Module 6

Literacy Learning Assessments

Article Talk

One article focuses on how data from early literacy assessments can help teachers to better instruct English-language learning students. Data from 52 high-risk schools are used to compare the progress of English learners and English-only students on a variety of literacy assessments. Results reveal that a much higher percentage of Spanish-speaking students remain at the beginning reading level throughout the primary grades. A close-up look at the responses of two of these Spanish-speaking beginning readers provides teachers with insights into what is difficult for English learners, what they grasp more easily, and how they may use background knowledge in Spanish to tackle literacy tasks in English. While similarities in the students' results show they will profit from some of the same developmental activities, the samples also point out how their instructional needs vary. This analysis models the way in which literacy assessments can support a deeper understanding of the strategies and needs of English learners. Educators are encouraged to use literacy assessments to identify individuals and groups of students that require additional support, and provide enriched learning opportunities at their developmental level that build on students' background understandings.

The other article talks about an instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within hands-on interactive activities reveal the nature of children's problem-solving strategies for decoding and spelling words. The instrument is efficient and flexible, and offers feedback to guide instruction. The authors describe the instrument, its administration, and scoring, as well as offer evidence of its validity and reliability. Examples of students' responses are provided to illustrate how analysis and interpretation of results are used to make instructional decisions. The authors discuss ways for teachers to adapt the individually administered test to match their curriculum and to accommodate small-group settings.

Early Literacy Assessment

The early literacy assessment can provide a critical service to teachers as they attempt to prevent early reading difficulty or failure. There is now a substantial body of research that documents the early literacy behaviors that are critical to the development of beginning reading and writing (Adams, 1990; Chall, 1996; Juel, 1988; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Ongoing assessment of early literacy progress is essential for giving teachers the information they need to measure student progress, identify students who may require additional or individualized assistance, and guide instructional practice (Invernizzi & Meier, 2001; Snow et al.; Vellutino & Scanlon, 2001).

Ways to asses students

The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is the standardized assessment featured in this article. The PALS assessment has been used in K–3 classrooms across the country to measure reading progress and identify students in need of extra support (Invernizzi & Meier, 2001). The results of this measure with more than 18,000 students in Nevada show teachers the valuable information to be gleaned from early literacy assessments, and guide them to use what they learn to provide targeted instruction for primary-age ELLs.

The Tile Test is an individually administered diagnostic assessment designed to quickly evaluate early readers’ and writers’ understanding of letters, sounds, words, and sentences. include several of those generally accepted as necessary for successful beginning reading and spelling: phoneme awareness, letter and sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Additional activities have students respond to metalinguistic questions to assess the level of problem-solving strategies known and applied when using English orthography. The Tile Test has been shown to be a reliable measure of basic decoding and spelling skills. Reliability addresses the trustworthiness of all facets of the test. Cronbach’s (1951) alpha, a statistic used to measure the internal consistency of an instrument, was calculated at kindergarten and first grade.

The benefits of assessments

Early literacy assessments can provide a critical service to teachers as they attempt to prevent early reading difficulty or failure. There is now a substantial body of research that documents the early literacy behaviors that are critical to the development of beginning reading and writing(Adams, 1990; Chall, 1996; Juel, 1988; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Ongoing assessment of early literacy progress is essential for giving teachers the information they need to measure student progress, identify students who may require additional or individualized assistance, and guide instructional practice (Invernizzi & Meier, 2001; Snow et al.; Vellutino & Scanlon, 2001).

The results of the Tile Test can be used to help teachers identify the level of understanding students have about letters, sounds, words, and sentences, as well as the strategies they employ and their awareness of strategy use. Students’ responses provide valuable qualitative information that immediately informs instruction. The Tile Test can be used to collect information before, during, and after instruction to check students’ prior knowledge and progress and to plan for future instruction. We suggest that the teacher begin by administering it to a few students. The Tile Test also serves as a shell for incorporating a broad range of orthographic patterns so that you can adapt the test to your curriculum content  (Felton & Wood, 1992).

The PALS literacy assessment helps the teacher to identify students who need extra support in their development in early literacy. Teachers can use the data collected from the PALS assessment to create and form instructional groups focusing on the teaching goals and meeting the individual needs of the students. The teacher can also use the oral reading in context assessment to provide important to estimate instructional reading levels and analyze students' reading behaviors. (Helman, 2005) Finding students' instructional reading level helps teachers create guided reading groups.

