38 Making Meaning® • Grade 3

Unit 3 Individual Comprehension AssessmentMaking Inferences (continued)

Examples of Scored Student Work for Part A: Strategy Assessment

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Nicky at the beginning Nicky at the end

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Grumpy because he doesn’t want to spend the summer with his grandma

Sad because he can’t go with his dad

Excited that he helped the fawn

Happy that he could be just like his grandmother

Caleb

Reading Journal

Name: Date:

Making Meaning® | 91

Caleb 11/7

I am reading the book More Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron. I think that Gloria is clever. She made the sun move. She used a mirror to shine the sun’s light into Julian’s window. She won the bet.

Reading journal entry 1

Student response activity: “Double-entry Journal About Nicky”

36 Making Meaning® • Grade 3 © Center for the Collaborative Classroom

Unit 3 Individual Comprehension AssessmentMaking Inferences

Completing the Individual Comprehension AssessmentBefore continuing on to the next unit, take this opportunity to assess the students’ comprehension of texts read independently and their use of comprehension strategies. The Individual Comprehension Assessment consists of two parts. The strategy assessment (Part A) helps you assess whether a student is able to use a strategy when prompted to in a lesson. The IDR assessment (Part B) helps you assess a student’s overall comprehension of self-selected texts read during IDR.

Be aware that a student may or may not use any particular strategy to make sense of his or her independent reading. The goal over time is for the students to be able to use appropriate strategies as needed to help them make sense of the texts they read independently.

PREPARING FOR THE A SSESSMENT ✓Make a class set of “Individual Comprehension Assessment” record sheets (IA1) from the DSC Learning Hub (teach.devstu.org) or from pages 42–44.

✓ Collect the students’ Student Response Books. In Part A of the assessment, you will review and consider the following student work:

Student response activities

– “Character Web for Grace” on page 7

– “Double-entry Journal About Nicky” on page 8

Reading journal entries

– Prompt: Write about an inference you made about the main character in your book and at least one clue in the story that helped you make the inference. Include the title of the book and the author’s name in your entry.

– Prompt: Write about the main character’s problem in the book you are reading and at least one clue in the story that helped you learn about the problem. Include the title of the book and the author’s name in your entry.

✓ Locate the “IDR Conference Notes” record sheet(s) you completed for each student during this unit. In Part B, you will use the record sheet(s), along with any other observations you have made of the student during Making Meaning lessons and IDR, to assess the student’s overall comprehension during IDR conferences.

✓ Review Parts A and B on the “Individual Comprehension Assessment” record sheet (IA1) to help you prepare to score each student’s Student Response Book work and evaluate his or her reading comprehension.

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© Center for the Collaborative Classroom Grade 3 • Making Meaning® 37

Unit 3 Individual Comprehension AssessmentMaking Inferences (continued)

CONDUCTING THE A SSESSMENTFor each student:

1. Part A: Read the student response activities and the reading journal entries from the unit. For each piece of work, consider whether evidence of the unit’s instruction is demonstrated almost all of the time, much of the time, some of the time, or almost none of the time. In the Part A rubric, circle 4, 3, 2, or 1 to indicate your assessment of each piece of student work.

2. Part B: Review the student’s most recent “IDR Conference Notes” record sheet(s) and think about the student’s participation during class discussions and IDR. Consider whether the conference notes and your other observations show evidence that the student is actively engaging with and is making sense of text almost all of the time, much of the time, some of the time, or almost none of the time. Circle 4, 3, 2, or 1 to indicate your assessment of each item in the Part B rubric.

3. Calculate the scores for Part A and Part B, add the scores together, and then divide the sum by 2 to determine the overall unit score. Note that if you follow this formula, the overall unit score will reflect the student’s average performance across categories based on this rubric’s 4-point scale. Also note that the overall unit score will be based equally on the student’s strategy work (Part A) and on the IDR assessment (Part B). You might wish to weight the scores differently, assign a percentage, or adapt the rubric scores to align with your school’s or district’s grading system.

4. Answer the reflection questions at the end of the assessment.

5. Attach the completed assessment to the student’s “IDR Conference Notes” record sheet(s) and file them in an individual assessment folder for the student. You might also want to include copies of the student’s work in the folder.

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42 Making Meaning® • Grade 3 © Center for the Collaborative Classroom

Unit 3 Individual Comprehension Assessment • IA1Making Inferences

Student’s name:  Date:

Part A: Strategy AssessmentEvidence of instruction is demonstrated:

Almost all of the time

Much (>50%) of the time

Some (<50%) of the time

Almost none of the time

Student response activities

“Character Web for Grace”The student is able to make inferences about Grace.

4 3 2 1

“Double-entry Journal About Nicky”The student is able to make inferences about Nicky at the beginning of the story and at the end.

4 3 2 1

Reading journal entries

Entry 1: The student is able to describe an inference he or she made about the main character in the story and identify at least one clue that helped him or her make that inference.

4 3 2 1

Entry 2: The student is able to describe the main character’s problem in the story and identify at least one clue that helped him or her learn about the problem.

4 3 2 1

Subtotal

Part A score (sum of 4 subtotals /4):

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