Assessment
Continuing assessment is critical to the success of AL. By assessing students' literacy levels prior to commencing AL and then at regular intervals (for example, the beginning of Term One and the end of Term Four), teachers and students are able to see real evidence of literacy improvement over time, as well as areas that may need attention.
School Level Assessment
This includes oral reading assessment (Observational Reading Records) and reading comprehension assessment.
There are two types of oral reading assessment both of which are critical for NALP:
1. IL - Individual Level assesses reading from texts which have not been taught in class and which are sometimes known as ‘unseen’, ‘unfamiliar’ or ‘unsupported’ texts. These texts have been assigned a ‘benchmark’ level matching them with a school year level. Teachers monitoring students reading these texts are assessing their ability to transfer decoding strategies to new texts without the meaning support given by literate orientation.
2. WL - Working Level assesses work on texts that have been taught in class – the ‘familiar’, ‘seen’ or ‘taught’ texts – which students will be reading only after they have been taught about language choices during literate orientation. Teachers will be assessing how accurately the student can read these texts.
System Level Assessment
The central and most important evaluation of literacy levels of Northern Territory students is the Multilevel Assessment Program (MAP) testing. All students in Years 3, 5 and 7, including those in schools that are partners in NALP, will undergo MAP testing. Students in NALP schools in other states will also undergo whatever system-level testing their State or Territory requires.