Field experience: Example of standard and its application
Curriculum Theory | Field Experience: Study of WASL Reading Post-assessment and associated standards |
Seattle Public School, 10th Grade| Aug 22, 2008 | 1 hour
field work
As part of the Curriculum Theory course, I have spent time understanding National and State (AZ and WA) education standards. As part of this study, apart from understanding the standards across all subject areas, I chose to investigate a chosen standard in detail and correlate its application to an actual standards-based lesson. For this purpose, I chose to investigate the Washington Assessment of Student Learning Reading post-assessment that was given to 10th graders.
The Standard
WA State identifies Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) as broad standards of learning requirements for each subject area. Each EALR is then detailed by Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) for each grade.
The specific standard investigated was:
EALR 2: The student understands the meaning of what is read.
Component 2.1: Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension.
GLE 2.1.5 for grades 9/10 is stated as:
Apply comprehension monitoring strategies for informational and technical materials, complex narratives, and expositions: synthesize ideas from selections to make predictions and inferences
Make inferences based on implicit and
explicit information drawn from prior
knowledgeand text; provide justification
for inferences.
Make predictions and inferences about
an author’s beliefs and cite text-based
evidence to support prediction/inference
(e.g., find text passages that support an
inference that the author advocates eco-
nomic change).
Read several accounts of the same event
and make inferences about the impact
each would have on the reader (e.g.,
discuss the emotional impact of a journal
entry by a soldier’s parent, a letter from a
Union or Confederate soldier, and a
newspaper article describing a Civil War
battle).
Select, from multiple choices, a predic-
tion, inference, or assumptionthat could
be made from the text.
Organize information to support a predic-
tion or inference in a self-created graphic
organizer.
Sample lesson
The first two objectives stated in GLE 2.1.5 are focused on in the sample lesson made available below from the WASL Post-Reading Assessment.pdf.
Make inferences based on implicit and
explicit information drawn from prior
knowledgeand text; provide justification
for inferences.
Make predictions and inferences about
an author’s beliefs and cite text-based
evidence to support prediction/inference
(e.g., find text passages that support an
inference that the author advocates eco-
nomic change).
The connection
The GLE calls for students being able to make inferences of implied meaning and information after reading a piece of work. The lesson tests this ability in students by asking them to infer the nature of the father's work and evidence from the poem for the same.
The GLE calls for students being able to infer the author's beliefs in writing the piece. The lesson tests this by asking students to infer the author's purpose in writing the poem and evidence for the same.