Observation Survey

What:

An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Skills observes a student's oral language, and a child's control over sentence stuctures and inflections, letter knowledge, reading vocabulary, writing vocabulary, concepts about print, hearing sounds in words, and making links between sounds and letters.

 

Who:

This survey is designed for classroom teachers who want to be careful observes of young children learning to read and write. It is also for teachers who work individually with children having temporary difficulties with literacy learning.

 

Why:

The purpose of this assessment is to determine and evaluate a student's receptive voacbulary with no reading or writing components, and to evaluate a student's writing vocabulary.

 

When:

This survey can be used early on in working with a struggling reader to identify areas of weakness and areas where a strong focus needs to be given in tutoring/intensive instruction.

 

How:

Writing Vocabulary:

1. Give the child a blank piece of paper and say, "I want to see how many words you can write. Can you write your name?"

2. Start a timer for 10 minutes.

3. If the child says 'No,' ask him if he knows any single-letter or two-letter words. Say: "Do you know how to write 'is' (pause), 'to' (pause), 'I'? Suggest other words that he may know how to write.

4. If the child says 'Yes,' say: "Write your name for me." When the child finishes, say: "Good. Now think of all the words you know how to write and write them all down for me."

5. Promptthe child as much as you like with words he might be able to write. Be careful not to interfere with his thinking and his searching of his own repertoire. Very able children need little prompting, but sometimes it is necessary to suggest a category of words.

6. Suggestions for prompts:

       Do you know how to write any children's names?

       Do you know how to write things you do?

       Do you know how to write about things in your house?

       Do you know how to write the names of the things you ride on (or in)?

       Do you know how to write about things you eat?

  7. Scoring: Each completed word scores one point if it is correctly spelled. Then, using the test score, identify the student's stanine group.

 

Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words (Dictation Task):

1. The observer selects one of five alternative sentences to use in this observation task (shown on page 67 of An Observation Survey).

2. The child is given credit for every sound (phoneme) that he writes correctly, even though the whole word may not be correctly spelled.

3. Say to the child: I am going to read you a story. When I have read it through once, I will read it again very slowly so that you can write down the words in the story.

4. Read the test sentence to the child at normal speed. Then say: Some of the words are hard. Say them slowly and think how you can write them. Start writing the words now.

5. Use the form on page 70 for recording and scoring.