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Curriculum Mapping for Reading Success in Pre-K to 3 Classrooms

Nov 14, 2024 | Early Literacy

Curriculum mapping is a process used to align educational content, instruction, and assessments with specific learning goals outlined in a specified curriculum.

In Pre-K to Grade 3 classrooms, where early literacy development is crucial, curriculum mapping becomes essential to ensure students acquire the foundational skills necessary for reading success. 

This blog explores the importance of curriculum mapping in early reading success and what can be done to make this very important process easy and simple. 

It involves defining the process of curriculum mapping, understanding the difference between mapping to a curriculum and aligning the curriculum to an external standard, and appreciating how both teachers and curriculum leaders have a role to play in this process. 

 

Curriculum Mapping and Its Relation to Standards 

Curriculum Mapping and Its Relation to Standards

Curriculum mapping is a detailed and organized framework that aligns instructional content with desired learning outcomes and standards. 

While standards define the goals, curriculum is the pathway to achieve them.

Local schools and districts often determine their own curriculum, including materials and instructional approaches, as standards generally don’t prescribe specific resources or methods to reach the goals. But some states offer a pre-approved list of curricula that align to the standards.

In some countries like Canada, the word curriculum commonly refers to standards. But the concept of curriculum mapping still exists, as the process of teaching still needs to be mapped according to the standards, which in this case, is the curriculum.

 

What Can Be Mapped to a Curriculum? 

What Can Be Mapped to a Curriculum?

Curriculum mapping involves identifying and documenting what is being taught, how it’s being taught, and when it’s being taught, as well as linking instructional strategies and assessments to specific learning objectives. 

It’s a lot of work! That’s why some teachers offer this as separate resources called curriculum maps. They are either for sale or freely shared, and have been developed by teachers who have gone through the process for their own classes.

But each curriculum is different, and sometimes they are replaced or updated. 

Thus, the mapping may need to be revised or completely redone!

So it’s helpful to know what goes into a curriculum. Another way of phrasing this could be “what can be mapped to a curriculum?

When constructing a curriculum map in early literacy, the following components may be mapped:

1. Lessons and Units: Teachers outline the topics, skills, and literacy goals for each lesson. 

For example, a lesson focused on blending must align with broader phonological awareness goals and objectives.

2. Teaching Materials and Resources: Books, interactive media, and instructional tools can be mapped to ensure they support the learning objectives.

For instance, a reading app would be mapped to the curriculum by matching its content with specific literacy skills, ensuring relevance to daily learning objectives.

3. Activities and Learning Centers: Hands-on activities, group work, and individual practice tasks, such as phonics games or reading exercises, can be mapped to specific literacy skills in a skill set. 

They can be part of the instructional strategy in order to master that particular literacy skill. 

4. Assessments: Frequent formative assessments ensure that learning is progressing in line with literacy standards. Teachers can do regular checks to monitor progress. 

Less frequent diagnostic assessments help in understanding which students meet benchmarks and who may need additional support.

 

Mapping the Curriculum to Standards 

Mapping the Curriculum to Standards

The previous section highlighted what is mapped to a curriculum. The question may be raised, what does the curriculum map to, or align to? 

In early literacy, curriculum mapping also involves the curriculum aligning with external frameworks, such as evidence-based literacy practices or national standards. 

Luckily, this is not the work of the teachers, but the state/provincial education departments. 

It’s up to these government agencies to dictate the standards and often offer approved lists of curricula. 

Two popular cases of the curriculum mapping to external standards are mentioned below. The first is country specific, while the latter applies to both Canada and the US.

 

Common Core Standards (US)

In the US, the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts set benchmarks for reading, writing, and speaking skills from kindergarten onwards to Grade 12. Mapping the curriculum ensures that each lesson contributes to meeting these grade-level standards. 41 states in the US have thus far adopted the Common Core State Standards.

In Canada, there is no equivalent at the federal level, as setting such standards is left up to the provinces and territories.

