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Discuss Child's:

physical milestones

speech & language milestones including ages of understanding 1st language, spoken words & fluency, written & reading skills

previous schooling, where and was there any schooling interruptions?

strengths & needs at school

copies of previous report cards

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Purpose to assess child's oral proficiency in English:

Start simple and move on as ability & fluency allows

Personal questions: name, age, birthday, country of origin

School questions: where, when? for how long? what grade? favourite subjects? computer use? career plans?

Language questions: what language(s) do you speak & with whom? have you studied English before? can you read/write in your language? how important is knowing more languages? how will it help you? how has your English progressed?

Family/Friends & Interests: when did you arrive in Canada? tell us about your family, tell us about a friend (past or present), favourite holiday? most important thing about you?

Articulation: discuss past & present communities, compare & contrast, your first day in Canada, 3 important things about coming to Canada someone should know

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Although the assessor may not be able to read the writing & understand sample you can observe:

overall literacy development

fluency

eye/hand coordination

thinking & planning stages

organization of written material

quantity of writing

basic editing skills

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use of multilingual resources, SWIS worker or interpreter, other bilingual adults to provide information on student's first language literacy ability

Students with limited English should proceed to Early Literacy Tasks and/or

Students with greater proficiency should GO to Reading & Writing Tasks

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Materials presented should reflect global or multicultural perspective, age appropriate, relevant to student background

Allow for student choice to go beyond simply identifying/

naming & labelling

Students can draw a picture to allow more freedom

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Concepts of Print -directionality

Alphabet-recognition, sound symbol connections

Vocabulary-basic vocabulary, picture matching, letter matching, identify colours

Writing-labelling & written matching

If Early Literacy Task completed GO to STEP Reading

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-demonstrated proficiency in their first language, with no large gaps in learning & experienced difficulty with Early Literacy Tasks place student in STEP 1

Consider:

information from family & student interview

prior schooling

limited proficiency in first language with written, reading & mathematical skills

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Student choice in text, give introduction to activate prior knowledge
Ask student to:

Read first paragraph, pick out unknown words, chose a 2nd text if too difficult

Observe:

reading behaviours, directionality, 1:1 correspondence, use of picture cues, cueing systems

review orally to check comprehension level

add or omit questions

Use all information gathered to determine placement on STEP chart

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Administer initial assessment of mathematics
-information used to determine student programming & planning

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All information gathered is shared with:
Parents & Student
Administrators
Special Education Resource Teachers
ESL Facilitators
Classroom Teachers
Support Staff