B.A.S.
Who knew?
Not me.
This is not to be confused with Benchmark Advance which just so happens to be our new Language Arts Curriculum. Nope. This is different.
This is Fountas and Pinnell.
When I shared this on Instagram, everyone asked if it was B.A.S. And I was like um, I don’t know. But now that I’ve read the title on the box, I get it. It is B.A.S.
And, even though we’ve been using the Alpha Kids Readers and Running Record Assessment kit, and assessing our students with it for years, it’s time to move on. Because why not? Why not change everything all the time?
I do it myself in my classroom. I’m constantly reevaluating and reflecting and thinking I can make things better and I’m constantly adjusting. I drive myself crazy, but there you go. It’s true.
But.
I’m going to state an opinion here. Hold onto your hats. And your horses. And whatever else.
In my opinion, teaching reading has NOT changed.
It hasn’t.
There has been no new invention in which to teach reading.
Seriously.
And I know because I’ve been teaching reading for 22 years. Okay, let me rephrase. I’ve been teaching for 22 years.
Wait. That’s not accurate either.
I’ve been working with children for 22 years. Those first couple of years, I’m not so sure how much teaching or teaching of reading I did because I didn’t know what I was doing except reveling in the fact that I had my own classroom and someone was paying me to show up every day. And I got paid the big bucks in 1997, let me tell you. $27,000, to be exact. I thought I was rich! If only I could go back in time and pat myself on my wee little head.
Those first couple of classes are now young adults and I just hope someone, somewhere along the way taught them to read because I really don’t think I did. Insert shoulder shrug here. I’m just being HONEST.
In all that time, in all of the trainings I’ve gone to, in all of the professional development I’ve been a part of, even when I earned my Master’s, nothing has changed.
We all teach letters and sounds, and then blending, and then throw in some sight words, and we use a student’s name, and BAM! He can read a sentence such as I am Collin. She can read I am Madison. Add some pictures and then Caden can read I see the cat. It’s exciting! It’s rewarding! IT IS THE BEST FEELING IN ALL THE WORLD.
And, of course, there are students who take longer than others to read. And I won’t go into students with visual processing disorders, or special needs, or this or that. That’s a whole ‘nother thing.
I’m just saying that teaching children HOW TO READ has not changed in all these years I’ve been doing it.
The STUFF has changed, but the HOW has not. There are new ideas and fun ways to teach letters and sounds, and blending, but it still boils down to the same thing. We’re still teaching letters and sounds (and those certainly haven’t changed).
This brand new kit that I just received is a BEAST.
I went to the training on Monday. The first hour and a half was ALL ABOUT THE KIT. What is this and what is that, and HOW TO PROPERLY TAKE A RUNNING RECORD.
And I thought to myself don’t be that know-it-all teacher, be humble, listen and learn, and take something away from this that you might not know!
But guess what? The proper way to take a running record hasn’t changed, either.
This kit has its own way of checking for comprehension and this kit is leveled by letters, whereas I’m used to levels by numbers, but other than that, nothing has changed.
By the way, that Literacy Continuum book weighs TEN POUNDS. It is no joke. It could seriously be in a gym in the free weights section.
The second half of the training was all about guided reading.
The power point slide started with what is guided reading?
And then why guided reading?
Followed by how to do guided reading.
Well. Wouldn’t that have been such a great training for me 22 years ago?
Anyways.
All of this has got me thinking. I know. Watch out.
And here’s what I’m thinking.
Are we really and truly completely and utterly concerned that a student substitutes does not for doesn’t, and then we count it as an error every single time it shows up in the book, which is six times, which means he didn’t “pass the book”, even though it didn’t change the meaning of the story, and he could retell the entire story in extreme detail?
I MEAN! Who decided this is what I want to know?
Aren’t I the teacher? Don’t I know this student the best? Don’t I read with him in reading groups every day and can pretty much tell you without hesitation which level he’ll be able to “pass” and what words might trip him up, and that in the end, HE IS A READER, regardless of what this assessment leveled book and Continuum such and such says?
I’m just saying.
UGH.
I don’t know if I’m making sense.
And don’t worry.
I follow the rules.
I count it as an error every time, but I’m rolling my eyes so hard in my head they’re about to pop out and roll across the floor.
Well, that is all for today.
Just my thoughts.
I went to the training on Monday and this box has been in my car since then because it’s heavy, and I haven’t bothered to figure out a way to get it to my classroom while I’m carrying my purse, my lunch, my coffee, and rolling my big teacher roller bag.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, I took it out of my car and lugged it upstairs to my office so I could take pictures of it.
