read 366 early literacy assessment - … · ... the following assessments were given to her: •...

Camille Deal READ 366 Section 1

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Early Literacy Assessment

The child I chose to complete the Literacy Assessment for is a four-year-old girl in a

preschool class at Stone Spring Elementary School. The assessment is made up of tasks

from Words Their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, and PALS Quick

Checks. The assessment was administered over a three-week period so that the child

wouldn’t get restless in one sitting. The point of the assessment is to help the teacher

identify where the child currently falls in literacy development. Because the child is a

pre-kindergarten student, the following assessments were given to her:

• Picture and Name task

• Concepts About Print Task

• Rhyme

o If child misses 5 out of 9 rhyming words, go to Letter Identification. If the

child is successful on rhyming continue with tasks in this order.

• Beginning Sounds

• Letter Identification

o If child misses 5-6, end here. If child is successful, complete other tasks

listed below. If at any time child misses 5-6 items, end the task and do not

go on.

• Letter Production

• Letter-Sound Production

• Concept of Word

This particular child was chosen to complete this early literacy assessment because

she has shown very strong literacy skills in during classroom activities. The child is a


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very strong student- she typically completes all classwork assigned in a timely manner. In

large and small group settings she usually does not speak up if she is not called on.

However, when she is called on she typically is able to answer questions correctly and

with confidence. She is bilingual- she can speak both English and Spanish.

Picture and Name Task

The first part of the assessment was for the student to draw a picture on a blank

sheet of paper. The child was given verbal directions to write her name at the bottom of

the sheet. Once the child completed her picture, she was asked to talk about her picture.

Her response was recorded. Here is the picture that the child completed:


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The child wrote her name at the top of the paper instead of the bottom of the page.

When asked to describe the picture, she responded, “My picture is me. I’m number four

years old. I can do the number 4. I have hair. Those are my eyes, nose, mouth, arms, and

knees so I can stand. Those are my feet so I can walk.”

When the child said, “I can do the number four”, she wrote the number four in the

upper right hand corner of the paper. As she described all of the body parts of her

drawing she pointed to each area in her picture.

Concepts About Print Task

The child was read a story from the classroom library. The story was a level C or

D book. It was a very simple book about a dog. The person giving the assessment let the

child know that she would be reading a story and she would need the child’s help to do

so. The teacher giving the assessment read the story to the child. Upon completion of the

story the teacher handed the book to the child. The teacher then had the following

conversation with the child:

Teacher: Can you show me the front of the book?

Student: Turned the book to the cover and pointed.

Teacher: Can you show me the back of the book?

Student: Flipped the book over and pointed to the back of the book.

Teacher: That’s correct. Can you show me where the title of the story is?

Student: Turned the book back to the cover and pointed to the first word of the title.

Teacher: That is right! Reads title of book. Where would we begin reading the story?


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Student: Turned to the first page of the book and pointed to the first word.

Teacher: Okay, I am going to read a page aloud to you again. Reads page. Can you show

me a picture?

Student: Points to the illustrations on the same page.

Teacher: You know a lot about books! Let’s read another page. Reads page. Now, can

you show me a letter on this page?

Student: Any letter?

Teacher: Yes, any letter on this page.

Student: Points to the first letter on the page. The letter was “T”.

Teacher: Can you show me a word?

Student: Points to the center of the first word. The word was “The”.

Teacher: Flips page. Can you show me the first letter in a word on this page?

Student: Points to the letter “T” on the new page. The word was “The”.

Teacher: Awesome. Can you show me the last letter in a word on this page?

Student: Points to the letter “g”. The word was “dog”.

Teacher: Can you show me how I would read this page?

Student: Looks up at teacher with a confused look.

Teacher: Which way do I read the words?

Student: Shrugs shoulders.

Teacher: We read words left to right. Slides finger across page. Can you do that?

Student: Slides finger across the page.

Teacher: Let’s see… can you show me an uppercase or capital letter?

Student: Thinks for a couple of seconds, then points to a “T”. The word was “The”.


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Teacher: Okay, here’s my last question. Points to a period. What’s that? Do you know

what that is called?

Student: Shrugs shoulders. I don’t know.

Teacher: That is called a period. It shows the end of a sentence. We are all done! Thank

you for working so hard!

The child got a total of 10 out of the 12 questions asked correct. This is about

83% proficiency when it comes to concepts about print.

