Offers a procedure for keeping a record of the quality and quantity of student responses (both group and individual) to K-W-L informal assessment. (SR)

Discusses the use of both formal and informal reading assessment to help teachers tailor reading instruction to students' specific needs. Includes criteria for determining the effectiveness of reading assessment. (PKP)

Describes recommended procedures for assessing reading readiness and the teaching of beginning reading for three- and four-year-old children. (Author/MP)

Tells how children's performances on informal spelling and writing tasks can be analyzed to develop appropriate instructional activities. Argues that the real utility of assessment procedures comes from the qualitative interpretation that a sensitive diagnostician makes, based on a knowledge of the student and of the process of reading. (AEA)

Offers an overview of the steps taken by Orange County Public Schools in Florida to move to a portfolio approach to literacy assessment. (MG)

Clarifies the term "emergent literacy" and reviews significant informal assessment techniques, record-keeping systems, and reporting measures appropriate for emergent literacy. Discusses guidelines for whole-language assessment. Suggests areas of evaluation to be considered for inclusion in a locally developed emergent literacy assessment system.…

Emphasizes that consideration of students' reading attitudes is an essential part of reading assessment. Discusses different ways of conceptualizing reading attitudes that teachers might find helpful and makes suggestions on how teachers can actually measure the attitudes of their students. (AEA)

Discusses several problems associated with standardized testing. Proposes possible solutions to these problems, and calls for a new perspective on testing which utilizes informal tests and teacher observations of reading behavior. (MM)

Argues that informal assessment is an important bridge between formal assessment and classroom instruction. Notes that one way to keep an informal record of a student's progress is to maintain a portfolio, a collection of student work that reveals both affective and cognitive growth. (RS)

Describes the development of an informal syllabication instrument that has proven useful in determining the strengths and weaknesses of secondary school students' word attack abilities. (FL)

Describes using book diaries as a way for students to respond in writing to their reading as they practice the comprehension strategies learned in class; also describes using the diaries as an informal means of assessing students' learning and communicating regularly with parents. (MG)

Suggests that informal reading inventories (IRIs) should include both narrative and expository passages. Describes a study of several reading inventories indicating that some current secondary school IRIs have been constructed with some consistency of text types, but failed to reveal a clear picture of text structure for the inventories. (HTH)

Presents a method, based on the language experience approach, for informal diagnosis of young children's awareness of the technical aspects of print. (FL)

The transition to adult life for students with reading and writing challenges is an area that is not often addressed. The purpose of this article is to relate the informal assessment process to the broader context of high stakes assessment, high school exit exams, diploma options, and transition planning; identify the competencies needed for a…

Describes how the retelling of stories can reveal (1) the point or points students see in the stories they read and (2) the problems students have organizing the different elements of a story into a coherent whole. (HOD)