 

Evidence-Based Literacy Practices

With the wave of evidence-based literacy, curricula are being developed that are specifically aligned to research-backed methodologies. Programs grounded in this body of research known as the science of reading are increasingly approved and recommended by the different states.

Thus, an existing curriculum might also need to be mapped to such research-based standards. To demonstrate with a small example, practices such as phonics-based instruction, must consistently be applied across lessons and assessments in the new or adjusted curriculum.

 

Sprig Reading: For Both Mapping and Alignment

Sprig Reading For Both Mapping and Alignment

Sprig Reading helps teachers to align their instruction and assessments with evidence-based literacy curricula, while also supporting school leaders entrusted with curriculum administration to ensure that their current curriculum meets rigorous, research-backed literacy standards.

 

For Teachers: Map To Evidence-based Curriculum.

Sprig Reading is designed to enhance evidence-based literacy programs, allowing teachers to map foundational skills, such as phonics and decoding, directly to classroom instruction. 

With over 200 research-backed early literacy skills spanning key domains, Sprig Reading not only maps seamlessly to any evidence-based curriculum but also enhances it!

It ensures comprehensive coverage by assessing each skill through continuous progress monitoring, providing full visibility into student mastery across all foundational literacy areas.

 

For Administrators: Align To Standards To Create an Evidence-based Curriculum

Sprig Reading empowers school leaders to ensure their literacy curriculum aligns with the latest research and evidence-based standards, for every state, province or territory.

By taking advantage of a comprehensive and proven framework of over 200 foundational reading skills along with an in-built progress monitoring capability, administrators can confidently upgrade their existing curriculum.

In Canada, the curriculum is already approved, but still it’s up to the leaders to create an ideal early literacy program which their teachers can implement. They can do so by adding Sprig Reading to their assessment toolkit! 

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Optimizing Potential of Activity-Based Learning in Early Literacy

Oct 11, 2024 | Early Literacy, Formative Assessment

Activity-based Learning plays a crucial role in early literacy. 

To optimize its potential, it’s essential to understand what it entails, its core element of active engagement, how it integrates with other learning approaches, and how it extends beyond instruction into assessments. 

This article covers it all, finishing with looking at ways in which activity-based learning impacts early literacy assessments.

 

Definition of Activity-based Learning 

Definition of Activity-based Learning

Activity-based Learning refers to an educational approach that engages students through hands-on activities, allowing them to actively participate and interact with the learning material.

This method emphasizes ‘doing’ over passive listening, encouraging children to explore, experiment, and practice skills in real-time.

In early literacy, this involves tasks like phonics games, interactive story-telling, and word-sorting activities.

Play-based learning shares all the same characteristics as activity-based learning in terms of being action-driven and interactive, but play is only one type of activity. 

Activity-based Learning extends beyond play-based learning. 

While play-based learning emphasizes exploration through games and playful activities, activity-based learning also includes experiential learning, project-based tasks, problem-solving activities, and collaborative exercises.

 

Why Give Importance to Activities? 

Why Give Importance to Activities?

Activities are crucial in early literacy development because they provide opportunities for practical application of learned skills. 

In evidence-based early literacy, there is no substitute for explicit instruction. 

But in order to demonstrate the taught concepts or practice these lessons for mastery, there needs to be further engagement in the classroom. Often, this takes the form of activities.

Some of the most popular forms of activities are mentioned below, all of which help solidify students’ understanding of literacy concepts:

 

Practice

Research highlights that consistent and targeted practice, especially through interactive and engaging activities, significantly improves reading outcomes and long-term literacy success.

The Education Endowment Foundation lists evidence-based strategies to practice early literacy, building on approaches that foster communication and oral language. 

These methods highlight the importance of active learning through questioning and discussion, emphasizing activity-based learning’s role in effective literacy instruction.

 

Project-based Learning

Projects allow for an in-depth exploration of literacy topics. There can be individual projects or those that involve collaborative group work.

For instance, building a class storybook can improve understanding of narrative structure, vocabulary, and grammar.

In an article featured by the International Literacy Association, Dr. Miranda S. Fitzgerald, assistant professor of reading and literacy education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, highlights instances where early learners outperform their peers when engaged in project-based learning.

