What I Have Learned

1)Throughout the semester we looked at a number of assessment principles and practices to be used to create and motivate learners to be lifelong readers. By understanding our students prior knowledge, culture, and learning style we can ensure that our students are being taught in a way that creates connections and strategies that will be used to excel in their literary knowledge and skills. The assessments that were taught and applied this semester showed us as preservice teachers how to learn about our students in a variety of ways to get a well rounded picture of where they each place and the difficulties in which they need further development and support through a variety of well thought activities learned throughout our previous semesters.

2)There were a number of articles that were examined throughout the semester including an interesting article on comprehension and fluency which both covered the importance of early childhood literacy. It is so important to engage children at a young age to create a love of language and reading and to begin a level of phonemic awareness that is critical in becoming successful students and readers once they enter the school system. The "Fourth Grade Slump" is a critical fact, once children fall behind it becomes challenging to catching up. It is so important for teachers, especially now with NCLB to ensure they are assessing their students properly to avoid putting a student in a position where they are not performing at grade level and moving on while becoming frustrated and unmotivated. Fluency is another important factor and goal in comprehension practices. The more fluent our students are the stronger their ability to comprehend and free up memory. By building on our students fluency and vocabulary and by helping them drive their connections they will be able to comprehend and become motivated learners. RTI is an important new method of response. In some cases where assessments show a lack of progress students may need a deeper level of intervention with greater services and attention. It is critical that teachers are capable of assessing these conditions and meeting the needs of their students before they approach any serious slump. There is a large responsibility on our part to ensure our student are being assessed properly for obvious reasons that need to be accounted for and taken serious.

3)As I look into the future, I will ensure that I look at each student as an individual and ensure each student is evaluated from a number of perspectives, including culture, prior knowledge and motivation. I feel it is important to assess children using a number of different strategies and assessments to get a good idea on how to best teach and motivate my students and ensure they are receiving the services they deserve.