Assesing+Early+Literacy

=Assessing Early Literacy =

**Assessing Reading **
When assessing Marmaduke Monkey’s reading development, the teacher must keep records to chart his progress. Running records are an effective way to do this by assessing Marmaduke Monkey’s ability to read a short book or passage from different text genres, and then determining his level of reading, his progress and the strategies he uses to solve difficult words. The following are the standard notations for Running Records (Rapid City Areas, 2007): __**Running Record Convention**__ __Child__ = __What Child Says__ Text.......What is in Book

made ||  1 error  || __ made ||  1 error  || √ √ √R ||  no error  || give ||  1 error  || - ||  1 error  || made/ ||  no error  || him T ||  1 error  || To calculate the accuracy rate, the following formula is used: __# of words correct__ X 100 =accuracy rate 
 * ** Convention ** || ** Marking ** || ** Scoring ** ||
 * correct word ||  √  ||  correct  ||
 * substitution || __ mad __
 * record all tries || __ m/ma/m-d
 * repetition ||
 * ommision ||  -
 * insertion || __ the __
 * self-correction || __ make / SC __
 * appeal and told ||  __ √ h- A __
 * 1) of total words 

To calculate the self correction rate, the following formula is used: 1: __# of errors + # of self corrections__ ..... # of self corrections

If the accuracy rate is 95-100%, it is classified as easy. It is appropriate for independent reading and the child is ready to move up a level and a new Running Record to be taken. If the rate is 90-94%, it is classified as instructional. It is appropriate for guided reading but if they are not fluent, it might be an idea to drop them down a level. If the rate is below 89%, the text is classified as hard. It is appropriate for shared reading or reading to the class and the child needs to be brought down a level and a new Running Record taken. (Rapid City Areas, 2007)

**Assessing Writing **
To assess early and emergent writing, it is important to look at three main elements which are, written language (letters, words, sentences), ideas (content of the writing), and text conventions (placement, directionality).  The following example (taken from Hill, 2006, p.290, fig13.10) of an early and emergent writing assessment sheet is a good guide as to how to assess writing at this stage.



Assessing more complex writing uses a similar sheet (again taken from Hill, 2006, p.292, fig13.13) appropriate to more developed writing at a higher level.

