Kelly Collova Professor Rich ELD 307 April 9, 2013 Oral Language Assessment Purpose of Assessment The purpose

of this assessment is to see how well both a whole class and an individual student use language. The assessment can be used to learn how the whole classs oral language and how an individual students oral language develops over time. The oral language that was observed for this assessment was language used in small group, whole group, and independently. Introduction of Child and Setting I observed Mrs. Reils third grade class at Wicoff Elementary School in Plainsboro, New Jersey for the classroom observation. I observed Mrs. Reils third grade student, Varun, for the individual observation. Varun is an eight year old boy. I observed Varuns oral language in small group work and while I worked with him one on one. Both observations for this assessment were done over the course of two weeks. Methodology The two worksheets that I used for this assessment can be found in the textbook titled Kidwatching by Gretchen Owocki on pages 110 and 111. One worksheet was titled Oral Language Function: Classroom Observation and it was a check sheet that listed certain oral language functions that could be observed in the classroom. I checked off the functions that I observed present among the class on this worksheet. The other worksheet was titled Oral Language Functions: Individual Observation and it was for the observation of an individual student. As I observed Varuns oral language, I took notes on the individual observation

worksheet. Both worksheets helped guide me in observing the different forms of language that could be present in the classroom and that are demonstrated by an individual student. Description of Findings As I observed Mrs. Reils class, I noticed that several language functions on the classroom observation worksheet were present in the classroom, such as sharing stories, reporting information, building productive peer relationships, enjoying aesthetic value, building collaborative relationships, and expressing points of view. I found that Mrs. Reils students communicate well together and are a very talkative class. In the morning as the students walk into class, each student begins to unpack as they talk with their friends. On my first day of observing the whole class, the students were unpacking and they were all talking to each other about the book fair. All of the students were telling each other which books they wanted to buy at the book fair. Several boys realized that they had interest in buying books from the same adventure series and they all huddled together and talked about which books in the series they each read. One student shared a few events from one of the books to the other students who did not read that book. All of the students in the group were so excited that they had the same interest in the book series. Later that day during a social studies lesson the class was divided into small groups. Each group read about different regions in the United States and as a group they gathered important information to summarize on a poster to present to the class. As I walked around the class, I noticed how each group had each member read different parts of the handout that Mrs. Reil gave them on their topic. After each member was done reading they shared the important information from their section to the group. Each group worked collaboratively when they began to summarize the important information of their groups topic in the poster.

The following week I observed Mrs. Reil do a lesson on poetry. The lesson focused on the author expressing feelings in poems by using poetic phrases, adjectives, and adverbs. Mrs. Reil read a few poems aloud to the class while they were sitting on the rug in the front of the classroom. After reading each poem she asked the students to pick out a poem in a book that they are reading and read it to a partner. After each poem was read, the students were to identify and describe the feelings that the author portrayed in the poems together and how it makes the students feel as readers. The students were asked to write their reactions on post-its and place the post-its next to the poem on the page. I was sitting on the rug with the students during this lesson and I observed two students identify what feelings they thought the author was describing. As I observed the students, I noticed that before the two students read the poems they stated that the poem was their favorite poem in the book. They enjoyed reading each poem and had so much to say about each one because they were funny poems. On another day, I observed a guided reading lesson. At one point during the lesson, the class was divided into several groups according to the book each student read. I walked around the room and observed each group for a few minutes. Each member of the group spoke one at a time while the others listened. Each member expressed their points of view on the characters actions in the book. After each member spoke, the other members would provide their feedback and state whether they agreed with the other members view or not. After observing each group in the class, I sat with Varuns group for the remaining time in the period. I noticed that while I was observing that Varun provided detailed feedback to the members thoughts and tried to interpret why the character made certain decisions. I also noticed that if he agreed with another members point of view while they were still talking, he made a specific hand gesture symbolizing that he had the same point of view.

As I continued to observe Varun, I noticed that he displayed several language functions on the individual observation check sheet. Some of the language functions I observed in Varun were taking leadership, enjoys language for its aesthetic value, expresses feelings, and shares stories. I observed Varun demonstrating enjoying aesthetic value while having a conference with him during the poetry lesson when Mrs. Reil had the students return to their seats to try to identify the authors feelings in the poem and relate to the poem on their own without the help of a partner. I asked Varun to read me the poem he picked. He picked a poem about a boy swatting a fly in his room. When he read me the poem he was excited to share the poem and he had a big smile on his face. After, he read his post-it to me with how he related to the poem. The poem he read was about a fly that was flying around a house and the person living in the house killed the fly. He wrote on his post-it about a time there was a fly flying around in his room while he was doing his homework and killed the fly with a swatter. I noticed how Varun was able to relate personally to the poem; however his answers could have been more in depth. He said that he killed a fly just like the author of the poem did. A more thoughtful answer would show a deeper connection to the poem. He could have also related the authors frustrations about the fly to his similar frustrations. For example, he could have related the authors feelings about the fly to his frustrations of the sound of the fly flying around the room while he was doing his homework and the relief he had once he killed the fly. He also did not explain how the poem made him feel. He just stated that he really liked the poem. I observed Varun taking leadership and retelling events after a Read Aloud lesson I did on Ruby Bridges. After I read The Story of Ruby Bridges to the students, I had the students go

back to their seats. I gave each table a picture from the story and had them describe what event from the story that the picture is from and also had each table answer a different question. I observed Varuns table during the lesson. Once the assignment was given to his table, Varun immediately took charge of the table. He explained to the table that each person will say the part of the story they think the picture is from as he writes their thoughts on the back of the picture. This observation of Varun demonstrated to me that he communicated his suggestion for organizing the group work effectively to his peers and took leadership at the table. After the group gathered their thoughts, Varun told the group that each person will read their interpretation of the picture to the class when it was the groups turn to present. Implications for Instruction I could use the information I gathered for this assessment to help improve instruction in the classroom and with Varun. Since I found that Mrs. Reils students communicate well together as a whole, I would continue to have group work and partner work in the classroom. I think that both group and partner work will strengthen the classroom community even more and also strengthen peer relationships and active communication between students. Since I found that Varun had some trouble relating deeper to poetry I think that conferencing with Varun more would help. During this conference I would pick out specific phrases of the poem that contain a lot of feeling and have him interpret the phrases to me. I would then have him state how he relates to those phrases and guide him to use strong adjectives that help him express his similar feelings to the ones that the author described.