Literacy Profiles

The literacy profiles are designed to ensure you gain expertise in working with readers at different stages of reading who are struggling with the reading process. You will do two profiles this semester with two different students.

You must work with readers of different ages. The readers must also be at different stages of the reading process. For instance, for your first reader you may choose an 8th grader at the emergent/beginning reader stage. For your second reader, then, you must choose a preK to 3rd grader who is at the fluency or reading to learn—reading for pleasure stage. The purpose of this selection process is to ensure you work with at least one reader who is struggling with beginning word-identification issues and with one reader who is struggling with comprehension, and that you have experience with readers at two different age levels.

Through a minimum of 7 sessions (approximately 30-45 minutes in length) with each student, you will assess each student’s views, reading process, and ability to construct meaning from texts. The information from the sessions will provide the data for the writing of a report or a literacy profile for each student (students should be given pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality). A literacy profile describes the student’s strengths, needs, attitudes, and interests. The literacy profile will also include appropriate instructional recommendations based on the assessment results. These reports are expected to be professional documents written with clarity and should be understandable to other teachers and to the student and/or parents. Finally, you should include a self-assessment of your literacy profile as described below.

Questions Guiding the Assessment of Each Literacy Profile

Were all required components addressed?

• Student’s views of himself/herself as a reader
• Student’s reading process
• Student’s ability to construct meaning
• Instructional recommendations
• Reference list
• Self-assesssment
• An appendix containing the following:
  Write-ups of a minimum of 7 literacy sessions
  A completed IRI with a complete analysis of the results (teachers working with emergent readers can substitute the Emergent Reader Inventory for the IRI)
  Videotapes or audiotapes of all lessons
  A statement regarding your willingness for your paper to be included in readings for the students enrolled in this class next year (if you are willing to have your paper included as an exemplar in future courses, please include a disk version of your paper)

In addressing the first three required components, did the profile show evidence of

• Attention to the student’s attitudes, interests, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies?
• Description of what you know about this student based on formal test results, grades/performance in school?
• Clear references to specific assessment information from literacy sessions that led to interpretations?
• Use of explicit examples to illustrate points or to support contentions?
• Awareness of reader, text, context in interpreting assessment information?
• Understanding of how a student’s purpose for reading may relate to a reader’s processes or meaning construction?

In addressing instructional recommendations did the profile show evidence of the following?

• Given the specific assessment results described in the profile, were recommendations made to the student, his/her parents, and/or his/her teachers as to how the student might best improve his/her reading process and ability to construct meaning from text?
• Were recommendations detailed in terms of suggested activities/strategies/texts viewed as appropriate in light of assessment results?
• Did the instructional recommendations...
  build on the student’s strengths?
  take into consideration the student’s interests/prior knowledge?
  consider the student’s attitude toward/perception of reading?
  provide specific suggestions for helping the student develop decoding, word analysis, and/or vocabulary strategies (if needed)?
  provide specific suggestions for helping the student develop fluency or new strategies (if needed)?
  enhance the student’s ability to read flexibly for different purposes?
  address activities which could help the student deal with difficult texts?
• Were recommendations made for parents, paraprofessionals, or school volunteers who might work with the student?
• Were direct connections made to competencies that need to be addressed in light of the State of Georgia’s QCCs?
• Was the rationale underlying the instructional recommendations clearly explained and supported by references to a minimum of 7 outside sources?

Did the profile show evidence of the following?

• Overall professionalism:
  Clear organization, professional writing style
  Careful editing
  Attention to the 4th edition APA manual in citing of references
  Was turned in by assigned due date
  

In the self-assessment, evaluate your own ability to address the required components and the points listed above. In your self-assessment include the following:

• Specific, focused reflection on your ability to analyze students’ literate processes and abilities as demonstrated in this profile and the literacy sessions
• Recognition of limitations in your work (this discussion might illustrate that you have a deeper understanding of the intricacies of literacy assessment than you were capable of demonstrating in the profile)
• End by recommending the grade that you feel is justified in light of the above rationale

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From “‘I Know Them Better Than Students in My On-campus Courses’: Exploring a Personalized Approach to Online Instruction ” by Joyce Many et al.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted September 2004