Assessing Literacy with the Learning Record : A Handbook for Teachers, Grades 6-12

Faced with the limitations of traditional testing, teachers across the country are searching for new ways to make students' achievement in the classroom count for more -- a system of measurement that recognizes difference and reflects the full range of linguistic and cultural experiences.

Assessing Literacy with the Learning Record is that tool, presenting a framework that translates teachers' observations into a disciplined, systematic, standards-based reporting process.

Taking the best of the British Primary Language Record and revising it for American teachers, Mary Barr and Margaret Syverson have created an assessment system that recognizes contributions from all stakeholders in the process.

Teacher narratives, samples of student work, and interviews with parents combine to provide comprehensive evidence of students' progress toward agreed-upon goals and standards.

Teachers summarize and record this information, using it both to inform their own teaching and to provide a more uniform and quantifiable record of literacy achievement.

This book offers clear explanations of each part of the Learning Record; guidelines for observing and recording student activity; and examples from actual learning records.

There is also a complete set of reproducible forms. Assessing Literacy with the Learning Record is produced in two volumes -- one for elementary teachers and one for secondary.