 

Learning Centers

Literacy centers provide children with the opportunity to engage in different activities that target various literacy skills. They are also commonly referred to as literacy stations.

Centers can include phonics games, sentence-building tasks, or storytelling activities, which allow students to demonstrate their skills.

An added benefit of these centers is that they can be used by multiple groups of children on a rotating basis.

 

The Greater Domain of Activity-based Learning

The Greater Domain of Activity-based Learning

Earlier, it was established that play-based learning is a subset of activity-based learning. 

Besides play-based learning, activity-based learning holds great dominion over other pedagogical approaches, particularly experiential, and multisensory learning. 

All these types of learning contain activities that are mentioned below:

 

Play-based Learning

Play-based learning offers children a natural and engaging way to grasp literacy concepts through exploration, experimentation, and interaction.

In the context of early literacy, play invites children to immerse themselves in language activities, such as letter-matching games, word-building with blocks, or storytelling with puppets. 

These playful scenarios provide a low-pressure environment where children develop phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and sentence structure while simply having fun.

The importance of play lies in its ability to seamlessly blend imagination with literacy development. 

Activities like role-playing as a character from a book or creating words with magnetic letters serve to solidify abstract literacy concepts by associating them with familiar, hands-on experiences.

 

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning in early literacy engages children in meaningful, real-world literacy tasks that allow them to directly apply what they’ve learned. 

Activities such as reading environmental print like road signs or menus, or participating in a simulated post office help contextualize reading and writing, turning abstract concepts into tangible, everyday experiences. 

Children are no longer passive recipients of information; they become active participants in literacy.

The immersive nature of experiential learning fosters higher retention rates and deepens understanding, as it links classroom instruction to practical, real-world use.

 

Multisensory Learning

Activity-based learning often incorporates multisensory techniques to enhance literacy learning, particularly by engaging multiple senses, such as sight, touch, sound, and movement. 

Multisensory learning taps into different parts of the brain, allowing children to process and retain information more effectively. 

For example, tracing letters in sand while vocalizing the corresponding sound or using color-coded cards to group words by phonics rules appeals to tactile, visual, and auditory learners simultaneously.

This holistic approach strengthens neural connections, helping children absorb and retain literacy skills at a deeper level. 

 

Activity in Assessments

Activity in Assessments

Thus far, activities are described in the form of teaching and practicing. What about assessing?

Assessments in activity-based learning environments often take the form of quizzes, games, or interactive tasks that allow teachers to evaluate literacy progress while children engage in learning. 

This approach ensures that assessments are a natural extension of the learning process. In this way, they are as much as assessments for learning, as assessment of learning. 

In other words, activity-based assessments can be said to be more informal, and can be compared to formative assessments, which are absolutely indispensable to early learning success.

While all kinds of assessments are needed in an early literacy assessment toolkit, activity-based learning’s strong connection to formative assessment certainly makes it a force to reckon with.

Especially considering that formative assessments such as progress monitoring assessments occur more frequently than other assessments, they need to be fun, engaging and interactive. 

Otherwise, their powers of providing real-time insights into a child’s reading ability may wear off, due to both teacher and student burnout. 

 

Styles of Assessments and Expression of Activity-based Learning

Styles of Assessments and Expression of Activity-based Learning

There are many styles of assessments. Activity-based learning expresses itself in many ways in how it impacts early literacy. Here are some of the best early literacy activities for teaching foundational reading skills.

Whether you need help in choosing assessment design factors, or balancing considerations such as control, perspective, frequency and timeline, there are many great reads from the Sprig Blog that detail each aspect.

Focusing on activity-based learning, which of these particular assessment types is best suited for activities?

Teacher-led Assessments occur when teacher’s guide assessments. They ask questions and score the responses appropriately as needed.

Interactive Student Assessments occur when students engage in literacy tasks independently while teachers observe and record progress. They are also known as observation assessments.

Student-led Assessments occur when students engage directly with the learning material, which itself facilitates the assessment process. Teachers may oversee the activity, but they do not intervene in recording responses or observing performance.

