Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Literature Review
Background Information
The purpose of this case study is to indicate reading readiness of a 5 year-
old male, who was born prematurely. The child is currently enrolled in pre-school. He recently was administered "The Circle Test," which is a standardized test for pre-
school students. Test results of this test are used to determine if the
child is ready for kindergarten.
Personal/Home Life
The subject was born January 18, 2005 and was a premature baby. He
weighed 6 pounds at birth, so he was allowed to come home after his birth.
His parents have been divorced for 2 years. During the first 3 years of his life, he was involved in domestic disputes. The child was caught in the middle of his parents' disputes. His father many times would take the child and leave with him and tell his Mom that she could not see him. Finally, he would let the mom see him after the child continuously cried for her. Both parents have moved as many as 6-8 times within the 5 years of his life. The last year has been the most stable for the child because he lived in the same house for a year. But last month the child moved again with his mom to an apartment. Now his Dad has visitation every other
weekend or sometimes every weekend. His dad at one time moved to Alaska
for 9 months and did not contact the child. During this time the child
would cry for his dad and even say his dad died.
His mom is currently providing a more stable life style for the child. The dad
provides a less stable environment for the child and this could lead to
insecurity that can effect the child in the future.
Other Information
While his mom was pregnant with him, she listened to music. Now, the child
loves music and sings many songs. He knows all the words to many songs.
Therefore, his learning style is as an auditory learner. He loves books
because his mom reads to him as much as possible. Both of his grandparents
read to him also. He knows the alphabet and "The Alphabet Song." He also
knows the syllables in most words. He recognizes words on signs and he
knows how to start the computer and play his games. Leapster2 is a
learning game he loves to play and he also has a SmartCycle that has
learning games. He will sit for hours and play these learning games.
Tests Administered:
Phonemic Awareness- Letter Identification (Clay, 2002)
Informal Classroom Based Assessment- Test of Print Concepts(Bell & McCallum,2008)
Development of word recognition- Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation (Bell & McCallum,2008)
Curriculum Based Assessment- The Circle Test (Idol,2007)
QRI- Level- Pre-Primer (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006)
Book Handling Knowledge Test (McKenna & Stahl)
Other Tests Administered
Kindergarten Readiness Test-(Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010)
Kindergarten Reading Readiness Test-(Williams, 2009)
Observation During Testing
During "The Letter Identification Test," the child would sing the alphabet song to help him remember the letters. At the beginning of the test he wrote the alphabet. During the test he missed some of the same letters he had trouble writing. The words he came up with were his friends names from pre-school.
He also came up with words from books his mom had read him, such as cranium. Other words he came up with were ace, hater, Chum Chum (cartoon character), bacon, faking, faith, whine ,x-ray, Auto-Zone. He missed the letters W,w,u,q,b,k,N,n,V. He was confused with the letters v and y. He also acted like he had never seen a lower case q. His score was 41/54, which is 75% recognition of the letters.
During "The Yopp Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation," the child scored 11/22, which is 50% on this test. While testing, he struggled with blending these letter sounds. He recognizes most of the letters in isolation but he is still struggling with blending the letters to make words. He seemed confused when he saw the letters close together in words. He just turned 5 in January. He also was a premature baby. At this time, he needs more exposure to consonant blends and phonics and word recognition.
When administering "The Test of Print Concepts," he understood most of the concepts. He scored 16/17 which is 99 % on the modified test. He did not point to the bottom of the page when asked to point to it. He also did not turn to the lower line, instead he turned the page. While taking the test he remarked, "This is boring." He commented that he knew sign language. When he was asked to circle one word, he circled 2 words instead. He also circled the whole sentence and he did not circle individual letters. The modified test version was used because he does not know punctuation marks or some of the concepts in the longer version of the test.
Next, “The Book Handling Knowledge Guidelines Test,” was administered. He scored 14/21, which is 66%. He called a period a polka dot. He did not know what commas , quotation marks, or exclamation marks were. When he was asked to show me a lower case letter like a l. He pointed to an exclamation mark. When he was asked to point to two words. He only pointed to one. Therefore, he needs to work on lower case letters and punctuation and word and letter recognition.
The QRI Test was administered next and some sections were modified ,since the child cannot read.The story was read to him. On the first test he scored 8/9- 88%. He was asked, “ what does it mean when something is lost?” He said, “you cannot find it.” He had me draw happy faces and sad faces beside his responses. He retold the story very well.
