Ashley Miller 3/11/14 ELD 307 Word Study Assessment

Purpose of the Assessment: The purpose of this Word Study Assessment was to focus in on a specific child and assess where they fell on the developmental continuum for vocabulary, word study, and spelling instruction. My goal was to get a better feel for how fluent L.H was in different areas of literacy and the comprehension of these subjects individually and as a whole. I also wanted to see if she was able to pick up on different spelling, pronunciation, and sentence patterns.

Introduction of the Child and Setting: The student I worked with on this assessment was a first grade female who will be referred to as L.H for privacy purposes. I was told by my cooperating teacher that she is a lower level reader and writer for her age, though she strives really hard to succeed in literacy. I administered these assessments one on one with L.H at a table in the back of Mrs. Wells classroom so that she had the ability to focus and not be distracted by the actions of other students in the class.

Methodology: To get my information for this assignment, I used two different assessments on L.H and spread them apart from one another so that she wouldnt get too overwhelmed. On Thursday, February 27th, I began with the Concepts of Written and Pictorial Representation assessment because I found this to be the most relaxed and entertaining of the assessments for someone of L.Hs abilities and age. I took L.H to the back table in the classroom to work with me while the rest of the class was working on independent work. As I worked my way through this assessments questions, L.H was very willing to try her best for me and do what was asked of her. I asked each question that was on this sheet exactly as it was written, but if it looked like L.H was confused by any of it, I tried to break it down for her and ask it in a way that might be easier for her to comprehend. For example, number four on this sheet asked her to Write a letter. This assessment mentioned that the student might write an alphabetic letter or an actual letter to a person depending on their skill level for this question, so I was curious to see what L.H would attempt here. As soon as I asked her to Write a letter I got a blank stare for a little bit and then she picked up her pencil and looked at the paper. I could tell she was confused, so I asked her what letter her name started with. As soon as I said that, without even hinting at what I meant by the term letter she was able to write an L for me on the paper. A week later, I asked my cooperating teacher if I could pull L.H aside again for a follow up assessment to get a better feel for her word study and spelling development, since the previous assessment was more open ended. This time around, I decided to work with the Feature Guide for Primary Spelling Inventory. When the rest of the class went to gym, I kept L.H in the

classroom with me for about ten minutes to complete this assessment. I made sure to tell her that this wasnt part of a grade for her, it was only for my college class and that she was doing me a big favor that I really appreciated. I treated this assessment like a normal spelling assessment that would be given in a first grade class. I said each word on the list slowly and clearly for L.H and also used it in a sentence so she could know exactly what I meant by each word. For example, for the word pet I said, Number 2- pet. I have a pet dog. Throughout this assessment, I allowed L.H to take her time, although she was pretty confident in the words she was writing and didnt take too much time at all. She sounded out every single word that she spelt aloud to herself/me as she wrote them on the paper. After observing L.H spell all twenty six words on the assessment, I thanked her for her help and brought her to gym to join the rest of her class.

Description of your Findings: After completing the first assessment with L.H, I didnt feel like I had enough data to draw from to assess her on the continuum. I did find this assessment to be helpful in some aspects, but it wasnt enough to fully complete this study. Some things that I did learn from this assessment were that L.H does knows a fair amount about literacy, writing, and drawing, but sometimes she needs that extra bit of motivation to help her pull through. Just like I mentioned above with the question about writing a letter, L.H had a similar situation with periods at the end of sentences. After she wrote a sentence and read it to me I was able to ask her, Do you know what goes at the end of a sentence? As soon as I asked that she was able to respond with a period, but immediately looked down at her own work and saw that she was missing that within

her own sentence. I truly do believe that L.H has the potential to do big things in literacy as long as she is continuously pushed and guided by her mentors and teachers. My second assessment with L.H was a lot more successful in helping me get a better idea of where L.H fell on the continuum for vocabulary/word study. After reviewing her spelling assessment and comparing it to the chart in our packet, I feel like L.H falls into the Letter Name (K-3; ages 4-9) category. It was very clear to me from her assessment that she often spells words based on the most obvious sounds of the word. I was able to witness this while she was taking the test as well since she sounded out every word that she spelt aloud to herself and me. She did very well with sounding out each word, but would mix up letters that often sound similar to children (for example: pet spelled pat, dig spelled dik). One thing that really stood out to me while giving the assessment to L.H and while reviewing her answers afterward was that she was able to spell the longest word on the list correctly (riding). Just to be sure of this, I had her spell it aloud to me, and she was able to do so correctly. I was really impressed by this because she spelt this word correctly rather than simpler words like pet and rob.

How You Would Use These Findings to Inform Instruction: To inform instruction in word study for someone in the Letter Name (K-3; ages 4-9) range such as L.H, I would refer to the instruction part of our continuum chart for ways to work on and improve spelling skills. I definitely would implement picture sorts that reiterate consonant sounds and then once those are progressively improving; apply the same instruction with different vowel combinations. Ive seen word and picture sorts done with the students in my field placement and they seem to really help the students improve their vocabulary and spelling

of new and unfamiliar words. I would definitely be willing to try an activity similar to this in order to better word sorting abilities and spelling in a classroom.

Individualized Lesson Plan

Rationale: The purpose of this lesson is to help a student improve her word study knowledge and obtain a better understanding of single consonant words with consonant blends as well as short vowel words. This lesson will also help her get a better understanding of the sounds that different letters make in words.

Standards: RF.1.2: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes). RF.1.2.b: Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends. RF.1.2.a: Distinguish long from short vowel sounds in spoken single-syllable words.

Objective: SWBAT: Understand the role and difference of consonant blends and short vowels by participating in a word sorting activity.

Procedures: The student participating in the lesson will work one on one with myself on this word sorting activity on the rug in the classroom so we have enough space to lay out our work. (Childs name) today we will be splitting words up into Word Family Charts. One chart will include short vowel words like pet and the other chart will include consonant blends like dream. Some of these words you will recognize from your word sorting homework. I will lay out two large charts on the rug in front of the student with a bunch of different words from the word families on small pieces of paper (examples attached). Our goal is to sort each of these words under the family they belong in. First we will work with the short vowel words and next we will work with our consonant blends. I will show the student one example for each chart and then encourage them to try some on their own. See how the word drop ends in the same way cop does? The op is similar in both words and shows us that there is a short o in them. Which family do you think the word sock belongs under? Does this word look more like block or rob? We will continue this process until all of the words are in their correct places on the charts.

Materials: Large Word Family Charts (one of short vowels and one of consonant blends)

Individual words on pieces of paper from different word families to be placed on the charts

Assessment: In order to assess the child on this lesson, I can give her a mini quiz/worksheet with the same word family set up on it to see if she can place some words into their correct sort. This will be able to give me a better idea of whether or not the child gained anything from the lesson as a whole. I will also be assessing the student throughout the lesson to see if she is grasping the idea of word sorting with consonant blends and short vowels.

Differentiation: One way to differentiate this lesson could be to use technology. The website http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/wordfamily/ has a great mini activity with a very similar word sorting lesson to mine. Another way to differentiate this lesson could be to break it down a bit by only working with the short vowels or only working with the consonant blends. This way the student can focus in on one concept at a time.

Future Connections: This lesson could foreshadow future lessons involving different or more challenging consonant blends. It could also lead into long vowel word sorting, or integrating short vowel and long vowel words into a combined word sort to further challenge the students. This lesson will also help students improve their word sorting as a whole. The reiteration of this concept will help them become stronger in this area literacy.