#cyberPD - Digital Reading part 3

Assessment: Keeping our eye on LITERACY

I love the opening story about Franki's daughter, Ana teaching herself to play Minecraft. It is a great example of how our reading lives are changing and so are our students. Ana is playing Minecraft for fun, but had a specific purpose for reading- to teach herself how to play. Because she had been taught, she knew which questions to ask and how to find the answer. Ana's story shows the power of AUTHENTICITY, INTENTIONALITY, and CONNECTEDNESS.

Because of the role of technology in our lives and classrooms, assessment is changing. It is no longer the day where teachers can only take anecdotal notes on paper and show physical student work samples. Technology has opened up the doors for endless opportunities for assessment. We can show student growth with real student artifacts such as videos, audio recordings, pictures, social media, blogging, digital portfolios, student conferences, and more! These are also different forms of formative assessment available all the time at our finger tips!

With this said, it's important to remember that our literacy beliefs about assessment still hold true. The goal of assessment is always to help students grow and move forward. We need to stay focused on the literacy and not the tool. The tool should be used as a way to assess students on their literacy skills, not assess how well they use a digital tool. On page 90, Franki states, "The digital tools we use have not changed these beliefs. Rather, they have given us better tools with which to monitor and encourage the journeys of our readers."

Beyond the Classroom Walls: Connecting Digital Reading at Home and School

Just as technology has open the doors for new ways of digital reading and assessment, it has also created more ways to communicate with parents outside of the school community. This helps them learn about what their child is doing, practice digital reading, and be involved in their child's learning. Technology allows for opportunities for the learning to extend into the home and families can keep learning together. In addition to family events and in-person communication, some communication methods include:

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• Twitter and Facebook accounts
• Class blogs and websites
• Digital forms 
• Google Calendars
• Google Docs and Google Forms
• Digital Bulletin Boards
• Class Pinterest Boards
• Kidblog

There are many resources for assessment available to us and more are developed all the time. It's important to remember that families may not be familiar with the assessment tools and/or digital resources we are using in our classroom.Not only should we tell them about the tools and resources, but we need to make sure they understand how and why we are using them.  It's important to keep them informed and a part of your classroom community. 

"There is no magic to the combination of tools that will allow you to extend learning beyond the school walls...use what works for both my students and their families. The key is having a plan with goals for communication that supports literacy in multiple ways and involves families as digital readers." - Franki Sibberson, page 108