Diagnostic+Assessment

Diagnostic Assessment

**Strategies**

I often use informal diagnostic assessment at the beginning of a semester in English class to assess students' comprehension and writing skills. This is usually done using a short story and reflective response. I also use a diagnostic assessment at the start of a unit. For example, before teaching //Brave New World//, I have students engage in a kind of graffiti activity. In groups they respond to various quotations, which relate to the novel, which I have posted around the room. They rotate to the next quotation and respond to it as well as to the previous groups' responses. I use this to activate prior knowledge, but also to see what kind of inquiry process they have previously engaged in, on their own, concerning the topic. I appreciated the reading and all the ideas it gave me because diagnostic assessment can be easily forgotten in our busy schedule but it is the ultimate method of assessment for learning.

The list of strategies compiled by Ann Mclure is very extensive. She has included strategies which are both structured and unstructured (like observation of learning and social skills); and large group, small group, and individual activites (such as journal entries).

**Tools**

The list from the reading includes many tools I was not familiar with so I looked them up and thought I would share them with you. If you have used these strategies, I would appreciate any insights you have on their usefulness.

__CASI__:

Apparently this does not stand for //Canadian Association of Snowboard Instructors,// but //Comprehension Attitude Strategies Interests//. I could not easily find much information on this tool, but have gathered that it is a form of reading comprehension test.

__Miscue Analysis__:

“Miscue analysis is a tool for looking closely at the types of reading strategies a reader uses. The kinds of miscues (incorrect guesses) a reader makes when reading from a text will give the listener clues about how familiar or unfamiliar the reader finds the content matter, and how easy or difficult they find the text to read.” ( HYPERLINK "http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/readwriteplus/bank/Miscue Analysis.pdf" __http://rwp.excellencegateway.org.uk/readwriteplus/bank/Miscue%20Analysis.pdf__ )

I found several charts and templates on line which are used by the teacher, while the student is reading, to record the kind of miscues.

__Cloze paragraphs__:

These are paragraphs with words missing that the students fill in. Although I have used this strategy it was for formative rather than diagnostic assessment.

“It is used to: to identify students' knowledge and understanding of the reading process to determine which cueing systems readers effectively employ to construct meaning from print to assess the extent of students' vocabularies and knowledge of a subject to encourage students to monitor for meaning while reading to encourage students to think critically and analytically about text and content ”

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/cloze/index.html

**Uses**

I like the inclusion of //variety of social skills// in the list of needs and uses suggested by McClure. I had never considered using diagnostic assessment this way but improving student interaction can certainly impact learning.

Diagnostic assessment can also be used as a benchmark to measure how much has been learned. This can inform the teacher of the success of learning task. It can also further the reflection and motivation of the student when she/he sees how much they have learned.