Rhyme

This assessment consists of showing the student the rhyming words page from the

assessment packet. The teacher took a piece of paper to cover the rest of the page, so only

one row of pictures was showing at one time. The assessment went as follows:

Teacher: Okay, now we are going to talk about rhyming words. Do you know what

rhyming words are?

Student: No.

Teacher: Rhyming words are words that sound the same. So let’s look at these pictures.

Shows only the example row. The first picture is a duck. Then we have a ball and a truck.

Which pictures have words that sound the same? Duck, ball, truck?

Student: Points to the duck and truck. Duck and truck.

Teacher: Wow! That was excellent. Can you circle the two that rhyme? Let’s do some

more just like that. Shows row #1. Which words rhyme- bear, keys, or cheese?


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Student: Thinks for a couple of seconds. Keys and cheese. Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #2. How about bed, bread, or sock?

Student: That’s easy. Bed and bread. Circles answer.

Teacher: You’re right! I can tell that you have had practice with rhyming words before.

Shows row #3. What about mop, jar, or shop?

Student: Mop and shop! Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #4. Box, bell, or shell?

Student: Bell and shell. Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #5. Bug, rug, or cat?

Student: Bug and rug! Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #6. Snake, cake, or fish?

Student: Snake and cake! Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #7. Feet, pan, or man?

Student: Pan and man. Circles answer.

Teacher: We are almost done, only two more. Shows row #8. Clock, rock, or fan?

Student: Clock and rock. Circles answer.

Teacher: Shows row #9. Okay, last one. Star, cup, or car?

Student: Star and car. Circles answer.

Teacher: You did a fabulous job! You were able to find all of the matching sounds!

The child did really well with rhyming words. After defining what rhyming words

were, she was able to successfully name all of the rhyming sounds from the pictures

shown. Initially, she was slowly choosing her answers, but as she got further along into


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the assessment she was able to name the rhyming words almost immediately after the

teacher read them aloud.

Beginning Sounds

Because the child was successful with rhyming words, the teacher moved on to

the beginning sounds assessment. The teacher places her finger on the first picture in

each row. The teacher then says the word that the picture is showing. The teacher then

says what the other pictures in the row are. The child is asked to circle the picture that has

the same beginning sound as the first picture. The assessment went as follows:

Teacher: Okay, lets do the example together. This picture is a sun. Remember, we are

looking for the same beginning sound. Here is a book, soap, and a plane. Which picture

has the same beginning sound as sun?

Student: Thinks for about 5 seconds. Sun and soap.

Teacher: Great job! I like how you really thought about that one. Can you circle it for

me?

Student: Circles the soap.

Teacher: How about nose? Which word has the same beginning sound as nose- fan, kite,

or nine?

Student: Nine. Circles nine.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as rabbit- rug, dog, or leaf?

Student: Rug. Circles rug.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as lamp- cat, toe, or log?


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Student: Log. Circles log.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as watch- web, plate, or bus?

Student: Web. Circles web.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as belt- cat, yo-yo, or bird?

Student: Bird. Circles bird.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as pie- pig, ball, or gum?

Student: Pig. Circles pig.

Teacher: Which word has the same beginning sound as zebra- key, zipper, or hand?

Student: Zipper. Circles zipper.

Teacher: Okay, last one. Which word has the same beginning sound as dog- airplane,

leaf, or desk?

Student: Desk. Circles desk.

Teacher: Great job! You are listening very closely to hear those beginning sounds!

Just like with the rhyming assessment, the child took her time to listen for the

beginning sounds at the beginning of the assessment. After the first couple of examples,

the child was able to go through all of the beginning sounds without hesitating. She

answered all of the questions correctly.

Letter Identification

Because the child was successful in completing the beginning sounds assessment,

the teacher moved on to letter identification assessment. The child was shown a sheet of

paper with capital letters of the alphabet mixed up. The teacher points to each letter and


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has the child identify each letter. The teacher is to mark through the scorecard any letters

that the child says incorrectly and write what they said instead.

The child was able to correctly identify all 26 letters of the alphabet. She did this

with ease and did not hesitate with any letters.

Letter Production

Because the child was successful in completing the letter identification

assessment, the teacher moved on to letter production assessment. The teacher calls out a

sequence of letters listed on the scorecard. The student is to write the letters on a separate

sheet of paper as they are called out. The teacher can accept either upper or lowercase

letters. Reversals are scored as correct, but noted. Here is the child’s work:

As you can see, the child was able to write all of the letters of the alphabet. There

are no reversals in her writing. The only letter that the child struggles with is the letter

“J”. Her letter “J” looks like a backwards lowercase “t” because she draws the line at the


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top of the letter slightly underneath the curved line. This was also seen earlier when she

wrote her name.