It’s difficult to answer, because all contain activities. Whether it is the teacher facilitating the activity, or the student independently doing the activity, or both of them co-participating.

By its very nature, assessments lend themselves well to activity-based learning,but it is important to specialize in a certain style depending on the needs of the classroom. 

For example, Sprig Explorers and Sprig Reading, two tools designed for driving early literacy equity, both use activity-based learning principles in literacy evaluation.

While Sprig Explorers uses game-based learning where early learners interact directly with a game, Sprig Reading leaves it up to the teacher to monitor and track reading progress. 

Both however, call upon a certain activity to be performed, the completion of which is crucial to early reading success!

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How Can You Supercharge Your Pre-K to Grade 3 Assessments?

Sep 30, 2024 | Early Literacy, Formative Assessment

Improving existing early literacy assessments in Pre-K to Grade 3 classrooms can involve two approaches:

  1. Replacing an entire assessment toolkit with a completely new tool.
  2. Adding something new to enhance existing assessment tools.

This article focuses on the latter, that is, specifically enhancing an existing early literacy assessment toolkit.

In this context, enhancing consists of both enriching and supplementing. 

Both approaches are discussed in this article, along with their impact on early literacy assessments and the popular tools commonly used by schools.

When these approaches are implemented together, they supercharge early literacy assessments, as the article will conclude.

 

Enriching Assessments VS Supplementing Assessments

Enriching Assessments VS Supplementing AssessmentsVS Enriching Assessments VS Supplementing Assessments_2

 

Enriching makes early literacy assessments better without adding any new dimensions. 

Enriching existing assessments refines their current functionality, improving efficiency, precision, or usability. It doesn’t fundamentally change the scope but improves the assessment process.

For example, consider a formative assessment that evaluates students’ understanding of phonics through an assessment  administered once a week.

Enriching this will involve providing clear instructions, how the assessment links to what students have been learning and be provided with data to improve student learning. 

Supplementing makes early literacy assessments better by giving it new features, domains and skills.

Supplementing expands assessments to include new domains and skills—additional data points, broader skill sets, or more frequent evaluation to enrich instructional decisions.

For example, that same formative assessment can be expanded by adding assessments  on  more specific foundational skills components such as segmenting in phonological awareness  or punctuation meaning in fluency.

 

Enhancing Early Literacy Assessment Tools Through Enrichment and Supplementation

Enhancing Early Literacy Assessment Tools Through Enrichment and Supplementation

​​When the two aspects of enhancement are implemented together, they can supercharge existing Pre-K to 3 assessments. It creates a powerful and more holistic assessment ecosystem that fosters improved literacy outcomes by filling in critical learning gaps.

What does this look like? To answer this, the current assessment toolkit must be analyzed. 

Each assessment tool can be enriched, supplemented, or ideally, both.

Let’s take a look at four common assessment tools. What parts of each can be enriched, and what potential missing parts can be completed?

 

Universal Screeners

Universal screeners offer a broad look at how students are performing across essential reading skills. They are most often administered to everyone and happen one to three times a year.

  • Enrichment: The screeners can be fitted with control variable measures which can help mitigate implicit bias factors. For example, each student should be assessed only after they feel comfortable with the teacher. Familiarity with the teacher will be one control variable.

 

  • Supplementation: Screener results can include the flagging of students near the cutoff, allowing for a second screening to eliminate false negatives. This added data point supplements the teacher’s previous understanding of identifying who truly needs help, before passing them on.

 

Diagnostic Assessments

Diagnostic assessments help pinpoint specific skill gaps in students struggling to meet reading benchmarks. They are typically administered to certain students, after a universal screener.

  • Enrichment: For those set on manually administering assessments, the diagnostic assessments can be streamlined with adaptive questioning to lighten the workload.

 

  • Supplementation: The diagnostic assessments can include personalized activity recommendations for those students struggling with a specific skill area.

 

Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring tracks student growth over time to ensure instruction is effective. They are administered on an ongoing basis in between the universal screeners.

