Hannah Prothero

March 20, 2019

Literacy Assessment Project

Assessment 1: Picture and Name Task (For Pre-k)

This specific assignment called for the student to write their name and create/draw out a picture

of their choosing. In addition to their drawing, they were to describe what it is that they drew.

While Annie completed her image, I quickly jotted down every single detail of her explanation

onto a piece of paper. The purpose of this assessment was to test their ability to not only draw a

picture and write their name/hold the utensil, but to gain an understanding of their ability to

narrate and explain their drawing. Overall, I was very pleased with how this assessment went. I
did not come across any challenges throughout this. Annie was engaged and excited to share her

final product. From what I was able to see, I am impressed with Annie’s ability to write her

name. Her spacing is done perfectly and she successfully wrote from left to right in a straight

line. According to Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning (2007), Annie has mastered

Block 6 for Written Expression, stating that a preschooler should be able to print 8 letters with a

writing tool. Although her name is only 6 letters, she was able to copy it swiftly and with ease.

At this age, they should be able to print their first name independently. Annie can clearly do so.

She also clearly recognizes the difference between words and pictures. I was also very impressed

with her ability to explain her drawing in a sequential and clear manner. She told me what she

was doing while doing so. This matched what Vukelich (2018) shared about the importance of

encouraging personal narratives (p. 55). From hearing Annie’s oral narrative or explanation, I

was able to detect how well she is able to story tell and see that her vocabulary is on par with her

grade level. I also was impressed with how she purposely gave her mom five fingers, whereas

when she got to hers, she noted that she only gave herself three. Her explanation of what she was

drawing matched what she was truly putting on paper. Overall, there was nothing that appeared

difficult for Annie in this assessment. She did not face any challenges writing her name and

explaining her picture. Moving forward, I might suggest to Annie that next time she branch out

and use more colors rather than sticking to just one.

Assessment 2: Concepts About Print Task (For Pre-k)

This assessment sought out to test the student’s awareness of various print concepts. By going

through this check list while reading the story, I was able to see which areas were not entirely

clear for Annie. The goal of this activity was to see if all print concepts were understood and

known. For the most part, I would say that Annie successfully mastered and recognized all

concepts. Together Annie and I read, The Three Little Pigs. I found this assessment to be very

simple and easy to administer. I had no trouble doing this activity with Annie and she was eager

to give me her answers. The only challenge I had was trying not to prompt Annie. For example,

when it came to asking how the story would directionally be read, she appeared a little confused.

I happened to already know that every student in the class was aware of the “sweep back”

concept of reading left to right and top to bottom. I had to repeat the question and rephrase it a
couple of times to get her to understand that I was asking for the motion/ order of reading the

words. At first she just kept saying, “you just read it”. I had to remind myself not to prompt or

give her the answer even though I knew she knew it. Finally, she caught on and said what I was

looking for. I was impressed with how confidently and independently she was able to show me

upper and lowercase letters as well as finding the first letter in the words. When she located these

she announced what they were. She also was able to not only point to a picture but describe

thoroughly what it was/what was going on. When I asked her to show me a letter she pointed to

B and said “a line a circle and a circle makes a B”. I was impressed with this because she not

only knew what it was but explained how to make it independently on her own. One area she

struggled with was finding the last letter in a word. She took a little bit, but once she understood

what I was saying she was able to do so. While reading, I noticed that Annie had mastered most

of the English SOL block K.5 for understanding how print is organized and read. I would say

that she successfully understands print concepts and the way in which a book is read and held. I

would classify Annie as an emergent reader. According to Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for

Early Learning (2007), Annie has successfully hit her marks for block 5, Print and book

awareness. She appears fully aware of all concepts and is where she needs to be. She turns the

pages from front to back and locates important parts of the book. As far as moving forward with

her, I would say that the only thing to address next would be recognizing other punctuation

besides a period. I was impressed that she so easily knew what a period was, but I think that

other things like question marks or exclamation points might not be known.
Assessment 3: Alphabet Recognition

When it came to choosing my third assessment, I went ahead and asked my CT for

recommendations. She suggested that I do alphabet recognition with a few of the students simply

to gage their differences in current levels. Annie was one who did exceptionally well in

comparison to her peers. She is however older than many of the others and will be entering

kindergarten this upcoming fall. What this assessment is doing is testing how familiar the student

is with their letters for both uppercase and lowercase. I was very pleased with how this went.

Annie happily sat with me to do this and did not get frustrated on any mess-ups. I was surprised

with how quickly Annie flew through the letters. She only stopped and hesitated a few times. I
noticed that she is more confident and accurate in recognizing and naming uppercase letters

compared to lower case. For uppercase letters she only missed two. This was Q which she

mistook for an O and V which she said U. This falls in line with Virginia’s Foundation Blocks

for Early Learning (2007), Block Four of Letter Knowledge and Early Word recognition. This

block states that she should know 10-18 alphabet uppercase letters. She knew 24. For lower case

she missed 5. For the future I would suggest focusing more on the lowercase letters. I would also

try and look at similar looking letters like V and U or m and n or d and b or Q and O. These

similar looking letters were what tripped her up the most.