Assessment

Phonemic Awareness Assessment.** For a quick assessment of phonemic awareness for children aged between 4 and 6 years, the following are good methods.
 * Assessment
 * **Word:** place a counter for each word you hear, I found some footage of a teacher doing this with a group of children, it is interesting to see how the children approach this task. [|Click here.] Some of the children begin counting syllables instead of words.
 * **Syllable:** clap at each syllable or beat in a word, or you van do the above activity and place a counter down in front of you for each syllable in a word.
 * **Alliteration:** ask the children to tell you what is the same about the following words (all starting with the same letter)
 * **Rhyme:** Ask the children to say a word that rhymes with a list of words that you say
 * **Phoneme:** Ask the child what sounds they hear in the following words

A way of assessing a child's reading is running records, they are most useful when several are given over a period of time as a way of mapping progress. They also provide an indication of the strategies that children use to try and work out unfamiliar words. Accuracy % = (__running words - errors)__ (running words) * 100 Then round to the nearest whole number. 95-100%: text is regarded as easy 90-94%: text is at the instructional level 90% and below: too difficult for the reader.
 * Assessing Reading[[image:assessing_reading.JPG width="485" height="575" align="right"]]**
 * //Select a text:// Often the text will be a benchmark book. The texts can be either familiar or unfamiliar text. Texts should be a challenge but not to the point that the reader loses confidence.
 * //Introduce the text to the child:// If it is unfamiliar, give the title and a summary of the plot.
 * //Take the record:// allow the child to read independently. Follow the reading on your won copy and record any deviation in the reading. You can tape record it if needed to ensure you pick up on each error.
 * //After reading:// ask the child to retell the story. Note the accuracy of the retelling.
 * //Scoring errors and self corrections:// In the 'e' column record the number of errors and in the 'sc' column records the number of self corrections.
 * //Calculating the error rate:// also known as the accuracy percentage score.

It is important when assessing a child's reading that thier level is taken into account and that they are given a book that suits their reading abilities, otherwise it would not give an accurate indication.

As well as accuracy of reading a teacher should also assess a childs comprehension abilites and their fluency. A useful method is finding how many high fluency words children can read and write. As being able to read and write high fluency words speeds up a child's reading and writing.


 * Assessing letters and sounds**


 * **Recognice upper and lower case letters**: Alphabetic Recognition Test, children say the name and sound of letters (both upper and lower case)
 * **Quick phonics assessment of initial consonants**: Ask the child to say the sound for each of the consonants listed before them.
 * **Blending sounds to make words**: Ask the child to blend the sounds of the words in front of them, you should start with words that have a short vowel. For long vowels ask the child to blend the word and then say it.

The easiest and most obvious way to assess a child's spelling is to look over their writing and find any errors.
 * Assesing spelling:**

Hearing and recording sounds (dictation) Teachers can create dictation sentences which include words they want to check. The teacher should slowly say a sentence to the child, and then ask them to write that sentence down. For each correctly spelt word it is one point.

A teacher should teach children how to spell high frequency words, words they ask for to use in their writing, topic words for curriculum areas and words that they cannot spell.
 * Are there words in particular that children need to learn how to spell?**


 * Stages of Spelling.**
 * Children learn the sounds that the letters make
 * What a letter is
 * How letters are are blended to make words
 * Words have spaces between them
 * In primary school children encourgaed to use dictionaries
 * Learn compound words
 * Learn about phonemic generalisations

In the prescribed text there is a strategy called Look-Cover-Write-Check, I remember this method from back in primary school however mine was slightly different as it was Look-Say-Cover-Write-Check. I think it is important when learning words to say them aloud as it gives the children an opportunity to say it to themselves and recognise the sound-letter relationships. I believe my teachers not only used this as a spelling strategy but also as a method to assess out abilities and to see what level of spelling we each had.
 * Spelling strategies:**
 * LOOK:** look at the word carefully and remember it. Find small words within the word to help remember.
 * COVER:** so it cannot be seen
 * WRITE:** writ the word from memory, a couple of time over.
 * CHECK:** what you have written against the original.