  • Enrichment:  For those recording data manually on spreadsheets, the progress monitoring assessments can be designed to have a digital repository of this data.

 

  • Supplementation: For those tracking broad domains like comprehension or fluency, the assessments can include the monitoring of the underlying sub skills as well, ensuring a strong and lasting reading foundation.

 

What About Outcome Evaluations?

What About Outcome Evaluations?

Outcome evaluations measure whether students meet end-of-year goals and literacy benchmarks. They are usually administered at the end of Grade 3. 

Enriching and supplementing formative assessments (that are for learning) should lead to improved reading performance in outcome evaluation assessments (that are of learning). 

Since outcome evaluations are summative and not formative, enriching or supplementing them may risk distorting the final measure of whether students can read by a specific time.

That being said, one way to enhance outcome evaluations is by supplementing them with longitudinal data tracking. This reveals each student’s growth across skills from their baseline throughout their entire literacy journey.

Progress monitoring tools have this ability, whereby it can greatly expand the scope of a traditional end-of-year summative assessment.

Thus, it ensures that educators have a complete understanding of how students’ skills develop year-over-year.

This approach will better inform educators on whether to retain students in Grade 3, a contentious issue that can be addressed more effectively when outcome evaluation assessments are enhanced.

So yes, outcome evaluation assessments can be enhanced as well through supplementation, by ensuring they are linked to all prior progress monitoring assessments, diagnostic assessments, and screeners.

 

Enhancing Early Literacy Assessments With Sprig Reading

Enhancing Early Literacy Assessments With Sprig Reading

For teachers and school leaders looking to revamp their early literacy assessment strategies, Sprig Reading is a digital progress monitoring tool that enhances existing research-based programs and resources.

While it helps teachers easily monitor the progress of all students across hundreds of foundational reading skills, it also enhances and supplements other tools such as universal screeners, diagnostic assessments, and even other progress monitoring solutions that have limited scope.

Sprig Reading enriches the efficiency and user-friendliness of assessment tools by being available on tablets, web browsers and phones, and offering a simple and proven methodology to regularly monitor and track foundational reading skills against research-based benchmarks.

It also supplements these tools by providing the ability to continuously track a broader range of skills, thus adding more dimensions in frequency and skills coverage.

By enhancing the ease and speed of assessments and supplementing them with continuous insights across all foundational reading skills, Sprig Reading offers a comprehensive solution to meet the diverse needs of all students.

Whether the focus is on improving universal screeners, diagnostics, progress monitoring, or outcome evaluation, Sprig Reading provides a solution by monitoring progress differently. It offers schools a way to deliver a more complete and responsive picture of early literacy development.

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Content Coverage in Early Literacy Assessments. Wide enough? Deep enough?

Sep 6, 2024 | Differentiated Instruction, Early Literacy, Formative Assessment

Early-grade literacy assessments have come under increased scrutiny, with mandated screeners now required across much of the U.S. and Canada, typically administered one to three times a year.

This introduces a level of accountability with mandated checkpoints on early literacy throughout the year. It also adds responsibility to take action for students who struggle based on results of the first screener, ensuring support between the first and second, and potentially second and third screeners.

By addressing key questions about the necessary information and potential actions, the right early literacy assessment strategy can be thoughtfully developed. 

A detailed list of such questions, along with possible actions informed by the answers, is provided in the article “What To Do With Early Literacy Assessments.”

One such question was, “In what components of literacy do students need additional support?”

It’s so important to know where help is needed for each student. 

Another related question was, “What supplemental instruction is required for students?”

It is equally important to know what that help may look like in the form of supplemental instruction which could be enhanced or personalized.

This article further examines these questions as it has to do with the topic of content coverage in early literacy assessments. 

It defines assessment content coverage and its properties, and the effect it can potentially have on early readers.

 

Definition of Assessment Content Coverage.

Definition of Assessment Content Coverage.

Assessment coverage refers to the content evaluated in early literacy assessments. When selecting assessments, it’s crucial they align with your existing curriculum or standards. 

