Unison Oral
Response
One way that we can monitor students is through unison oral responding. Having students respond together gives teachers increased information on how the group is doing. If the teacher hears mistakes, or students are hesitant in their responding, for example, the teacher can go over the task again or repeat some prerequisite activities to ensure student success.
Individual Turns
Another way that teachers can monitor student success is through individual turns. After students have responded orally as a group, the teacher can direct questions to individual students. The teacher might call this activity "time for turns." If a teacher wishes to use individual turns, the students' names should be placed at the end of the directive provided by the teacher. For example, if the teacher wants a student to read the next sentence in a paragraph, she might say, "Read the next sentence, Sally." If she wants a student to answer a question based on understanding what is going on in a story, she might say, "What did the cowboy say to his horse, Jason?" On the other hand, if a teacher says a student's name first, followed by the question or directive, the rest of the class is "off the hook" and may not pay attention to what the teacher says. Saying, "Jason, what did the cowboy say to his horse?" may cue only Jason to listen to and think about/answer the question.
Group Response
When it comes to answering comprehension questions, teachers should turn every individual response into a group response. For example, say the question was, "Name something that Sally did well." Juan provides a response. The teacher can then say, "So, everybody, what was one thing she did well?" This questioning technique will keep students focused on what other students say.
In-program
Assessments
Another monitoring technique that teachers should use involves in-program assessments (reading evaluation, including curriculum-based assessment/measurement, will be covered in-depth in the next course). These assessments include rate and accuracy checks built into reading programs (e.g., students are timed as they read selected passages in the program; they often can graph their rate of words read per minute as well as their accuracy of words read), mastery tests, take home assignments, workbook assignments, and comprehension checks. These in-program assessments provide teachers with valuable information about how students are performing in the school. If students experience difficulties on these assessments, it should alert teachers that more focused work is needed on the skills covered by the assessment.