References

Helman, L.A. (2005). Using literacy assessment results to improve teaching for English-language  learners. The Reading Teacher, 58(7), 668-677.

Norman, K.A., & Calfee, R.C. (2004). Tile Test: A hands-on approach for assessing phonics in the  early grades. The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 42-52.

Orlando

Case Study: Orlando

This case study is about a 7 year old boy name Orlando who is in first grade.  He enjoys attending school and learning activities that include singing and drawing. Orlando’s teacher became concerned of Orlando’s lack of progress in the area of reading comprehension skills. The teacher has discussed her concerns with the school’s reading specialist, who has suggested the implementation of specific reading strategies such as graphic organizers, repeated readings and predictions.

Comprehension Strategies:

Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyze it, make sense of it, and make it their own. The following strategies can be used to help struggling students such as Orlando. Repeated reading, Graphic organizers, and comprehension stratgies. With these strategies, teachers are able to help their students understand the story. This way they can answer the who, what, when, where, why and how? 

Reading strategies are techniques a reader uses to gain meaning from the text. The purpose of instructing these techniques is to give the students tools that they can use on their own. Here are some strategies that can be used to help struggling students:

• Predictions:  Predicting is thinking about what may happen next (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). While reading stories we make predictions all the time about what we think is going to happen next or to a particular character. SO  showing the cover of the book to Orlando and allowing him to hear the title along with looking at the pictures and giving him the opportunity to predict what the story is about, would help Orlando evaluate what he already knows about a story and allow him to contemplate upon different scenarios which help him gain a deeper understanding of the story as it is read to him or as he reads it. While Orlando is doing a picture walk and making predictions, is when he should be prompted with the who, what, when, where how and why questions. Doing this while Orlando is making his predictions can with some background knowledge.

• Summarizing - According to Fountas and Pinnell (2011), “We are always storing the information we gain from reading.”  As we read a text, it is natural for us to summarize the information we just learned in our memory bank. This helps us understand the story as we read on. ” When Orlando listens to the story he can remember the important details and can determine the main ideas and the most important supporting details of texts. When students can summarize what they have read, the are able to understand the main idea of the story. One way the teacher can help the students summarize stories is by reading a short passage and asking the students to sum up the passage. By doing this Orlando will learn how to summarize correctly so he can benefit from it upon other readings.

• Retelling – Allows students to retell what they have read or listened to and help teachers understand the students understanding of the story. It helps readers recall what is happening in the story, develop a sense of sequencing the story  After being taught this strategies I feel Orlando would be able to show better comprehension. This way Orlando should able to recount main ideas of each short passage, which will give him the ability to retell the story back to his teacher. This will help his teachers understand what Orlando is getting from the story and to see if he can recall the story in chronological order, characters, settings, and main events(Wilson, 2002).

• Rereading – Teaches children reading strategies follow up question. If they don’t have  the answer they can go back in the story to find it.  Through rereading, Orlando can begin to self-correct and monitor his understanding of what he has read. Orlando may enjoy group work, by using the turn and talk strategy (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011).  During a read aloud, Orlando can share his thoughts with the class or the teacher can pair them up for discussion. Research Pappas (1991) found that children asked more questions and engaged in more dialogue when they listened to repeated readings of the same story. This concept has students reading the same book more over and over to increase their understanding and reading fluency (Bos & Vaughn, 1998). Research has suggested that rereading can help students gain more reading fluency and increase their comprehension knowledge. Orlando should read the story at least twice a week, so he can retell the story without manipulatives. It is said that children learn from each other. Therefore, Having someone from the class that has a high comprehension skill can help others with understanding the story (Levy et al., 2002). Orlando’s teacher could ask a peer to work with Orlando when it comes time to reading a story.

• Another strategy that can improve Orlando’s reading comprehension is by acting the story out. In the video Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher Mrs. Davis reads a book to her students called Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. It was clear that the students were already introduced to the reading because Mrs. Davis asked the recalling questions such as  “Who is this, starts with a J”. The students than recall the name of the characters from the story and as she reads, the students were able to retell the story along the way. This is a good strategy to use with Orlando, because hearing the story for the second time will allow Orlando the ability to recall what he remembers from the first reading.

