Friday, September 12, 2014

Save the Date: K-2 Fast Assessments 9.15-9.17

Willowwind is committed to providing all children with a dedicated school community where personalized education allows students to grow as independent learners and thinkers.  In Literacy, Willowwind School promotes effective instruction and assessment practices to help ensure all students become proficient readers by the end of third grade.  As a part of our accreditation with the State of Iowa, Willowwind must meet all Iowa Code set forth by legislation.  In Iowa’s last legislative section, Iowa Code 279.68 and 281.62 were revised to further promote evidence-based assessment of learning in state accredited schools.  Due to these revisions, this Fall, Willowwind will implement a variety of additions to it’s literacy practices.  Literacy curriculum will still continue to provide students with a balanced approach to reading, writing, and other curricular areas; however, K-2 students will now also complete the FAST (Formative Assessment System for Teachers) assessment three times throughout the year to document reading progress.

This statewide, computer-based reading assessment will be administered to help Willowwind educators further identify students’ reading progress.  Students will be assessed on a variety of skills that are essential to reading including:
  reading simple sentences and sight words
  identifying letter sounds within a word and blending sounds together
  fluency monitoring – related to decoding and vocabulary
  comprehension monitoring


Willowwind K-2 students will complete these assessments next week, Monday, September 15 through Wednesday, September 17.  Results will be communicated home upon completion of the assessment.  For more information about FAST, please visit Iowa Reading Research Center’s website at www.iowareadingresearch.org.  If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s reading development, please don’t hesitate to ask.  Many thanks for your support.

No comments:

Post a Comment