Chantelle White s3382680

Planning for Literacy Development TCHE2434

Assignment One: Learning Needs Assessment and Reporting

Reading Assessment of a Grade Four Student

Rationale
This report discusses a literacy assessment conducted on a student in grade 4. The literacy aspect
assessed was reading, and in particular comprehension skills and deeper-thinking. The report will also
include some analysis of other elements that inform reading including engagement, discourse, genre,
and critical literacy (the 4 Resources Model). The report will outline the student s learning
achievements, and facilitate decision-making and teaching strategies for future learning needs in these
areas.
The assessment was created to accommodate the appropriate Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement
standards for level 4 Reading and Viewing;
By the end of level 4, students can explain how language features, images and vocabulary
are used to engage the interest of audience and can describe literal and implied meaning, connecting ideas
in different texts. They express different types of texts, and respond to others viewpoints.
VCAA 2015
With this in mind, the assessment was designed to test:
- The three levels of comprehension, (literal, influential and evaluative),
- Reading processes that occur before, during and after reading (predicting, scanning and skimming,
monitoring meaning and understanding, summarizing, analyzing and making text-to-text, text-to-self
and text-to-world connections)
- Genre theory (topic-specific discourse/terminology, metalanguage, and style and other authorial
decisions that characterize different genres of text)
This assessment therefore, spans multiple of the individual curriculum descriptors across level four
reading including:
Text-structure and organisation: Purpose, audience and structure of different text types: Identify
features used in imaginative, informative and persuasive texts used to meet the purpose of the text, and
understand how texts can vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the
purpose and the intended audience
Responding to Literature: Expressing preferences and evaluating texts: Describe the effects of ideas,
text structures and language features of literary texts
Interpreting, Analyzing, Evaluating:
- Reading Processes: Read different types of texts for specific purposes by combining phonic, semantic,
contextual and grammatical knowledge using text processing strategies, including monitoring meaning,
skimming, scanning and reviewing
- Comprehension Strategies: Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to
expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analyzing and evaluating texts
- Analyzing and Evaluating: Compare and evaluate two texts presenting the same ideas and analyze why
one is more comprehendible or engaging than the other
VCAA 2015
The research suggests that by about year 4, readers can participate in reading on the superficial level of
decoding texts and can draw literal meaning from them, but struggle to produce deeper understandings
in the higher-level texts that upper Primary School starts to offer them. James Gee coined the term The
Fourth Grade Slump in
to describe this trend in young readers Gee
. After conducting a getto-know-you session with the learner, it was apparent that she was reading and enjoying a lot of texts of
her own choices, with relatively similar styles of narratives spanning her bookshelves. This inclined me

