Monitoring the School Literacy Program

Monitoring the School Literacy Program - "Teachers make many educational decisions about how reading and writing should be taught in the classroom. Some teachers make these decisions intuitively, but a systematic process of monitoring is more effective in promoting students' literacy development. When teachers monitor the school's literacy program, they track the reading progress of their students, the results of different teaching methods, and the value of various materials used. The results of their monitoring activities allow teachers to judge the value of their program--in other words, to evaluate its effectiveness--and to make necessary improvements. Careful and continuous monitoring is an integral part of an effective literacy program because it enables teachers to determine the most effective strategies for teaching reading and writing and because it helps teachers address students' learning problems before these problems seriously affect student achievement. The careful planning of literacy monitoring involves addressing four questions: Why are we evaluating? What are we evaluating? How are we evaluating? How well have we evaluated? An additional question is implied: At what points along the way will the process be monitored?"