Mabel Tang

February 17, 2016

CIL621
AE#2

Student Data

Student is named ABG. She is in a full day kindergarten class this year. She

started kindergarten at four years old and is currently five years old. She is one of

the youngest in the class. She comes from a Hispanic background, but is not coded

as an ELL. ABG has an older sibling in third grade that helps her with her studies.

Her mother and grandmother are also teachers. ABG is doing well with her

academics and has no behavior issues according to her teacher. ABG is enrolled at a

school with focus on AR (Accelerated Reader). ABG began the AR process in

December.

Protocol/Assessment

The name of the assessment is STAR (Standardized Test for the Assessment

of Reading). The assessment is part of Renaissance Learning and is a computer-

adaptive test. The STAR assessments include: STAR Reading, STAR Math, and STAR

Early Literacy. In this case, STAR Early Literacy and STAR Reading were utilized.

It is recommended to take STAR Early Literacy before STAR Reading for

grades PreK-3. To begin, the teacher/student must have an account. Once the

student is logged in, select the assessment to be administered. STAR Early Literacy

assesses the following skills: alphabetic principles, concept of words, visual

discrimination, phonemic awareness, phonics, structural analysis, vocabulary,

sentence-level comprehension, paragraph-level comprehension, and early

numeracy. The program begins with practice multiple choice questions read aloud to

the student via computer. Once the student passes the practice questions, the

assessment will begin. Each question and answer choice is read aloud to the

student. On average, it takes about 15-20 minutes for a student to complete the
Mabel Tang
February 17, 2016
CIL621
AE#2

STAR Early Literacy assessment. Once completed, the student will receive a scaled

score ranging from 300-900. Depending on their scaled score, the student will be

classified as: early emergent reader, late emergent reader, transitional reader, or

probable reader. Assessing a student with STAR Early Literacy helps the teacher

understand and monitor the students growth in literacy skills towards becoming an

independent reader. The diagnostic report lists which skill sets to focus on in order

to help the student grow as a reader. Teachers can utilize this formative assessment

to help plan and differentiate instruction.

If a student is classified as a probable reader during the STAR Early Literacy

assessment, then the next step is to assess the student using STAR Reading. STAR

Reading is for grades K through 12 and assesses the following: word knowledge,

comprehension, analyzing literary text, understanding authors craft, and analyzing

argument/evaluating text. The procedure is similar to STAR Early Literacy. The

student must login and select STAR Reading assessment. The assessment will begin

with practice questions where the student must independently read and answer. If

the student is unable to answer the practice questions, then the student will not be

able to take the test. Once the student passes the practice questions, the

assessment will begin. Students are to read multiple choice questions and answers

independently. The STAR Reading assessment takes about 15 minutes and helps

determine reading levels in order to place students in AR (Accelerated Reader)

programs. The students diagnostic report lists the scaled score, grade equivalent

score, instructional reading level score, and ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)

score. These scores will help teachers determine appropriate instructional methods

based on the students level and skills that students are ready to learn.
Mabel Tang
February 17, 2016
CIL621
AE#2

Results

According to the STAR Early Literacy assessment diagnostic report (as

attached), ABG is categorized as a probable reader with a scaled score of 814 out of

900. Within each skill set, ABG scored in the 90 percentiles in alphabetic principle,

concept of word, visual discrimination, and early numeracy. ABG scored in the 80

percentiles in phonemic awareness, phonics, structural analysis, vocabulary,

sentence-level comprehension, and paragraph-level comprehension. In the sub-

domain of phonemic awareness, the report shows ABG requires additional practice

in medial phoneme discrimination.

Since ABG is categorized as a probable reader, then ABG should be assessed

using STAR Reading next. According to the STAR Reading assessment diagnostic

report (as attached), ABG is reading grade equivalent to 1.2. This means ABG is

comparable to that of an average first grader after the second month of the school

year. However, her instructional reading level is PP which means she would be best

served by instructional materials prepared at the pre-kindergarten level. ABGs

reading recommendation in relation to the AR program are books at the 1.2 to 2.2

reading level. Books at this level provide optimal reading challenge for ABG without

frustrating her.

Conclusion/Assessment Standards

I found that the STAR Early Literacy assessment provided much detail on

what skill sets to target for individual students. All skill sets are required to be

mastered in order to become an independent reader. This assessment will allow for

teachers to tailor instruction in order to meet the needs of each student. In the case

of ABG, she demonstrates mastery in majority of the skill sets. The only skill listed
Mabel Tang
February 17, 2016
CIL621
AE#2

that ABG must learn and practice is medial phoneme discrimination. If I was ABGs

teacher, then I would consider providing more word work on medial sounds in order

to promote mastery in that area.

For STAR Reading, I found the assessment to be helpful in identifying what

types of books to pull and provide for the student to read independently in order to

grow as a reader. This assessment will help teachers group students based on

ability level and tailor reading instruction to meet their needs. In the case of ABG,

she is grade equivalent to a first grader after two months of school. Knowing that

this mid-year kindergartener is reading at a beginning first grade level astounds me.

If I was ABGs teacher, my next step would be to pull books in her ZPD score for her

to read independently. At the same time, I would provide instructional reading

material for her at the kindergarten level.

The assessments itself went well when administered. It was extremely simple

to login, click on the assessment, and then allow the student to take the test. I had

no issues whatsoever. The test was also set at a good amount of time. ABG had no

trouble staying focused. The only issue I had was not knowing that STAR Reading

did not have audio like that of STAR Early Literacy. I assumed that the questions and

answers would be read aloud during the STAR Reading assessment, only to find out

during the practice questions that there was no sound. Luckily, ABG tried her best to

read the questions and answers herself.