a connection amongst their peers and with their teachers in order to thrive academically and discover a love for learning. This can be done by diverse methods of teaching by recognizing the needs of individual students through differentiated instruction that will lead to comprehension skills, accomplished readers, furthermore academic success.

           

References

Afflerbach, P. (2012). Understanding and using reading assessment, K–12. International Reading Association.

Robinson, K. (2015). Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. Viking Publisher.