Reading aloud is an important practice in ELA classrooms and is often used. Typically, the teacher or students read aloud, and once the reading is finished, the class discusses the content of the related chapters or passages. I created the lesson plan that follows as a response to my personal experience with divided attention or passive listening when reading in class.
Assessment has and always will be a troublesome point for language arts educators because of the subjective nature of students’ work. Subjects such as high school mathematics and biology are assessed with clear parameters; the knowledge intended for students is already (hopefully) understood by the educator and provable by logical or demonstratable principles. This approach may not be taken by ELA educators because assessments often require them to place a value judgment on the ideas, thoughts and feelings of their students. Discussions of assessment become yet more nuanced in an era of social media and economic competition.