Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Description

The teacher assesses Donovan, a kindergarten student, in the middle of the year. Donovan is a student with special educational needs following a diagnosis of craniosynostosis at his toddler age. Craniosynostosis is a health issue where the frontal lobe fuses, negatively affecting brain development if not corrected early. The disorder can be addressed by breaking the fusion to allow the brain to develop as the skull grows. However, the condition was resolved when Donovan was ten months old through a skull reconstructive surgery. Donovan is also vulnerable to articulation problems, which makes him attend speech therapy to help resolve the delays. Also, Donovan is a left-handed student, which raises concerns about his handwriting and challenges in aligning letters to their appropriate sounds, especially b/d and p/q. Donovan’s family history depicts various health issues, including autism, Dyslexia, and ADHD, which may influence his learning process.

The teacher administers the assessment using the PAST tool (Phonological Awareness Screening Test) to evaluate Donovan’s phonemic awareness skills and ability. The teacher used the tool throughout the learning activities to assess students’ capacity and competence in each phonemic awareness activity. The teacher-guided Donovan through the learning concepts by illustrating what he was required to do before giving him examples to do on his own. In the video on phonemic awareness assessment, the teacher presents Donovan with a paper with pictures, where the student identifies the first sound of the name of each image. The teacher then gives the student two different terms to blend into one word. Donovan further segments sound in given words, adds sounds at the end of the words to give different words, and further reads sounds of different letters, words, and sentences (Ford, 2022). The tool used kindergarten scope and sequences. The assessment tool helped the teacher to focus on the teaching concept to improve the student’s phonemic awareness. Also, it ensured that the teacher followed the expected teaching order of the activities. The assessment results informed the teacher of the student’s strengths and weaknesses, prompting her to incorporate differentiated teaching strategies for better understanding.

Analysis

Donovan scored in the On Track range in all the phonemic awareness activities. The total scores show that the student has a strong knowledge of phonemic awareness (Really Great Company, 2019). The student can attend and accomplish most activities on phonemic awareness with little or no support from the teacher. The teacher only would act as a facilitator to guide the student into different activities. Donovan frequently identified phonemes in words and added sounds to the end of words to form new words. Throughout the activities, the student could give most responses correctly, with above-the-average responses being automatic. The teacher had to restate examples for the student to effectively blend or segment the sounds. The onset-rime activities were the best-scored level. The students deleted and substituted sounds in words more profoundly, scoring 9 out of 10, with an automated score of 6 out of 10. The student scored average in the basic syllable and phonemes, though below the score of the above activity. Significant challenges were evident in the basic syllable activities since the students had a lower automatic score of 3 out of 10. The student scored 17 out of 20 correctly in the advanced phoneme activities, with an automated score of 16 out of 20. The student expressed strong phonemic awareness at this level, as illustrated in his automatic score results (Kilpatrick, 2012). The teacher recognized the student’s profound phonemic awareness skills and ability throughout the phonemic process. The students could also read letter sounds, words, and sentences more effectively.

Reflection

Donovan has high phonemic awareness ability, as illustrated by the scores in the PAST assessment tool. The assessment tool guided the teacher to focus on specific learning concepts to improve the student’s phonemic awareness. The assessment enables the teacher to evaluate the students’ basic skills, such as identifying different phonemes that make a word and substituting sounds to give a new word. The students were able to manipulate the phonemes through deletion, addition, and substitution activities, as illustrated in the assessment tool activities. The teacher should incorporate differentiated teaching strategies that promote an interactive learning atmosphere. For instance, using word games would promote a fun and interactive learning environment for the students to interact with different phonemes. Word games promote students’ listening skills, which help them to identify and manipulate sounds to form different words (Reading Eggs, 2014). The teacher should also foster a print-rich learning environment for the students. Using wall words helps the students connect sounds and letters as the teacher aligns the two by saying and pointing at the letters in the wall charts. The teacher can also help the student improve their listening skills by saying words slowly and repeatedly to help them grasp the sounds in the word correctly. Incorporating these strategies enables the students to improve their phonemic awareness, enhancing their reading, spelling, and writing skills (Foorman et al., 2016).

References

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., … & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. Educator’s Practice Guide. NCEE 2016-4008. What Works Clearinghouse.

Ford, R. (Director). (2022). ED361 phonemic awareness assessment for DAR #1 (Early childhood development INTENDED majors [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1awfuOCgvY

Kilpatrick, D. A. (2012). Phonological segmentation assessment is not enough: A comparison of three phonological awareness tests with first and second graders. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 27(2), 150-165.

Reading Eggs. (2014, October 15). Phonemic awareness activities. Reading Eggs. Retrieved from https://readingeggs.com/articles/2014-10-15-phonemic-awareness-activities/

Really Great Company. (2019). Kindergarten foundational skills surveys. Really Great Reading Company, LLC.

 

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Description

Pre-Service Teacher Candidate’s Name

Course Assignment Name

• Discuss the contextual elements of the assessment and the student:
  • Describe the student (use first name or initials only, age, grade level, any known diagnoses, & family history information).
  • Describe the assessment tool (what tool was used & when was it administered)
  • Describe the information used in consideration with the assessment tool (state standards and grade level’s scope & sequence).

Analysis

• Discuss assessment results and how the data relates to the state standards and/or the grade level’s scope &
  • Describe the student’s progress (include scores within the various assessment elements and confirm areas of weakness in relation to the state standards and/or the grade level’s scope & sequence).
  • Reference your recorded anecdotal notes that were taken on the student’s responses throughout the assessment (especially the weak areas).

Reflection

• Discuss the layout/plan for instruction based on the assessment results and your analysis (include the specific evidence-based strategies that will used to teach the identified weak areas).
  • Reference your recorded anecdotal notes in relation to the student’s progress against the state standards and grade level’s scope &
  • Cite specific evidence within your play that shows a true reflection of the student’s skills and weaknesses identified in the assessment rather than create a plan based on the teacher’s