Otherwise, there’s a risk of overlooking critical content areas, skills and competencies, leading to gaps in accountability and students potentially not meeting expectations.

If the curriculum or standards fall short of evidence-based early literacy practices, assessments can serve as an enhancing tool. They can prompt teachers to evaluate areas overlooked by the curriculum, offering a backup method of instruction. This ensures that essential skills, even if not covered in the original syllabus, are explicitly taught and assessed.

Thus, strong content coverage can both complement and enhance existing curriculum or standards.

 

What is Measured in Early Literacy Assessments? 

 

Early literacy assessments should measure developmentally appropriate knowledge domains necessary for successful reading by a certain age, typically by the end of Grade 3. 

This is the critical point when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. 

These domains encompass both breadth and depth, which are explored in the following section.

 

Number of Different Reading Domains (Breadth)

Number of Different Reading Domains (Breadth)

Breadth refers to the range of different domains covered by early literacy assessments. 

Each large domain encompasses several subdomains, which may further branch into more specific areas of focus. 

For example, reading comprehension is a large domain that can be divided into smaller domains of word reading and decoding. These domains can be further subdivided into skill sets like phonics, phonological awareness, etc.

Breadth ensures that assessments capture a comprehensive picture of a child’s literacy development, addressing all critical components required for reading proficiency.

 

Larger Concepts and Smaller Concepts in Each Domain (Depth)

Larger Concepts and Smaller Concepts in Each Domain (Depth)

Depth refers to the thoroughness with which each domain is explored in early literacy assessments. 

The most comprehensive domains are fewer in number, but each delves deeply into multiple topics of learning. 

These topics, in turn, branch out into various sub topics, ensuring a detailed and nuanced understanding of a child’s literacy development. 

Depth allows educators to assess not just surface-level skills but the underlying competencies essential for reading success.  

For example, if reading comprehension issues arise, word reading may be assessed. If word reading is adequate, phonological awareness can be assessed. If phonological awareness is also fine, the issue may lie in a specific skill, such as phoneme blending, which must also be assessed.

 

How Does it Affect  Early Readers?

How Does it Affect Early Readers?

The breadth and depth of the reading domains together constitute the content coverage of early literacy assessments. 

It is extremely important for early readers because every school must measure the right domains which actually lead to reading success and can be affected by effective reading instruction.

Thus, schools have to make sure that the content coverage is broad enough, at the very least that it covers the main foundational reading skill sets such as phonological awareness, reading comprehension and oral reading fluency. 

The Reading League’s Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines recommend that assessments address both word recognition and language comprehension.

Schools must also ensure that the content coverage is deep enough, meaning each of the foundational skill sets have enough skills underneath them so that the smallest unit of learning can be measured. 

This truly identifies any gaps that may be holding students back.

 

Content Coverage in Early Literacy Assessments. Especially Relevant for Progress Monitoring.

Content Coverage in Early Literacy Assessments. Especially Relevant for Progress Monitoring.

This article establishes the importance for content coverage in early literacy assessments. 

It is applicable for all types of assessments, be it benchmark screeners, diagnostic assessments, progress monitoring assessments or end-of-the-year outcome assessments.

It is especially applicable for progress monitoring assessments because compared to all other assessment types, its recommended application is most frequent. 

They are ideally conducted multiple times per week, if not daily.

Thus, due to its repetitive nature, it can quickly reveal insights on students and groups of students that are not revealed in other types of assessments.  

But these insights are only as good as what is being measured, hence adequate content coverage of early literacy assessments proves to be so important.

Strong content coverage in early literacy assessments goes beyond adequacy, significantly enhancing the effectiveness of progress monitoring!

According to ONlit, a resource hub provided by the Ontario Ministry of Education, progress toward research-backed goals can vary in meaning, from mastering multiple sub-skills to meeting curriculum-based reading outcomes throughout the year. 

Strong content coverage covers all these dimensions of progress monitoring goals! 

It gives the early literacy team a chance to measure the rate of improvement towards these goals and take appropriate actions if the progress is not deemed sufficient.

