A literacy assessment was completed with Jacob on March 29th at 2:30 PM. Jacob is 4.

years old, and is the tallest child in his class. He has a very agreeable temperament, and

enjoys playing superheroes and playing outside. He also loves stories about superheroes

and animals.

Three Billy Goats Gruff Retelling

The first task Jacob completed was a retelling of the story of the Three

Billy Goats Gruff on March 15. First, the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff was read to

Jacob, and the pictures in the book were pointed to as the story was read. Then the story

was briefly modeled for Jacob using paper figures. Finally, Jacob retold the story using

the paper figures. His answers and how he moved the figures was recorded.

Jacob’s biggest area of strength was his sequencing of major events. He correctly

retold the story in the right order of events, and gave appropriate details to each episode.

He also demonstrated engagement and excitement as he completed the task. His tone

went up and down to reflect changes in the story, and lowered his voice when he was

doing the voice of the troll and Big Billy. His greatest weakness was his setting and

characters, and the story problem details. He did not open with “once upon a time”, and

focused more on physically moving the figures than narrating their actions. The assessor

gave him a score of 9 out of 15 because his basic understanding of the story was good,

and he was able to correctly retell the characters and sequence of events. However, he did

not use much story language, and required a little bit of prompting at times, so his

retelling is still developing.

Picture and Name Task

The second task Jacob completed was the Picture and Name Task. He was given a blank

sheet of paper and a marker, and asked to draw a picture. He asked, “What should I

draw?” The assessor told him, “Whatever you like.” He took the marker and used a five-

finger pencil grip to draw lines that traveled all around the paper. He closed them off to

make some oval shapes. He did not say anything about the picture when he finished, but

the assessor did not prompt him, so Jacob may have been waiting to be asked. Jacob also

wrote his name on the bottom of the paper. It took him almost a minute, and he spelled

his name out each time he added a letter. He also put the letters in different places on the

page so that they were not on one line or in the correct order. This seemed unusual

because he had been observed another time writing his name correctly.

Concepts About Print Text

Next Jacob was asked to pick out a book and was asked several questions about the book.

First, he was asked to show the assessor the front of the book and the title of the story. He

opened the book and pointed to the title page, and then paused when he was asked where

the title of the story was. He flipped through the next couple of pages, and then closed the

book and touched the title on the front of the book. Then a page of the book was read to

him, and he was asked to show the assessor a picture. He pointed to the illustration of a

dog on the page. Then he was asked to show a word, and he ran his finger underneath the

words on the page. When he was asked to show the last letter in a word, Jacob pointed to

a “t” at the end of word. Next Jacob was asked to show an uppercase letter, and he

pointed to a capital T on the page. He said, “Look, another t!” Then he was asked to show

the assessor the back of the book. He closed the book and pointed to the back. Then he
was asked to show where one would begin reading the story, and he opened the book

back up and pointed to the opening sentence on the first page of the story. Then another

page was read to him, and he was asked to point to a letter. He pointed to a letter, and

when he was asked to show the first letter in a word, he moved his finger across the page

and pointed to a “d” at the beginning of a word. Then he was asked how the page should

be read directionally, left to right or right to left. He pointed to the left page and then the

right page. Finally he was asked to point to a period, and he turned several pages before

pointing to a comma. Throughout this process Jacob commented very little. Overall he

received a score of 11/12, showing that he has a strong concept of print. He understands

the purpose of a book and how one is read, and knew most of its components. It took him

a little time to find certain components, like the title of the book, so the knowledge does

not come to him immediately sometimes.

Rhyme

The next task Jacob completed assessed his understanding of rhyme. He was shown a

sheet with lines that had rhyming words on it. Each line had three pictures of words, two

of which rhymed. Everything but the line he was working on was covered up for each

line. The first line with the star was used as a model to show the two rhyming words, and

then Jacob was shown the next line and asked to show the two rhyming words on his

own. The words represented by the pictures were read to Jacob slowly, and he pointed to

the two words he thought rhymed. For the first four lines, Jacob correctly picked the two

rhyming words by pointing to them. But when he reached the fifth line he appeared to get

impatient. His friends were building a tower in the block center, and Jacob had come
from the block center to complete the assessment. For the fifth, sixth, and seventh lines

Jacob pointed to the two pictures at the end of each line, and moved quickly through

them. For the eighth line, the pictures were read slower and repeated, and Jacob pointed

to the correct pictures. The ninth he got wrong, and he seemed relieved when he was

done. He took a deep breath when he finished. Overall he received a score of 6/9,

showing that he understood more than half of the rhyming words.

Alphabetics

The final task Jacob completed was a letter identification task. He was shown a sheet of

paper that had all 26 letters of the alphabet in uppercase form. They were not in order.

The assessor covered up all the letters except one, and asked Jacob to identify it. When he

first saw the page he said, “Oh no, I can’t do this.” He was asked to try, and he looked at

the first letter (which was an “m”) and said, “Miles!” That was the name of one of the

boys in his class, and he recognized the letter from his name. But when he was asked

what letter it was, he thought for a little while and then answered, “My brain is not

showing that.” Jacob was shown fifteen more letters, and he was able to correctly identify

seven of them. He was able to recognize the letters in his name and one from a friend’s

name, but then became discouraged and answered, “I don’t know,” for the other letters in

a tired voice. The assessor decided to stop the task there to prevent Jacob becoming

discouraged. Out of the letters he was shown, he scored 7/15, but out of the total letters of

the alphabet he scored 7/26.

Recommendations for Teaching

Looking at Jacob’s overall assessment, he is in the Emergent stage of reading and

writing. The retelling showed that he could listen to a story read aloud, answer simple

questions about the story, and understand that print carries a message. Through his use of

the figures in his retelling, Jacob demonstrated a use of picture clues to gain meaning,

and a memorization of some predictable text. His name writing and picture drawing task

showed that he understood the difference between writing and drawing, and he was also

able to write his first name, although it was not completely lined up. Jacob also

recognized less than half of the alphabet. Because of this, it is recommended that he

follow the instruction diet for an emergent reader.

20% of instructional time should be spent on Concept of Word, using activities like

finger-point reading to memorized rhymes, songs, and dictations. Repeated reading of

small books is also a recommended activity. Another 20% of instructional time should be

spent on Concept of Print: listening to and retelling stories, using drama and flannel

boards, and concept sorts. The Alphabet instruction should take up another 20% of

instructional time. Oral language play, alphabet games, matching games, and picture sorts

by letters and sounds are all helpful ways to improve alphabet recognition and

understanding. Another 20% of instructional time should be spent on Language

Play/Phonological Awareness. This includes listening to rhyme (like poems or songs),

rhyme activities, studying words/sentences, syllables, and initial and final consonants.

Finally the last 20% of instructional time should be spent focused on Writing. Jacob can

practice drawing and labeling his drawings, as well as journaling. Writing picture

captions and letters are also good activities to use in this time. (M. Reish, in READ 366

presentation “Developing Stages of Reading and Writing,” Spring 2017).