4 Methods for Reading Center Assessment
When I first started reading centers with my 2nd graders I was unsure how to facilitate reading center assessments. My worry was how I would know students’ progress when there were so many different activities going on around the room. They were working independently, and I was not seeing them in small groups everyday. Not to worry, you CAN still monitor their progress effectively with assessment in reading centers.
I am going to explain the centers I use with my 2nd graders and how I assess their understanding and progress in each of them!
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Reading Center Assessment
- Focus Frog is my center intentionally designed to assess my students understanding of the focus reading strategy for that week. I use photograph task cards and short passages to ensure that I am assessing students at their level to check their ability to apply the strategy we are working on during shared reading. I highly suggest that you have one center per week that focuses on just checking students ability to independent apply the focus skill.
- During buddy reading students practice fluency with Reader’s Theaters. I walk around at least once a week to listen to their progress. I keep running records on a spreadsheet as I check for fluency, monitoring for accuracy, expression, and tone.
Assessment in Technology Centers
- If you use a technology center, there is a lot of data available to you! I love using Freckle with my students. It provides self differentiating activities for the students and free detailed information analyzing their abilities! I frequently use this to check their progress.
Teacher Time Tip
- During guided reading, I use a variety of assessments to track students progress with running records and data checklists. I am consistently checking students’ ability to show reading skills. These include decoding, monitoring their understanding, using word solving strategies, retelling, and answering comprehension questions. Below is a picture of how I structure my guided reading time. Thanks to the help of The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading to ensure I am hitting all of these skills! I also give quarterly reading comprehension assessment tests to monitor Fountas and Pinnell reading level.
Reading center assessment is key to being able to continuously modify instruction to meet the specific needs of each student group. This feedback from each reading center source provides you a different look at the students’ progress. For me, guided reading is where I see it all come together and how they are progressing as overall readers! I hope that this helps you with assessment in reading centers in your classroom.
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