Andrea M. Babkie

Teachers as Researchers.

With new laws and increased accountability for teachers, conducting research as a teacher—researcher in ones own classroom is one means by which teachers can help increase student success and also document effective interventions. In this article, the authors provide an overview of the responsibilities and roles of a teacher—researcher and guidelines for conducting research in the classroom.

Informal Reading Inventories Creating Teacher-Designed Literature-Based Assessments

Mandates emphasizing student achievement have increased the importance of appropriate assessment techniques for students in general and special education classrooms. Informal reading inventories (IRIs), designed by classroom teachers, have been proven to be an efficient and effective way to determine students’ strengths, weaknesses, and strategies in the areas of reading fluency, decoding, sight-word recognition, and reading comprehension. Although there are commercially designed IRIs on the market, teachers may often have neither the access nor the funds to purchase them. Additionally, teacher-designed tests provide curriculum-based assessment, thus allowing a direct link between evaluation and instruction. This article gives general and special education teachers working in K—8 classrooms information on why IRIs are important, reasons for creating such inventories specifically for their classrooms, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to create IRIs using quality literature.

Spotlight on Students

IEC Newsletter Editors: Joanne Zitelli & Racheal Wangui. Comments, questions or stories, contact iec@csudh.edu. SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENTS Judith Gomez USAC Spain In fall 2010 Communications major Judith Gomez studied in Madrid at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Courses she completed will count toward her minor in Spanish. Her study abroad experience also resulted in several discoveries: she became more independent and learned the benefits of public transportation; her love of languages blossomed and she plans to add French and Italian to her language skills; and she was offered a marketing job after graduation through a contact she made in Spain.