Research, Development and Assessment Tools for the Early Years

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• Research, Development and Assessment Tools for
  the Early Years
• Marion Meiers
• Prue Anderson
• Australian Council for Educational Research

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Research questions

• How can we assess growth in literacy in the early
  years of school?
• What aspects of literacy might be assessed?
• Focus of ongoing ACER research since 1998

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ACER Longitudinal Literacy and Numeracy Study
(LLANS)

• A longitudinal study, 1999-2005
• A national sample of students followed from
  school entry - Year 6
• Linked assessments calibrated on the same scale
• Purposes for using the assessments and the scale

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Key aspects of literacy?

• Alphabetic knowledge
• Phonemic awareness
• Familiarity with everyday print
• Concepts about print
• Comprehension
• Text reading
• Oral language
• Vocabulary
• Writing

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Reading what did we assess?

• First three years at school five surveys in
  interview format
• Making meaning from listening to texts read aloud
• Phonemic awareness
• Concepts of print
• Reading fluency (reading aloud)

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Writing what did we assess?

• Progress from scribble, to words, to sentences
• Use of language
• Spelling
• Use of punctuation
• Content and ideas

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Assessment tasks for the early years criteria

• Research based tasks, assessing critical aspects
  of literacy
• Tasks that engage students and are built around
  familiar context
• Administration one to one in an interview
  situation, by the students own teacher
• .

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Assessment tasks for the early years criteria
(cont.)

• Tasks based on authentic texts
• Easy teacher administration, clear and explicit
  recording guides
• Tasks taking a reasonable time attention span of
  early years students, and teachers workloads.

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Name School
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A longitudinal view of reading

• The LLANS assessment data provides opportunities
  to study growth in reading.
• Average growth curves for reading
• Surveys 1-5 (interview assessments)
• Surveys 6-8 (pen and paper)
• Boys and girls

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Aspects of reading

• Different reading skills develop differently.
• Paris (2005) draws attention to the different
  development trajectories of reading skills

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Constrained and unconstrained skills (Paris, 2005)

• alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness, and
  oral reading fluency are constrained both
  theoretically and methodologically, unlike
  vocabulary and comprehension. They all develop
  from nonexistent to high or ceiling levels in
  childhood.
• (Paris, 2005, p 185)

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Mastery

• Some reading skills, such as learning the
  alphabet, are mastered completely, whereas other
  skills, such as vocabulary, are not. the
  duration pf learning of mastered skills is
  relatively brief. These temporal constraints are
  not evident in unconstrained skills that continue
  to develop over the life course. (Paris, 2005, p
  190)

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Constrained and unconstrained skills in LLANS

• Surveys 1-5 included constrained skills that is,
  those skills that are mastered in relatively
  brief periods of development.
• Other skills assessed in Surveys 1-5 and in DART
  are less constrained and continue to develop over
  time.

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Constrained skills

• Concepts of print
• Survey 1, at school entry
• Students were shown a page from a picture book
  previously read aloud to them.
• Show me a word
• 84 students identified a word

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Constrained skills

• Concepts of print
• Survey 2, end of first year at school
• Shown page from simple text, students were asked
  to
• Show me a letter. Draw a circle around it.
• 84 of students identified a letter

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Constrained skills

• Letter names and sounds
• Survey 2, end of first year at school
• Tell me the names of the letters
• Tell me the sound each letter makes
• Names over 90 for 10 of 12 letters
• Sounds over 95 for 9 letters

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Spelling
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Unconstrained

• Term 2, Year 2
• Clever Bird
• Reads whole book, word for word accuracy 33
• Reads whole book, mostly accurate
  substitutions 29
• Reads all or most with moderate accuracy 25
• Reads 2-3 pages, limited maintenance of
  meaning 12
• Minimal or no attempt 1

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Explaining key events
Student responses
At the end of Prep, students listened to the
teacher read the picture story book, Handas
Surprise. With the book open at the turning point
in the narrative, the students were asked Why
is this important in the story? Item difficulty
1.11 logits
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Explaining main idea
Student Responses
Students read the simple text, Clever Bird,
independently. Explain the trick the rich farmer
played on Mo Chin. Item difficulty 2.04
logits
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Assessment tasks

• LLANS Survey 2 designed for students at the end
  of Prep.
• tasks to measure the skills of students of a wide
  range of abilities
• item difficulty ranges from very easy to very
  challenging

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• Ideal match between item difficulty and target
  population ability

Distribution of student ability
Distribution of item difficulty
This means approximately one third of the items
in each assessment will be too hard for two
thirds of the students to answer correctly. A
small number of very easy items that most of the
least proficient students are likely to answer
correctly.
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End of Prep tasks

• Handas Surprise
• listening comprehension
• Writing
• Words and sounds
• first sounds, end sounds, rhyming words
• Monkey on the Roof
• oral reading, comprehension, concepts about print
• Letters and Words

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Handas Surprise

• Teacher reads picture story book to student
  without additional comment
• Retell Task
• I want you to tell me what happened in the
  story.
• There are a lot of animals and fruit in this
  story. You dont need to tell me about all of
  them.
• Tell me what happened in the story.