• Shared book reading according to the article Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading is “an interactive way of reading books aloud with children that gives them Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading 555 a chance to be active participants in the reading session, thus providing a meaningful experience that stimulates learning. Numerous studies (CrainThoreson & Dale, 1992; DeTemple, 2001; Dickinson, 2001a, 2001b; Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Wasik & Bond, 2001) have shown that a critical factor in shared book reading is the discourse, or verbal interaction, between adults and children.” Dialogic reading, first described by Whitehurst et al. (1988), is a particular type of shared book reading that includes strategic questioning and responding to children while reading a book. The technique involves multiple readings and conversations about books with children in small groups. Asking meaningful questions is more difficult than it may seem and less common than might be imagined. McKeown and Beck (2003) found that adults often did not prompt children to process and connect ideas or to express their understanding of the story.

• Questioning – Is extremely important in comprehending text of any kind.  It insures the students are understanding the text that is being read to them. By using questioning technique Orlando, would be able to have a better understanding of the story.

Graphic Organizers:

Graphic organizers are another set of tools that assist students in organizing and recalling elements from stories they have listened to or read themselves. The use of graphic organizers can help Orlando develop his reading comprehension skills. Simple story maps and sequence charts can help him summarize and retell stories. When the teachers do Read-Aloud of several versions of a familiar story, Venn Diagrams can be used to compare and contrast characters, settings, of the two or more different stories or texts.

One thing that Orlando might benefit from by using graphic organizers is that he might begin by just drawing in his answers, since it was mention in the scenario that he enjoys art.

The book I chose as an example for Orlando is “The Gingerbread Boy” by Paul Galdone and a similar version “The Gingerbread Man” by Karen Schmidt. After a repeated reading of The Gingerbread Boy, Orlando could complete a simple story map with just illustrations and in the future or using a word bank Orlando could be able to use his own words to retell the story.

Repeated Reading:

Repeatedly reading the same text allows a reader to read with fluency a familiar text. Some of the activities that could help Orlando to develop his reading comprehension skills are shared reading; this could help him with his confidence(Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011).p.125)

Another activity that would be beneficial for Orlando's comprehension skill is acting out the story a story. Just like in the video from this module showed the students acting the story out with the use of props Orlando would benefit from taking part in this type of .

These four strategies can truly help students like Orlando understand the meaning and ideas of stories. Without being able to comprehend what we read, students will not be able to succeed in school. By incorporating these strategies within the classroom, teachers will be able to help their students. With the support of his teacher and implementing these strategies Orlando should be able to improve his reading comprehension skills.

References

Fountas, I.C., & Pinell, G.S., (2001). Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook. Pourtsmouth, NH

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Early reading Level A. Case 4

The Reading Teacher Vol. 59, No. 6 March 2006

Babyak, A E , Koorland, M , & Mathes, P G (2000) The effects of story mapping instruction on the reading comprehension of students with behavioral disorders Behavioral Disorders, 25(3), 239–258.

Bos, C S , & Vaughn, S (1998) Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems (4th ed ) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Levy, S , Coleman, M , & Alsman, B (2002) Reading instruction for elementary students with emotional/ behavioral disorders: What’s a teacher to do? Beyond Behavior, 11(3), 3–10.

Mathes, P G , Fuchs, D , & Fuchs, L S (1997) Cooperative story mapping Remedial and Special  http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu.

Pellegrini, A.D., & Galda, L. (1982). The effects of thematic-fantasy play training on the development of children’s story comprehension. American Educational Research Journal, 19(3), 443–452.

Welsch, J. G. (2008). Playing Within and Beyond the Story: Encouraging Book-Related Pretend play. The Reading Teacher , 138-148.

Wilson, K. (2002). Bear Snores On. New York City: An imprint of & Schuster Children's Publishing

Using Knowledge Networks To Develop Preschoolers' Content Vocabulary

Using Knowledge Networks To Develop Preschoolers' Content Vocabulary

    This article talks about the process that is used to integrate vocabulary instruction within the context of reading books that build multiple words in young children. The importance of content vocabulary is to help children become successful with reading and comprehension throughout their schooling years.

