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Oregon Authors Project |
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| Ursula Le Guin: | "Enough Men," 2nd benchmark-level story |
| John Dashney: | "The Fox and the Squirrel," a 2nd benchmark-level story, and any story from his book of tall tales, The Ballad of Big Ben's Boots |
| Eloise Jarvis McGraw: | "The Galumpagalooses," a 2nd benchmark-level story |
| Margaret Anderson: | Chapters from any of the following children's novels, published by *Alfred A. Knopf,
Incorporated:
*If you retype or duplicate and distribute text from these books, be sure to acknowledge the author, title, and the publisher's copyright notice (date of publication and publisher name) on each page. For a full citation, use the following format:
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| Rebecca Hickox: | Victoria Flies High, a 3rd benchmark-level book "The Prophet and the Gift," Parts I and II, 3rd benchmark-level stories |
| M. K. Wren: | A Gift upon the Shore, a CIM-level book |
| Roland Smith: | "It's Just the Legs," a 3rd benchmark-level story from Mr. Smith's book, Amy's Missing |
| Irene Bennett Brown: | Morning Glory Afternoon, a 3rd benchmark-level book |
Assessing Student ReadingThe Oregon Authors Project tasks are written to assess most areas of the reading and literature content standards: demonstrate literal, inferential, and evaluative comprehension; identify and examine literary elements and devices; analyze author's ideas and techniques; and draw connections and explain relationships between reading selections and other texts, issues, and events. In addition, some assessments may be appropriate to use in assessing the student's proficiency at locating information.Progress toward the standards may also be assessed with long-term assessments using novels, texts, magazines, and so on, by employing tools such as reading journals, chapter tests, or response packets. Examples of questions for novels are currently being developed through OPEN, and will be posted on this site as they are completed. Development of the Assessment Task QuestionsEach task includes questions that were written by teachers who attended reading training through the Literacy Partnership. The questions have been selected and edited by Cindi Schmitz and Pam Prosise, and some ("The Galumpagalooses" and "The Fox and the Squirrel") have been edited and are being piloted throughout the state of Oregon by members of the Oregon Department of Education Reading Content Panel. The use of the tasks this year in classrooms throughout the state will be considered a pilot, as well. Any input about the tasks that classroom teachers can give us will be used to refine the questions. A feedback form, linked from each story page, is provided for your comments. When piloting is complete, the assessments will be revised and updated periodically on this Web site.Use of the Reading Assessment Tasks On-demand reading assessment tasks are used to measure student progress toward the Oregon Standards during the school year, and over the years. The tasks in this pool are intended to be ready for classroom teachers to use as a starting place for assessment of student progress toward the Oregon reading standards, and to provide a model for development of strong reading assessment tasks.Although the reading assessment tasks are complete and do not require that students are currently studying the material presented, student success will be greater when teachers adapt and/or create assessments that fit their curriculum and students' backgrounds. In order to eliminate the possibility that a student will be asked to take the same assessment twice in different years, schools, and/or districts, we ask that teachers use those assessments from the pool that match their students' grade level(s). Exceptions may be made for those students whose learning plans (such as IEPs) include modification of reading material to a level below their grade, or for students who consistently exceed the standard (scoring 5s or 6s on all reading work). Teachers are encouraged to alter or modify questions if they can be revised to better meet the needs of their students, and if the overall assessment still allows for scoring of all three reading dimensions (at least two comprehension: extending understanding or critical reading: text analysis questions on each assessment are recommended by the Oregon Reading Content Panel). Context analysis, a CAM-level dimension, may be added if the piece lends itself to that type of response. After teachers have used these assessments, they may assist the process of refining the assessments by completing the linked evaluation page and sending it electronically to the OPEN Webmaster.
These assessment tasks provide a model for teachers to develop additional assessment tasks based on available classroom reading materials. The question stems, or beginnings, may be adapted to other materials. | |
A number of published Oregon authors have responded to a request from Oregon Public Education Network (OPEN) and classroom teachers Cindi Schmitz and Pam Prosise to donate stories to Oregon's school reform efforts in reading. The following are benchmark 2 through CIM-level assessments. Permission has been granted for classroom teachers to reproduce and use these stories in their classrooms. OPEN, in cooperation with the Willamette Curriculum Coalition of the Willamette Education Service District, the Silver Falls School District, and the Literacy Partnership, is currently piloting questions for these assessments.