Effective and Efficient: Maximizing Literacy Assessment and Instruction

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter argues that classroom teachers need to be more effective and efficient in order to meet the needs of all students and support their grade-level achievement. Given the challenges of contemporary schools – mandated curricula, intensive monitoring and intervention, high-stakes testing, and increased student diversity – teachers are expected to incorporate research-based practices in sophisticated ways. This chapter challenges teachers to assess and enhance their instructional effectiveness.

Approach – This chapter explores ways for teachers to make literacy assessment and instruction more appropriate, productive, and successful, which requires that teachers expand their repertoire of methods and consider ways to deliver instruction expeditiously.

Content – Examples of inefficient practices preface a discussion of some common hindrances to more streamlined instruction. The chapter demonstrates the use of literacy assessment to support more flexible instructional activities, focusing on literacy delivery modes that align with increasingly more difficult text. Subsequent discussion details numerous literacy experiences, including variations of teacher-led, collaborative, guided, partner, and student-led reading. Seven guidelines are presented. The conclusion summarizes an example of how a reading coach used assessment to synthesize an effective intervention to support the marked improvement of a third-grade reader.

Implications – The chapter's goal is that teachers consider ways to combine experiences that increase effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement. Readers can explore ways to use assessment to improve their instruction. Numerous suggestions and activities accompany the discussion.

Value – The chapter content challenges teachers to streamline and sophisticate their literacy instruction and demonstrates ways to combine literacy experiences that foster student achievement and engagement.

Citation

Mohr, K.A.J., Dixon, K. and Young, C. (2012), "Effective and Efficient: Maximizing Literacy Assessment and Instruction", Ortlieb, E. and Cheek, E.H. (Ed.) Using Informative Assessments towards Effective Literacy Instruction (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 293-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-0458(2012)0000001013