Signature Assignment

Kayla Harrison
Language Development, Emergent Literacy, and Reading in Main Young Children
Dr. Madden & Dr. Browne
December 8, 2014

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Introduction
Assessment and observation are key elements in forming and molding a learning
community. Marie Clay (2013) explains that observationallows us to watch the child as he
works, to see at least part of the focus of his attention, to watch him search for information in
print and for confirmation of what he thinks. It enables us to watch him solve a problem and
sometimes express his delight when he discovers something new (p. 3). Throughout the past 8
weeks, I have been observing a Kindergarten student and assessed his knowledge of print and
language in general. There were 3 total assessments: Letter Identification, Concepts about Print,
and Writing Vocabulary. Each one assesses a different area within language and reading.
Alongside the assessments, I completed a Written-Dictated story with the child, asking him to
tell me a story while I wrote down what he said. Throughout the paper I will be analyzing the
results from the assessments and the Written-Dictated story I conducted during my 8 weekobservations. I will also be providing information about the subject of the assessments and the
purpose of each. Additional background information about the child that participated in the
assessments will also be provided.
The child I chose to assess is Logan Kohut, a Kindergartener from Grenloch Early
Childhood Center. Logan is 5 years old and lives at home with his mother and father. The
second week of observations I sent home a survey for Logans parents to fill out so that I could
get to know how Logan is at home, rather than school. He is currently in a self-contained
classroom which means that all of the children in the classroom have special needs. Logan has
trouble focusing on one task at a time. He likes to get up and move around while completing his
work. At school, the teacher has him sit in a seat with a seatbelt to keep him in his chair during
the times the children are required to complete work. At home, Logan reads by himself or with

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his parents about 3-5 times a week. He enjoys reading picture books, as well as e-books. After
working with Logan for 8 weeks and getting to know him better, I learned much about how he
approaches learning and what he knows about language and its structure.

Concepts about Print

The first assessment that Logan completed was Concepts about Print. In order to get
Logan to stay focused and get excited about the assessment, I told him that we were going to
read a story about the beach. During the assessment, I continually encouraged Logan and told
him that he was doing a great job. Since he is only 5 and is placed in a self-contained classroom,
I wasnt sure how the assessment would turn out. Surprisingly, Logan scored 14 out of 24 points
for the assessment. I am so proud of him for being able to focus on the story and answer my
questions without getting distracted so easily. Another factor that contributed to that was that he
and I went outside the classroom and sat at a table in the hallway where it was quieter.
On the assessment, I had asked Logan to first identify the front of the book. He was able
to tell me quickly where it was and then pointed to the title of the story. We read the story titled
Sand by Marie Clay who designed the assessments. Logan knew that he should start reading
at the beginning of the text instead of the picture and he also knew which way he should read.
He had trouble following the words with his finger as I read them aloud. When the book
continued, there were instances where text or pictures were inverted and line order was altered.
Logan was able to identify when pictures and text were inverted, but was unable to identify when
the line order was altered. Some letters in words were mixed around, but Logan was once again
unable to identify the error.

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I had asked Logan a few questions about punctuation to see if he knew what each symbol
meant. When I asked what a question mark meant he said Stop! He identified the meaning of
a period correctly, but couldnt identify a comma or quotation mark. I was really proud of Logan
because he was able to show me one letter, two letters, one word, two words, the first and last
letter of a word, and a capital letter on the very last page of the book. That was the final part of
the concepts of print assessment. Out of a total of 24 points, Logan received 14. During the
assessment I kept encouraging Logan by giving him a high-five every time he got an answer
correct and continually told him how proud I was of him. I also told him that what I was writing
down would let the teacher know how smart he was. By Logans responses and how well he did,
I could tell that this helped Logan to focus and do the best he could.
Concepts about Print was the longest and most difficult assessment to conduct with
Logan. It took a lot of time and attention. I wasnt sure of what Logan would say or how he
would identify certain parts in the story. Marie Clay (2013) shares that it is not really a
question of how much they know; it is more a matter of what personal experiences they have had
with print, what they have notices and what they have ignored (p. 39). From the results, I can
tell that Logan has a good amount of experience with books and is familiar with print concepts.
The only things he had trouble identifying were the errors with misspelled words and sentences
that were rearranged. To help facilitate Logans language development, his teacher can conduct
activities that are centered on print concepts.
An example of an activity the teacher could use to facilitate language development would
be centers. During school, Logans teacher had centers as part of the daily schedule. One of the
centers was reading a book with her and learning more about how books are to be read. She
would place the book in front of the student, show them where the title is and help them