I have to get it to my classroom on Monday because the district has provided subs for us so that we can use this kit and conduct running records on our students all day. Which is so so so nice. But someone at another school said it took her between 25 and 40 minutes per kid.
And I’m not a numbers girl in any way, but I think that pretty much means I’ll get to six or seven kids and then it will be time to go home.
So wish me luck.
🙂
You are lucky to have subs. My district has been using this for years, and beginning last year they decided we didn’t need subs for it. I have second and third grade, so the texts and discussions can get lengthy… I feel like I’ve been assessing forevvvvvvverrrr.
Didn’t need subs???!!! How do you do it without subs?! That’s awful!
It took me all of first quarter to complete the benchmark assessments 😑 We don’t get subs either. I teach special needs so I have less kids but the problem is their independent work skills aren’t as developed so even though I was trying to benchmark other students, I was constantly being interrupted.
I live in Canada and my school division embraced B.A.S. about 6 years ago. There is a lot of sturr that is unnecessary. I taught Gr1 for 35 years and saw a lot of programs come and go. There is always a bandwagon to jump on and this is the latest. We were always told to use your “best teacher judgement “ when scoring running revords. So that’s exactly what I did! Reading is all about meaning and if an error doesn’t hinder the meaning I never really counted it. Hope this helps. I love reading your blog.
Thank you so much for your thoughts!! That is really helpful!! THANK YOU!
We had been using the kit in my district for several years, and it would take forever to find a students level. Last year I learned about the word list which is in the assessment book, and based on how many words the students could read off the list it tells you which level to start with. That saved me a lot of time this year!
Oh wow!! Thanks for the amazing tip!!
Be careful with the word lists…they’ve only been helpful for me with higher end students 🙂
I agree with you 💯%!! Just started this in our district this year!! I’ve been teaching 31 years and always produce readers. This is a little much. We were told about the word list in training. You speak for so many others when you say who decides that this is what we want to know and why punish a child for a repeated error. Perhaps some of us could develop an assessment product for students ourselves. We know what we need and want from our students. It is sad to do something as long as I have to be forced to use something like this and not really believe in it. I can tell you about my students and what they do well with and what they need more help with. But as you said I will test away and follow all of someone else’s guidelines to assess my kids. You’ll get it done. Over about six days I finally finished. Between Hurricane days and this F and P I have never felt so far behind with my students. Thank you for saying what so many of us feel.
It’s our second year with BAS (not counting the pilot year) and for first graders, I do not have them fill out the writing portion of the BAS recording sheet. I see their writing in plenty of other places, and I get a good enough idea of their comprehension when they retell. We have other fluency measures (Dibels) so I don’t do a time reading either. I don’t know if I’ll ever internalize the letter system of leveling after so many years of DRA numbers!
Have you survived Unit 1 of Benchmark this year?
Oh my district uses the same program! I do it in KINDERGARTEN where some of my kids still aren’t ready to read when we do our first assessments in January. And it’s sooo subjective too with errors. I never got training when I started 5 years ago and I know every single teacher assesses students differently. Ugh! Good luck! On the bright side, we get subs too and it means I can drink my coffee hot while they are reading and can go to the bathroom whenever I want during the day! 😉
I have been teaching for 30 years. I have taught Kindergarten and first grade in one school district, and I have also seen several educational fads in reading come and go. This is the MOST time-consuming assessment that I have ever had to use! I do not feel that I am TEACHING reading, but constantly assessing. We had subs for 1 day, and I assessed 6 of my 23 students in that time–working through my planning time and the students’ specials time. I had to work in the other assessments during my teaching time for the next week. We now have to write RIMPS (reading improvement plans) for each student who is reading below grade level–which is most of them, since it is the beginning of the school year. We also have to assess those children on RIMPS every other week. I am so stressed about this! When did children learning to read become so data-based?!! Reading should be fun and exciting and full of “aha moments” when children figure out words on their own, and figure out the meaning of a word or the sentence/thought! I just do not understand what our administrators are thinking!
OMG thank you for your “rant”. I too went to the training this week and my box is still in my car. I am appalled that we spent the entire time learning how to do guided reading. What the what??? After 25 years of teaching I would hope I know how to do guided reading. Let’s be honest we use whatever we can to get these kiddos to read, I didn’t need another kit to add to my collection. Thanks for your honesty, I know we all feel some validation from your insight!
We have used the Fountas and Pinnell BAS kits for years and just received the updated version last spring. I love it! Yes, it takes time to assess, but I get so much valuable information on each kid and how to best instruct them. The new comprehension sections are wonderful! I teach second grade and don’t know what I’d do without this assessment kit. Really! By the way, I have been teaching for 44 years and there is ALWAYS something new–something I could do better!
