Developing Engaged Readers in School and Home Communities

Peter Afflerbach University of Maryland National Reading Research Center

Reading assessment must be clearly aligned with the ways and means of reading instruction and student learning so that it can provide us with useful information about student progress. Students who are engaged readers exhibit growth in a variety of cognitive, social, and motivational areas. Engaged assessment is sensitive to this growth, and it reflects a comprehensive portrait of an engaged reader. In addition, engaged reading assessment is strategic and carefully planned: It provides valuable information in relation to the school resources of time, money, and personnel that are required to conduct it. Engaged reading assessment is sensitive to the nature and value of reading in the particular schools and communities in which it is conducted. The engaged assessment of engaged reading familiarizes students with the culture of reading assessment and helps them become independent evaluators of their own work.

This chapter begins with a description of engaged reading and the unique assessment demands and opportunities that accompany engaged reading. The nature of engaged reading within an integrated learning unit on ancient Egypt is then described. Concurrently, the chapter describes an episode of engaged reading, the representative time frame in which engaged reading occurs. The second section of this chapter examines three types of reading assessment that might contribute to describing students' engaged reading in the unit. These assessments include paper

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