This is supported by Freebody and Luke statement, which states that “teaching and learning literacy, then involves shaping and mastering the repertoire of capabilities called into play when managing texts in ways appropriate to various contexts.” (Luke & Freebody, 1990, p. 2) By matching words to print, children will be able to view patterns and relationships in words. 

 

This assessment tool offers an example of how a child’s vocabulary can be extended by reading aloud. Similarly, the assessment tool provided will be access using a picture book.

The child will select words from the book they are unfamiliar with. While reading, the teacher will get the child to stressed on the ‘new word’ and get the child to repeat the word. The teacher will explain the meaning of the ‘new word’ in everyday language through a variety of examples in different context. 

After the child has equipped the new word, the child will be using the word with their own examples.

 

Freebody and Luke (1990) states, “that the role of a reader, meaning maker, read to understand.” A fluency of reading rubric (Hill, 2012, p.194) was one strategy to assess Kai as she read “What I told Mrs. Morris when she asked how I was feeling today”. Kai read 43 words in 30 seconds, which gave her a fluency score of 1.4. However, it must be noted that Hill recommends this test to be conducted with a familiar text and Kai had never read this poem by herself before. Because of that, it could be assumed that her fluency rate with a familiar text would be higher. 

 

Comparing Kai’s score of 1.4 with Hill’s reading fluency rubric (Hill, 2012, p. 194) , definitely indicates that it is not a true sore for her ability. Using this rubric, Kai would be classed at level 2.5. The text indicated in the following table (see attached) represent Kai’s abilities. Kai performed a mixture of word-by-word and phrased reading. As Kai reads, most words and phrases flowed, but she stumbled over a couple of words (such as “thesaurus” for example). She demonstrated an awareness of syntac with her smooth reading and attention to punctuation. 

 

In reader’s theatre, teacher can assign reading portions to each child. The child will read their assigned parts orally and aloud for practice. Kai is encouraged to re-read the assigned parts several times, which helps in her fluency skills. 
 

Lev Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory states that, “Human development is socially situated, and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. (Vygotsky, 1978) Hence, reader scripts involve the usage of dialogues. 

 

Kai was asked questions about the text before and after she read. Some literal probing about the story had Kai confirm some basic facts about the story. Kai interpreted the story as being about “a few people who joined a race and someone will win”. Inferential questioning about the direction of the story allowed Kai to explore the possibilities of the text without reading beyond page 5. 

 

Kai inferred from the title that the people in the race plays a crucial role in the story. When probed further about why and who will win the race, Kai decided that the boy, ‘Will’ would win the race because he came first in the first round of competition; “Will wins.” This demonstrates Kai’s own knowledge of the conventions of a narrative; that there has to be a problem and resolution, and character(s) develop and change. A critical question asking what Kai had learnt so far from the story garnered the response; “that not all who wins the first round will win at the final race!”

In terms of the AusVELS curriculum benchmarks, Kai would be placed at progression point of 2.5, working towards level 3 achievement standard. The following examples are evidence of her placement at this level. She was familiar with the conventions for a narrative. Kai was able to demonstrate this by inferring that someone has to win the race in order for the story to develop. By answering question, Kai was able to self-correct and know when she made a mistake. For examples, her eyes skilled ahead to the next line and she corrected her mistake by reading from the beginning of the sentence again. 

 

Funds of knowledge refer to the idea that every person acquires a wealth of skills and knowledge that are “essential for household or individual functioning and well-being”. (Moll, 1992) Kai’s funds of knowledge were conducted with her and her parents, as well as comments from her siblings. Understanding a child’s history is instrumental in developing successful assessment, as well as creating a nurturing and caring environment in a primary classroom. 

My assessment notes reveal that Kai’s word analysis skills were spotty and uncertain; she was able to produce all of the consonant sounds, but many only with great difficulty and some in a distorted, guttural form. According to research, “Reading is a precise process. It involves exact, detailed, sequential perception and identification of letter, words, spelling patterns and large language units.” (Goodman, 1967, p.1) She was unable to isolate short vowel sounds and unable to read unfamiliar short vowel words, slient “e”, double vowel, and r-controlled vowel words accurately. Kai’s pronunciation picture miscues paralleled her word analysis errors, a few single vowel words were pronounced correctly, but those with double vowels (trcuk for truck) were not. 