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The book is called Handas Surprise. Why is
Handa surprised?
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Turn to the double page that shows the goat
breaking free and butting the tree. Place the
book in front of the child.Whats happening in
these pictures?
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Keep the book open at the same page (goat
breaking free).Why is this important in the
story?
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• Turn to the picture of the two girls eating
  tangerines on
• the very last page.
• How are the girls feeling?
• How does this picture show you that the two girls
  
• are very good friends? 87
• Turn to the double page where the monkey takes
  the
• banana from Handas basket.
• Point to the banana skin.
• What is this?
• Why is it there? 83

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Writing

• Writing task follows from the picture story book
• Students write their own name
• Write about a specific part of the story

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Writing assessment

• Write your own name

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Writing assessment

• How close is the relationship between what the
  child reads and what
• they have written?
• (Disregard the relevance of what the child has
  written. Assess the match
• of what the child reads to its visual appearance.)

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• Now consider the relevance of what the child
• has read in relation to this part of the story.

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• Look at the childs writing.
• How best would you describe it?

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• Is there any evidence of punctuation?
• How best would you describe it?
• Tick as many boxes as evident.

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Words and sounds

• Same first sound
• I want you to listen to the words I say and then
  tell me which words start with the same sound.
• Listen carefully and tell me which words start
  with the same sound.
• Point to the pictures in row one as you say
• pan bed pot
• This is a practice example.

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Same first sound

• rat sun sink 74
• fish web feet 85
• man mud goat 82
• brush tray tree 65

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Sounds at the end of a word

• Point to the picture of the fan.
• Now listen to the word fan.
• What sound can you hear at the end of the word
  fan?
• If child says an say,
• Yes it ends in an. The sound right at the end
  of fan is n.

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Sounds at the end of a word

• bike

• bag 78
• cup 78
• coat 80
• bird 80

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Sounds in a word

• Now I want you to tell me the sounds in a word.
• Listen to the word CAT.
• The sounds in cat are C-A-T.
• pig 68
• bus 64
• ten 62
• Kick 63

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Rhyming words

• Now I want you to listen to some words and tell
  me if they rhyme.
• Point to the picture of the snake.
• Here is a snake.
• Do these words rhyme? snake lake
• This is a practice example. You may tell the
  child the correct answer.
• Yes snake and lake rhyme, they both end in /ake/.

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Rhyming words

• Do these words rhyme?
• snake cake
• snake stick
• snake brake
• 60 all correct
• Do these words rhyme?
• hand bed
• hand sand
• hand house 62 all correct

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Rhyming words

• Now I want you to tell me some words that rhyme.
• Point to the picture of the cap.
• Heres a cap.
• Gap rhymes with cap.
• Tell me another word that rhymes with cap. 60
• lunch 68
• nest 67

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Monkey on the roof

• Place the book in front of the child.
• Do not read the title of the book.
• Look at this book but dont open it yet.
• Look at the cover and tell me what you think the
  story in this book is about.

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Monkey on the roof
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Monkey on the roof

• Show me the title
• If child is unfamiliar with the term title you
  may ask them
• to show you the name of the book.
• Read me the title
• This book is called Monkey on the Roof.
• The story is about two children, Emma and Matthew
• (point to Emma in red t-shirt and Matthew in
  yellow
• t-shirt on the cover), playing with their toy
  monkey.
• Now Id like you to read the book to me.

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Reading accuracy
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Reading accuracy
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Reading comprehension

• This story is called Monkey on the Roof.
• How does Monkey get up on the roof?
• Allow child to look through book if they wish
  but do not suggest this strategy.
• 84 correct
• How does Monkey get off the roof?
• 86 correct

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Concepts of print

• Reference to a page from Monkey on the Roof
• Point to a word. 88
• Show me a letter. Draw a circle around it. 84
• Draw a circle around the word Monkey. 75
• Tell me the letters in the word Monkey. 78
• Show me a full stop. 67 What is it for? 75
• With a pen, circle the question mark at the end
  of the second sentence. What is this? 71
• What is it for? 51
• Circle the opening and closing quotation marks on
  the first line. What are these for? 24

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Letter names and sounds

• Place the letters and sounds booklet in front of
  the child. This is the letter d. I want you to
  tell me the names of the other letters in this
  booklet.
• a, l, s, m, p, k, b, g, r, f, t
• Over 80 8 correct
• This is the letter d. The sound of this letter
  is /d/. Tell me the sound each letter makes.
• a, l, s, m, p, k, b, g, r, f, t
• Over 80 8 correct

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Sight words

• and 80
• you 68
• little 57
• thing 38

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Using linked assessments

• Assessments of student achievement over time
• creating an evidential link between student
  achievement and teaching practices In Teachers
  Hands
• Evaluating the impact over time of literacy
  approaches Evaluation of literacy approaches, NT
  DEET

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Implications for assessment

• Assessment of constrained skills at appropriate
  stages of schooling
• Include assessment of unconstrained skills such
  as comprehension from early years to identify the
  full range of students emerging use and control
  of literacy

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Implications for teaching

• Information from assessment of both constrained
  and unconstrained skills useful for teachers
  diagnostic evaluations and planning teaching
  approaches.
• Mastery of constrained skills necessary but not
  sufficient for other reading skills.
• Include discussion about ideas and events in
  books read aloud and a focus on vocabulary from
  early years.

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References

• Paris, S. G. (2005) Reinterpreting the
  development of reading skills. Reading Research
  Quarterly, Volume 40, Number 2, pp 184-202
• Meiers, M., Khoo, S.T., Rowe, K., Stephanou, A.,
  Anderson, P., Nolan. K. (2006). Growth in
  Literacy and Numeracy in the First Three Years of
  School. ACER Research Monograph No.
  61. Camberwell Australian Council for
  Educational Research