6410 Case Study

Sarah Ockenhouse

EDUC 6410

Case Study
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Table of Contents

Background Information………………………………………………………………………………..…..3
Tests Administered and Purpose of Assessment…………………………………………………………....5
Writing Samples…………………………………………………………………………………....5
Retell……………………………………………………………………………………………….5
Letter Name Recognition…………………………………………………………………………..5
Narrative Comprehension/Wordless Picture Book………………………………………………...5
Concept of Print…………………………………………………………………………………....5
Rhyming Assessment……………………………………………………………………………....5
Letter-Sound Recognition………………………………………………………………………….6
Phonemic Awareness……………………………………………………………………………....6
Test Results and
Analysis……………...…………………………………………………………………....7
Writing Samples……………...…………….……………………………………………………....7
Retell……………...…………………………………..…………………………………………....8
Letter Name Recognition ……………...……………………………………………………..…....8
Narrative Comprehension/Wordless Picture Book……………...…………………………....…....8
Concepts of Print…………..…………...……………………………………………………..…....8
Rhyming Assessment……………...……………………………………………………..…...........9
Letter-sound Recognition……………...……………………………………………………..….....9
Phonemic Awareness……………...……………………………………………………..……….10
Summary and Recommendations……………...……………………………………………………..…....11
Implications for the use of Literacy Assessments……………………………………………………...….13
Reflection……………………………………………………………………………………………….…14
References……………………………………………………...………………………………………….15
Appendix A……………………………………………………...………………………………………...16
Appendix B……………………………………………………...…...……………………………………17
Appendix C……………………………………………………...………………………………………...18
Appendix D……………………………………………………...……………………………………...…19
Appendix
E……………………………………………………...…………………………….…………...20
Appendix F……………………………………………………...……………………………….………...21
Appendix G……………………………………………………...………………………………………...22
Appendix H……………………………………………………...………………………………………...23
Appendix I……………………………………………………...……..…………………………………...24
Appendix J……………………………………………….……...………………………………………...25
Appendix K……………………………………………………...………………………………………...26
Appendix L……………………………………………………...………………………………………...27
Appendix M…………………...………………………………...………………………………………...28
Appendix N……………………………………………………...………………………………………...29
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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Date of report: 11/18/2020 Student name: Eliza

Report author: Sarah Ockenhouse Grade/School: Kindergarten/Eakin

Elementary

Time period of assessments: 2019-2020 school Age: 5

year

Eliza is a Kindergarten student at Eakin Elementary, a public elementary school within the Metro
Nashville Public School system. Eakin serves families in the Hillsboro Village neighborhood of Nashville
where a lot of Vanderbilt professors and doctors reside. Eakin also serves families in the Edgehill
neighborhood of Nashville. Eakin Elementary is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school which means
that a lot of the tasks and work done within this particular school is inquiry based, meaning that students
are encouraged to ask questions and reflect on the learning that they are doing. Because of Eakin’s status
as an IB school, the grade level teams write much of their own curriculum, using the district’s scope and
sequence as a guide along with the state standards. This curriculum development gives individual teachers
and grade levels autonomy in what is happening within the classroom and the tasks that students are
given.

Within the Kindergarten classrooms at Eakin, literacy is encouraged and built upon throughout the whole
school day, and not just limited to a 90 minute block period. While the classrooms do have a designated
ELA time period, students are consistently speaking, writing (which includes drawing in Kindergarten),
and reading all day long. This integration of literacy in every facet of the day allows students to grow as
readers and writers and supports the school wide model of being an inquiry based learning community.
During the designated ELA block, the Kindergarten team at Eakin takes on a balanced literacy approach
meaning that there are multiple ways in which students are interacting with each other, the teacher, and
engaging in literacy materials. A typical ELA block might include a whole group mini lesson, a read
aloud, a shared reading and/or writing, and small group instruction. During small group rotations,
students engage in guided reading groups, word study work, listening comprehension, and writing
activities. All of these rotation activities can be done independently, but usually reinforce what was taught
whole-class.