By providing a comprehensive view of each student’s progress, it enables educators to measure the impact of instructional strategies that are prescribed for these  foundational literacy skills.

Thus, both interventions and differentiated instruction are covered!

Many research studies and state education departments recommend such a process for effectively using progress monitoring, which actually stands on having solid content coverage in early literacy assessments!

Looking for a progress monitoring tool that helps teachers assess all the research-backed foundational skill sets? Visit Sprig Reading. 

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What to Do With Early Literacy Assessments? Easy Framework To Make The Right Decisions

Aug 29, 2024 | Differentiated Instruction, Early Literacy, Formative Assessment

Reading assessments are a big part of evidence-based literacy instruction. While foundational reading skills like phonics and phonological awareness often dominate discussions, the assessment of these skills do not get as much airtime.

Especially in the early years, assessing students’ reading development does not automatically equip educators to translate those results into effective instructional decisions.

As a matter of fact, schools often find it difficult to effectively use assessment and accurately interpret their results to enhance reading outcomes. 

Even with high-quality instruction, the absence of robust assessment planning can deepen inequities in access to effective reading instruction for students who need them most.

School-wide reading assessments are now more prevalent and a required component of multi-tiered systems of supports (MTSS). It’s high time that early literacy teams receive clear guidance about their usage.

This article guides early literacy teams in selecting the right assessments to meet learning goals and maximizing the impact of their assessments. 

In order to do this, it proposes the framework: Information. Action. Deliberation. 

Information.

Information

What Questions Are Early Literacy Teams Trying to Answer?

Interpreting assessment results without understanding their purpose can lead to misguided actions for students. 

Therefore, it’s crucial for literacy teams to first identify the key questions they need answered. 

To effectively use current tools or consider adopting new tools, teams must analyze the information needs thoroughly. 

Research on various assessment tools touch on the following information needs.

 

Information Needs

  • How many students at each grade are proficient in reading?

 

  • Which students need additional support to meet end-of-year expectations?

 

  • What specific reading skills do students need additional instruction in?

 

  • What specific supplemental instruction is required for students?

 

  • Are students making progress toward meeting research-based expectations?

 

  • Are students receiving appropriate interventions at the various tiers, making progress towards their learning goals?

 

Action

Action

What Decisions will Answering These Questions Allow Early Literacy Teams To Take? 

If an information needs analysis proves challenging, then the literacy team can think about the decisions that they are looking to make with the information. 

In other words, if formulating questions proves difficult, focus on how the answers to those questions benefit the early literacy team and their students.

This approach strengthens the information needs analysis, helping to choose the right assessment tools for specific purposes.

To demonstrate, the previous question examples have now been paired with their corresponding actions:

 

How many students at each grade are proficient in reading?

Answer helps to: Understand progress towards strategic objectives, evaluate current curriculum and classroom resources.

 

Which students need additional support to meet end-of-year expectations?

Answer helps to: Allocate resources and time for those students currently performing below standard.

 

What specific reading skills do students need additional instruction in?

Answer helps to: Identify targeted tier 2 and tier 3 classroom instruction, to ensure children are receiving the support they need, when they need it.  

 

What specific supplemental instruction is required for students?

Answer helps to: Provide teachers with evidence-based instructional practices that help provide personalized instruction for every student.  

 

Are students making progress toward meeting research-based expectations?

Answer helps to: Ensure students are on track with learning the foundational reading skills and support teachers to continue or intensify their existing instructional practices. 

 

Are students receiving appropriate interventions at the various tiers, making progress towards their learning goals?

Answer helps to: Identify the need to continue, intensify, fade or modify their existing intervention approach. 

_________________________________________________________________________

Note how certain answers help to decide binary actions, that is whether to do something or not, while others help to get clarity over making individual or group decisions for students. 

This is expected.

Actions vary, some target school-wide strategies, while others focus on specific classroom and/or student-level interventions.

These distinctions must be considered when deciding how to use early literacy assessments.

 

Deliberation.

Deliberation

Provide Assessment Types for The Decision To Be Made. 