Letter-Sound Production

Because the child was successful in completing the letter production assessment,

the teacher moved onto the letter-sound production assessment. The teacher would

display the letter sound production sheet to the child and point to each letter or

combination and have the child tell the sound the letters make. The teacher would only

mark the sounds that the child says incorrectly on the scorecard and write what the child

says instead beside the letter.

The child correctly sounded out 22 of the 26 letter and letter sounds presented to

her. The letter sounds that she was unable to identify were “U” and “G”. For the letter

“U”, the child said the sound of the letter “W” and for the letter “G” the child said the

sound of the letter “J”. The letter combinations that the child was unable to identify were

“Th” and “Ch”. The child did not say anything for these sounds.

Concept of Word

Because the child was successful in the letter-sound production assessment, the

teacher moved onto the final assessment, concept of word. For this assessment the

teacher would introduce the poem “Teddy Bear” to the child. The teacher would show the

pictures to the poem and have the child say the poem with her until the child memorized

it. Once the child memorized the poem, the teacher would introduce the words and model


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touching each word as she reads. The teacher would then ask for the child to touch each

word as she said the poem.

The child received a score of 16 out of 32 for this assessment. When it came to

pointing to the words, the child was able to point in the right direction of left to right, but

she had a hard time staying on the correct word. Instead she would move her finger to the

rhythm of the poem. The child was not really paying attention to the actual text on the

page, so she only pointed to one of the highlighted words in each line.

Evaluation/Remarks/Reccomenations

After completing the full early literacy assessment, it is clear that the child falls

under the emergent reader category. Emergent readers are beginning to understand the

concepts of books, print and words. These readers are also developing the ability to

recognize and name upper and lowercase letters and their phonological sounds. Emergent

readers are developing a sense of phonological awareness- this was seen through the

child’s ability to recognize phonemes and rhyme patters.

It is clear that this child has an understanding of all of these concepts because of

how well she did on the assessment. The only place where the child struggled was with

the concept of word. This is typical for emergent readers, and over time these skills will

develop and become much stronger as the child begins to read.

As the teacher administering the assessment, I would recommend that the child

continue to work in all of the areas tested. The teacher can evenly break up instructional

reading times into 5 parts, and spend 20% of the time on each part. Below are suggestions


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on how to do this. Let’s say that the child is spending 30 minutes a day on reading

instruction. Here is an emergent reader diet that I would create for this particular student:

• Concept of word (6 minutes): In order to help build these skills, teachers or

parents can sing nursery rhymes to the child and have the words to the nursery

rhymes in front of them. Have the child practice placing their finger under each

word as the nursery rhyme is recited. Another activity that teachers and parents

can do is to have repeated readings of a small, emergent reader books and have

the reader point to each of the words as they read the book. With continued

readings of the book, you can have the child begin to read the story with you

(from memory) and have them point to each word as they read the story.

• Concept of print (6 minutes): The child can continue to have stories read aloud

to her. Something that teachers or parents can try is to have the child retell the

stories back to them after readings. This could be verbally, drawing pictures,

using felt boards, acting out the story etc. The teachers can choose to re-read

books or to read new books each day.

• Alphabet (6 minutes): Have the child continue to practice letter recognition. This

child is particularly good at identifying letters and their sounds, so you can take it

a step further and have the child play games where they sort different pictures of

items by the beginning sounds they make. You could also have the child come up

with as many words as they can that starts with a particular letter. Depending on

how successful the child is with this activity, you can increase the difficulty level

by choosing more difficult sounds or even include sound combinations.


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• Language play/phonological awareness (6 minutes): The child demonstrated

that she was very strong in this area. Ways to continue to build these skills are to

play fun rhyming games. There are a bunch of board games that help build

rhyming skills. If teachers are unable to find one, they can create their own!

Because this particular child did really well with the rhyming assessment, teachers

can take it a step further and introduce syllables to the child. Teachers can say a

variety of different words and show the child that she can clap and count how

many syllables are in words.

• Writing (6 minutes): Teachers can continue to work with this child by having

her practice writing her letters and encouraging for her to write them neatly. This

child wrote mostly capital letters in the assessment, so teachers could try to

introduce lowercase letters to the child. Also, teachers could work with the child

to write the letter “J” correctly. Another activity that teachers can do is have the

child draw a picture and attempt to write a caption underneath it.

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