The authors have developed procedures that have been used and refined by experienced teachers familiar with the philosophy, theory, and practice of whole language teaching. They guide the reader through the evaluative process, moving from the goals of education to the gathering of authentic evidence of growth, culminating in reporting to parents and informing future instruction. The text features, among other topics, valuable coverage of the negotiated report, triangulated observation, and the quad, a plan to help organize assessment data.
The key feature of Evaluating Literacy is practicality. Each approach to evaluation has been scrutinized to ensure that it is theoretically consistent with what is known about literacy and learners and, above all, workable. Moreover, the authors have been careful to present evaluation strategies that can be easily and successfully implemented. Their proposals are teacher-friendly, classroom-friendly, and student-friendly.