For the retelling part of the test he scored 70%. He did not tell all the details of the story. He only told about half of the events and then he said, “he found his toy,” which was not mentioned in the story.The last part of the test was the question section and he scored 100%. He got all the questions right.
The Circle Test was administered as a Curriculum Based Test. On this test the child was tested on these things:
Rapid Letter Naming- Score=17= Proficient
Rapid Vocabulary Naming=Score-18 Below Proficient
Phonological Awareness-Score-35= Proficient
Listening-Score-5=Proficient
Rhyming I-Score-8=Proficient
Rhyming II-Score- 3= Proficient
Alliteration-Score- 6=Proficient
Words in a sentence-Score-3= Below Proficient
Syllabication-Score-6=Proficient
Onset rime-Score-4=Proficient
Book and print awareness- Score-7=Occasional or (in the middle).
Social Skills were tested and for the area of regulation of Behavior he scored -occasional , (in the middle).
Math was also tested and he scored proficient in all areas such as rote counting, number discrimination and number naming, Shape discrimination, shape discrimination triangle, shape discrimination square, set counting, and operations.
Summary and Recommendation
Based on observation of the child, the conclusion of this case study is that the child is in the emergent stage of reading. His strengths include phonological awareness, syllabication, and basic concepts for reading. He needs work on word recognition, recognizing words in a sentence, and he needs to develop his fine motor skills. He has some difficulty writing his letters and making them clear. The child scored proficient in all areas of math. His mother was given 2 home surveys that were online and these tests matched the results of “The Circle Test.” (Alphin, 2007). Since he was a premature baby, perhaps in 6 more months he should be reading.
Goals for Improvement:
1. The child needs continued exposure to Predictable books and read-alouds.
2. Focus needs to be on word-recognition while reading books. An activity the child can do is to help him with word recognition is to make his own book at home. He can gather things around the house and create a story about these things. An adult can write for the child and he can try to write the words.
3. The child needs more exposure to lower case letters and consonant blends.
4. The child can play a phoneme deletion word game. For example, he can say the word black, then an adult can say, what is the word without the b? (lack)
5. The child needs to cut out pictures with scissors in order to help develop his fine motor skills. This should help him in his writing of letters.
Works Cited:
1. Bell, S.M., & McCallum, R.S. (2008). Handbook of Reading Assessment. Boston: Pearson. Tests:
2. Idol, L. (2007). Models of curriculum-based assessment (4th ed.), Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
3. Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2006). Qualitative Reading Inventory- 4. New York: Longman.
4. McKenna, M. C. , & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Assessment for reading instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.
5. Clay, M. (2002). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
6. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010 http//www.education.com/topic/ready-for-kindergarten/
7. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Alphin, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Readiness_Indicators/
8. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Cook, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/kindergarten-readiness/
9. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Williams, 2009 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Kindergarten_Reading_What_Happens/
The purpose of this case study is to indicate reading readiness of a 5 year-
old male, who was born prematurely. The child is currently enrolled in pre-school. He recently was administered "The Circle Test," which is a standardized test for pre-
school students. Test results of this test are used to determine if the
child is ready for kindergarten.
Personal/Home Life
The subject was born January 18, 2005 and was a premature baby. He
weighed 6 pounds at birth, so he was allowed to come home after his birth.
His parents have been divorced for 2 years. During the first 3 years of his life, he was involved in domestic disputes. The child was caught in the middle of his parents' disputes. His father many times would take the child and leave with him and tell his Mom that she could not see him. Finally, he would let the mom see him after the child continuously cried for her. Both parents have moved as many as 6-8 times within the 5 years of his life. The last year has been the most stable for the child because he lived in the same house for a year. But last month the child moved again with his mom to an apartment. Now his Dad has visitation every other
weekend or sometimes every weekend. His dad at one time moved to Alaska
for 9 months and did not contact the child. During this time the child
would cry for his dad and even say his dad died.
His mom is currently providing a more stable life style for the child. The dad
provides a less stable environment for the child and this could lead to
insecurity that can effect the child in the future.
Other Information
While his mom was pregnant with him, she listened to music. Now, the child
loves music and sings many songs. He knows all the words to many songs.
Therefore, his learning style is as an auditory learner. He loves books
because his mom reads to him as much as possible. Both of his grandparents
read to him also. He knows the alphabet and "The Alphabet Song." He also
knows the syllables in most words. He recognizes words on signs and he
knows how to start the computer and play his games. Leapster2 is a
learning game he loves to play and he also has a SmartCycle that has
learning games. He will sit for hours and play these learning games.