    Shared book reading is an opportunity to accelerate content vocabulary. It provides struggling readers with the necessary support. It builds word knowledge and reading fluency. "Shared book reading is often used to promote young children's vocabulary acquisition" ( Ezell & Justice 2005) "and is a method that lends itself to the development of content related vocabulary. Hirsch (2006) suggest that "effective book reading builds contextual knowledge through topic immersion". Which means that the teacher or parents read a sequence of book with relevant topic within a week in a thematic form to approach the vocabulary.

    Research shows that children accrue vocabulary knowledge by understanding relationships between new words and their connected concepts. This article describes three principals teachers can use to design shared books reading lesson that accelerate vocabulary knowledge by helping children make connections between words and related science and social studies concepts. The National Council (NCSS, 1988) noted that "young children are capable of learning abstract social studies concepts early and that children as young as 5 years of age have a proclivity towards history and geography, work concepts, relationships of people and their environment, explaining their immediate environment, and civic understanding". These principles also guide teachers in building content vocabulary knowledge by making connections between words and world knowledge via informational texts. The article also talks about the extensive training that teachers need to properly expose children to vocabulary words to build contextual knowledge.

The three research-based principles to build vocabulary knowledge are:

• Build Content Vocabulary via Concepts That Align With Curricular Objectives
• Build Content Vocabulary by Integrating Informational and Narrative Texts to Increase Multiple Exposures to Words and Concepts
• Build Content Vocabulary through Opportunities to talk about Connections Between Words and Concepts

 When introducing words to children try to see what they know about that word first, to open engaging conversations. This will allow the teacher to see who have that word in their vocabulary bank and who doesn't. Then define the word and relate it to science, social studies etc to make a thematic approach to the word. Then give them a follow up question about what they now know about the new word.

"Preschool children benefit from instruction that organize large amounts of information into meaningful networks with plentiful opportunities for repeated practice and extended learning."

References

Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell & Irene C. Fountas (2011) Literacy Beginnings A Prekindergarten Handbook

Heinemann Publisher: Portsmouth, NH

Sharolyn D. Pollard-Durodola, Jorge E. Gonzalez, Deborah C. Simmons, Matthew J. Davis, Leslie Simmons, & Miranda Nava-Walichowski Using Knowledge Networks to Develop Preschoolers' Content Vocabulary (2011)

The role of literacy in early childhood education

The role of literacy in the early childhood education

    In A ECE class that I took in undergrad, I learned that Every time you read a book, write a note, make a grocery list or scroll through the tv guide are ways that you are helping your child display skills that children need, so they will be ready to learn, read, and write by the time they start school. Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, and Hemphill (1991) and others have shown that "children from homes where parents model the use of literacy and engage children in activities that promote basic understandings about literacy and its uses are better prepared for school." The article also talk about how it's not only important to read to children but it is also important to introduce them to the text that you are reading to them. 

    My article was The role of literacy in early childhood education. This article discussed the importance of early literacy in children's education. Early literacy is crucial to the development of children because language and literacy begins at birth and is a lifelong process. One of the topics was Literacy learning starts early. in here it states that "Those who care for and educate young children should know that oral language and literacy develop together. What children learn from listening and talking contributes to their ability to read and write, and vice versa" (Juel, 1988). The article also states that "children need regular and active interactions with print at a very early age" ( Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). 

    Another important topic it talked about was the effect of print - rich classroom environments on early literacy growth. In this section we learn that the process of learning to read and write takes place soon as the children are introduced to text. Therefore, as parents we must label things around the house so the children can be introduced to a print-rich environment. This is also why it is important to make sure the children can see the text as you read to them. This will help children become well prepared for pre-k.  As a literacy educator, we need to establish a climate that support to become literacy learners. We need to have areas for children to read books on their own and a center for them to freely write. We also need to model reading in the classroom on a daily basis. "We now recognize that literacy development in it's emergent forms begins even earlier than prekindergarten" (McLane & McNamee, 1990). SO I encourage parents and teachers of today to make a print-rich environment for your children studies have shown the long term success of early readers. 

Literacy Autobiography

                                                                  Literacy Autobiography

    I am a wife of 7 years, a mother of four, and a 4th grade inclusion teacher. All my life I have been told by my parents that reading was the key to success, reading is fundamental. At the tender age of 8 I was turned away from what I was taught all my life due to an educator. 

