Stephanie Offerding Concept of Word and Concepts about Print Purpose of the Assessment/Theoretical Basis Concepts of word assess

the childs ability to point to a written word while it is being read. If they can successfully perform this task they understand that words in a book make up thoughts. If a child masters Concepts about Print, they can follow print from left to right and top to bottom. They know the features of print such as periods and commas. They also know to begin reading at the front of the book and to turn the pages from right to left (Bear, Invernizzi, Templetion, Johnston, 2012). These skills set the foundation for more complex literacy instruction. Rationale for Choosing this Student I chose this student to work with because he is in my kindergarten reading class. My entire class is working on Concept of Word (COW) and Concepts about Print (CAP). I have previously tested this student and she had made some progress since. I was curious to see how the student would perform on a reassessment since time has passed and this was a different version of the assessment than previously seen. This student began kindergarten at the end of August and is an English Language Learner. Description of the Assessment Session I chose to administer the COW and the CAP on two different days because I knew it would not come easily to the student and I did not want her to get tired. First I administered the COW. It was a Tuesday morning, and I took the student out of the classroom so there would be fewer distractions. I told her we were going to read a story together about a girl and a big dog

that gets her wet. The student agreed and seemed excited to get started. I began to read to her as I pointed to the words, then we read together while the student attempted to point to each word. Lastly, I asked her to find specific words for me. On Wednesday morning I administered the CAP with the student. I again took her to a different room so there would be fewer distractions. I handed her the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? upside down and backwards to see if she would orientate the book on her own. I told her that today we were going to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? but I needed her to help me. She again seemed very excited and eager to start. Results During the COW, the student was watching me very attentively while I read the story and pointed to each word. I then asked her to point to the words while I read. On one out of the four pages she was able to successfully point to each word as I read. However, even though she was not completely successful with this task, she was very enthusiastic and eager to point to the words. When I asked her to point to specific words she was unable to point to any of the eight successfully. She again attempted to complete the task I asked of her even though she was not getting the correct answers. At the beginning of the CAP test, the student immediately orientated the book correctly when it was handed to her. When I asked her to show me where I should start, she pointed to a word on the right hand side toward the bottom. I pointed to the word I was going to start with and asked her to tell me where to go next, but she was unable to respond and shrugged her shoulders. When I asked her to point to the words while I read them, she pointed to every word but the last word twice. The last word happened to be a two syllable word. She pointed to words

that seemed to be at random when I asked her to point to the first and last part of the story. She was not able to show me to start reading on the left hand side when presented with text on both pages. When I showed her a period, exclamation point, comma and question mark, she was able to tell me the name of the period and comma but was unable to tell me what they meant. The student was unable to find a lower case letter to match an upper case letter. When given two index cards, she was able to isolate one letter and two letters but was unable to isolate just one word and then two words. She also could not show me the first letter of a word or the last letter of a word. She did successfully show me a capital letter. Interpretation of the Results The student was only able to successfully finger point one out of four sentences, but she did attempt all four sentences. This shows me she is beginning to understand the concept of what a word is but needs more practice since she has not yet mastered the skill. This child sees me point to words in the classroom every day and also has the opportunity to point to words for me. I believe this child would benefit from more tactile opportunities to work with words in the classroom, such as moving words around. I also believe she might benefit from seeing her own words written since she is an English Language Learner. When I asked her to point to specific words, she could not successfully find them. I believe this might be partially due to the fact that she is learning the English vocabulary. During the CAP test, the student was not able to show me where to begin reading or where to go next while I read. This might be due to the fact that she is still learning what a word is and that a word holds meaning. I believe she would benefit from more opportunities to see her own words being written and read. The student was able to tell me what a period and a comma

were during the test but was unable to tell me what an exclamation point, question mark, or quotation marks were or what any of the punctuation was used for. This child has daily opportunities to find these marks in stories for me. The words to these marks are long, which might be a problem for her since she is learning English. I think she would benefit from having a more tactile approach to punctuation, such as having them in large cutouts and having to place them where they belong. Also, making a rhyme or song of some sort might help her remember the vocabulary. The child was able to find a capital letter but unable to find a lower case letter to match a capital letter. This tells me that her letter identification is emerging and she needs more practice to build this skill. She might benefit from playing quick fluency games with the alphabet letters to build her awareness. My Reaction to the Assessment I was hoping that the student would have been able to show me more skills that she knows during these assessments. These are skills that we have been working on all semesters. However, she has made some improvement. She started school knowing minimal English and able to follow very minimal instructions, and she has worked very hard to get where she currently is. The student shows much enthusiasm for learning, and I believe that changing the delivery of literacy lessons and with more practice, she will be able to pick these skills up.

References Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnson, F. (2012). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.