Tests Administered:
Phonemic Awareness- Letter Identification (Clay, 2002)
Informal Classroom Based Assessment- Test of Print Concepts(Bell & McCallum,2008)
Development of word recognition- Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation (Bell & McCallum,2008)
Curriculum Based Assessment- The Circle Test (Idol,2007)
QRI- Level- Pre-Primer (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006)
Book Handling Knowledge Test (McKenna & Stahl)
Other Tests Administered
Kindergarten Readiness Test-(Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010)
Kindergarten Reading Readiness Test-(Williams, 2009)
Observation During Testing
During "The Letter Identification Test," the child would sing the alphabet song to help him remember the letters. At the beginning of the test he wrote the alphabet. During the test he missed some of the same letters he had trouble writing. The words he came up with were his friends names from pre-school.
He also came up with words from books his mom had read him, such as cranium. Other words he came up with were ace, hater, Chum Chum (cartoon character), bacon, faking, faith, whine ,x-ray, Auto-Zone. He missed the letters W,w,u,q,b,k,N,n,V. He was confused with the letters v and y. He also acted like he had never seen a lower case q. His score was 41/54, which is 75% recognition of the letters.
During "The Yopp Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation," the child scored 11/22, which is 50% on this test. While testing, he struggled with blending these letter sounds. He recognizes most of the letters in isolation but he is still struggling with blending the letters to make words. He seemed confused when he saw the letters close together in words. He just turned 5 in January. He also was a premature baby. At this time, he needs more exposure to consonant blends and phonics and word recognition.
When administering "The Test of Print Concepts," he understood most of the concepts. He scored 16/17 which is 99 % on the modified test. He did not point to the bottom of the page when asked to point to it. He also did not turn to the lower line, instead he turned the page. While taking the test he remarked, "This is boring." He commented that he knew sign language. When he was asked to circle one word, he circled 2 words instead. He also circled the whole sentence and he did not circle individual letters. The modified test version was used because he does not know punctuation marks or some of the concepts in the longer version of the test.
Next, “The Book Handling Knowledge Guidelines Test,” was administered. He scored 14/21, which is 66%. He called a period a polka dot. He did not know what commas , quotation marks, or exclamation marks were. When he was asked to show me a lower case letter like a l. He pointed to an exclamation mark. When he was asked to point to two words. He only pointed to one. Therefore, he needs to work on lower case letters and punctuation and word and letter recognition.
The QRI Test was administered next and some sections were modified ,since the child cannot read.The story was read to him. On the first test he scored 8/9- 88%. He was asked, “ what does it mean when something is lost?” He said, “you cannot find it.” He had me draw happy faces and sad faces beside his responses. He retold the story very well.
For the retelling part of the test he scored 70%. He did not tell all the details of the story. He only told about half of the events and then he said, “he found his toy,” which was not mentioned in the story.The last part of the test was the question section and he scored 100%. He got all the questions right.
The Circle Test was administered as a Curriculum Based Test. On this test the child was tested on these things:
Rapid Letter Naming- Score=17= Proficient
Rapid Vocabulary Naming=Score-18 Below Proficient
Phonological Awareness-Score-35= Proficient
Listening-Score-5=Proficient
Rhyming I-Score-8=Proficient
Rhyming II-Score- 3= Proficient
Alliteration-Score- 6=Proficient
Words in a sentence-Score-3= Below Proficient
Syllabication-Score-6=Proficient
Onset rime-Score-4=Proficient
Book and print awareness- Score-7=Occasional or (in the middle).
Social Skills were tested and for the area of regulation of Behavior he scored -occasional , (in the middle).
Math was also tested and he scored proficient in all areas such as rote counting, number discrimination and number naming, Shape discrimination, shape discrimination triangle, shape discrimination square, set counting, and operations.
Summary and Recommendation
Based on observation of the child, the conclusion of this case study is that the child is in the emergent stage of reading. His strengths include phonological awareness, syllabication, and basic concepts for reading. He needs work on word recognition, recognizing words in a sentence, and he needs to develop his fine motor skills. He has some difficulty writing his letters and making them clear. The child scored proficient in all areas of math. His mother was given 2 home surveys that were online and these tests matched the results of “The Circle Test.” (Alphin, 2007). Since he was a premature baby, perhaps in 6 more months he should be reading.
