Breanna Dougherty Professor Jenny Rich ELD-307-01 February 27, 2014 Oral Language Assessment Not only do children

learn to read and write while in school, their speech is a large part of learning that is sometimes overlooked. Many students who are fluent readers and writers tend to be fluent in oral language as well, but there are a few who are not. Ensuring that students are reaching proper stages of oral language functions is essential to their growth in the classroom. Assessing a student based on their oral language function is a task that does not put pressure on the student, and it can be done without having the student know that an assessment is taking place. The function of this Oral Language Assessment was to find out how a student in a classroom was progressing through their oral language functions. By using a checklist and a template found in the book Kidwatching by Yetta Goodman and Gretchen Owocki, I was able to evaluate a student. The assessment is a way to reveal if they are meeting markers for subjects such as sharing stories, and retelling events. It is important to be aware of a students ability to express themselves verbally, and mark their progress to make sure they are not remaining stagnant, and are continuing to grow. Madison is an eight year-old, third grade girl at Maurice Hawk School. She is intelligent, as her teacher has informed me, and is an outgoing person. Madi likes to talk, and take the lead in situations when she feels things are losing structure. She is a

mature little girl who demonstrates her intelligence through her words and actions. In class, Madi is surrounded by students of her same intellectual standpoint, as well as others who may be lower than her in certain areas. She is comfortable speaking in class, and is comfortable speaking with new people, which she established the first day I met her, and she was able to speak to me with ease. The tool used to evaluate Madison is an individual observation sheet with multiple subject areas that need to be addressed by the student. Each area is something that can be evaluated without prompt, however if necessary prompting was allowed. The sheet allows you to make note of any time the student shares a story, retells an event, explains how to do or make something, creates an imaginative world, plans an event(s), enjoys language for aesthetic value, expresses feelings, or takes leadership. There is no value assigned to the accomplishment of any of these areas, however the more subjects a student can speak on, the more oral language functions they are displaying. Madi was able to express to me all of the ways she was functioning orally. Without prompt, Madi was able to retell an event and share a story with me. The story was about her pet hedgehog, who I had seen a picture of attached to her binder. Upon asking if he was a hedgehog, Madi delved into a story about how her hedgehog was nocturnal, so he was up at night. This to me was her sharing a story; she was able to tell me about how her hedgehog had behaved. She also revealed that he had died, although she did not mention how he died; this came across as retelling an event because a death of a pet is an event many children are able to remember vividly. Her sad face and the sadness inflected in her tone demonstrated her ability to express her

feelings, along with her blatant statement saying the event made her sad. Another way Madi expresses her oral language function is through her ability to take leadership. During a lesson, the students were divided into small groups. Within those groups, the students were split further into groups of three. Madi and two other girls were in a trio developing their own mini lesson utilizing an iPad application. Madi took charge and demonstrated leadership in a gentle way by volunteering to do certain tasks. She was asking the girls in her group questions to figure out what their plan was to complete the task. For example, she would ask questions such as, what should we do for the next slide? At this point, Madi was planning an event, the event be ing the video mini lesson, and she was planning by collaborating with her group. Finally, Madi had given me a short story on how she made a paper boat bed for her stuffed animal. While she did not give me step-by-step instruction, she was able to tell me the materials she used, and how she folded it to create it. The directions were not clear enough for me to produce my own paper boat bed, but they were enough for me to understand what she had done to get from point A to point B. She was also able to tell me the purpose the bed served by explaining it was a bed. Based on what I found while evaluating Madi, I would begin to alter my lessons to include the segments of the evaluation sheet she may have not hit on. I would choose to target the things, such as creating imaginative worlds, to strengthen an area that may be a weak spot for Madi. Another major part of my planning would be ensuring that she practices the skills she is familiar with. I would guarantee my lessons included her sharing stories, retelling events, and each area of the sheet she was able to target while being observed.

Subject/Topic: Third Grade Individualized Lesson Plan-Oral Language Functions, Madison Rationale: This lesson will allow Madison to express herself through writing and speaking. I will be able to assess her ability to express certain language functions including sharing stories, retelling events, how to do or make something, creating imaginative worlds, planning events, enjoying language, expressing feelings, and taking leadership. Based on what she is able to do, I will know what she needs to work on. Standards: W.3.5-With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing W.3.8-Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories SL.3.4-Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace L.3.1-Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking L.3.3-Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. L.3.6-Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships Objectives: Madison will be able to utilize oral language functions she is practiced in, as well as practice skills she does not use as often. She will be creating a timeline that contains past, present, and predicted future events that will express how she plans events. Also, based on the evaluation sheet, she will be able to meet the outlined expectations by reciting the timeline out loud, and she will be generating her own ideas when predicting her future. Materials: poster board, markers/crayons/colored pencils Procedures (include teacher talk)

Engagement/Anticipatory Set:

Madi, do you remember the biography you wrote for Black History Month? Do you remember how it told the story of your person? Now I want you to tell me your story. I want you to pick the most important events in your life and put them on a timeline. Mentor teach and model: I will show Madison my own timeline that includes major, important events from my past into the present, and some events that I wish to happen in the future. Being as she is only eight years old, she will need to include ten events from the past to present, and five to eight future events. I will demonstrate, using my example, how the future events can be something unrealistic (example, visiting Hogwarts School), or an actual goal (example, run a 5k).

Guided Practice: Together, Madi and I will brainstorm ideas of her important events from the past. When Madi tells me about her past, I will be able to help her distinguish between the major, important events, and the minor events. We will also ensure that the events are in chronological order. She will then give me an example of a future event she intends on using in her timeline to demonstrate she understands the task. She will write one to three sentences describing each event on the timeline. Independent Application: Madi will create her future events and apply them to her timeline. She will present her timeline to the class. Madi will reiterate the events she chose from memory, while using the timeline as a guide to ensure she discusses each point. She will then explain to the class how she chose the events (this will represent planning) and how she made the timeline (modeling how to do or make something). Closure: I will look at the evaluation form I used to assess her prior to the project, and reevaluate her oral language function after the timeline presentation. I would then request feedback from Madi on how she liked the assignment, and if she felt it taught her anything. If it did, what did it teach her and how? If it did not, I could ask what she may have liked to do differently. Assessment: I will be able to tell she understood the assignment based on the future events she created. I will also evaluate her abilities to share stories, retelling events, how to do or make something, creating imaginative worlds, planning events, enjoying language, expressing feelings, and taking leadership through her timeline and the events of her past and future.

Differentiation: Although this lesson is geared to suit Madi, if it were to be too difficult for her to process, I could prompt her with ideas of which events to include, or prompt her with questions to create future events.