    As long as I can remember, I was always introduced to literacy. My mother was a freshmen and my father was a sophomore in high school when they got pregnant with me so I guess its safe to say that I was introduced to literacy from the womb. My parents did not drop out of high school the both graduated on time and had my sister two years later. Yes, I am the oldest of five. It was just the two of us for 7 years before the rest of my siblings came along. My mother read to us all the time, and by the time I turned 4 my parents got married. Halfway through my kindergarten year my parents purchased the Hooked On Phonics program for my sister and I. We would be made to do this program every day after school. I loved the program and was excited to learn new words and read the short stories. 

    Education was going real well for me. I was always actively engaged in my learning a very eager student and always willing and ready to learn new things. This child vanished in the third grade. My class and I had just re-entered out class after recess and was given a math problem to solve. I was very eager to solve the problem, so that I could be the first one to raise my hand to go to the board to solve it. While my classmates and I were working out the problem the teacher was walking around the room checking our work. When she got to my desk she looked at my problem and said in a loud voice "What are you an idiot, is that the way I showed you to solve the problem?" My parents had taught me an easier way to solve the problem and that's the way I solved it and yes I had the right answer it just wasn't done her way. That was the moment that eager little girl was lost and never to be found again. From this day forward I went through life hating school being afraid to read in class because I didn't want another teacher to embarrass me like that again. I did go home and tell my mother what happened and she came to school that very next day and the teacher tool a leave and we didn't see her ever again however, the damage was already done.

    I became a "C" student from that day forward because I was too afraid to show what I know.  When I  got to high school I already had a bad taste of learning in my mouth so I really didn't expect much with my grades especially with all the freedom that came with highschool. Surprisingly I became an A-B student in high school. Still had a bad taste for school. I became a cheerleader my freshmen year and that's where I met my husband. I got pregnant and had our first born by the end of my sophomore year. That's when things truly began to change for me. I knew that I didn't want my child to feel the way I do about education. So I devoted myself in finding out what literacy really meant to me. I know that for be to be successful in having my daughter feel the way I felt I had to get that feeling back first. I found myself right back to the beginning of life when my parents always told us that reading was the key to success. I know that to succeed in life one needed to be able to read and write. I went through high school with my A's and B'. I really was not ready to go straight into college but my mother told me I didn't have an option so I went to Hudson County Community College. By the end of my first year I got pregnant with my second daughter. I dropped out of school and worked full time. Six years had past right before my eyes and I was working at the bank and knew this was not the life I wanted for myself so I went and enrolled at Hudson County Community College again this time with a different attitude. I now wanted to get into special education I wanted to learn about the struggling learners since I considered myself to be one the moment I lost interest in school. I graduated with my A.S. in Special Education.

 

     I went on to NJCU to study Early Childhood and Special Education because I need to know how to help children at an early age especially since I had two young children, gain the aspects of early literacy. I Graduated with my B.A in English because I was told my last semester that the education rules had changed. I had to have taken the praxis before I could do my student teaching. Needless to say I had to drop the education program in order to graduate because I did not want to stay an extra year for student teaching. Another frustrating point in my life. However, through my educational courses I understood the importances of introducing literacy to children at an early age so it wasn't a complete lost. That's what brings me to being enrolled into this class today. I have my CE in Special Education as well in Early Childhood Education and for me to obtain my standards I must take 15 ECE courses on graduate level. This is my first online course so I'm expecting to have a lot of frustration trying to figure things out, as well as learn a lot from the course.

    My biggest hobby is doing hair. I have an eye for it, from weave braids to full sew-ins. Never wanted to do it in a shop so I only experimented on my daughters, mother, and sisters. People always ask them if I would be willing to do their hair for money but I turn it down. I love reading books to my children as well as for myself.

    Interesting facts I am 4ft 111/2inc yes I make it a point to add my 1/2 inc to my driver license. I worked with children born with multiple disabilities for 11 years as a teacher assistant. I am made up of African American,Cherokee Indian, German, and Bajan. I love shopping for my kids but hate shopping for myself. I am the second college graduate in my entire family, my sister being the first. I am very private this blog assignment is the first time I shared this much of my life.  My family is the reason I keep striving to be better in life.