Goals for Improvement:
1. The child needs continued exposure to Predictable books and read-alouds.
2. Focus needs to be on word-recognition while reading books. An activity the child can do is to help him with word recognition is to make his own book at home. He can gather things around the house and create a story about these things. An adult can write for the child and he can try to write the words.
3. The child needs more exposure to lower case letters and consonant blends.
4. The child can play a phoneme deletion word game. For example, he can say the word black, then an adult can say, what is the word without the b? (lack)
5. The child needs to cut out pictures with scissors in order to help develop his fine motor skills. This should help him in his writing of letters.
Works Cited:
1. Bell, S.M., & McCallum, R.S. (2008). Handbook of Reading Assessment. Boston: Pearson. Tests:
2. Idol, L. (2007). Models of curriculum-based assessment (4th ed.), Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
3. Leslie, L., & Caldwell, J. (2006). Qualitative Reading Inventory- 4. New York: Longman.
4. McKenna, M. C. , & Stahl, S. A. (2003). Assessment for reading instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.
5. Clay, M. (2002). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
6. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Michigan Dept. of Education, 2010 http//www.education.com/topic/ready-for-kindergarten/
7. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Alphin, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Readiness_Indicators/
8. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Cook, 2009 http://www.education.com/reference/article/kindergarten-readiness/
9. Retrieved March 28, 2009 from The World Wide Web: Williams, 2009 http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Kindergarten_Reading_What_Happens/
Friday, March 26, 2010
Test Assessment #3 Notes
Since book handling is a very important part of learning to read, I chose to do a test of print concepts. Most concepts he understood. He did not point to the bottom of the page when I asked him to point to it. He also did not turn to the lower line, instead he turned the page. While taking the test he remarked, "This is boring." He commented that he knew sign language. When he was asked to circle one word, he circled 2 words instead. He also circled the whole sentence and he did not circle individual letters. I used the modified test version because he does not know punctuation marks or some of the concepts in the longer version of the test. Next, I administered “The Book Handling Knowledge Guidelines Test.” He scored 14/21, which is 66%. He called a period a polka dot. He did not know what commas , quotation marks, or exclamation marks were. When I asked him to show me a lower case letter like a l. He pointed to an exclamation mark. When I asked him to point to two words. He only pointed to one. Therefore, he needs to work on lower case letters and punctuation and word and letter recognition.
Chapter Notes/ Class Notes March 25, 2010
Teaching children in the emergant literacy stage involves providing experience with books and book handling as well as direct instruction in the skills needed for the next stage. It is important that children develop a foundation in print concept and book handling, because that foundation is the basis for learning how to read connected text. Although decoding instruction is important, placing too much emphasis on decoding early on will lead to confusion later. Instead programs for early readers should involve a balance between word work, text experience, and oral language development.
A typical program for children reading at the emergent level would involve experience with predictable books, general book handling, phonological awareness instruction, word-recognition work, and responding to a wide variety of teacher read-alouds. (McKenna&Stahl,2009)
The most important fact is to remember to provide a foundation for the child so later reading will be successful and at the same time prepare the child quickly for formal reading instruction.
Class Notes Journal
This week's discussion included a discussion of struggling readers. A way to help struggling readers is to examine siminal and pivotal moments in their life. Siminal moments are events that occured that planted a seed that led to a pivotal moment in their life. Pivotal moments are traumatic events such as the loss of a parent, or lack of self confidence because of negative experiences in school. These factors strongly effect the learning of a child. Many struggling readers' family background and personal experiences need to be considered when assessing a student and planning an intervention.
We also discussed our Diagnostic Report that is due for our next class. In our report we need to consider siminal and pivotal moments in our subject's life and include this in our report. We also need to have cited sources that will support our testing.
A typical program for children reading at the emergent level would involve experience with predictable books, general book handling, phonological awareness instruction, word-recognition work, and responding to a wide variety of teacher read-alouds. (McKenna&Stahl,2009)
The most important fact is to remember to provide a foundation for the child so later reading will be successful and at the same time prepare the child quickly for formal reading instruction.
Class Notes Journal
This week's discussion included a discussion of struggling readers. A way to help struggling readers is to examine siminal and pivotal moments in their life. Siminal moments are events that occured that planted a seed that led to a pivotal moment in their life. Pivotal moments are traumatic events such as the loss of a parent, or lack of self confidence because of negative experiences in school. These factors strongly effect the learning of a child. Many struggling readers' family background and personal experiences need to be considered when assessing a student and planning an intervention.