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understand that the picture on the front can give a clue to what the story might be about. She
also would have them follow the words with their fingers as she read them aloud. As seen by
students responses, this activity seems effective for improving the students knowledge of
concepts about print.
Letter Identification
This assessment was the second of the 3 that Logan completed. This assessment took
fairly long, due to the fact that Logan has trouble focusing on a task. The materials used in the
assessment were a recording sheet and a piece of paper with all the letters of the alphabet (capital
and lowercase), with some of them in different fonts. This assessment was conducted inside the
classroom instead of outside in the hallway because there was another teacher at the table we
were currently using. We sat in the back of the classroom during circle time and attempted to
complete this assessment. I began by showing Logan the letter sheet and pointing to the letter
A in the left hand corner at the top and asking him if he could tell me what letter it was, what
sound it made, or if he knew a word that began with that letter. Logan had an extremely hard
time trying to complete the assessment. He kept getting out of his seat and trying to grab my pen
so he could draw. At one point he had stopped and started singing along with his classmates as
they sang one of their Halloween songs. I stopped the assessment and waited until the song was
over to resume. We eventually managed to get through the entire sheet of letters and had those
all recorded.
Logan, surprisingly, was able to identify all of the letters. There was only one letter that
he identified by saying a word that started with that letter. For the letter y he said yellow!
He also held up the sign and performed the hand motion for yellow: His class was learning sign
language along with the alphabet so he knew the sign for y and yellow. Logan had a bit of

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trouble discerning b from d but after a few seconds to think it over, he correctly identified
the both of them. Once I had checked off a few of the letters he recognized, he saw my pen and
asked if he could mark them off when he got them right. I knew that if I said no he would
retaliate and not finish the assessment. I gave him my pen and after he had communicated that
he knew a letter, he found it on the sheet and had made his own mark. I assume he had been
watching the way I checked off each letter and he had tried to copy my marks. Some of his
marks were expressed to be his attempt at writing the letter, next to the printed version, in the
box. He had written the letters K, S, R, T, w, z, o, y, q, m, n, s, x, i,
v, and t. Logan knows all of his letters but he has trouble writing them and using them to
build words. Logans struggle reminded me of Martens example with Sarah: She had to learn
that while the examples of written language she sees take many forms, there are only twenty-six
letters. The same letters can be represented in different sizes, shapes, colors, and fonts. She must
learn which different forms to treat as the same to get to the meaning. At the same time, she is
learning that size, shape, color, and font can be used to enhance meaning (Martens, 1996, p.
15). This need for help with learning different forms letters can take (words) was shown in the
remaining assessment, Writing Vocabulary. An additional thing that I took away from this
assessment is that Logan has difficulty identifying phonemes (letter sounds). When I asked him
if he knew of any of the letter sounds he just began naming letters. At one point I did ask him if
he could tell me the sound of the letter A, but he just replied its A.
Helping Logan learn letter sounds will in turn help him to form words and sentences.
The teacher does an activity during circle time where the children sing a song where they sing
each letter, its sound, and a word that begins with that letter. As evidenced by the learning of the
students in Logans class, this is a developmentally appropriate activity to help the children learn

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their letter sounds. It may help Logan to remember his letter sounds, as well as give him a
chance to practice his letters every day.
Writing Vocabulary
Since Logan was beginning to fidget around and get out of his seat to look at his classmates
to see what they were doing, I asked him if hed like a chance to write his own words. Id hope
that he would want to do an independent task rather than sit and answer questions I was asking.
His face lightened and he pointed to my pen. I gave him my pen and placed a blank piece of
paper in front of him and asked him if he could write all of the words that he knows. He looked
at me with a confused expression. I began suggesting words such as his name, his favorite color
or an animal he likes. Logan placed the pen point of the paper and started to draw a big oval
shape. Inside the shape he drew a few scribbles and then he said done! According to Martens
(1996), initially children do not distinguish between drawing and writing. Writing to them is a
form of drawing (p. 11). I had wondered if this was the case with Logan. I had wondered if he
was trying to write something in a way that only he could understand. I asked Logan what he
had written but he had trouble explaining it to me. He spoke a word I had never heard and began
trying to spell it for me. Morrow (2012) states that when they (children) do not have a word for
a situation, they supply their own (p. 106). In this situation, Logan was trying to express
something to me, but did not have enough knowledge of language to be able to correctly express
what he was thinking.
Because I knew he had a few minutes of the assessment left, I asked if he could write me his
name on the paper so I knew it was his. This was my way of trying to get him to keep writing.
He began writing his name; however, the first attempt didnt go as planned. He had spelled his
name wrong and wrote two letters, crossed them out, and then wrote two more letters

