ASSESSMENT

This artifact was influential in my understanding of individualized instruction and assessment. The Learning Outcome aligned to this artifact requires a process of planning, using and analyzing assessments with the intention of developing the student academically and monitoring their progress. This artifact fits because it addresses every element of the learning outcome. The artifact provides a summary for the process of planning activities and administering various assessments with a striving reader. Although the assessment does not vary in source, there were a multitude of data points that were drawn from the internal assessments of the QRI-6 (2016) including quantitative and qualitative data. The goal of this process was to improve the learning of a striving reader and make implications for future sessions. Since this artifact addressed the essential components of the learning outcome, I believe it to be aligned to Learning Outcome 1D: Assessment.

The QRI assessment was chosen for this learning outcome specifically due to its progression of interactions and assessments. For example, the process of administering the various assessments within the artifact in conjunction with data tracking and implications allowed for a holistic process of assessment. The variability within this process was not limited to only one data, but pulled from multiple to assess the student. The student’s independent and instructional reading levels were determined, their reading rate, comprehension, and fluency in other passages. These different measures of data created by varied assessments within the QRI-6 allowed for tremendous achievement and progression for the student.

Chapter 9, “Comprehension Instruction: Retelling Narrative Text” from the Leslie and Caldwell text was fundamental for my making activities and focus points for Kelly to develop her language skills. This chapter gave insight to the practices necessary to make the learning process of disinterested students stronger. Being that Angela did not particularly enjoy narrative texts, I wanted to be able to focus on a narrative style text that would still lend itself to her interests. For this reason, many of the activities selected and articles aligned were through biographies. Caldwell and Leslie (2013) recommend using biographies as a way to bridge the gap between reading illicitly narrative texts to reading expository passages. Biographies are often written in narrative form and/or have narrative characteristics; for example, a biography has a character, setting, a goal, plot, etc as does a narrative text. While these texts have narrative components, they also have expository elements; when reading a biography, there are important elements within that are meant to teach the student about something relevant to the topic; a strategy critical to the student’s development within narrative texts. The administering of QRI assessments and recommendations made by Caldwell and Leslie (2013), the student was exposed to 1 on 1, individualized instruction based on student need and qualified research. The utilization of the text to identify biographies as an advantage to bridge the gap between student success with narrative style texts proved to be very efficient in improving student achievement.

Overall, this artifact is a good fit for the Learning Outcome 1D in relation to planning and utilizing assessments to aid in student growth is for many reasons. First, the artifact was a series of assessments individualized to the students' areas of growth. Through the administration of the QRI-6, I was able to determine the strategies necessary to develop activities, books, and lessons that would be consequently beneficial. The artifact addresses the essential elements of the outcome and develops a description of how assessments were used to aid in student growth. The student’s data was then summarized, showing a track of progression. For these reasons, the QRI summary aligns with the assessment learning outcome.