I just wish we could go back to Saxsan
Thank you so much for your candor and thoughts. It is nice to know the frustration and feelings I am having with the DISTRICT thinking they are reinventing the wheel with bringing on what they think is NEW WAYS of teaching-and assessing is the same others are feeling.
You made me laugh and smile with some of your comments since that is exactly the way I feel.
🙂
I’ve have been reading your blog for YEARS. Like probably your first post. I found it so affirming and inspiring in my first years of teaching. Now as an Academic Coach, I support the teachers at my site mostly with guided reading. It is an amazing job that is rewarding daily.
Please don’t think whatever trainer that’s authorized by Fountas and Pinnell was meant to bring you something new, or different.
Obviously as you previously stated… teaching reading has NOT changed. However, the depth and complexity teachers usually spend time in assessing, diagnosing, and prescribing instruction has been less than ideal in many classrooms. The BAS assists the teacher in seeing just how the child thinks within, beyond, and about a text. And more importantly the level to which we SHOULD analyze and discuss text.
Their continuum is not meant as a checklist per level, but as a professional resource to see what students might need to reach greater heights.
I’ve been using the BAS now for two years, and I have seen the deep (not superficial) conversations my teachers have about their students like nothing ever before. It really set them up for success in facilitating comprehension conversations worthy of high school AP classes in elementary school! We are shaping our kids into critical thinkers and insightful human beings – at a high poverty school in California. It’s not just about check, check, check…good job kid!
It’s about stretching them. Growing them. Shaping their minds.
Give it a chance and approach it as the best teaching gift you’ve ever received. It’s all what you make of it.
YES. it takes forever. But YES. You will get faster.
And YES. You are the teacher with the final say. Use your judgement.
Don’t approach it as fitting everyone into a level … it’s so much more than that.
Our school has been adding BAS one grade level at a time. So right now K-3 uses it and next year 4th will use it too. Even though I teach 4th grade I had to attend a training on it before school started. (I still don’t know why I got training this year instead of next year. That’s one of those admin decisions we will never understand. Shoulder shrug.)
All of the stuff seemed very overwhelming but the Literacy Continuum book is actually pretty great. I’m going to go ahead and reference that one this year. One on the blue sections in it near the back tells you everything a student at that level can do. It has a red dot (or is it a star?) next to it to let you know it is new at that reading level. Then it lists the things that student needs to be able to do to get to the next reading level. I personally had never seen something like that so I was pretty amazed!
Good luck!!!
Our district adopted this a couple years ago. Here are some takeaways:
1. Yep, it takes 20 – 30 minutes per kid…PER LEVEL! We have to find all 3 levels (independent, instructional, frustration). No, we don’t get subs either!
2. Yep, we teach kids HOW to answer the comprehension questions well before they should be ready (what is the genre and how do you know?, how did the author organize this text?, how does this lesson make you think what you can do in your own life?, why does the author tell it from this perspective?, etc)
3. Nope, it is not a fair assessment of student’s ability to understand a text. The comprehension questions are well above age-appropriate.
4. The best part about it is the continuum. Very valuable guide for reading groups.
I have found BAS to be the MOST time consuming reading assessment ever. We have so little time as it is. I just want to teach!
My district had been doing it the same way as your district for YEARS!!!!! Then last year we began a new way of reading instruction. A program called Success For All. We went cold turkey from preschool all the way to fifth grade. We hired literacy coaches, a reading consultant, and FOUR interventionists!!!! It is like HEAVEN!!!! We were skeptical at first especially those of us that have been around the block!!
All of our testing and running records are done for us by pulling kids out throughout the day. We started school on September 4th. ALL the children in the whole school have been tested with Fountas and Pinnell and the SFA tests. We started school wide reading last Monday and intervention groups start tomorrow. All children in the school (with the exception of Pre K and K) have reading instruction for 85 minutes every day at their level!!! Pre K and Kdg is an all day program. The sizes of reading groups are smaller (14-20)than your homeroom (28-31).
I have moved to kindergarten this year and am LOVING the Kinder Corner program. It is SO age appropriate. ALL of our kindergarten children with the exception of 6 were ready for first grade!!! EXCITING!!! How to teach children to read hasn’t changed but this new program has been a game changer for us!!
Thanks for being willing to say what’s REAL. I love teaching. I love my students. I love my colleagues. I DON”T love the constant changes. This is my 2nd year with B.A.S., and I hate it less than I did the year before! That’s all I can say for now. 🙂
Jan
Laughter and Consistency