The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

This session provides examples of inclusive literacy strategies for school, home and community. Best practice approaches will be shared for matching appropriate instruction and materials to student strengths, needs, learning style, and interests. Participants will also be provided with authentic formative assessment examples appropriate for students on the autism spectrum. Standardized tests cause stress to parents, educators and students.  When “high stakes”  results don’t reflect students’ demonstrated authentic reading and writing successes, questions arise.  (Heath, 1983).  What are literacy best practices using student strengths to address areas of need?  Specifically, how can appropriate materials and instructional strategies be matched to individual students?  (Rosenblatt, 1938, Routman, 2003). Research calls for  formative assessment. (International Reading Association, 2010-2014). Formative assessment is on-going “real time” assessment informing teacher instruction (Education Department of Western Australia, 1994, Halladay, 2012).  While students are reading and writing authentically (not bubble sheets or blanks), teachers observe actual reading/writing,  determining successes and subsequent  gaps.  (Valencia, Hiebert, Afflerbach, 1994, 2014).

Because “one size doesn’t fit all” for literacy assessments, assessments must be appropriate and effective.  Authentic formative assessments can be recorded using everyday materials and documented in students’ files/portfolios as evidence of evolving literacy strengths and needs. (Valencia, 1990). Research further tells us that formative assessment informs parents and educators, at a deeper level of analysis, what students can do even when summative assessments may be telling us what students “can’t”do.

Examples of best practices in inclusive literacy using authentic assessments as the starting point will be shared.  Scenarios of varying materials and instructional strategies will be given in overview format with specific examples for participants to identify, observe and practice.   Resources of examples will also be provided.

Resources

6 + 1 Traits of Writing (1983).

Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle.

Benson, V. & Cummins, C. (2000). The Power of Retelling. Developmental Steps for Comprehension.

Education Department of Western Australia (1994) The Reading Developmental Continuum,

Farr, R. (2001). Think along/think alouds lead to better comprehension. The California Reader, 34(10), 29-33.

Halladay, Juliet, L. (2012). Revisiting Key Assumptions of the Reading Level Framework. Reading Teacher, Vol 66 (1), P. 53-62.

Harty, S (1998, 2003), Home Literacy Background and School Literacy Expectations.

Heath, S.B. (1983) Ways with Words.

International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English (2010). Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing, Revised. International Reading Association, NCTE

International Reading Association. (2013). Formative assessment: A position statement of the International Reading Association.

International Reading Association. (2014). Using high-stakes assessments for grade retention and graduation decisions [Position statement].

Ogle, D. S. (1986). K-W-L group instructional strategy. In A. S. Palincsar, D. S. Ogle, B.F. Jones, & E. G. Carr (Eds.),

Teaching reading as thinking (Teleconference Resource Guide, pp. 11-17). ASCD

Palinscar, A.S. & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension- monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117-175.

Roller, C. (1998). So , What’s a Tutor to Do?

Rosenblatt, L. (1938). Literature as Exploration.

Routman, R. 2003. Reading Essentials.

Rubin, J. (2011). Organizing and Evaluating Results from Multiple Reading Assessments. Reading Teacher, Vol 64 (8), p. 606-611.

Valencia, S. (1990). A portfolio approach to reading assessment,  Reading Teacher, 43, 338-340.

Valencia, S., Hiebert, E, Afflerbach, P. (1994, 2014), Authentic Reading Assessment.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society.

Learning Objectives: