Artifact #10: Emergent Literacy Assessment

This artifact showcases my ability to assess emerging readers in grade one. Assessment is

a vital part to an educator’s role as it allows for the ability to see how effective our teaching has

been with our students and what we need to continue or change in our teaching practices and

methods. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of assessing a grade one at the school I work at.

This student was quite happy taking part in the assessment and was eager to get started. This

form of assessment is considered to be formative. Formative assessment are beneficial because it

assists the teacher in monitoring the progress students are making, allows teachers and students to

respond to academic needs, and it provides feedback to students (Derrell, 2015). With this

assignment, I was able to identify areas and strength and improvement, possible instructional

plans that could help the student, theory relating to the plans, feedback for the student, and how I

was going to monitor the student’s progress with word identification. This was a great learning

opportunity to learn about assessing early readers.

Connections to Standards

INTASC

Standard #1: Learner Development

The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of

learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social,

emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and

challenging learning experience.

 1(a): The teacher regularly assesses individual and group performance in order to design

and modify instruction to meet learners’ needs in each area of development (cognitive, linguistic,

social, emotional, and physical) and scaffolds the next level of development.

1(b): The teacher creates developmentally appropriate instruction that takes into account

individual learners’ strengths, interests, and needs and that enables each learner to advance and

accelerate his/her learning.

NYS Code of Ethics for Educators

Principle 2 Educators create, support, and maintain challenging learning

environments for all.

Educators apply their professional knowledge to promote student learning. They know

the curriculum and utilize a range of strategies and assessments to address differences. Educators

develop and implement programs based upon a strong understanding of human development and

learning theory. They support a challenging learning environment. They advocate for necessary

resources to teach to higher levels of learning. They establish and maintain clear standards of

behavior and civility. Educators are role models, displaying the habits of mind and work

necessary to develop and apply knowledge while simultaneously displaying a curiosity and

enthusiasm for learning. They invite students to become active, inquisitive, and discerning

individuals who reflect upon and monitor their own learning.

The Ontario Ethical Teacher Standards

 Care: The ethical standard of Care includes compassion, acceptance, interest and insight

for developing students' potential. Members express their commitment to students' well-being

and learning through positive influence, professional judgment and empathy in practice.

Trust: The ethical standard of Trust embodies fairness, openness and honesty. Members'

professional relationships with students, colleagues, parents, guardians and the public are based

on trust.

P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for ELA, Math and Social Studies

A. Standards:

Category: Reading- Foundational Skills

Grade: Grade 1

Standard: RF 1.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in

decoding words.

Ontario Ministry of Education Expectation

A. Standards:

Category: Reading with Fluency

Grade: Grade 1

Standard: Reading Familiar Words 1.3-- Automatically read and understands some

high-frequency words and words of personal interest or significance, in a variety of

reading contexts.
 ILA Standards

Standard #2: Curriculum and Instructions

Candidates use instructional approaches, materials, and an integrated, comprehensive,

balanced curriculum to support student learning in reading and writing.

TEAC/CAEP Claims 1-3

Claim 1: Medaille College graduates know the subject matter in their certification

area(s)

Claim 2: Medaille College graduates meet the needs of diverse learners through effective

pedagogy and best teaching practices.

Claim 3: Medaille College graduates are caring educators.

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

3. Promoting meaningful and inclusive participation of individuals with exceptionalities

in their schools and communities.

 Assessing Student Literacy Learning Format

Name: Jasdeep Kainth Date: June 14th, 2018

Student Name: N/A Grade 1

1. Assessment Tool: Word Identification Score Sheet

2. Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RF 1.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

Ontario Language Expectations: Grade 1—Reading with Fluency

Reading Familiar Words 3.1: Automatically read and understand some high-frequency words and words of
personal interest or significance, in a variety of reading contexts.

3. Summary of Each Student Performance:

Skills demonstrated: With the end of grade 1 approaching, student was able to correctly identify 62 out of 100
words. Student was able to use self-correction on three occasions, stating that she was aware that it was not
correct before moving onto the next word. Student sounded out words very well, saying individual letter
sounds and then combining to create the word. Student was also able to follow directions when asked to
quickly say the word and immediately go to the next.

Skills not yet demonstrated: For the most part, the student struggled with words with 4 or more letters. There
were some three letter words that were challenging for the student such as way, who, call, and a few others.
Student applied the same strategy she used to identify words by sounding out the letter sounds but was still
unable to correctly identify 38 words in total. Student would correctly say the sound of letters but unable to
combine the sounds to make the word.

4. a. How will you support future learning?

Instruction Plan 1
The student did quite well for her reading level. An instructional plan that may be sufficient for this student is
to continue to build on word identification for common words is by having weekly spelling words. By
implementing this strategy not only for this student but for the class may help increase the vocabulary that is
grade level appropriate. When students are more exposed to commonly used words through instruction and
activities, they are more likely to be aware of the word when they see it later because they’ve practiced. I
would have the student working with the spelling words by using words in sentences during writing time so she
is using the words.
Instruction Plan 2
Another instructional plan that may work for this student is creating interactive reading/word games such as
Concentration or Go Fish. The game of concentration can work by selecting a few words on a weekly basis that
may be of focus and write the words on cards twice. Have student flip over cards and state the word. Once a
pair of the same word cards have been found, have the student say and spell the word for better
comprehension. For the game of Go Fish with words, distribute 3-5 cards to the student(s) and have them
students ask for the card they want to match as a pair. This allows students to verbally say the word and know
how the word is spelled. Both of these activities would get the student to practice saying the word and spelling
the word making it simple to decode and store in memory. This plan would be good for parents or guardians to
implement during the summer months to help enhance student’s vocabulary in a fun and engaging way. I
would recommend this activity.

b. Student feedback :

Students must receive praise for the work they have been able to complete. This will help boost confidence for
early to fluent readers. When completing the word identification tool with my student, I gave praise as she
went and read the words on the list. She was visibly excited and motivated to continue reading the rest of the
words. I said things such as “way to go!” “you’re doing so great, keep it up!” along the way and the student
seemed thrilled to be hearing that.I will showcase more challenging words that the student may have got
correct and state how well they used strategies such as sounding out letters to read words. I would state to the
student to continue using strategies to identify words and use as many words in sentences to practice.

c. Reference the research/ theory that support your instructional steps.

Instructional Plan 1 and 2 Support:

Research has shown that learning to spell and read go hand in hand because of the relationship between
letters and sounds. The ability to read and identify words is dependent on mapping letters and letter
combinations to sounds. Students are not able to memorize dozens of words at the same time. They need to
slowly develop the knowledge of the letters and sounds that words make when combined. Learning to spell
requires direct instruction and practice so letters, sounds, and ultimately words will be supported by student’s
memory as they will be able to recognize words. There is also a strong correlation between spelling and
writing. With this instructional plan to support word identification, the teacher can create lessons and
worksheets that will help students with identification. For the second instructional plan, student would benefit
from an interactive activity with words. She was quite eager to learn more words. By having games for
students to learn in regards to word recognition, they can help with spelling, extend their vocabulary, it can
boost their working memory which can help store words into long term memory, and it can help them work
quicker. Although there were only two games mentioned in the plan above, teachers can make a few games
with words and create stations in the classroom to help students learn in fun and creative ways.

5. How will you determine student’s learning/ monitor progress:

I would monitor this students’ progress by using a progress chart. I would use the chart to list the amount of
words they were able to say on a weekly basis. I would track this once a week after working with words
through direct instruction or through activities because once they have worked with the words, it becomes
easier for them to store words in memory and recall when required.