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underneath. After recognizing that he was having trouble, he wrote an A. He knows the letter
A very well, which he had expressed and shown in his previous assessments. About thirty
seconds had passed before he wrote again. This time Logan had written his name correctly at the
bottom right corner of the page. His name was slanted down to the right and underlined. Once
Logan successfully wrote his name, he expressed his disinterest in continuing the activity. I
knew that he was no longer excited and that the time was almost up, so I excused him with my
gratitude for helping me and told him he did such a great job.
According to Marie Clay, most children have a small repertoire of writing behavior
when they enter school (2013, p. 101). Logan demonstrates that he has a small repertoire of
writing behavior. He shows difficulty in producing words on his own and expresses his
difficulty when he gives up and gets antsy to get out of his chair. Some children will show
frustration or give up on a task if they have trouble completing it. Some part of me wasnt
surprised that Logan was unable to write more than his name. It was his first few months as a
Kindergartener in a self-contained classroom. Clay (2013) says that after about six months at
school both boys and girls begin to make rapid gains in the numbers of words (correctly spelled)
which they can write (p. 101). My observation period occurred within the first three months of
school when children are beginning to learn the alphabet and letter sounds. The self-contained
classroom is a bit behind in the curriculum than the typical Kindergarten classes. This is due to
the fact that all of the children in the self-contained classroom have a learning or physical
disability. Logan has trouble focusing on tasks which can cause trouble retaining information.
Since he has difficulty retaining information sometimes, it will take more time and attention to
help Logan learn how to form words, and then move on to forming sentences.

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Written/Dictated Story
Logans story was written on the second to last day of observations. By this time I had
gotten to know Logan better and he had gotten to know me. I approached Logan after he
finished his table time assignment and asked if hed like to tell me a story. His face lit up and he
got up out of his seat. I walked with him to the table outside the classroom and we sat down to
begin. To start the story I asked Logan a few questions such as What do you like to do at
home? and What is your favorite sport to play? I didnt want to influence his story too much,
so I let him take over after he expanded on the questions. Logans story is based on his homerun
during a baseball game with friends. Logan spoke in short sentences and his story idea was
fairly simple. The story began with him going to play baseball. The climax of the story was
when he hit a homerun. The ending featured him and his team winning the baseball game. He
drew all of the pictures to go with the text I wrote down. He drew figures representing himself
and his teammates. He also drew symbols that he told me were his bat and baseball when he hit
a homerun. His drawings are developmentally appropriate for a 5-year old. The figures he drew
had a body, arms, legs, and faces in the correct areas that they appear on a human body.
Logans difficulty seemed to be the sentence structures. His story contains very short
sentences with little detail to them. Logan knew that there had to be a main character, a plot, a
cause and effect (hitting the ball over the fence resulted in a homerun) and that stories can
contain both text and illustrations. According to NAEYC, as children gain experience with the
language of their community, they learn which words (or sequences of phonemes) stand for
which concepts in that language (Roskos, 2003, p. 56). Logans illustrations reflect his
understanding of the relationship between his art and the world (Martens, 1996, p. 26). He
grasped the concept of human features and the way they fit together to form a figure.

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Conclusion
Eight weeks of observation provided me with a great deal of information and helped me
come to conclusions. After reviewing my anecdotal notes and the results of the assessments, I
would classify Logan as an early emergent reader. He knows and can identify both lowercase
and capital letters. Logan is learning about phonemes daily through songs the class does during
circle time, which will help him when he begins to write in the future. Phonemes make up a
word, and words make up sentences, which then make up passages and books. Learning the
basic phonemes at this early of an age will help Logan to progress in writing words and
sentences. Early Emergent Readers need enriching and enjoyable experiences with books,
especially picture books. They can become comfortable with books even before they can read
independently; recognizing letters and words and even language patterns. They are able to work
with concepts of print and are at the beginning stages of developing the ability to focus attention
on letter-sound relationships (Lam, 2012, para. 2).
Logan showed, through my observations and assessments, that he has considerable
alphabet knowledge, minor phonological awareness, but trouble writing words and knowing how
they are spelled. When faced with the Concepts of Print assessment, Logan had trouble
identifying errors in words and sentences. Learning how words and sentences are formed is a
skill that will take Logan a lot of practice and effort. By reading at home and continuing to
practice phonemes in school, Logan will continue to develop his language skills. Through a
parent survey that I sent home with Logan, I learned what Logan likes to read at home and how
many times he reads a week. Logans parents read with him at home about 3 to 5 times a week.
In school, the teacher allows time for the students to read individually and also conducts a center

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where she shows the students how to read a book. With the help of his teacher and his parents at
home, Logan will continue to progress as a reader and writer.

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Resources
Clay, M. (2013). An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (3rd ed., p. 3, 39, 101). The Marie
Clay Literacy Trust.
Lam, E. (2012, January 1). Stages of Reading Development. Retrieved December 6, 2014, from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/stages-reading-development
Martens, P. (1996). I Already Know How to Read: A Child's View of Literacy (p. 11, 15, 26). Portsmouth:
Heinemann.
Morrow, L. (2012). Language and Vocabulary Development. In Literacy Development in the Early Years:
Helping Children Read and Write (7th ed., p. 106). Boston: Pearson Education.
Roskos, K., Christie, J., & Richgels, D. (2003, March 1). The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction.
Retrieved December 6, 2014, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/tyc/file/Roskos.pdf

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Logan Plays Baseball

By Logan Kohut

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I went to play baseball.

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I hit a homerun.

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I hit it over the fence

and it went out of the
park.

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I ran.

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My team won.

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