Which assessment strategy can be utilized to monitor literacy development?

Observational assessments and informal reading inventories are effective strategies for monitoring literacy development because they provide educators with a holistic view of a child's progress over time. Observations allow teachers to assess how students interact with texts, engage in discussions, and apply literacy skills in various contexts. This method can capture nuances in a student's literacy development that standardized tests may overlook, such as their interest in reading and their enthusiasm for learning.

Informal reading inventories complement these assessments by offering structured, yet flexible ways to evaluate a student's reading level, fluency, comprehension, and word recognition skills. Such inventories often consist of running records, where teachers can document a student’s reading behaviors and strategies in real-time. By using both observational assessments and informal inventories, educators can tailor their instruction to meet individual learning needs, provide ongoing support, and celebrate growth in literacy over time.

Other strategies, such as standardized testing alone, focus on specific metrics that may not reflect a comprehensive understanding of a student's literacy capabilities. Peer reviews and essay collections, while valuable for evaluating writing skills and collaboration, do not provide the same breadth of insight into fundamental literacy skills. Similarly, using sight word assessments exclusively limits the understanding of a student's overall literacy development and does not account for comprehension and application skills necessary for successful reading