Jennifer L.

Mollen (Jenny)
Literacy Assessment Analysis and Summary (Student A)
November 2017

Introduction
Over the course of a few weeks, I completed a series of literacy assessments with
student A, both individually and in small groups, to assess his literacy development. In this
document, I will present my findings and analysis on the childs literacy development and
scores on the literacy assessments. I will explain what the child did correctly, what the
child used but confused, absentees from the childs assessments, what kind of reader the
student is, and what the next steps are to ensure further literacy development. Please
review the following sections about student A.

What Does the Student Do Correctly?

The student has a great concept of rhyme and beginning sounds. Most students in
his class often confuse the difference between rhyme and beginning sounds, but Student A
completed these assessments wonderfully. The student got 8 out of 9 problems correct in
the rhyme section, missing the keys and cheese rhyme. However, I completed this
assessment with a small group of students, and it seemed that the student copied the paper
of the person next to him before trying the problem on his own. Since he got the remainder
of the rhymes correct, I dont see why he would not understand the first problem. In the
beginning sound section, the child got all the problems correct.

What Does the Student Use but Confuse?

In the alphabetic recognition activity, the child used but confused a few letters. The
child stated letters that look or sound like the letters at hand. For example, the student
confused a lowercase l with an uppercase i. Additionally, he confused h with n,
failing to recognize the longer stem. Finally, he referred to the t as an f. This confusion
was seen in the later spelling assessment as well, as he wrote t for f in the word fan.
These letters that the student confused with were letters that looked very like the correct
letter name.
Another activity that I was able to see some using and confusing was the letter
production activity. I read the student letters and asked him to write them down on his
paper. The two biggest letters that he was using and confusing were g and q. With his
g, he had the tail going the wrong way and not quite curving at the bottom. With his q, it
was clear he was trying to write the capital letter, but put the tail in the wrong place (on the
top versus the bottom right). Another thing I noticed in both this activity and the spelling
activity is that the child does not yet have the knowledge of the correct way of writing left
to right, top to bottom.

What is Absent from the Students Understanding?

The child has not yet learned or mastered letter-combination sounds, such as sh,
th, and ch. Additionally, the student is not yet able to spell words on his own. During the
spelling test, the student could recognize most beginning and ending letters of the words,
but lacked the middle vowels needed to complete words.
Is the Student an Emergent or Beginning Reader?
Based on the words in isolation task and the concept of word assessment (Teddy
Bear, Teddy Bear) completed with the child, the child is in the emergent reading stage.
Emergent reading is described by the child being on the path to fluent literacy, (Thibault).
These readers demonstrate understanding of alphabetic knowledge, concept of word,
phonemic awareness, and verbal expression (Thibault). The difference between an
emergent and a beginning reader is that an emergent reader is just starting out (but on the
right path), and a beginning reader is beginning to use more complex strategies to make
predictions about words.
In the words in isolation task, the child was unable to identify any of the words in
the Preprimer word list. I could not tell if he was just distracted or did not want to
complete the assessment, or if he really did not know any of the words. He said nonsense
words when I asked him to look and identify the words, for example dog for but, and
zebra for his. However, some words he responded with a different word, but that still
had some of the same letters as the correct word. For example, he said hat for he, rat
for red, and lamp for all. Despite these mistakes, the child could recognize the word
green as the class had practiced spelling that word when it was the color of the week.
Additionally, the cooperating teacher asked me to test the child on the words I, see, and
a, as those were their first sight words they have just finished practicing. The child could
recognize these three sight words.
The child did very well in the concept of word assessment, however it seemed to be
a story he had heard before and could have been a bit memorized. In observing his pointing
and word identification during the activity, he could point and speak most of the focus
words bear, around, teddy, touch, teddy, goodnight. On the third line of the story, the
child failed to point correctly and recognize the words turn and the.
The child is an emergent reader, because he has alphabetic knowledge, good
concept of word, and phonemic awareness. He is not quite in the problem solving and
prediction stage of early literacy.

What Are the Next Steps?

I think it is important to begin to introduce more sight words to the student. He is
fully capable of learning words, as he did great identifying beginning and ending sounds. To
further his literacy development toward a beginning reader, the child should begin learning
more sight words and practicing sounding out words he does not know.
To help the child with the letter concepts he is using but confusing, the teacher
should provide extra practice in writing and recognizing the full alphabet, both upper case
and lower case. Parents should practice these skills with the child at home, too. It is
important to teach the student the difference between upper and lower case letters, so that
he does not confuse them with different letters. Fun practice activities for this could include
worksheets, online games and apps, and using whiteboards or shaving cream to write his
letters.

Source
M. T. (n.d.). Emergent Reader. Retrieved November 06, 2017, from
http://www.learnnc.org/reference/emergent reader