ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the literacy evaluation lives of two teachers Karen and Lisa. Karen's classroom was restructured for a daily hour- long session, during which her students were all seated for the phonics program. The benefits to the student include curriculum that addresses the student's needs; linguistic, cultural, and social relevance and appropriateness; and the availability of the teacher's full repertoire of teaching possibilities. Lisa learned about kid-watching during an assessment course. Kid-watchers know that teaching, learning, development, and language are complicated by their own and their students' social, political, psychological, linguistic, cultural and spiritual contexts. Kid-watchers are knowledgeable about these and, thus, are informed decision makers. The students from homes in which stories have not been read, at which nightly reading is not a ritual, are the children most open to learning during the school day the very essence of what reading is.
