Assessing Readers A New Way (or maybe not) by Amber McMath

Thank you to Amber McMath for taking a risk and submitting this. Remember, this blog lives only because of the community supporting it and believing that sharing our struggles with clarity can be as valuable as sharing our successes. To share, email or share a Doc with theweirdteacher@gmail.com

Amber wrote her story up on her own blog so rather than copy + paste the entire thing here, I'll link to it. I've added a snippet below to whet your appetite.
 http://www.imthatteacher.com/assessing-readers/

Rather than fall into the tragic bookstore trap of tests and prizes, I designed the perfect semester exam project. I asked my students to become teachers of comprehension strategies.  After all, you only really know something if you can teach it well.  We put on our teacher hats and designed lesson plans, chose anchor texts, and prepared presentations.  In fact, this very post was supposed to be about how my readers did such fantastic work that we took our show on the road and shared our lessons with the advanced English class down the hall.  I planned to highlight how my brilliant students knocked down the wall between remedial and honors and showed the world that a reader is a reader no matter the label.