Test This

This week my students will be taking the State Test. The idea of this particular assessment is to understand who students are as readers. To get a read on them. A read on the readers. Anyway, that’s the idea. And as far as ideas go, it’s one of the worst ever. So it seems like a good week to do an assessment of my own. An assessment of assessments. First make sure you have a sharpened number two pencil, a good night’s sleep and a healthy breakfast. Just kidding. This particular assessment requires no test prep.

There are lots of ways to assess students. To see how they’re doing. To see if they’re growing. If anyone asked, I would tell them that the State Test is my least favorite assessment. There are so many reasons for that. But good news. Nobody’s asking. Why would they? I’m just a teacher who spends all day, every day reading with children. Who cares what I think about the State Test. So we won’t waste time talking about it. At least not today.

Instead, let’s talk about the ways I do like to assess students. Find out how they’re doing as readers. Figure out how I can help them grow. Simplest and quickest? Have a conversation. Yes, speak to them. You would be amazed at what you can learn about a student’s reading life just by asking them a few questions. What are you working on? How’s that going for you? What’s your goal? Would you like me to help you develop a goal? Is there anything else I can help you with? How did you choose this book? What is challenging about the book you’re reading? What are your plans moving forward? And simply, what are you most proud of as a reader?

Sometimes one question will suffice to get a student talking. Sometimes a student knows exactly what they want to talk about, and my job is simple. Listen, learn, and when the moment is right, jump in with one little suggestion. A small tip that can move that student along their path to becoming a stronger, more independent reader. Other times, several questions are needed. Some students are quieter, shyer, or simply unaccustomed to talking about themselves and their reading lives. Maybe that’s what we need to work on together.

Another of my favorite ways to assess students is letter writing. Every so often, I’ll ask my students to write me a letter. Tell me about how your reading life is going. Or how your book club is going. Or your partnership. Or how you’ve changed as a reader so far this year. Or what you’re planning to work on as a reader over the next few weeks. For quieter students, letter writing can be an opportunity for them to share inner thinking that they might be reticent to share out loud.

I often write letters back to my students when they tell me about their reading. I might suggest a follow up read to them, or recommend a new genre that I think they should try. Often I ask questions to get them thinking more deeply about what they’re reading. Sometimes they come to me and share their answers. Sometimes not. Either way, I want them to know I’m interested in their ideas, and I care about what they have to say.

And that’s the bonus of my favorite assessment ideas. They not only show me who my kids are as readers. They show my kids who I am as their teacher. They help to fortify our bond. When I pull up next to a student to have a conversation about the book they’re reading, or when I ask a student to write to me about their reading world, I am communicating my interest and my concern. I am showing them that they matter to me, that reading matters to me, that how they feel about who they are as readers matters to me.

So there you have it. Two simple, non-threatening, quick and easy methods of assessing my students as readers, both of which fortify our relationship as well. And these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many ways to know students without administering a pencil and paper un-timed (read: Never Ending) two-day test, the results of which are not even available until months after the testing date. My informal methods of assessment are not scientific, they don’t yield data that can be crunched and analyzed and published in newspapers. Why should they? How would that help my students?

But nobody asked me. So this week my students will be taking the State Test.

And I’ll be asking them how their reading lives are going.