Windows into Literacy: Assessing Learners K-8

Windows into Literacy grew out of authors Lynn Rhodes and Nancy Shanklin's experience with Chapter I teachers and students in Denver public schools.

Working under the assumption that students' apparent literacy difficulties may not be inherent, the authors focus first on assessing students' past and present literacy environments and instruction. The majority of the book, however, centers on the assessment of various aspects of students' reading and writing:

• students' metacognition
• attitudes and interests about reading and writing
• how language systems and strategies are used in the reading and writing processes
• students' comprehension and composition
• the development of emergent reading and writing abilities.

The chapters on assessment procedures and techniques culminate in a chapter on literacy collections including portfolios, viewed as ways to organize assessment data to present a broad-based, substantive, and coherent picture of a student's reading and writing.

While suggesting concrete ways to design alternative literacy assessments, the authors illustrate many points by using engaging stories and examples of teachers and children at work.

Windows into Literacy places the details of literacy assessment into a larger context that will encourage readers to consider the place of literacy assessment in instruction and in students' lives. Consideration is also given to how assessment can encourage change in literacy instruction as teachers work with others to reform schools and school districts.

The handbook that accompanies this book, Literacy Assessment: A Handbook of Instruments, includes the various assessment instruments discussed in the book.