At a glance

One of our priorities at Lalor Gardens Primary School is to ensure that all students are equipped with the literacy and numeracy skills they need to become successful learners. Our school was formed at the beginning of 2010 from the amalgamation of two schools: Lalor West Primary School and Lalor Park Primary School. After the merger, we saw a need to build a more structured and consistent literacy program and to develop teachers’ professional knowledge in order to improve student learning outcomes. 

Previously, literacy assessments were administered in an inconsistent manner at our school. We came across recent research that showed that the benchmarking system we were using was outdated and providing increasingly unreliable data. We wanted a system that was based on sound research and would allow us to gather accurate data to inform our school’s planning and decision-making. We decided that it was time to implement a new assessment solution.

Oxford Literacy Assess
We implemented Oxford Literacy Assess at the beginning of 2015. Oxford Literacy Assess fits in with our early years literacy model and has a centralised online data-gathering tool. We were already using some Oxford Literacy guided and independent reading texts. We like that these resources, including Oxford Literacy Assess, are based on the Oxford Wordlist. This means that we can provide a holistic and consistent teaching and learning experience for our students and educators.

Since we implemented the program, we are seeing improvements in how teachers collect and use data to inform their classroom practice. Through a cycle of assessment and instruction, we are building a framework to help our students become independent and successful readers.


To view sections of the Oxford Literacy Assess Impact project, please click on the links below:

Assessment
Instruction
Independence
Testimonials

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Assessment

Lalor Gardens Primary School, we’ve seen many benefits from using Oxford Literacy assess. From conducting the oral reading assessments, we are able to accurately determine our students’ reading levels. The online format makes it easy for teachers to conduct assessments simultaneously, which means testing can be done more frequently. Testing is now done every five weeks, an increase from once a semester in previous years. As a result, we are capturing richer and more reliable data.

The assessment results from Oxford Literacy Assess corroborate our NAPLAN and On Demand Testing results, showing that the data we have now is more streamlined and accurate compared to the data from our previous benchmarking system. Moving forward, we feel confident that we have established an accurate baseline for student achievement.

Allows for deep and meaningful analysis

We not only determine students’ reading levels but also record their comprehension skills, fluency, accuracy and reading behaviours. We have empowered our teachers to apply a deeper analysis of student errors using MSV processes so our teaching is more explicit and focused. The comprehension component in Oxford Literacy Assess tests students’ literal, inferential and evaluative comprehension skills and is more robust compared to our previous benchmarking system. Oxford Literacy Assess helps us to build a fuller picture of student learning history over time, including what abilities they have, what mistakes they are making and what skills they need to learn.

Easy to use and saves time

All our teachers conduct reading records digitally, which means that we no longer have to share print resources or waste time tracking them down. The data is captured and stored online and can be accessed at any time. Errors and self-corrections notated during the digital reading record process are automatically tallied and used to calculate the student’s self-correction rate and reading accuracy as a percentage. This is a huge time-saver and makes the assessment process much faster and easier.

Instils accountability

Oxford Literacy Assess has supported the development of a framework of accountability within the school. Our teachers are expected to back up their reports about student progress with firm data. Oxford Literacy Assess results also form part of a suite of internal data used as the basis for conversations with the Department of Education about our school’s future direction and planning.

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Instruction

What we find particularly useful about Oxford Literacy Assess is the way that instructional
approaches are explicitly linked to the assessments. This link supports our educators in their classroom planning and lesson delivery.

Address learning needs

The assessment data is used to support the formation of reading groups by instructional need. All Foundation to Year 2 students are placed in reading groups based on their results obtained in the reading records. These reading groups are dynamic and shift according to need, so that each student within the same group is working on the same focus at any one time. On a macro level, we can easily identify weaknesses common to those across the entire year level and implement strategies to address these across the cohort. This system also allows for differentiation, as students who are performing above expectations can be identified so their abilities can be challenged and extended.

Improves teacher knowledge

At our school, senior leaders model the teaching strategies from Read Record Respond to improve the professional knowledge of teachers and ensure that strategies are implemented consistently. After completing a digital reading record, teachers are conveniently provided with direct links to the relevant instructional approaches in Read Record Respond, which can be used to sort and select appropriate strategies to apply in class. Through the frequent administering of the digital reading records, teachers gain confidence in conducting assessments and are able to effectively embed digital technologies in their classroom practice.

Allows for consistency in teaching and learning

Oxford Literacy Assess has words from the Oxford Wordlist running through the assessment texts. Many of these high-frequency words can also be found in the Oxford Literacy levelled texts. Having the high-frequency words in different contexts offers extra practice and reinforcement. When the full suite of Oxford Literacy resources is used, the learning sequence reinforces students’ sight word knowledge.

Facilitates communication

We have a team-teaching environment in our school, so the degree of
familiarity that teachers have with each student can vary. The centralised data management system of Oxford Literacy Assess makes student reading history available to all teachers, enabling student needs and progress to be communicated in a consistent way.

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Independence

At Lalor Gardens Primary School, we are starting to see success in our students’ reading abilities that has resulted from the process of assessment and targeted instructional approaches. Oxford Literacy Assess also has other features that support independent reading.

Exposes students to a range of text types and genres

Unlike other assessment systems, Oxford Literacy Assess exposes students to both fiction and non-fiction texts from level 1 all the way to level 30. Because students are assessed on a range of text types and genres, we make sure that we introduce a variety of texts to them in class.

Supports independent reading

Our students, especially boys and disengaged readers, really enjoy being assessed in a digital format. The language in the Oxford Literacy Assess texts is authentic and contemporary; it is so different from the texts in our previous benchmarking system, which our students find dry and boring. We found that our 2015 Foundation students excelled in their reading assessments at the start of 2016. Many of them actually improved in their reading scores over the school holidays as they had been equipped with the skills to read independently.

Includes parent support

Read Record Respond includes a parent support guide with tips for parents to support their children to keep reading at home.

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Testimonials

"The assessment results from Oxford Literacy Assess corroborate our NAPLAN and On Demand Testing results, showing that the data we have now is more streamlined and accurate compared to the data from our previous benchmarking system."

Cassandra, Lalor Gardens Assistant Principal

"It’s fantastic to have all the data online that you can refer back to throughout each student’s schooling."

Amy, Lalor Gardens Foundation team leader

"It’s like magic – it does it all for you."

Caterina, Literacy coordinator

"Oxford Literacy Assess is my go-to place. Doing online reading records has been beneficial in terms of consistency with other teachers. When kids are moving through reading groups, to go back and to see the records all there without having to go through papers makes it much easier to track a student and pinpoint their needs."

Heidi, Foundation teacher

"I’m the first to put my hand up and say I’m loving this, the children love it, and we’ve got it down pat."

Gina, Year 1–2 teacher

"Children really enjoy doing this way of doing a reading record. It's consistent. Kids love it. Personally, I love it, I know exactly what to do, what to ask – I can make my notes and I can use that to inform my next steps"

Caterina, Literacy coordinator