to assess the student s ability to interact with more complex texts with the same engagement and
understanding. For privacy purposes, I will use a pseudonym, Elsa, to identify the student.
Assessment Development
The assessment was crafted to be as authentic an experience for the student as possible under the
circumstances. It is generally agreed that reading comprehension is the product of three main factors:
(1) considerate texts, (2) the compatibility of the readers knowledge and text-content, and (3) the
active strategies the reader employs to enhance understanding and retention, and to circumvent
comprehension failures (Palisncsar & Brown 1884). I concentrated on this research to design an
assessment that the learner would have a fair chance of demonstrating good understanding and reading
skills. For this reason, I spent time weeks before the assessment, to get to know the student and their
interests, abilities and habits.
The get-to-know you session informed me of the student s reading habits and interests and ) used these
to influence the construction of this individual assessment. This initial session revealed that 9-year-old
Elsa was a daily reader who enjoys collecting and reading books of her own choosing, additional to her
reading required for school. Elsa reads every day, often when she wakes up and always before she goes
to sleep, as well as a pastime throughout the day and on weekends. She thought of herself as a good
reader who reads more than any of her friends and anticipates getting new books from her favourite
authors, chiefly Andy Griffiths or series, (EJ12: Girl Hero) or anything about animals (her favourites are
all the big cats, which I can already tell because her bedroom denotes a cheetah and leopard theme), or
Star Wars. Elsa says her favourite genre is Mystery, but loves reading stories with animal characters
equally. Elsa is the third oldest of four daughters in her family who are all passionate readers.
Elsa frequently requests to read her older sisters books and magazines, and anticipates when she is
older and is allowed to read some of the things her big sisters are reading. I already know that Elsa is an
engaged reader before our true assessment, as she starts checking of the criteria for this profile; an
engaged reader chooses their own reading material with ease and confidence and anticipates
enjoyment (Semple 2016).
After our initial session, which mostly involved Elsa and I just talking conversationally about her
hobbies, after-school activities, home and school-life, favourite subjects (and why), and reading habits, I
took the time to develop an assessment that I thought would both appeal to, and challenge her, that
would highlight the learning achievements and needs I want to assess. The reading assessment is to be
part of a vital process of the teaching-learning cycle where the assessment reveals learning needs to
inform future learning decisions, teaching and programming (Winch & Holliday 2014), and as such,
created an outcomes-based assessments and tried to include as many observations and questions that
would highlight learning achievements and needs in order to create a tailored future learning program
for the learner.
The first assessment piece, Cheetahs, is a non-fiction article from the National Geographic website
(2016). While ) knew this would be of interest to Elsa, it would also be a genre that she doesn t as
commonly seek. On the other hand, comprehension is also influenced by the extent of overlap between
the readers prior knowledge and the content of the text Palincsar& Brown
, and this was to
Elsa s advantage. This assessment piece would allow me to assess whether Elsa fit Gee s Fourth Grade
Slump trend by giving her a text with higher complexity style and vocabulary. )t will also test Elsa s
subject specific discourse, with a topic that she is familiar with, and the strategies she uses during
meaning to monitor and confirm understanding with unfamiliar words. I crafted 3-level-questions to
assess Elsa s comprehension of the text and to see if she could understand why the text may have been
created and how the author is trying to position the readers.
I chose a personal favourite Australian narrative of mine called Zarconi s Magic Flying Fish by Kirsty
Murray (1999) for the second piece of assessment. I chose this book, because it has prominent elements
of mystery, but in a more mature context than Elsa s usual selections, such as the EJ12 series. I hoped
that the cliffhanger questions on the blurb of this book, as well as the circus context, would motivate
Elsa to read with high engagement. I chose to observe how Elsa interacts with the book before reading,