 

Kai’s word recognition miscues involved guesses based on the first few letters of a word and its overall shape, again with much uncertainty about vowels: snake for snap, dog for dough, at for it. However, he was able to use the context to monitor and self-correct some of her mistakes. Her self-corrections did not affect his scored mastery level, but they did slow down her reading and make it appear very labored. Using an assessment similar to the Diagnostic Assessment of Reading (DAR) (Roswell & Chall, 1992), although she mastered GE 4, her GE word recognition was not fluent, it contains several self-corrections, hesitations, and repetitions.

This provided website for assessment, "literacy information and communication system" is a free public domain instrument created by Sylvia Greene, Greene's Informal Word Analysis Inventory is included in this document for the use as an initial screener. After giving this test to a Kai, the teacher is able to tell which Word Analysis principles are known and which need to be taught or reviewed. Greene's test uses lists of real words that contain the different phonic elements. 

 

As the names of the children word wall expands, children can include little words they see from the books. The children are able to learn about the concept of word – that words have first and last letters and sounds, that they are separated by spaces on the page. Also, the left to right directionality holds true in reading words as it does in moving across a line of print: letters represent the sounds in words in left to right sequence. 

 

Gambrell (2011) also emphasized that, “To engage reluctant readers, allow them to have access to wide range of reading materials, make choices about what they read and to allow social interaction.” As young children chant words from the word wall in classroom group or large settings, find them in a big book, or to stretch them out by training their accuracy of word wall words, they also learn that no matter the font or age layout, the sequence of letters for each word will always be the same. 

This resource offers a series of physical games that will help in recognizing their names in the classroom context. This could be used as “circle time”, an opportunity to recognizing not only the child’s name, but the names of their classmates as well. 

 

1) Letter-shape knowledge – ability to distinguish letters based on visual features (i.e. lines, curves, direction)
2) Letter-name knowledge – understanding that a letter is a symbol and that it has both an upper case and lower case form
3) Letter-sound knowledge – understanding that letters represent sounds
4) Letter-writing knowledge – ability to write letters of the alphabet 

Hence, it could be derived that children’s names are the first word they understand and can identify with – so they connect print with something very meaningful in their developmental milestones. This interlinks with Hill’s statement as she mentions, “at these early years, children attend to word matching, directionality, known words and locating new words. (Hill, 2012, p. 171) It is an important step to help Kai in understanding the use of segmenting. (i.e, word, syllable, and sound segmenting)

 

1. Understanding that print carries a message through books, including big books and model reading behaviors. 

2. Engage in reading attempts by talking about letters through name and sounds. 
3.Identify name letters and make letter-sound matches through a literacy-rich environment. 

 

Halliday and Matthiessen emphasized that “Language is a natural part of process of living: It is also used to ‘store the experiences built up in the course of that process, both personal and collective. It is (among other things) a tool for representing knowledge – or, to look at this in terms of language itself, for constructing meaning. (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2015, p.3) Hence, this benefits children repetition and memory skills. 

 

1.    Model “word awareness” through rich language experiences

2.    Engage in words that will enhance the meaning of what Kai is reading and important for her to know

3.    Teaching word meanings by using examples, synonyms and definitions before creating sentences.

 

Supported by Hill (2012), “encouraging children’s awareness of their pronunciation, enunciation, tone and expression as they read is essential for understanding fluency.” Hence, children read at their own pace and most importantly, model fluency. 

 

1. Use rhythm, phrasing, intonation, naturalness, and use of voice (for different characters/moods) – targeting on Kai’s quality of reading

2.  Read a variety of text according to accuracy (number of errors comparing to number of correct words read) and the rate. (number of words read per minute) – targeting on Kai’s quantity of reading.