You notice what you are looking for. Think about it. You buy a new car and then see the same car in the same color everywhere you look. You hadn’t noticed it before, but now that you are aware, you can see it. It’s the same as what you notice when you observe children. If you are looking for what students can do, you’ll see it. If you are looking for what they can’t do, you’ll see that, too. This is why it is so important that we take time to consider children from multiple viewpoints.

The parable about the Blind Man and the Elephant is an old story that addresses a similar point. It’s the story of a group of blind men who happen upon an elephant, and each man can feel only one part of the elephant. They talk about the elephant based on their limited vantage point. As you can imagine, their viewpoints are vastly different. The story’s moral is that we see only what we know to be true or understand. The parable encourages us to look beyond our initial understanding to learn what else we can discover to form a more complete picture.

Throughout this blog, we will highlight three of seven components to ponder as you consider a range of important aspects of the whole child. Check back next week for the next four components.

This list is by no means complete or comprehensive. Are we challenging ourselves to learn more about each child? How might that support our understanding of each child and how we plan learning opportunities? As we share the points about the child, we invite you to think about the parable and contemplate how each part of the elephant is necessary to make the elephant complete or whole.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessments provide some insight as to what a student knows. Summative assessments are given to evaluate how much has been learned. For example, a test at the end of a math unit is used to check whether the information has been learned.  Another type of summative assessment is the standardized test. Standardized tests are given to large groups of students. The results can be compared for groups of students to indicate trends in learning in a school or district across time. In addition, information can be gleaned from standardized tests that identify student strengths and weaknesses that may allow teachers to group students for further support or individualized attention. For some standardized tests, data is available in a few days. Other standardized tests may take longer or be at the end of the year, and the information gained is not available to guide instruction. Whether or not one agrees with standardized tests, they provide another data point to consider.

Formative Assessment

As educators, we can use formative assessments to monitor student growth and guide instruction. Classroom teachers have writing samples, conference notes, observations, records of oral reading, teacher-created assessments, etc. All this data helps a teacher plan learning opportunities to meet the needs of the whole group, small groups, and individual students.

Reading Recovery teachers administer the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (OSELA) before starting lessons. The six tasks in the OSELA invite us to observe the child as they are reading and writing.  Are you really observing, or are you checking and scoring the results? We must notice and record what the child did toward an accurate, self-corrected, or inaccurate response. Clay called this tool an OBSERVATION survey for a reason. It’s not just about scores. How quickly did the child respond? Did they talk through their thinking? What self-corrections were made? How did they initiate problem-solving? What was easy for them? Many of these observations are recorded on a record of oral reading, but are they included across the tasks? The tasks are grouped together to form a cohesive picture of the child, but the child is more than scores.

In addition, Reading Recovery teachers also have daily records of oral reading, writing samples, and lesson records to support planning and instruction. It’s important that Reading Recovery teachers also collaborate with classroom teachers to set goals together and to notice whether learning is transferring from one setting to another. In The Human Dimension in Education (2022), Andy Johnson wrote, “If students cannot use their learning outside of a school context, it is of little use” (p. 129). The same is true if the learning isn’t transferred from one classroom to another.

Differentiated Instruction

A classroom is a sanctuary of learning where students can be part of a shared community with diverse strengths and needs.  If the instruction is limited to whole-group teaching, students have little opportunity to interact with peers. Students need a tiered approach to instruction and intervention. By design, differentiated instruction helps magnify individual differences.

Language and literacy learning are two peas in a pod.  Students develop their literacy systems as they learn language and vice versa.  Creating classrooms with lots and lots of meaningful talk can occur throughout the instructional day in whole group, small group, and one-on-one tutoring structures.  Conversing is learning; we need more of it in our classrooms today!  Also, consider who is doing the talking; the student needs to be encouraged to talk. Learning is social and one of the best driving forces propelling student engagement, joy, and achievement. Differentiating instruction, which includes small group instruction and one-on-one conferring, is critical for student growth in all content areas.

 A supportive environment with a noticing teacher is especially critical for the continued development of Reading Recovery students. Reading Recovery students are often viewed as low achieving, and that label stays with them.  Our job as Reading Recovery educators is to be proactive and help change that perception by working strategically with our students to transfer what they do well in daily lessons to classroom instruction.  We cannot achieve this goal without regular interactions with the classroom teacher and being in tune with what is happening regarding grade-level expectations and assessments.

Our students have a myriad of strengths, interests, talents, and dreams that they can discover with appropriate learning opportunities and teacher guidance. As practitioners, we need to be flexible, tentative, and reflective in our teaching structures, methodology, and belief systems to meet individual students’ needs and as a part of the collective classroom learning community. 

Check back next week for part two, where we delve into additional components to consider while working with students as you start the school year.

References:

Briceno, A. & Rodriguez-Mojica, C. (2022). Conscious classrooms using diverse texts for inclusions, equity, and justice. Benchmark Education Company

Clay, M. M. (2019). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (2016).  Literacy lessons designed for individuals. Heinemann

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Fundamentals of SEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/

Johnson, A. P. (2022). The human dimension in education: Essential learning theories and their impact on teaching and learning. Rowman & Littlefield.