By Sept. 26, please post (1) what seems to be most important to understand about administering the Bridge Assessment, and (2) one question you have about the assessment.
To me, what seems to be the most important thing to understand about administering the Bridge assessment is good observations and note taking are key. This, along with careful reflection, makes monitoring a child's early literacy progress productive and useful. Both of these, observation and reflection, must be done regularly in order to correctly monitor progress. One question I have about using the Bridge is how do you find the time in the school day to monitor all of your children's literacy behaviors? Dorothea Smith
This is Mary Law. What I believe is important to understand about administering the Bridge Assessment is that teachers must become familiar with the descriptions of each item on the Bridge assessment and the ratings for each item. The familiarity with the tool will help teachers know what to look for and document. Sampling, note taking, and reflecting must be must be done regularly. Together, these tools assist in deciding what is significant enough to save in a child’s file on the basis of the developmental frame work of the Bridge. Then a teacher can better determine what might be most appropriate to offer the children the next day to support further skill development.
My question: Is it difficult, in a school system/state that looks at standardized tests scores as a driving force, to implement The Bridge?
I think the most important thing to understand when administering the Bridge Assesment is recognition of skills. You will have to pay close attention to each individual student to see changes and progress. Note taking and daily documentation would be very important. My question is how difficult will it be to make sure you have given enough attention to each student to get accurate results?
When you score an artifact or note, the point is not the score. Rather the point is an awareness of where a child is and where a child can next go. Once you see a skill or task being used regularly you should then begin asking yourself what new materials or interactions from you in the environment would challenge the child to build on his/her current skill and advance. Rosie Simmons Also, the Bridge is meant to be a naturalistic assessment of a child's language and literacy growth. It is meant to be used with everyday activities in which children engage during play.
My question is: How many evidences of a particular score should there be before a child is judged as having mastered that skill or task?
I think the most important thing to understand when administering the Bridge Assessment is to be familiar with the decripstions of each item and their rating. By familiarizing yourself in these areas you will have a better understanding of what to look for when monitoring and documenting. With regular monitoring and organized documenting that has been completed on a regular basis, a teacher, along with the parents can make data based decisions about next steps for programming. My question is how do you make sure, in a larger classroom, you are giving each student adequate observaion time to develope a fair and accurate assessment?
The most important thing, in my opinion, about administering the Bridge Assessment is being very familiar with both your students and the rating scale of the assessment itself. With these two things in place, it will be possible for a teacher to document small steps of growth in their students' emergent literacy skills. Making a habit of regularly taking notes, recording data, and reflecting on it are essential in using this assessment tool to its full potential. Another aspect of the Bridge, organizing samples and data in a portfolio, help to show student progress better than a mere compilation of a child's work.
To me, the Bridge Assessment seems to be a most accurate and efficient way of determining a child's literacy growth. However, it requires two skillful and knowledgeable teachers to administer it: one to direct the children and another to carefully observe and record data. The question I have regarding this assessment is how effective can it be if it is not utilized regularly in a classroom given the time-consuming nature of it? Laura Jordan
To me, the bridge assessment is an accurate way to tell if the student has any of the following: Book knowledge, print awareness, and story comprehension. The question I have is whether the teacher is going to keep accurate details on each of the students that they have to maintain for their records to see how that student is progressing.
The most important things to me are skill recognition and data collection. I believe that it is a very useful tool in assessing a student's literacy level and progress. I question if a teacher with a full classroom will have the time to use it with eah student and do it correctly.
Evaluating normal developmental patterns and literacy behaviors in reading and writing require that a teacher have a firm grasp on exactly what those developmental patterns are, how to identify them, what they measure, and once found, what strategies in a wide range of instructional repertoires to implement. Ongoing daily authentic assessments of literacy behaviors and “events” are essential when administering the Bridge Assessment.
The question I have about the Bridge Assessment, is can this tool be used in the Middle Grades when you have a teenager reading on a first grade level?
I think that the most important things to understand about delivering the Bridge effectively are: 1) we must be very familiar with the item descriptions and ratings so that we know exactly what we are looking for to document, 2) we have to be organized in our documentation and ensure that it aligns with the Bridge's framework and creates a unified and clearly representative sampling of the child's developing skills, 3) the assessments should take place in a setting that occurs normally within the child's daily activities, and 4) we must always keep in mind that once a milestone is mastered we need to foster reaching the next one.
