Reading Specialists Use Verbal Protocols as a Formative Assessment Tool

• Published in: The Reading teacher 2019-09, Vol.73 (2), p.185-193
• Main Author: Bergeson, Kristi Tamte
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2‐Childhood; 3‐Early adolescence; Assessment; Authentic < Assessment; Coaching (Performance); Cognitive < Theoretical perspectives; Comprehension; Comprehension monitoring < Comprehension; Diagnostic < Assessment; FEATURE ARTICLE; Formative Evaluation; Formative experiments, design experiments < Research methodology; Informal < Assessment; Instructional intervention < Struggling learners; Instructional models < Strategies, methods, and materials; Instructional strategies, teaching strategies < Strategies, methods, and materials; Instructional strategies; methods and materials; Learning strategies < Strategies, methods, and materials; Making inferences < Comprehension; Metacognition < Comprehension; Metacognitive strategies < Strategies, methods, and materials; Ongoing assessment < Assessment; Prior knowledge < Comprehension; Protocol Analysis; Protocols < Assessment; Questioning < Comprehension; Reading; Reading Comprehension; Reading Difficulties; Reading Instruction; Reading Processes; Reading strategies < Strategies, methods, and materials; Reading Teachers; Specialists; Struggling learners; Students; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 0034-0561; 1936-2714
• DOI: 10.1002/trtr.1815

Practitioners face many challenges when working with students who are experiencing difficulty with comprehension. The act of creating meaning with texts is complex, and comprehension is often measured in schools as a product of reading. Product assessments, such as answering questions or retelling a text, take place after reading, which makes it difficult to understand why and when a student may be experiencing difficulties. Using design-based research, the author examined the implementation of verbal protocols in classrooms as a formative assessment tool for comprehension. During this two-month study, three reading specialists drew on the landscape model of reading as a theoretical framework to better understand their students’ think-aloud statements. Findings indicated that reading specialists implemented verbal protocols as a formative assessment tool with diagnostic interpretation about their students’ reading difficulties and were able to use this information to effectively coach students on their reading processes.