Christine OBrien

Oral Language Assessment

ELD-307

-Introduction of the child and setting

Jane Doe is a seven year old at Anytown School in Plainsboro, New Jersey. She lives

at 307 Anystreet Road in Plainsboro. She lives at home with her mother, her father, her

sister, Jill, and her dog, Punto. When she is at home, she likes to play with Jill, play

games and hang out with her friends. She sometimes helps her mom with laundry on

the weekends, when she is not at ballet lessons, art class and math tutoring. She loves

to write and read books, especially about dogs. If someone is not a good reader, she

advises them to sound words out, look for smaller words inside a word, and to practice!

At 8 o’clock every night, she goes to sleep in her pink, blue, yellow and brown colored

bedroom. For this assessment, she chose to read me a book entitled Ice Cold Birthday.

It was a level I book, even though she usually reads at a level J.

-The purpose of the assessment

The purpose of this assessment was to get to know Jane better, but it was also to

assess her oral language development. Oral language progresses over a long period of

time, and it is beneficial to assess it to understand the development of a particular

student as well as to study all students in general. Taking stock of Jane’s oral

development shed light into her reading and writing abilities, as well as her confidence

in her literacy development.

-Methodology for using the assessment tool

On Thursday, February 24th, during snack time, Jane and I stepped out of the classroom

into the hallway. We sat on the floor in the corner, a spot that she selected. Sitting eye-

to-eye, knee-to-knee, I explained to her that I was a student too and I needed to write a

report. I asked if she wouldn’t mind telling me a bit about herself, and then having her

read me a story. I took quick, sparse notes in order to keep the interaction feeling more

of a conversation than a test. She seemed willing to answer the questions and eagerly

waited for the next one.

-Description of your findings

Before the interview, my cooperating teaching informed me that Jane had been facing

some turmoil at home: her normally affluent family had been hit by the economic crisis

and her father had been laid off from work. The first thing I noticed about Jane was her

sulky attitude, but the second thing I notice was that she selected to read a book that

was below her level. This surprised me, since Jane seems so confident in class. As she

answered the questions, she seemed to become more at ease. She liked talking about

school related topics more than talking about her home life. Most of her sentences were

incomplete, and usually she started a question with “um” or “like.” After the interview,

Jane chose to read a book entitled Ice Cold Birthday. She paced the story very well,

knew all of the words, and even had intonation in her voice during the dialog.

Periodically, we would pause to discuss what was going on in the book. Jane seemed

comfortable reading to me once she got started.

-Discussion of how you would use these findings to inform instruction

Based on these findings, I would do a number of things with Jane. I would spend some

time encouraging her to write, speak, and answer questions in complete sentences. We

might do a mini-lesson with the class, using examples from a favorite book perhaps. I

would also give her more opportunities to speak publicly, either by reading aloud or

giving presentations. This would build her confidence in her own oral language. I might

even give a lesson on public speaking, and teach my students to avoid the “ums” and

“likes” in their everyday speech. Jane is on level for her age, but there is always room to

improve and advance.