My question would be regarding whether or not the checkpoints within the Bridge correspond with specific ages to create what is considered a 'developmentally appropriate' time frame for literacy development for children without disabilities
As with any assessment the first question to ask is if it is truly reliable? Data collection is also extremely important-but when do we have time to collect data when we are servicing a class of up to ten children( and more in some cases) that would really benefit from 1:1 ratio? Children do not always perform well on test so a teacher needs to know what the child's ability is. I don't place too much value on test, but I do realize that assessments are necessary.
The thing that seems to be the most important to understand about administering the bridge assessment is knowing the descriptions and ratings of each item and being able to accurately monitor and document inorder to decide what step to take next. What is the optimal classroom size needed for administering the bridge successfully for all students?
The most important thing to know about the Bridge Assessment is that you have to think outside the box. If you're used to measuring skills in a certain way, you have to become accustomed to looking for different indicators that kids are learning to read. That's what's great about the assessment. It gives kids who don't vocalize the chance to demonstrate their knowledge in a setting that's comfortable to them. As long as we make explicit notes along with the documentation we collect from the students the assessment will work well. The only question I have is how will we keep good records when we don't have a lot of extra time to document our thoughts on what we saw. I know that as secretary I have to interrupt teachers several times per day with things like attendance issues, fundraiser collection, presentations about various things, etc, and I know that administration is constantly scheduling meetings during planning. It seems to be a source of frustration and it seems like the only way to get around it is to spend evenings at home catching up. Niki
In my opinion the most important thing about administering the Bridge assessment is knowing what you are looking for the put in the portfolio and how to score it. I would think that keeping all the students' information organized would also be helpful. My question would be do most teacher's have the time during their regular day in a classroom to do something like this?
What seems to be most important to understand about administering the Bridge Assessment. Keep an open mind. Collect data all the time and determine how to procede with the information that you obtain. The overall data can be used to determine where students are on the learning spectrum. One question you have about the assessment. Is the "Bridge" valide at any age?
Co-founder and former director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Currently professor in Language, Reading, and Exceptionalities Dept. at Appalachian State University.
To me, what seems to be the most important thing to understand about administering the Bridge assessment is good observations and note taking are key. This, along with careful reflection, makes monitoring a child's early literacy progress productive and useful. Both of these, observation and reflection, must be done regularly in order to correctly monitor progress. One question I have about using the Bridge is how do you find the time in the school day to monitor all of your children's literacy behaviors? Dorothea Smith
ReplyDeleteThis is Mary Law. What I believe is important to understand about administering the Bridge Assessment is that teachers must become familiar with the descriptions of each item on the Bridge assessment and the ratings for each item. The familiarity with the tool will help teachers know what to look for and document. Sampling, note taking, and reflecting must be must be done regularly. Together, these tools assist in deciding what is significant enough to save in a child’s file on the basis of the developmental frame work of the Bridge. Then a teacher can better determine what might be most appropriate to offer the children the next day to support further skill development.
ReplyDeleteMy question: Is it difficult, in a school system/state that looks at standardized tests scores as a driving force, to implement The Bridge?
I think the most important thing to understand when administering the Bridge Assesment is recognition of skills. You will have to pay close attention to each individual student to see changes and progress. Note taking and daily documentation would be very important. My question is how difficult will it be to make sure you have given enough attention to each student to get accurate results?
ReplyDeleteWhen you score an artifact or note, the point is not the score. Rather the point is an awareness of where a child is and where a child can next go. Once you see a skill or task being used regularly you should then begin asking yourself what new materials or interactions from you in the environment would challenge the child to build on his/her current skill and advance.
ReplyDeleteRosie Simmons
Also, the Bridge is meant to be a naturalistic assessment of a child's language and literacy growth. It is meant to be used with everyday activities in which children engage during play.
My question is: How many evidences of a particular score should there be before a child is judged as having mastered that skill or task?
I think the most important thing to understand when administering the Bridge Assessment is to be familiar with the decripstions of each item and their rating. By familiarizing yourself in these areas you will have a better understanding of what to look for when monitoring and documenting. With regular monitoring and organized documenting that has been completed on a regular basis, a teacher, along with the parents can make data based decisions about next steps for programming. My question is how do you make sure, in a larger classroom, you are giving each student adequate observaion time to develope a fair and accurate assessment?
