Kaitlyn Addison

Literacy Assessment

This literacy assessment was completed with my case study child. She is clearly an emergent reader. The Pre-K assessments were carried out until she was unable to complete an assignment, the Letter-Sound Production activity. This child was pulled out of class three separate times to administer the entire assessment. While she was excited to help and felt special at first, she quickly learned she was missing out on free playtime with her friends. At the Young Children’s Program the children are typically assessed in their classroom through observation. This type of assessment was difficult to complete due to the unfamiliar idea of assessment to the child. She learned notes were being taken about her answers and quickly became insecure stating “I don’t want to do anymore activities.” While it was challenging to assess her, she did well completing the majority of the activities for Pre-K.

Picture and Name Task:

She says “pink” when choosing a marker to draw her picture. She stated she was drawing a box for “big bad boys” and a little box “in between those ones for trash.” She draws a sad face because they are “bad boys.” She said, “This is the bad boys club.” She draws more boxes saying “hundreds of boxes” explaining there are so many “so the bad boys can’t get out.” After drawing this scene, she picks up a red marker and draws “a net for fish.” She said her friend, Chloe, and her sister went “fishing” but later says they were just went “duck looking.” She then draws a “big door for the house.” She is drawing a house and says it’s “big.” She draws “her room” and “Chloe’s room,” her friend. She draws Chloe’s room smaller because she realizes Chloe does not live with her. Then she draws “mommy’s room…really big.”

She is able to write her name on her own but writes the y backwards and uses some uppercase letters. When she messes up on the second e she states, “I just need to write big case.”

Concepts About Print Task:

Another day, the child was asked if she would like to go to the special conference table to do some activities. After she agreed, she was given the choice of which chair she wanted to sit in, the office chair, the orange chair, or the normal green chair. We would read the book called “Let it Fall” book by Maryann Cocca-Leffler. After beginning to read the book to her and she was asked the listed questions. When asked to show the title of the book, after she had already been told the title name, she could not identify the title. She pointed to the word Scholastic at the bottom of the front of the book. When asked how to read the page, she did not respond. The text of this particular book was not in a straight vertical line, which could have skewed the results. Also, when asked to identify a period, she was unsure. After talking to my cooperating teacher, she stated the majority of her students did not know what a period was but were able to identify the title and the directionality of reading. Overall, she received a 9/12 on this task due to these missed questions. She was able to answer the other questions with ease. She stated that her parents read to her at home.

Rhyme:

When completing the rhyme assessment, she was read the sample of duck, ball, and truck. When she did not understand why duck and truck rhymed, it was explained that they had the same ending sounds of “uck.” She got number three correct, rhyming “mop” and “shop” and number six with “snake” and “cake.” She realized she was being assessed by the markings that were made after she answered. Therefore, she started to feel insecure. After this activity she asked if we could stop doing “activities.” She knew she was not doing well and did not understand rhyming, therefore making her insecure.

Letter Identification:

She was enticed to finish the assessment by completing it outside on the picnic table. When walking outside she was asked her if she knew her letters. She responded “no” and then started using baby talk (“gagaga”) because she did not want to complete the activity. She recognized and said all of the letters correctly. Towards the end she began saying a word that started with the given letter. For example, for the letter “B” she said “B for Bridget,” one of her classmates. She also said all of the letters that were in her name when she was requested to identify the specific letters. After she identified all of the listed letters, this activity ended and she was told she did know all of her letters. This gave her motivation and confidence to complete more activities for the assessment.

Letter Production:

She was able to write the letters when asked without hesitation. The letters she was unable to produce were “k” and “d.” However, she did write a letter that appears to look like an upside down upper case T. It was evident she knew this letter had a symbol. She had five reversals total including “m” “n” “y” “r” and “w.” She actually wrote “m” for “w” and “w” for “m.”

Letter-Sound Production:

She knew the sound for the first letter “B” because she stated Bridget’s name and sounded out the beginning. She shrugged her shoulders when asked to say what the letters “S” “R” “F” and “W” sounded like. When asked for the sounds of “T” and “O” she replied with the corresponding letter sounds. For “T” she also included “t for teeth.” For “J” she said “gee.” When asked what “A” sounds like she replied “Abbey” and then the correct “A” sound. For “H” she said the sound for “Ch.” After she had missed six letter-sound productions and started to loose interest, the assessment was completed.

Development of Child:

Overall, this child can be categorized as an emergent reader. In the concept of word category she is still developing in finger pointing when reading along. This was seen during the Concepts of Print Task portion of the assessment. In this activity it is evident she knows the majority of concept of print goals, but still struggles with punctuation, the title location on a book, and directionality of reading. In the alphabet instructional goal, the child is able to recognize her letters. This was demonstrated in the Letter Identification portion of the assessment. She was able to correctly recognize all of the letters and sometimes state a word that started with the given letter. She is still developing in the language play/phonological awareness category due to her achievement on the Rhyming portion of the assessment. She did not understand the concept. In the writing goal, she is able to write all of her letters, but does not correctly write the letters “k” and “d.” She also reverses a few of her letters. While she struggles with writing a few letters, she knows how to write her name on her own. She also has a creative imagination when drawing. She is developing appropriately for a four year old and will be ready to read well once or before she enters kindergarten.

Recommendations for Teaching:

The teacher is creating a learning environment for all five of the instructional goals. During transitions and at group time finger plays are sung by the teacher and class. While the student knows the finger plays since they are repetitive and sang over and over, the teacher may want to consider having the words of the finger play on a poster and pointing to the words rather than acting out the finger play. This would allow students to further their learning concerning concept of word. During group time a story is read every day to increase the idea of concept of print. The student can listen to stories, retell some stories with props or dialogue, and analyze the illustrations during and after the read aloud. One suggestion may be to create a storyboard wall to allow the student to sort the words and pictures of the story. This is not offered in my practicum but students would find it very useful. Occasionally at the end of group time, the class will play alphabet bingo. This is beneficial for the alphabet instructional goal. This game has been played twice but the students should be allowed to play individually in groups when it would not be played as a group at the end of the day. The teacher should incorporate an alphabet bulletin board with each letter listed and a picture of an object that started with the letter. For example, for “A” there would be an apple. This would provide the students with more phonemic awareness. Students are able to write and draw in any center, but the materials are usually kept in the writing center. Clipboards with paper and writing utensils could be provided at every center to ensure students the opportunity to write and draw about their experiences at other centers. The teacher must focus more on the language play instructional goal. The child was unfamiliar with the concept of rhyming. While the finger plays and read alouds often rhyme the teacher should inform the students to listen to the rhyme. She could possibly sing a finger play while the students listen to the ending sounds. She could then discuss why some words rhyme and the ending sounds of words.