We also discussed our Diagnostic Report that is due for our next class. In our report we need to consider siminal and pivotal moments in our subject's life and include this in our report. We also need to have cited sources that will support our testing.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Testing - Reflection Journal
I chose to administer The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation. He scored 50% on this test. While testing my subject, he struggled with blending these letter sounds. He recognizes most of the letters in isolation but he is still struggling with blending the letters to make words. He seems confused when he saw the letters close together in words. He just turned 5 in January. He also was a premature baby. I believe in a few more months he should be ready to read. At this time, he needs more exposure to consonant blends and phonics and word recognition.
Chapter Notes/Reflection Journal (Bell)
What are the Critical Areas of Reading?
In addition to labels applied by the NRP to five identified critical areas of reading. These include:phonemic awareness,phonics,fluency,vocabulary and comprehension. The NRP uses additional terms that will be of interest to teachers.
Alphabetics include both phonemic awareness and phonics. Armbrister and Osborn authored,"Put Reading First, The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read," 2001. They emphasized the importance of alphabetic principle. In order to master phonemic awareness and phonics skills.students must learn to use the alphabetic principle-the understanding that there are systematic and predictable rerlationships between written letters and spoken words. (Armbruster and Osborn,2001,12).
What are the recommended strategies for teaching phonemic awareness?
1. Phonemic isolation- requires recognizing individual sounds.
2. Phonemic Identity- requires recognizing the common sound in different words. (Such as tell me the sound that is the same as bike, etc.
3. Phonemic categorization- requires recognizing the word with the odd sound in a sequence of three or four words. Example: Which word does not belong? Bus, bun, rug.
4. Phoneme blending- requires listening to a sequence of separately spoken sounds and combining them to form a recognizable word. Example: What word is /s/k/u/l/? (School)
5. Phoneme segmentation- requires breaking a word into sounds by tapping out or counting the sounds, or by pronouncing and positioning a marker for each sound. Example: How many phonemes in ship?
6. Phoneme deletion- requires recognizing what word remains when a specified phoneme is removed. Example: What is smile without the /s/? (mile)
In addition to the 6 subtypes, onset-rime manipulation is also included. It requires isolation, identification, segmentation, blending, or deletion of onsets, (the single consonant or blend that precedes the vowel in a syllable) or rimes (the vowel and following consonants). For example:-j-ump, st-op, str-ong, bl-ock.
Since my subject is 5 years old, I plan to use this information while I am testing him. I will test him over these 6 components.
In addition to labels applied by the NRP to five identified critical areas of reading. These include:phonemic awareness,phonics,fluency,vocabulary and comprehension. The NRP uses additional terms that will be of interest to teachers.
Alphabetics include both phonemic awareness and phonics. Armbrister and Osborn authored,"Put Reading First, The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read," 2001. They emphasized the importance of alphabetic principle. In order to master phonemic awareness and phonics skills.students must learn to use the alphabetic principle-the understanding that there are systematic and predictable rerlationships between written letters and spoken words. (Armbruster and Osborn,2001,12).
What are the recommended strategies for teaching phonemic awareness?
1. Phonemic isolation- requires recognizing individual sounds.
2. Phonemic Identity- requires recognizing the common sound in different words. (Such as tell me the sound that is the same as bike, etc.
3. Phonemic categorization- requires recognizing the word with the odd sound in a sequence of three or four words. Example: Which word does not belong? Bus, bun, rug.
4. Phoneme blending- requires listening to a sequence of separately spoken sounds and combining them to form a recognizable word. Example: What word is /s/k/u/l/? (School)
5. Phoneme segmentation- requires breaking a word into sounds by tapping out or counting the sounds, or by pronouncing and positioning a marker for each sound. Example: How many phonemes in ship?
6. Phoneme deletion- requires recognizing what word remains when a specified phoneme is removed. Example: What is smile without the /s/? (mile)
In addition to the 6 subtypes, onset-rime manipulation is also included. It requires isolation, identification, segmentation, blending, or deletion of onsets, (the single consonant or blend that precedes the vowel in a syllable) or rimes (the vowel and following consonants). For example:-j-ump, st-op, str-ong, bl-ock.
Since my subject is 5 years old, I plan to use this information while I am testing him. I will test him over these 6 components.