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing, in my opinion, about administering the Bridge Assessment is being very familiar with both your students and the rating scale of the assessment itself. With these two things in place, it will be possible for a teacher to document small steps of growth in their students' emergent literacy skills. Making a habit of regularly taking notes, recording data, and reflecting on it are essential in using this assessment tool to its full potential. Another aspect of the Bridge, organizing samples and data in a portfolio, help to show student progress better than a mere compilation of a child's work.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the Bridge Assessment seems to be a most accurate and efficient way of determining a child's literacy growth. However, it requires two skillful and knowledgeable teachers to administer it: one to direct the children and another to carefully observe and record data. The question I have regarding this assessment is how effective can it be if it is not utilized regularly in a classroom given the time-consuming nature of it?
Laura Jordan
To me, the bridge assessment is an accurate way to tell if the student has any of the following: Book knowledge, print awareness, and story comprehension. The question I have is whether the teacher is going to keep accurate details on each of the students that they have to maintain for their records to see how that student is progressing.
ReplyDeleteThe most important things to me are skill recognition and data collection. I believe that it is a very useful tool in assessing a student's literacy level and progress.
ReplyDeleteI question if a teacher with a full classroom will have the time to use it with eah student and do it correctly.
Allen Sigmon
Evaluating normal developmental patterns and literacy behaviors in reading and writing require that a teacher have a firm grasp on exactly what those developmental patterns are, how to identify them, what they measure, and once found, what strategies in a wide range of instructional repertoires to implement. Ongoing daily authentic assessments of literacy behaviors and “events” are essential when administering the Bridge Assessment.
ReplyDeleteThe question I have about the Bridge Assessment, is can this tool be used in the Middle Grades when you have a teenager reading on a first grade level?
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important things to understand about delivering the Bridge effectively are: 1) we must be very familiar with the item descriptions and ratings so that we know exactly what we are looking for to document, 2) we have to be organized in our documentation and ensure that it aligns with the Bridge's framework and creates a unified and clearly representative sampling of the child's developing skills, 3) the assessments should take place in a setting that occurs normally within the child's daily activities, and 4) we must always keep in mind that once a milestone is mastered we need to foster reaching the next one.
ReplyDeleteMy question would be regarding whether or not the checkpoints within the Bridge correspond with specific ages to create what is considered a 'developmentally appropriate' time frame for literacy development for children without disabilities
As with any assessment the first question to ask is if it is truly reliable? Data collection is also extremely important-but when do we have time to collect data when we are servicing a class of up to ten children( and more in some cases) that would really benefit from 1:1 ratio? Children do not always perform well on test so a teacher needs to know what the child's ability is. I don't place too much value on test, but I do realize that assessments are necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that seems to be the most important to understand about administering the bridge assessment is knowing the descriptions and ratings of each item and being able to accurately monitor and document inorder to decide what step to take next.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the optimal classroom size needed for administering the bridge successfully for all students?
The most important thing to know about the Bridge Assessment is that you have to think outside the box. If you're used to measuring skills in a certain way, you have to become accustomed to looking for different indicators that kids are learning to read. That's what's great about the assessment. It gives kids who don't vocalize the chance to demonstrate their knowledge in a setting that's comfortable to them. As long as we make explicit notes along with the documentation we collect from the students the assessment will work well. The only question I have is how will we keep good records when we don't have a lot of extra time to document our thoughts on what we saw. I know that as secretary I have to interrupt teachers several times per day with things like attendance issues, fundraiser collection, presentations about various things, etc, and I know that administration is constantly scheduling meetings during planning. It seems to be a source of frustration and it seems like the only way to get around it is to spend evenings at home catching up.
ReplyDeleteNiki
In my opinion the most important thing about administering the Bridge assessment is knowing what you are looking for the put in the portfolio and how to score it. I would think that keeping all the students' information organized would also be helpful. My question would be do most teacher's have the time during their regular day in a classroom to do something like this?
ReplyDeleteWhat seems to be most important to understand about administering the Bridge Assessment. Keep an open mind. Collect data all the time and determine how to procede with the information that you obtain. The overall data can be used to determine where students are on the learning spectrum. One question you have about the assessment. Is the "Bridge" valide at any age?
ReplyDelete