Early+Literacy+Assessment

__ Early Literacy Assessment __  As teachers, it is necessary to assess the children’s progress in order to develop lessons which will help them overcome their difficulties. In order to assess the child’s reading ability, usually a running record is used. Running records provide a record of the child’s reading of a short book or a passage from a book. Keeping a record enables the teacher to select books at the right level of difficulty for the child. These records also provide an indication of the child’s strategies as they try to work out unknown words. The records can be used for further analysis and a progress report for the parents. A running record is taken by: (based on Hill 2006, pg.159) 
 * Selecting a book at the child’s learning level that the child has not yet read
 * Asking the child to read the book
 * Carefully marking the child’s correct responses and miscues on a transcript of the same text

This is an example of how a running record looks like:



 There are three main factors to look for when assessing writing: written language, ideas and text conventions.The written work is assessed by the following:  As the children develop more literacy awareness, assessment becomes more complex. They will likely be more exposed to different text types and genres which act as a model for their writing process. Their writing piece is then assessed by:
 * Written language- Language covers what the child knows about letters, words and sentences. With their limited knowledge of writing, ‘they might write lists of letters and words without spaces.’ (Hill 2006, pg.289) Points are given to any recognisable letters.
 * Ideas- The child is given a point if they are able to say the text they are reading says something. They may draw a sign by the drawing to indicate that they think it means something.
 * Text conventions- This involves placement and directionality. The children learn to write from left to right. Although there might not be any spaces between the words, they are given credit for writing in the correct direction. Gradually, they learn to continue to write from left to right down the page. The child begins to use spaces between words and there is attention to punctuation. These will likely be random at the early literacy stage, so they do not count when assessing.
 * Selection of ideas- format and purpose of the writing which determines the genre of the piece
 * Organising the ideas- brainstorming and format
 * <span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(175, 0, 255)">Drafting- getting the ideas down and then proofreading and changing the text later
 * <span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(175, 0, 255)">Revision and proofreading- revising of the text and new words may be added
 * <span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(175, 0, 255)">Publishing- completion of the piece of writing, allowing for the ‘public’ to view and read the text
 * <span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(175, 0, 255)">Response and evaluation- feedback from the writers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(175, 0, 255)">Punctuation, grammar and handwriting- the child must understand what these means because ‘their writing must be read and understood by other people.’ (Hill 2006, pg.295)