and then assess her comprehension and analysis skills by having her read the first chapter. I crafted
some 3-level-questions to assess Elsa as a complete reader and to gage her ability to make connections
and perditions by using high level thinking.
The Reading Assessment: Learning Achievements and Needs
On the day of the assessment, a few sentences into the Cheetahs text, I noticed Elsa was struggling with
some difficult words and wasn t accessing any strategies to confirm her pronunciation before moving
on. ) wasn t sure if this was because she was nervous with me watching her and unsure of whether she
was allowed to stop and confirm meaning, so after her looking up at me for assistance after several
mispronounced attempts at the word exceptionally , ) asked her Are there any strategies you use when
you get to a word you don t know? , she replied with Yes, ) just sound it out and break it up like this;
the is the word ally and tion , like in nation , so, ex..pec..tationally . )t was at this point that )
decided to start taking an impromptu running-record to observe Elsa s miscues. This revealed to me
that Elsa is confident in sounding-out unknown words, but doesn t necessarily monitor meaning. Some
words she understood after self-corrections, such as acceleration , but with others like stealthy and
quarry ) had doubts she understood the sentences in full after she kept reading. For future learning,
Elsa needs to remind herself to constantly monitor her understanding, and to access strategies not just
for pronunciation, but for understanding as well. I did not complete a running-record for the Zarconi s
Magic Flying Fish.
For both texts ) ensured ) was activating prior knowledge and observing Elsa s Before Reading habits.
This further confirmed to me that Elsa is an engaged and motivated reader, even with unfamiliar and
more difficult texts. An engaged reader enjoys talking about what they read and makes connections
with other books/ films/ TV/ personal experiences et cetera (Semple 2014). Before reading Zarconi s
Magic Flying Fish (ZMFF), Elsa could already make connections to self, world and other texts by
analyzing the context and making predictions based on solely the cover and blurb of the book. She
referenced the mystery element of ZMFF and reiterated how her favourite series, EJ12, was also a
mystery genre, furthermore she said that one of the EJ12 books is called Jumpstart and is about
gymnastics, which she explained was similar to acrobatics like is done in the circus, she said they might
even do similar tricks on the trapeze. Elsa told me a couple if the tricks names, which showed me she
already had some prior-knowledge and some subject-specific discourse to help her with this text.
Furthermore, Elsa said that she could relate to the main character s dilemma about having a friend
become an enemy because something similar happened to her at school, this shows me that Elsa is able
to empathize with characters.
After reading, I adopted Aiden Chambers Tell Me strategy, from his book Tell Me: Children, Reading
and Talk
. This strategy utilizes questions that are designed to both prompt students to think
more deeply about the book , and to identify what they understand from its deeper meanings Winch
&Holliday 2014). The assessment questions developed from literal understandings to inferential and
evaluative. Elsa s answers were accurate and thoughtful and showed me that she is thinking deeply
when she is reading. With ZMFF she also asked questions that ) hadn t why Pete s family couldn t keep
Gus any more) and was supposing answers (maybe they were mean) so I knew she was deeply engaged
by this book.
A couple of answers for the Cheetahs questions were not as realistic as might have been implied by the
text, but I believe these were simply due to age and experience as opposed to not participating in
deeper-thinking while reading. In fact, I think these answers highlight the extensive imagination of Elsa
and need not be compressed to narrower thinking. For example, Elsa said that the text may have been
created in case you are in an African safari and try to pat a cheetah and you need to know that you
can t just approach them . Even though this text was more likely created to inform readers about
biological and habitual characteristics of the animal, Elsa s answer shows much more imagination,
which is just as important for young people, it also shows me Elsa is using visualizing skills. However,
Elsa did not consider text-structure and organisation, including the characteristics of an informative
text such as the subtitles, fact-box and formal language when thinking about audience and purpose. This
skill specifically refers to a curriculum descriptor;

VCAA (2013)

Elsa was able to make logical inferences from the text. She said that she thought the reason that the
grasslands were disappearing was because humans are building on them, and if they don t stop
cheetahs may become endangered or extinct. Complementary to this, Elsa is able to analyze the text and
make summations on how and why the author positions the reader in a certain way. She explained that
cheetahs are good animals that don t deserve what is happening to them and that humans should stop
building in their environment. Elsa s summaries of both texts were accurate and detailed and contained
key information provided by the texts.
Conclusion
Elsa s reading showed me that she was fulfilling the characteristics of active, effective comprehension as
described by the research; making connections to text, self and world, questioning the text and
responding to teacher-questions, making inferences, summarizing and analyzing (Booth 2001, Harvey
& Goudvis 2007). This assessment proved that Elsa is an engaged reader who reads using all four
applications of Luke and Freebody s Resource Model (1999); text-breaker, text-participant, text-user
and text-analyst. Elsa certainly does not fit the profile of a learner experiencing the Fourth Grade
Slump that Gee reported on in 2004 and is well on her way to becoming an excellent reader with habits
of deep thinking and critical literacy.
Elsa is beginning to bridge the gap between the Transitional and Proficient Phase of Reading according
to the Reading Map of Development by the Department of Education W.A. (2013):

For future learning, Elsa should:

