Assessment and Theoretical Perspectives 1

Unit 9 Final Project

Jennifer McDaniel
CE320 Language Development in Young Children
November 15, 2015

Assessment and Theoretical Perspectives 2

Assignment 9
The role that assessments have in language development is that the data from the
assessments help set the curriculum of the classroom (Otto, 2013). If the assessments show that
the children have difficulty understanding the words, their fluency is low or the children cannot
read at all then those are developmental areas to be worked on in the classroom. Checklists have
two parts: part one is suggested behaviors observed and the second part is the place you check
mark if the behavior exists (Otto, 2013). Anecdotal records are records that record the objective
details of an observation (Otto, 2013). Video observation is when a video recording is taken in
the classroom and it can be observed by a teacher or shown to the student at a later date (Otto,
2013). All these assessments can be kept in portfolio to track the individual childs development.
In my checklist I observed the child sitting next to the teacher. Prior to watching the
video I made a checklist of reading behaviors I could see in the video. Once I created the list of
observations, I watched the video and checked marked what I seen. The little girl in the yellow
outfit was easily distracted when something else was going on in the classroom, she did gesture
and she did have some eye contact with the teacher while she was talking. The date I observed
this was on November 10, 2015. If I were to observe at a later date I would change the date,
observe the same child and see if the any other behaviors were observed in the observation.
Additionally, if necessary I could use this same checklist for another child I would just be sure to
put the childs name and file appropriately in their portfolios.
In my anecdotal record I put my purpose, vocabulary level, the date of the observation,
the name of the child and the age. In the summary I put the objective details that I observed
while Sam was reading the books. In the first book Sam had difficulty pronouncing words and

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being fluent. He did use his fine motor skills to turn the pages of the book and point to the
characters in the book. When he was comparing the fox and the bird he did stutter to get the
words out of that guy is bigger than that guy (Colorado Department of Education, 2015).
During the second book Sam again used his fine motor skills to turn the pages of the book.
Through this book he counted with the numbers and said the name of the animals in the book.
When starting the book he started at number five and the realized he was in the middle of the
book and restarted the book from the beginning. He read the book from beginning to end by
saying numbers 1 9 and the end pages he said zero, zero, zero (Colorado Department of
Education, 2015). This was confusing but what I observed is he was at the end of the book.
In my video observation, while the teacher read the book with the children, I observed the
black girl in the white shirt. She did a great job identifying the characters in the book,
remembered the second character in the book and was able to remember the simple line of the
story. The vocabulary was easy for her to remember, which made it easier for her to recall (Otto,
2013). The book was read to the students by the teacher and after the class did role play. During
role play the children got to choose the characters that came in order of the old lady swallowing.
They would take the character and put it into her belly. With using the prop it made the book
seem more real to the children because there were props used (Otto, 2013). At the end of the
video the teacher said that each student would get to help participate in shared reading the
following day by reading the lines in the story and turning the pages of the book.
During my observation of shared reading, I observed a child trying to recall a story line.
She was reaching for the cat but was not 100 percent if it was the cat, the teacher assisted her in
showing her that she was correct by putting her hand on the cat. She started to say she and the
teacher corrected her by stating she needed to say there was (Pearson, 2015). The zone of

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proximity suggests that the teacher should assist children in learning. By the teacher providing
guidance the child was able to complete the task fully (McLeod, 2010). The observation
illustrates Vygotskys theory of interaction by showing the interaction of the teacher with the
students throughout the entire video. Additionally, the theory forces social interactions with peers
(McLeod, 2007). In the shared reading the teacher chose a book that was developmentally
appropriate for the class (NAEYC, 2009). The children were able to read along with the simple
lines in the book. The book that was chosen for the shared reading was respectful of other
cultures and the groups linguistics level (NAEYC, 2009). When in the classroom it is important
for the teacher to keep these principles in mind.
In conclusion, keeping anecdotal records, checklists and video observations in a portfolio
will help show how the individual child progresses over a period of time. It would be important
at the beginning of the year to start a portfolio for each student. Anecdotal records show the
objective details in an observation, checklists can be individually created for each students
observation and video observations can be recorded and looked back on to see the development
of an individual child or the class as a whole. I believe that the Interactionist Theory by Vygotsky
should be used in every classroom. It helps with social interaction between the teacher and
students and helps build on the overall cognitive development. Developmental appropriate
principles should always be followed no matter the classroom that a child walks into.

