Author Description

Built around the case studies of eight students who have had difficulty learning to read and write and for whom traditional methods of testing have proven inadequate,. this innovative book allows the reader to think along with the author during the administration, recording, observation, and analysis of students' actual reading and writing. In this way future and practicing teachers learn how their daily classroom activities can yield valuable insights about what students can do, how they learned to read and write so far, and what possibilities exist for alternative instruction in the future. The book describes eight students and gives examples of their work, then shows what testing they have undergone and what authentic measures can do for them. It highlights the limitations of standardized tests regarding the lives and learning of real students. And it gives teachers the tools to supplement or refute standardized test results with careful analyses of authentic reading and writing performances. A listing of literacy tasks commonly used in standardized tests helps teachers analyze what test scores mean, or don't mean, by connecting the actual reading or writing required on them to language processing theory. For teachers, reading specialists, and others looking for realistic ways to help children learn to read.