Performing steps one and two, that is, determining the right questions to gather information and the actions based on those answers are crucial for selecting the appropriate assessment tool.

This is because these questions and answers are internal, directly addressing the school’s specific needs and goals.

Every  assessment tool in the market has its own purpose. They are external, unless developed organically by the school. 

By understanding what is required first, an early literacy team can easily pick the assessment tool/s that best suits their purpose.

Deliberation is the final step.

The right early literacy assessment strategy and tools must be carefully deliberated on, so they provide the precise information needed to drive effective actions.

 

How Can You Do This?

 

How many types of assessments do you need to meet all your objectives? Is one sufficient, or do you need multiple? Sprig Learning explores this topic in another blog. 

Recapping the major assessment categories’ description from 11 Key Questions for Selecting The Right Early Literacy Assessment(s) for Your School.

Universal Screening Assessments- Identifies students at risk. Helps to evaluate core instruction.

Diagnostic Assessments- Identifies strengths and areas of need. Helps to plan and implement instruction and intervention.

Progress Monitoring Assessments- Identifies if students are responding. Evaluates the extent to which students are on track to meet research-based targets.

 

  • Understand Which Data From Selected Assessment/s Will Provide Most Value.

Vendors provide multiple scores in their assessment solutions, so it’s important to pick the right one that will be suited to the purpose.

For measuring growth, scaled scores should be used instead of grade-level scores. 

The grade-level metrics only reflect differences in text complexity, not the actual growth in students’ reading abilities. They are helpful for making classroom assessments.

For individual students, schools should focus on interpreting the scaled score specific to each assessment.

 

  • Understand How to Set Decision Rules

For setting decision rules, there are two major components of determining if an intervention is required or if the current intervention is working. It can be at any tier of MTSS. 

  1. Set a predetermined goal.
  2. Establish criteria for evaluating whether the student/group/class is on track to meet the goal.

Decision rules must be set for every type of assessment. 

Let’s take progress monitoring as an example, as its high frequency of data collection provides a faster data-based decision cycle.

The Oregon Department of Education recommends the four point decision rule and the slope analysis. 

The former takes the four most recent data points to a pre-set research-backed goal line. If they are all below the goal line, the intervention is adjusted due to insufficient growth. If they are all above the goal line, the intervention is faded or a new line is set. If they are both above and below the line, the current intervention is continued.

There is also a slope-analysis where a linear trend is fit into existing data points to characterize the trend in their overall actual growth. The steepness of the student’s growth trend is compared to the slope of the goal line.

When setting decision rules, consider what’s needed to close a gap and realistically evaluate how much progress an intervention can achieve within a set timeframe. Goals for progress monitoring should account for both these factors.

 

  • Understand The Needs of the End User.

Administrators use screening scores for scheduling and resource decisions, like identifying students needing extra support. These scores offer a general view of reading development but lack the detailed information teachers need for lesson planning.

Since a single assessment suite generates various scores, it’s important to determine which scores are most useful for each group. 

Aligning on these needs can enhance collaboration and support better student literacy outcomes.

 

Information. Action. Deliberation.

Information. Action. Deliberation.

Apply It Today To Perfect Early Literacy Assessments Across All Tiers

The Reading League comments, if 85% of students are not proficient in foundational skills with a Tier 1 curriculum, the issue likely lies with the program or its implementation, not the students. 

But this is overwhelmingly the case for almost every school across the continent!

This is why many leading literacy organizations recommend in their curriculum evaluation guidelines that assessment data be used to differentiate instruction across a Multi-Tiered System of Supports based on student progress.

Core instruction and its assessment is just as important as any supplementary measures taken in any of the other tiers in MTSS.

So when deciding what to do with early literacy assessments, the framework outlined in this article of information, action and deliberation helps to gain an overall understanding of the needs of every student, and every end-user.

It resolves tension between the type of reading assessment scores that administrators and teachers find useful in their roles. 

It helps to methodologically think about all objectives that are in stake, and the information areas that are needed in order to meet them.

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