How can I use the Assessment Series to plan for instruction?

This article is intended only for customers and partners using the Assessment Series.

The CommonLit Assessment Series is a set of reading comprehension benchmarks that assess students’ grade-level reading skills. Each assessment compares students’ performance to a nationwide sample of grade-level peers. Educators can use this data in combination with other information to inform instructional next steps.

Use the following reflection questions to guide your analysis as you review the Analyze Data page for your class.

Assess Overall Performance and Class Trends 

Take a look at your students’ performance groups. What are the overall trends? Are more students below or approaching grade level than on grade level?

Examine Performance by Skill and Standard

Evaluate your students’ performance on groupings of skills. Which skills might students need additional practice on?

Consider Item-Specific Performance 

Near the bottom of your Analyze Data page, you can download a Question Report to see which questions students answered correctly or incorrectly.

For each question, you can see exactly which skill was assessed. How did your students’ performance compare on the literary and informational passages? Was their performance about the same, or quite different? Were there individual questions or types of questions that your students struggled with most?

Instructional Next Steps

You can use the data you’ve gathered from the assessment to plan an upcoming lesson on CommonLit. For instance, perhaps your 8th grade students had lower performance on Vocabulary & Language questions for this assessment. Head to the CommonLit digital library and filter by grade-level, genre, and/or standard to find an appropriate text to give your students additional practice. 

Once you have identified a lesson, review the differentiation supports available to you on CommonLit to scaffold instruction for students with lower performance. For example, you could enable Guided Reading Mode, modify the annotation task, and/or customize after-reading assessment options to support these students. For students with higher performance, extend learning by reviewing the lesson’s related media activities and discussion prompts. 

For more information on how to analyze class lesson data and monitor student progress on specific skills, check out Module 23 in the Professional Development Portal.

If your school doesn't have access to the Professional Development Portal on CommonLit yet, you can take a look at premium packages that include these high-impact trainings. Learn more about CommonLit PD here.