- Consolidate and remember to use her skills as a Code-Breaker by monitoring understanding of
unknown words, remembering that all words add to the overall meaning of a text, and simply moving
on is inadequate for good comprehension
- Expand her role as a Text Analyst when reading to:
* Consider how one s values, attitudes and beliefs may impact on the interpretation of text
* Continue to decipher the target audience and purpose of text
* Start to recognise the authorial decisions that occur to position a reader in a certain way, and to
be able to understand what motives/ points of view a text is based on
*Continue to expand her knowledge base to give her further strategies for comprehension
(cultural/ world, metalanguage and content-specific discourses, text structure and organisation)
and start to understand that she is consciously participating in the role of text-analyst.
- Broaden her reading to different genres and text-types and start to think about and compare textstructure and organisation in relation to audience and purpose
Elsa is well on her way to becoming a competent and thorough reader.
WORD COUNT 2164

References
Booth, D (2001), Reading and writing in the middle years, Portland, Maine: Stenhouse
Department of Education W.A (2013), Reading Map of Development, Perth: Department of Education,
Western Australia
Gee, J.P. (2004), A strange fact about not learning to read in Situated language and learning: A critique of
traditional schooling, London, Routledge
Harvey, S & Goudvis, A (2007), Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and
engagement, 2nd Ed, York, Maine: Stenhouse
Murray, K (1999), Zarconi s Magic Flying Fish, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
National Geographic (2016), Cheetahs, Cheetah Pictures, Cheetah Facts - National Geographic, National
Geographic. Retrieved 15th March 2016, from
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/mammals/cheetah/
Palincsar, A.S. & Brown, A.L, (1984), Reciprocal teaching of comprehension: Fostering and
comprehension-monitoring activities, in Cognition and Instruction, 1 (2), 117-175
Semple, C (2016), Assessing Reading, Lecture presented 9th March 2016, RMIT University Bundoora
VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) (2015), Victorian Curriculum Foundation-10:
English- Level 4, http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/english/introduction/scope-and-sequence,
accessed March 15th 2015
Winch, G. & Holliday. M. (2014), Assessment in reading, in G. Winch, R. Ross Johnston, P. March, L.
Ljungdahl, & M. Holliday. Literacy: Reading, writing and children s literature(pp.130-148). South
Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

Appendix
Permission form
About Elsa: Informal notes from get-to-know-you-session
Cheetahs
Cheetahs Assessment
Zarconi s Magic Flying Fish
Zarconi s Magic Flying Fish Assessment

Permission Form

About Elsa: Notes from Get-to-know-you session

Context: Bring an About Me box filled with 7-10 items that you can discuss that are important to you/
describe you/ have good memories for you, that can prompt reciprocal discussion from the learner.
- 9 years old, Grade 4
- Favourite subject is Maths, loves problem-solving, has moved up a level in maths recently, is good at
ordering decimal points from smallest to largest and times-tables, talked about a budgeting task
- Has 3 sisters, she is the 2nd youngest, Mum, Dad, 2 dogs and a cat
- Does calisthenics after-school, has done it for 6 years, does competitions and helps with the younger
classes, has medals and a scholarship, is very modest about her achievements and skills
- Mum and Dad teaches her and her sisters swimming
- Was accepted for the Recital Choir at school, had to audition, she was nervous, she is anticipating a
Singer of the Week award, is currently learning Do you want to build a Snowman from Frozen, and
wants the end-of-year concert to include Let it Go from Frozen, or a song from Annie
- Likes singer/ actress Dove Cameron, Disney channel star, doesn t understand why the boy is
invisible or dead in music-video clip on Youtube (Glowing in the Dark- the Girl and the
Dreamcatcher)
- Likes Katy Perry
- Likes drawing and colouring-in
- Loves Lego
- Loves animals, especially big cats. Her favourite animal is a Cheetah
- Likes to go to the Zoo with her family, goes often
- Enjoys reading Andy Griffiths books and EJ12 books, books about animals (Bindi books, Puppy tales),
funny/silly books and Mystery books
- Reads more than any of her friends
- Has Enid Blyton books that mum reads to her because they were her favourite books
- Was in the middle of her sisters book
- Reads on her bed (day or night) as a relaxing activity
- Wants to read magazines about Star Wars but can t because Dad needs to read it first
- Dad has to read the books she wants to read first if they might be too scary: Star Wars books (same
with movies)
- Likes reading her sister s magazines, enjoys the embarrassing stories section where readers send in
stories about embarrassing things that have happened to them- could remember some accurately
- Likes the fashion pages
- Likes reading celebrity stories
- Likes Fuller (ouse explained to me the family makeup and why ) should watch Full (ouse before )
watch it
- Told me about her science project and used academic/ scientific discourse such as invention ,
prodigy , experiment etc.
- Enjoys sport at school but doesn t think she is very good
- Told me about her house renovations and possums in the backyard
- Told me about her family trips to Apollo Bay and the fires that happened there last year

