Context
The "Early Reading Screening Inventory" assignment was completed during the Spring 2007 semester with Kindergarten students at Moravian Falls Elementary. The Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge was completed during the same semester with Second Grade students in Ms. Darcy Alexander's Classroom. For the ERSI assignment, I was paired with Candace Jones, and again was paired with Candace Jones, Molly Hartfelder, and Amanda Simones for the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge assignment. Both assignments were completed under the advisement of Dr. Janet W. Bloodgood, as a Block I requirement.
The assessment included an analysis of student’s word knowledge using the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge (Schlagal, 2003). The assessment was given, scored, and interpreted using the instructional reading levels for the students based upon their scores; and was given projected instructional implications based upon their data.
The assessment also included the Early Reading Screening Inventory (Morris, 2003), which was appropriately administered to a kindergarten student at Moravian Falls Elementary. This personal assessment is appropriately used for kindergarten or first-grade students who cannot or barely can read. It allows teachers to gain insight into how much information students know regarding their alphabet skills, word concept, phonemic awareness, sight-word recognition, and decoding strategies.
Impact on Student Learning
The Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge and the Early Reading Screening Inventory will most definitely impact decisions I make as a teacher in the future. I have learned that sometimes, the assessments can provide false information; however, most of the time, it can be correctly presented by the data collected. The assessments are essentially tools that should be used properly to gain important and essential information to teachers by explaining the reading and spelling their students’ are on.
Both assessments will ultimately allow student learning to be tailored to fit the individual student versus the entire class as a whole. Teachers will be able to target their students’ instructions to fit their needs based on how well or poorly the student does on the assessment. Teachers may find that their students, who do well in the classroom, usually perform well on the assessments; however, the same may occur for students who do poorly except it is vice versa. The Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge allows teachers to be essentially aware of their students’ instructional levels based on reading and word study.
The Early Reading Screening Inventory is solely based on a students’ reading instructional levels, and how phonetics play a key role in their reading abilities. The Early Reading Screening Inventory provides teachers with their students’ reading readiness; which is essential knowledge a student needs in order to be ready to read. The assessment allows teachers to see the child’s letter recognition and written skills, their phoneme awareness skills, their concepts of what words look like, and if they are able to recognize high-frequency words and decode regular word patterns through the use of short stories.
With both of these assessments, I hope to gain more knowledge of how to decode a child’s reading and word study abilities through the use of my internships and student teaching. These assessments have allowed me to gain building block knowledge of what to except and what to accept from a child’s learning abilities and capabilities; and how to test a child without a lot of stress or extra pressure involved.
Alignment
This assessment met the following North Carolina Standards for Elementary School Teachers in Specialty Areas:
Standard 1: Elementary teachers have a broad knowledge and understanding of the major concepts in English Language Arts and Literacy.
Indicator 1: Teachers know the developmental stages of language acquisition.
This artifact shows that I understand that the developmental stages of language acquisition are gained through the knowledge of the Early Reading Screening Inventory, and the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge assessments. The assessments give data from the reading and early developmental stages of elementary school readers; and allow for student's understanding in instructional levels.
•Indicator 4: Teachers understand the elementary school child’s social, cultural, linguistic, cognitive, and affective backgrounds as they relate to the ability to develop effective communication processes (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
This artifact shows that I understand that a child’s background does indeed effect how they develop socially, culturally, linguistically, and cognitively through their ability to develop effective communication skills necessary to relate within a classroom setting. I understand that every child is different in how they were brought up, and that every child learns how to read, write, and spell at different speeds, levels, and abilities. I also understand that a child that is frequently read to at home may have a better chance at learning how to read, write, and spell quicker than a child who has been read to less by his/her parents or guardians.
•Indicator 8: Teachers know and understand written and oral composition processes. They understand that the written language as a symbolic system; and that the phonemic, morphemic, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic systems of language and their relation to the reading and writing process.
This artifact shows that I learned how to understand a child’s written and oral composition by the deciphering of language used in the Early Reading Screening Inventory. As an assessor, I learned how to interpret the child’s data, and how the student’s awareness of phonemic, morphemic, and pragmatic systems of language impact their reading, writing and spelling skills.
Standard 7: Elementary teachers use developmentally appropriate strategies to design and deliver instruction in all areas of the elementary curriculum.
•Indicator 3: Teachers promote new learning by using students’ prior knowledge, misconceptions, and interests when designing lessons.
•Indicator 6: Teachers modify instruction and assessments to meet the needs of individual students.
In order to promote learning, this artifact shows that I took the data I collected from both the Early Reading Screening Inventory and the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge to provide examples of how to tailor fit a student’s learning to their abilities. The data collected will be used to tailor fit the student’s instruction by their individual needs in the areas of reading, writing, and spelling; instead, of suggesting they fit entirely to the class as a whole. As a teacher, I will set a student’s materials to fit accordingly based upon their instructional levels.
•Indicator 7: Teachers develop and use a variety of formal and alternative assessment strategies as an integral part of instruction and learning appropriate for assessing individual, peer, team, and collaborative skills.
This artifact shows that I will not only use these assessments, I will also use alternative assessment strategies such as a student’s progressive work within the classroom to provide as an integral part of instruction. I will also make sure that my students’ learning is appropriately matched by the individual itself, not as a group of students or the entire class. I will make sure I know what my students’ know before I design and deliver age-appropriate lesson plans to tailor fit to the student’s proximal zone of development.
Standard 8: Teachers design instructional programs and strategies that build on students’ experiences and existing language skills to help students become competent, effective users of language.
•Indicator 1: Teachers teach children to read with a balanced instructional program that includes an emphasis on the use of letter/sound relationships (phonics), context (semantic and syntactic), and text that has meaning for students.
The Early Reading Screening Inventory and the Qualitative Inventory of Word Knowledge assessments provides me understanding of a child’s use of letter/sound relationships, the semantic and syntactic context of their language, and the meanings of the text they give. As a teacher, I will teach with a balanced instructional program by first focusing on a child’s letter/sound relationships and further emphasizing on the meaning of a text and making connections to both.
•Indicator 6: Teachers model Standard English.
This artifact shows that how I will model Standard English through the way I speak, and write in front of my students; and in how I give the Assessments to my students.
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