Literacy Assessment

The child I worked with was not actually my case study child, rather another child in the

class. My case study child is very uncooperative, therefore, I completed the literacy assessments

and activities with another young girl in the class. My practicum classroom is located at the

Young Childrens Program, and I am placed in a pre-kindergarten class. The classroom is play-

based and project-based, therefore there is little formal teaching. The children are not explicitly

taught the alphabet, rather there is a lot of environmental print, a writing center and other

materials in the class to encourage them to grow in their literacy skills. The class is child-led, so

if the students are practicing their letter recognition, it is because they want to, or have an interest

in it. The child I worked with seemed to recognize letters, and I think this was because she

practiced letter recognition and their corresponding sounds at home.

My observations, reflections and conclusions are after each assessment below:

1.Picture and Name Task (for Pre-K)

Have him/her draw a picture on a blank sheet of paper and write her/his name at the
bottom. Have the child tell you about the picture and you write down on another piece of
paper what he/she tells you about the picture.
Comments:

The child and I spent 10-15 minutes at a large chalkboard in the classroom one morning. We

practiced writing letters and drawing pictures. She drew a stick figure of herself. The picture was

a picture of a girl with a triangular dress. I asked her: What are you drawing? She replied: Its

me! I pointed to the lines she drew, coming out of her head: What is that?, I asked. She

replied: Thats my hair! The child seemed to have good fine motor skills, and was able to hold

the chalk in her hand and use it competently. Then, the child wrote her name, spelling it almost

correctly. One of the letters in her name is an l and she wrote the letter a bit out of line,
compared to the other letters in her name. However, all letters in her name were legible the

only area for improvement is to practice writing letters in a line and less crooked.

2.Concepts About Print Task (for Pre-K)

If the child is a preschooler and you know is not reading on their own yet, complete this
task with a level C or D book or another simple book. Begin by telling the child that you
are going to read him/her a book and he/she is going to help you. As you hand the child the
book to look at, ask the following questions and then begin reading as you ask more of the
questions.
___yes__ Show me the front of the book
___yes__ Show me the back of the book
__no___ Show me the title of the story (then read the title to the child)
__yes___ Show me where we would begin reading the story
___yes__ As you finish reading a page, show me a picture
__no___ After reading another page, show me a letter
__yes___ Show me a word
_yes____ Show me the first letter in a word
__yes__ Show me the last letter in a word
__yes__ Show me how I would read this page (directionality)
__no___ Show me an upper-case letter
__no___ Point to a period, what is this?
TOTAL: 8/12
Comments:

The child scored 8/12 on this assessment. In the majority of the assessments, the child

was competent in recognizing print concepts. When I asked her to point to the title, she did not

understand the concept. I showed her where it was and explained what a title is. When I asked

the child to point to a letter, she pointed to an exclamation point on the page. I think the child

knows a letter when she sees one, however, she may not fully understand that a difference exists

between a letter and a character or a punctuation mark. The child also struggled with knowing

the difference between an upper-case letter and a lower-case letter. When asked to point to an

upper-case letter, she pointed to a lower-case d. And finally, for the last task, it asks the child
to point to a period, however there were no periods in the book. So I pointed to an exclamation

point and she thought it was a question mark.

3.Rhyme (From Words Their Way) (for pre-K, K, and 1)

Show the child the sheet with rhyming words and cover everything but the line you are
working with at the time. Use the first one with the star as the model and you show the two
rhyming words. Have child find the two words that rhyme on each line.
1. _no__
2. _yes____
3. __yes___
4. __yes___
5. __yes___
6. __yes___
7. __yes___
8. _yes____
9. __yes___

TOTAL __8___/9
Comments:

The child almost got every task correct on the assessment, except for the first one. I think

the child may have been confused about the activity, and that is why she messed up on the first

one. She answered each one correctly as we went though and showed confidence. I think the

child is competent in recognizing rhymes.

4. Alphabetics (From Words Their Way) (for pre-K and K)

Letter Identification
1. If in Pre-K, the upper-case task may be more appropriate for the student if he/she knows
some of the alphabet. From the large letter sheet, point to each letter and have the child
identify the letters. Mark through any letters the child says incorrectly and write what the
child says beside the letter.
M P S O X N A F G K L T U

C Y B I V D J E Q R Z H W

TOTAL _24___/26
Comments:

The only two letter that the child did not recognize were the letters I and V.
Letter Production (for Pre-K and K)Call out the sequence of letters as above. Ask the
student to write the letters. Accept either upper or lowercase letters. Reversals are scored
as correct, but noted.

m p s o x n a f g k l t u

c y b i v d j e q r z h w

TOTAL __22__/26
Comments:

- (I highlighted the ones she missed.)

- The m, f, a and q were all written as upper-case letters.

- The letters s, j and z were written backwards.

- The child did know how to write the letters f, g and d and she looked at a board on

the wall to help guide her in writing the letters. Her d looked like a circle with a line

coming out of the top: similar to a blueberry.

- The child made observations as she wrote her letters out. When she wrote a B, she said

that her name started with that letter! When she wrote a backwards s, she exclaimed:

Hey, it looks like a 3! When she wrote her o, she recognized that it looks like a

shape: It looks like a circle! The child showed the ability to make connections between

letters, numbers and shapes.

Letter-Sound Production (for Pre-K and K)From Letter-Sound Production sheet point
to each letter or combination of and have child tell the sound the letters make. Mark
through any sound the child says incorrectly and write what the child says beside the letter.

B S R F W T O J A H K Sh I P

Z L C Th U E D Y G N Ch

TOTAL ____/26
Comments:
 - (I highlighted the ones she missed.)

- As I completed this task with the child, I recognized that the majority of the sounds in the

activity she missed, were the combinations. The child is able, for the most part to produce

a sound of a letter on command, but she does not show competency in pronouncing letter-

combinations.

Other Conclusions:

I believe that the child is in the early letter name-alphabetic stage. For the most part, the

child is able to write the majority of her letters and recognize their sounds. As we reviewed the

parts of the book, she knew most of the print concepts I think the read alouds in the class have

contributed to her knowledge in that area. She can recognize a punctuation mark and a letter,

however still struggles with knowing the difference between the two, especially out of context.