Class Notes Journal
March 11, 2010
Today, we looked at Trish Garcia's blogsite and her student. Then we read Dr. Vowel's article on "The Historical Perspective on Cultural Needs of Diverse Students."
Some interesting statements from this study were "Who students are influences how they interact, respond, and learn in the classroom." This means that teachers must value each student and their uniqueness and include this in their classroom instruction. Another interesting statement was that the 5 year-old mind is not yet patterned, as a rule a 5 year old child is not boring. I think this means that a young child's mind is like a sponge. It is ready to learn. I thought of the statement, "Everything I learned for life- I learned in Kindergarten." I believe this statement is exactly right, because a child's first 5 years are the most important in determining how he will learn. Another statement, "In the infant room we still have identity." Again, this shows that even as an infant, children have their own uniqueness and identity. Those first 5 years of a child's life are crucial.
The article's main point was a message to educators, that we need to be inclusive of all students and consider all aspects of their life while teaching them.
Today, we looked at Trish Garcia's blogsite and her student. Then we read Dr. Vowel's article on "The Historical Perspective on Cultural Needs of Diverse Students."
Some interesting statements from this study were "Who students are influences how they interact, respond, and learn in the classroom." This means that teachers must value each student and their uniqueness and include this in their classroom instruction. Another interesting statement was that the 5 year-old mind is not yet patterned, as a rule a 5 year old child is not boring. I think this means that a young child's mind is like a sponge. It is ready to learn. I thought of the statement, "Everything I learned for life- I learned in Kindergarten." I believe this statement is exactly right, because a child's first 5 years are the most important in determining how he will learn. Another statement, "In the infant room we still have identity." Again, this shows that even as an infant, children have their own uniqueness and identity. Those first 5 years of a child's life are crucial.
The article's main point was a message to educators, that we need to be inclusive of all students and consider all aspects of their life while teaching them.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Class Notes Journal
3-5-2010
Class Notes-
Our discussion today was about reading theorists and types of testing. Louise Rosenblatt was discussed first. She first advanced the Reader-Response Theory in 1938. Currently this theory remains a dominant teaching approach with Rosenblatt's influence readily apparent in contempory research. We also discussed Lev Vygotsky and his contribution to child development and education. He worked for the Institute of Psychology (mid 1920's). His studies involved child development and education. They also included extensive study on cognitive development of children. We discussed their contributions to education and literature. We also looked at student blogs. Claudia's blog explained important steps to testing pre-school children. These were some important areas for testing as discussed in her blog:
1. Book and Print Awareness
2. Letter Naming
3. Letter Sound
4. Phonological Awareness Including Syllables
5. Phoneme, segmenting words into syllables
6. First Sound Identification
7. Decoding single word reading
8. Listening Comprehension
Then, we discussed Laura's Blog and how she used the book, "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons."
Chapter 1 Notes (Bell)
What is the purpose of Assessment?
The ultimate goal of all assessment information should be to create the most effective learning environment for each student. These are 4 related assessment purposes that meet that goal:
Instructional Planning-this involves specific skills mastered and not mastered, and specific areas on which to focus instruction.
Progress Monitoring- this involves screening students into categories (proficient,at-risk,and below level),measuring discrete skills such as oral reading fluency, and determining the need for more intensive instruction.
Accountability- this involves relative ranking among peers to inform parents,teachers, administrators, state and federal departments of education,and the public of congress,determining progress of diseggregated groups, determining performance of intact classes/schools to track improvement over time,and teacher effectiveness over time by monitoring classroom performance.
Special Education Eligibility- this is to determine whether there is a disability, and the best curriculum goals through writing of an Individual Educational Program (IEP).
Another major point of Chapter 1 was that The NRP concluded that "teaching phonemic awareness helps many different students to learn to read, including preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders who are just starting to learn to read." According to several researchers, knowledge of the alphabet and phonemic awareness are the two best predictors of how well children will learn to read during their first two years of reading instruction.(e.g.,Adams 1990; Christiansen 2000; Libermann1989).
For this reason I chose to test my subject on his knowledge of the alphabet and his phonemic awareness.