Cheetahs
Questions
Before Reading
Hi Queen Elsa, how are you today?
I remember the last time I saw you, you were telling me about how much you liked
Cheetahs. I was wondering if we could talk about Cheetahs some more today?
First of all, I would love to know what you like about Cheetahs? For example, do you
know anything interesting about Cheetahs?
I know that the Mum can be like, really aggressive if ever a cub baby goes to a human, then the
Mum gets really aggressive and stuff.

Where do you find this information out? Fiction or non-fiction books/ magazines/
websites/ documentaries etc.
On my calendar I read some, (referring to Cheetah calendar she has that she showed me last time
we met). Also in grade two we got to pick our own animal and do research on it, so mine was
Cheetahs.

Excellent, thank you for telling me all that. Now I have with me a text about Cheetahs
that I thought we could read. Hand student the text.
What sort of things do you think this text will talk about?
I can read the subtitles and I can see that it talks about the breeding and population and speed and
hunting.

Why might it have been created?

Well, it could be to inform people, like dont go, into a Safari thing without knowing about big cats
and stuff. Because, if you dont know, you might go up and pat it because you think its like a cat.

READ TEXT: Cheetahs

General
1. Did you like this text? Why/ why not?
Yes, because it had stuff I dont know about cheetahs.

Topic- Specific Discourse

2. What do the two words in italics under the title Cheetah, mean? Scientific name
Maybe, like, a type of cheetah or something.

3. What does the author mean by the word prey?

Means like, what they like to hunt down and eat.

4. What is a litter? Do you know another meaning for the word litter?
A litter is, well, in this sentence it says a litter of three cubs, so how much babies or something.
Yes (giggles), where the cat poops.

5. What does it mean when the author says the diet of the cheetah is Carnivore?
Means like, theyre meat-eaters.

On the text/ Literal

6. What two animals does a Cheetah particularly like to hunt for?
It said antelopes and hares Im pretty sure.

7. What are two advantages the Cheetah has for hunting?

Um, that their speed, and their coat that they can blend in the long grass.

8. Is this text fiction or non-fiction? How do you know?

Um, Im pretty sure, um. (long pause so I ask her if she knows the difference between fiction and
non-fiction. She says she knows one is real and one is fake, but she gets mixed up. I explain which
is which). Its real so its non-fiction. Because its not saying cheetahs have eyes on their tail or
something. Its saying stuff thats in real life.

9. Why has the author put these headings in the text? (Point to sub-titles)
To tell you what the paragraphs about. So if you want to know something you can go back to it.

Between the text

10. What do you think the author means when they say; the wide-open grasslands
they favour are disappearing at the hands of human settlers?
I think its cause humans are building on it.

11. What do you think will happen if people dont stop settling in the grasslands
where cheetahs live?
They could go extinct or go endangered maybe.

Beyond the text

12. How do you think the author wants us to think about cheetahs?
They might want us to know that people are running the cheetahs habitat and they want us to do
something about it.

