Assessment of Literacy Learning

Assessment is a regular part of a teacher's and student's everyday life. Teachers are constantly assessing and students are constantly learning. This module talks about the importance of assessment and different assessments a teacher can use to assess a student's early literacy learning.

Early Literature is Important

"There is now a substantial body of research that documents the early literacy behaviors that are critical to the development of beginning reading and writing" (Helman, 2005, p.668). Students who have a good start in learning to read can build confidence and competence and have a better chance of succeeding in literacy skills and knowledge. (Helman, 2005) Early reading instruction is important because it can help students move as quickly as possible toward independent comprehension of a broad range of texts. (Norman & Calfee, 2004)

Different Ways to Assess Student Reading and Writing Knowledge 

There are various ways to assess early literacy knowledge. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is a standardized assessment used in K-3 classrooms across the country to measure reading progress and identify students in need of extra support.  PALS assesses word recognition in isolation, developmental spelling and oral reading in context. Word recognition in isolation assesses the student's ability to recognize and read grade-level words without sounding them out. Spelling inventory consists of students spelling words of increasing difficulty. Oral reading in context is where students read a graded passage of text and is scored for accuracy, fluency and comprehension to find the student's instructional reading level. The student is then asked comprehension questions. Teachers using PALS literacy assessment can become more informed about meeting the literacy needs of their students. (Helman, 2005) This assessment is beneficial because it can help teachers identify students who need intervention. The PALS assessment also helps teachers to identify individual reading instructional levels.

Another assessment one can use to assess phonics in the early grades is the Tile Test. "The Tile Test has been shown to be a reliable measure of basic decoding and spelling skills" (Norman & Calfee, 2004, p. 45). The Tile Test provides a hands-on interactive experience with letters and sounds for teachers who want to delve more deeply into students' underlying thinking. It is designed to quickly evaluate early readers' and writers' understanding of letters, sounds, words and sentences. When teachers are using the Tile Test to assess the student's knowledge and understanding of English orthography the teacher continually asks students to explain their thinking because the talk mirrors their understanding and the student becomes aware of what they know. Students explain how they build words and learn to decode and spell by understanding the system rather than through remote memorization. (Norman & Calfee, 2004)

The Tile Test differs from the PALS assessment because the Tile Test focuses more on letters and sounds and how the student knows those letters and words make those sounds. The Tile Test is also used in Prekindergarten through first grade while the PALS assessment is used in classrooms kindergarten through third grade. However, there are similarities between the assessments because they both assess early literacy and they help teachers to know where students are and how they should plan future instruction. Both assessments are beneficial because it provides teachers with knowledge about what their students know about letters, words and sentences. Since early literacy is important for student success then assessment is needed to see where students are and what future instruction should be planned.

Assessment Provides Feedback Needed to Guide Future Instruction

The results of literacy assessments assist teachers to help meet the needs of learners, whether it be from a diverse background and language or students whose first language is English. Data from early literacy assessments can help teachers to better instruct English language learning students. (Helman, 2005) "Ongoing assessments of early literacy progress is essential for giving teachers the information they need to measure student progress, identify students who may require additional or individualized assistance, and guide instructional practice" (Helman, 2005, p. 668). Assessment should not be done just to assess students but to know what the student has not mastered yet and still needs to learn. Teachers can use the data from early literacy assessments to pinpoint groups of students in need to extra support, determine which literacy activities are difficult for individuals and groups of students, and provide enriched learning opportunities that build on their background understandings. (Helman, 2005)

The PALS literacy assessment helps to identify students who need extra support in their development in early literacy. Teachers can use the data collected from the PALS assessment to create and form instructional groups focusing on the teaching goals and meeting the individual needs of the students. The teacher can also use the oral reading in context assessment to provide important to estimate instructional reading levels and analyze students' reading behaviors. (Helman, 2005) Finding students' instructional reading level helps teachers create guided reading groups.

The use of the Tile Test allows teachers to see and hear what students know and how they know it. It provides feedback needed to guide future instruction. (Norman & Calfee, 2004) "The purpose of the Tile Test is to assess student performance and feed that information into instruction" (Norman & Calfee, 2004, p. 49). During the assessment the teacher does not provide specific feedback, however general responses should be positive. The teacher should take the data from the assessment to create future instruction lessons rather than providing literacy instruction during the assessment. The teacher can use the Tile Test to collect information before, during and after instruction to check students' prior knowledge and progress and to plan future instruction. The results of the assessment can be used to help teachers identify the level of understanding students have about letters, sounds, words and sentences. (Norman & Calfee, 2004)

References

Helman, L.A. (2005). Using literacy assessment results to improve teaching for English-language  learners. The Reading Teacher, 58(7), 668-677.

Norman, K.A., & Calfee, R.C. (2004). Tile Test: A hands-on approach for assessing phonics in the  early grades. The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 42-52.