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References
Colorado Department of Education. (2015). Sam Reading Books. Retrieved on November 12,
2015 from
http://www2.cde.state.co.us/media/resultsmatter/RMSeries/SamReadingBooks_SA.asp
DeBruin-Parecki, A. (n.d.). Assessing Adult/Child Storybook Reading Practices. Retrieved on
November 19, 2015 from http://www.ciera.org/library/reports/inquiry-2/2-004/2-004.html
McLeod, S. (2007). Lev Vygotsky. Retrieved on November 22, 2015 from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html
McLeod, S. (2010). Zone of Proximal Development. Retrieved on November 22, 2015 from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html
NAEYC. (2009). Core considerations in developmentally appropriate practices, pp. 916.
Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSDAP.pdf
Otto, B. W. (2013). Language Development in Early Childhood Education, Vitalsource for
Kaplan University, 4th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from
http://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781269308205/
PBS. (2015). Adventures in Learning: Rhyming Books. Retrieved on November 19, 2015 from
http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2014/08/rhyming-books-kids/
Pearson Learning Solutions. (2015). Story Time. Retrieved on November 10, 2015 from
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/125611667X/index.html
Pearson Learning Solutions. (2015). Shared Readings. November 19, 2015 from
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/125611667X/index.html

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Taback, S. (1997). There was an old lady who swallowed a fly. New York, New York: Penguin
Group.
Valencia, S. (1991) Assessment of emergent literacy: Storybook reading. The Reading Teacher.
44, 7. Retrieved from http://www.readitonceagain.com/articles/Assessment%20of
%20storybook%20reading.pdf

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Appendix A

Childs Name: Unknown

Observed child sitting next to teacher in a
pink coat and yellow outfit.

Date Observed: November 10, 2015

Reading Behaviors Observed:
1.

Characteristic Present

Describes picture in book

2. Pronounce words clearly (Otto, 2013)

3. Is the child easily distracted by
something else in the room (Otto,
2013)
4. Does child gesture (Otto, 2013)

X
X

5. Respond to teacher (Otto, 2013)

6. Eye contact with teacher (Otto, 2013)

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Appendix B

Purpose of the Observation Identified: Vocabulary

level

Date of
Observation
November 12,
2015

Name of Child:
Sam
Age of Child:
5 years old

Summary of observation written out here. This

summary can provide information about objective
details observed. Subjective data should not be
considered. In our exercise, we will be noting the
vocabulary level on one observation.
Sam started the beginning of the book 1 by saying
energy meaning energy. When he was reading the book
he said elephants are tall..(unknown word). When
finishing the sentence the word he pronounced was not
fluent and he skipped the word. While pointing to animals
in the book he said fluently that fox and that bird.
Then stated that fox is bigger than that bird. Through
this sentence he stuttered over the words on the page and
was not fluent. He stated that guys bigger than that guy.
During the second book he was sniffling in the beginning
and had a stuffy nose. He started the book at number 5
and stated clearly baby in book. He then went back to
the beginning and then stated one is elephant and two
is.(stutter) baby fox. When he got to 5 is cats and 6
is giraffes his voice got high pitched because he was
excited. 7 is dogs and 8 pigs. Near the end of the book
he stated 9 and 8, 9. He was distracted by the pictures
on the pages to remember what he was reading. Turn the
page again and said zero, zero, zero.
(Colorado Department of Education, 2015)

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Appendix C

Child Says

Text

Analysis

1. Then then then she

swallowed da spider

There was an old lady who

swallowed a spider (Taback,
1997, p. 5)

The child identified the

character in the book.

2. The second character

that she swallowed
was the the spider

There was an old lady who

swallowed a spider (Taback,
1997, p. 5)

She remembered what the

second character was in the
story but did stutter near the
end when telling the teacher.

3. She swallowed the

spider to catch the fly

She swallowed the spider to

catch the fly (Taback, 1997,
p. 8)

Story line was simple and the

vocabulary was easily
understood (Otto, 2013).

The purpose of this video is to show how shared reading occurs in most classrooms.
Additionally, the video is showing how the teacher and student interact during shared reading. It
shows the steps that should be followed during shared reading. The book is a rhyming book and
from this the children build on their phonological and phonetic skills (PBS, 2015). Additionally,
rhyming books help children build on their memorization and have a better chance to remember
the book for future readings (PBS, 2015). In this video the advantages are that the teacher
explained everything on the cover, including; author, illustrator, title and the silver seal.
Additionally, she did a great job explaining what the seal meant. She used a stick to follow along
with the words in the book to make it easier for the children to follow along. The teacher
emphasized the words in the book to make it more real. During the shared reading the teacher
ask specific questions to see if they were paying attention (Otto, 2013). The teacher did a great
job with using the prop to bring the story to life even more with using the old lady and the

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characters from the book. Having the book brought to real life would help the children have
more interest in the shared reading (DeBruin-Parecki, n.d.). The video recording is a great way of
an assessment of the children during shared reading. The assessment could later be compared to
another shared reading and then it could be determined if the child has progressed. The video
would be recorded, broken down by child to determine their linguistics and understanding of
language and then rated and compared by judges (Valencia, 1991). The disadvantages of this
shared reading is that the video was not sequenced correctly. For example, the video started
going right into the prop play instead of introducing it first. There was a couple characters done
and then the teacher explained how they were going to use the prop. The video was low on audio
for the children speaking. The teacher could have had a microphone on and her voice was loud.
However, the children did not have a microphone on so their voices were much lower.