How do you know the author wants you to think that?

Because it says here that the human settlers are making their habitat disappear.

13. How do you think the author wants us to feel about the humans that are settling
in the grasslands where the cheetahs live?
Wants us to feel like its a bad thing that we have done.

Other
14. How do YOU feel about Cheetahs and what is happening to them now that you
have read this text?
I feel like they dont deserve what is happening to them.

15. Is there anything else you would like to say about this text?
Um, that the cubs can be very, very playful. In this movie I watched there was this cub, and it was
very playful to the human, so it just kept playing.

Was this a movie, or a documentary?

It was a movie and it was based on a true story.

Zarconis Magic Flying Fish

Questions
Give the book to Queen Elsa to examine, note what she does
* Looks at front cover, opens the front cover and reads title page, closes book and looks at the back

1. What do you do when you first get a new book to read?

I look at the blurb to see if I would be interested

2. Can you please read the blurb?

Reads blurb pretty fluently
- Stumbles on name Zarconis, which I help her with pronunciation of. Stumbles to pronounce
magicians and secretively, but continues sounding out syllables and eventually self-corrects both
words
- Mispronounces turds as tords

3. Based on the blurb, and the images on the front cover, can you make any
predictions about this book?
Well it says, why wont they let him on the trapeze?, Im wondering, maybe one of his family
members or something might have fallen off.

4. Would you normally choose a book like this to read? Why/ why not?
Well it says it is a book with a lot about mysteries and I like mysteries. Also its about the circus and
I like the circus, so yes.

5. Do you think it will be like any other book you have read?
Well I have all the EJ 12 books, which are mystery too, and theres one called Jumpstart which is
about gymnastics.

How about any movies?

There is this movie called Sophie and its about this girl with her elephant. And the elephant goes
to a circus, so she raises money to help set the elephant free.

6. Can you make any connections with real life?

What do you mean?

Well from what you have read so far, and from the cover, can you relate to anything
that you have done in real life? Or felt in real life? Or seen?
Well in the blurb it said this snake-girl might become his best friend or his worst enemy. In my real
life I had this friend who was a girl and now shes like my enemy thing so, that kind of relates.
And the incredible travelling circus, when we were going down to the Grampians one year we were
driving and I saw a circus driving past. It was a big truck and it said circus on it.

Get student to read chapter one, pages 7-12, The Black Cloud
- Reads very fluently, joining five or more words in sentences to give coherence
- Changes tone to accommodate voices and expressions, for example adds a shocked expression
for Grandparents!
- Sometimes stumbles with mispronunciation or reading too fast, but re-reads from a few words prior
to correct herself
- Mispronounces a couple of words and continues reading without using strategies to correct
herself, ward as word, reproach as approach
- Adds or changes a couple of words for words with similar meaning/ doesnt change context. For
example everythings working round at Petes? as everythings working alright round at Petes?

7. Can you summarize what you have just read?

Petes family couldnt keep him any more, his mum was sick and they didnt have enough money to
keep him and he had to go to his grandparents, and leave his school and go to Adelaide. And his
mum keeps telling him that it wont be forever.

8. What do you think Gus meant when he said he felt like he was always in a black
cloud, even when he was in a bright, white hospital room?
He wasnt like always, he was sad.

9. What do you think Guss mum meant when she said Youll fit in, you were always
a bit of a clown?
Like, he can fit in with all the others because he was always funny and stuff.

10. How does Gus feel? How do you know?

It said that he was ready to argue, so he was kind of mad and angry.

11. How do you think you would feel if you were Gus?
I would probably be angry too, and sad if I had to leave my mum.

12. What do you think might happen in the story?

Maybe its about him fitting in, but he doesnt really want to fit in. I think he will enjoy the circus but
he will still want to go back to his mum.

13. Is there anything else you would like to add?

I want to know why Petes family couldnt keep him anymore. Maybe they arent nice or something.