Class Notes-
Our discussion today was about reading theorists and types of testing. Louise Rosenblatt was discussed first. She first advanced the Reader-Response Theory in 1938. Currently this theory remains a dominant teaching approach with Rosenblatt's influence readily apparent in contempory research. We also discussed Lev Vygotsky and his contribution to child development and education. He worked for the Institute of Psychology (mid 1920's). His studies involved child development and education. They also included extensive study on cognitive development of children. We discussed their contributions to education and literature. We also looked at student blogs. Claudia's blog explained important steps to testing pre-school children. These were some important areas for testing as discussed in her blog:
1. Book and Print Awareness
2. Letter Naming
3. Letter Sound
4. Phonological Awareness Including Syllables
5. Phoneme, segmenting words into syllables
6. First Sound Identification
7. Decoding single word reading
8. Listening Comprehension
Then, we discussed Laura's Blog and how she used the book, "Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons."
Chapter 1 Notes (Bell)
What is the purpose of Assessment?
The ultimate goal of all assessment information should be to create the most effective learning environment for each student. These are 4 related assessment purposes that meet that goal:
Instructional Planning-this involves specific skills mastered and not mastered, and specific areas on which to focus instruction.
Progress Monitoring- this involves screening students into categories (proficient,at-risk,and below level),measuring discrete skills such as oral reading fluency, and determining the need for more intensive instruction.
Accountability- this involves relative ranking among peers to inform parents,teachers, administrators, state and federal departments of education,and the public of congress,determining progress of diseggregated groups, determining performance of intact classes/schools to track improvement over time,and teacher effectiveness over time by monitoring classroom performance.
Special Education Eligibility- this is to determine whether there is a disability, and the best curriculum goals through writing of an Individual Educational Program (IEP).
Another major point of Chapter 1 was that The NRP concluded that "teaching phonemic awareness helps many different students to learn to read, including preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders who are just starting to learn to read." According to several researchers, knowledge of the alphabet and phonemic awareness are the two best predictors of how well children will learn to read during their first two years of reading instruction.(e.g.,Adams 1990; Christiansen 2000; Libermann1989).
For this reason I chose to test my subject on his knowledge of the alphabet and his phonemic awareness.
Testing Reflection Journal
Test I:
First my subject wrote a writing sample of the alphabet. While he was writing the alphabet he sang the alphabet song. Every time he wrote a letter he sang the song to remember the next letter.
Part II:
Then he was tested on Letter Identification from, "An Observation Survey," by Marie M. Clay. When administering this test, I showed the child a list of letters which are upper and lower case letters. The child pointed to the letters he knew first and then said the sound for the letter and he gave a word that began with the letter. The main objective of this test was to determine the child's depth of understanding of letters and their relationship to words. I noticed a pattern in his association with letters. Most of the words he came up with were from his friend's names at pre-school, cartoon character names (Chum Chum), places he had been (Auto Zone), from books his mom had read to him (Cranium), a book his mom had read to him about the skeletal system,and from movies he had seen, such as Tower of Terror by Goosebumps.
Another observation I noticed was he missed some of the lower case letters. I think he missed these letters because most of the time he is taught upper case letters. He scored high on the letters he was accustomed to working with (upper-case). He thought q was a p, but he gave the right sound for the p and he came up with the proper word for it. He missed these lower case letters: n,b,k,w,N,u,W. During the test, he said "This is boring." So I decided to administer it in 2 sessions. I noticed toward the end of the test he had trouble sitting still and he began to miss more of the letters. His Total Score=115; Stanine Group-2 (He just turned 5.); He also scored 41/54 for his alphabet letters. He recognized 75% of the alphabet letters.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pre-Testing Observations
My subject ia a 5 year-old pre-school student. My main objective is to see if the child is ready to read. Some interesting things about this child is when his mother was pregnant with him she listened to music all the time. She went to a Gretchen Wilson Concert and during the concert the child kicked more than usual. She listened to the song "Redneck Woman," all the time during her pregnancy. We would laugh, but he would kick every time she listened to the song. Later, I baby sat the child and he was upset and would not stop crying. His mother said to play the song "Redneck Woman." I did and I could not believe it but he stopped crying. Now, at age 5 he loves music and he loves to sing. On his fifth birthday he was in a restaurant and he wanted to write down what he wanted to eat. He asked, "How do I spell salad?" Then he asked, "How do I spell pizza?' Then he asked,"how do I spell mozzarella?" After we spelled the words, he wrote them down and gave his order to the waiter. He currently can recognize signs, such as McDonald's, Walmart,etc. He also can tell how many syllables are in a word. He knows the letters of the alphabet and has begun to put letters together. I think he is about ready to begin reading. I will begin testing on him next week. Check back for my results!
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