At Eakin, Kindergarteners enter the year with a wide range of abilities and knowledge when it comes to
school-based literacy. Some students come in knowing all the letters, sounds, and have the ability to
count. Others might not know the foundational aspects of school-based literacy such as letter-name
knowledge, or letter-sound relationships. There are also students who enter Kindergarten with partial
knowledge about literacy and numeracy. The Kindergarten teachers at Eakin attempt to bridge this gap in
prior school based literacy knowledge by teaching a letter and corresponding letter-sound a day for about
the first 26-30 days of school. However, what the teachers noticed about this was that it served that
middle group of students the most-- those who came in with partial knowledge of letter-names and sounds
but not a complete understanding or mastery of these foundational aspects. The students who entered
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Kindergarten with a small amount of school-based literacy knowledge and foundational aspects of
literacy seem to struggle to keep up with the fast pace of one letter and sound a day, while those who
came to Kindergarten with strong letter/sound knowledge could have been challenged in more ways. One
big emphasis in Kindergarten at Eakin is on sight words. The Kindergarten teachers have set a goal of
students leaving Kindergarten knowing 80 sight words, which they find allows students to read on grade
level texts with fluency and the ability to comprehend what they’ve read. While this is dependent on each
individual, it gives the teachers a goal for what they hope all students accomplish by the end of the year.

Eliza is the oldest child in her family with 3 younger siblings. Both of her parents are doctors. She is not
considered a struggling reader. Eliza attended a 5 days/week half-day preschool program, and before that
went to the Vanderbilt child care center. Most of the assessments for this study were conducted in a 1-on-
1 setting, and some writing samples were pulled from her writing journal. Most of the assessments and
data were collected in authentic environments.

For the purpose of this case study, I hope to gain information about what this student knows about
reading, writing, and literacy overall. I also want to assess and evaluate the growth and progress she has
made since entering Kindergarten. I would also like to use the data that I evaluate to inform future
instruction or intervention for this student, depending on where her strengths are and where her interests
lie. Lastly, I would like to emphasize her literacy strengths, but also understand where there can be more
support for her as a growing literacy student.
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TESTS ADMINISTERED AND PURPOSE OF ASSESSMENT

Writing Samples
The purpose of obtaining and assessing writing samples is for the valuable use of identifying the student’s
spelling stage, noticing patterns in the words they produce, and can also give data about what the student
knows regarding phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. A writing sample also provides data
regarding the vocabulary that a student knows and is able to produce when forming sentences or
responding to a prompt on a given topic. We can also use a writing sample to assess for comprehension
when responding to a text.

Retell
A retell, whether oral or written, gives the teacher useful insight into the child’s reading comprehension.
Without specific question prompts given by the teacher, the student is able to interact with the text and
recall information that was important to them, and include that information in their retelling of the story.
In a narrative story retell, students can be evaluated for their ability to include the following elements into
their retell: setting, characters, initial events, problems, solutions, and the ending.

Letter Name Recognition

Assessing for letter-name recognition is important in understanding a student’s general alphabetic
knowledge, and knowing their ability to name letters will help a teacher in understanding their letter-
sound knowledge as well. The letter name recognition assessment is an important tool to identify where
students are at and what they need more support with when it comes to alphabet knowledge. It is
important to consider how letter-name knowledge and letter-sound knowledge are related and whether
students know one or the other, or if they have a strong understanding in both.

Narrative Comprehension/Wordless Picture Book

A teacher can assess a student’s ability to tell a narrative story through wordless picture book tasks. This
assessment is a glimpse into a child’s ability to comprehend and put together elements of a story. The
wordless picture book used in this assessment was one created by the student herself. No comprehension
questions were asked after the telling of the story.

Concept of Print
Concept of print is one major component of emergent literacy and can tell a teacher or parent a lot about
what a child knows in regards to books and print in general. Assessing concepts of print, whether one
element, or a full assessment will make the teacher aware of how a child might approach a text, attempt to
read words, and what they know about the basic emergent elements of literacy.

Rhyming Assessment
A rhyme assessment tells the teacher about a student’s phonological awareness and the data gathered can
guide future instruction for that student pertaining to phonological awareness. Manipulation of rhymes
can be helpful in developing a child’s understanding of sounds and word patterns when rhyme tasks are
matched with print.
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Letter-Sound Recognition
A student’s letter-sound recognition gives insight into their alphabet knowledge and knowing this
information is important in understanding how a child is coming to understand early aspects of literacy.
Observations surrounding letter-sound recognition and assessments help guide the teacher about what to
focus on in future instruction and is a predictor for future literacy achievement (Piasta, 2014) which is
why it is so important to assess early and give each student the appropriate future instruction that they
need.

Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness, a more specific subset of phonological awareness, is a child’s ability to understand
and manipulate individual sounds or phonemes within words. Assessing for the larger skill of
phonological awareness is necessary in understanding what a student knows about units of sound and
sound manipulation. Understanding a child’s phonological awareness will help a teacher understand other
aspects of that child’s literacy knowledge and can help them make decisions about future instruction for a
student in a number of areas, including phonics instruction and spelling.
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TEST RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Writing Samples
Eliza’s writing samples (see Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, Appendix D, and Appendix E)
indicate to me how much she knows about alphabet knowledge, vocabulary, and her spelling stage and
abilities. In Appendix A, Eliza uses drawings and a few words to display her writing. As a young reader
and writer, Eliza is using drawings to display her thinking and tell a story, which is one, valid way to
write. The text in Appendix A is Eliza’s oral description of her picture, and this detailed description gives
us even more information about her ability to use language and vocabulary to display her thinking. The
authenticity in the writing task in Appendix A most likely made this writing experience meaningful for
Eliza because she was able to write about her own experience that she had in Disney World. Eliza can
speak to this experience more so than another activity that she didn’t first hand experience because of the
relevance that it has to her life. When we allow students to engage in reading and writing activities where
they can see themselves and relate to the activity, they will most likely foster positive literacy
experiences.

In Eliza’s writing samples in Appendix B, C, D, and E we see some of Eliza’s own writing with what
would be considered conventional letters and where we see her form both real words and use invented
spelling. Based off of these writing samples I would make the argument that Eliza is at the high end of the
letter name spelling stage and approaching/entering the within word pattern spelling stage. In Eliza’s
writing in Appendix C, Eliza begins to include vowel markers and recognizes the letters that go with
initial and ending sounds. The strongest indicator in this writing sample that Eliza would fall within the
letter name spelling stage is with her spelling of the word ballet, which she spells as ‘bla’. Here Eliza
most literally uses “the names of the letters as clues to the sounds these letters represent” (Stahl, Flanigan,
McKenna, 2020), one way to characterize a student who writes in the letter name spelling stage. Eliza’s
writing in Appendix D would also add to the argument that she writes within the letter name spelling
stage because we see her include vowels surrounded by consonants and a strong understanding of
beginning and ending sounds/letters. A major feature of the within word pattern spelling stage is a child’s
ability to spell words with different vowel patterns correctly and properly distinguish between short and
long vowels when writing. We see some of this vowel recognition in Eliza’s writing in Appendix B where
she includes the double o in the word ‘looked’ and the ‘ea’ pattern in the word ‘ready’.

Something important to take into consideration in Eliza’s writing in Appendix E is how she properly
spells ‘mommy’ and ‘special’, which I would reason is because she has seen those words in
environmental print and is very familiar with those words. The writing sample in Appendix E and the
other writing samples that we see from Eliza, give us a lot of information about her vocabulary
knowledge and what words she is able to express through writing and speech. In her picture descriptions
(Appendix A, B, D) and sentence continuation from a sentence starter (Appendix C, E) Eliza uses
vocabulary that is relevant to the topic she is writing or describing and tells us a great deal about what she
knows about using subject specific language.
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Retell
In the oral retell of the story, ‘Orange Peel’s Pocket’ that has been transcribed (see Appendix L), Eliza
provides valuable information about how she comprehended and made sense of the story in her own way.
Eliza includes the setting (China), the characters in the story (Orange Peel, Ma Sang, and Mr. Yu), and
actions that took place within the story. These actions that Eliza was able to retell include the adventures
that Orange Peel went on and the problem in the story when all of her treasures fell out of her pocket.
Eliza also included in her retell a solution to the problem (when the ice cream lady put a treasure back in
her pocket) and a clear ending (when Orange Peel was able to tell her class about this adventure). Based
on this strong retell, we can see that Eliza has a firm sense of narrative story structure and was able to
give a comprehensive retell of the whole story. The openness of this retell shed light onto how Eliza made
sense of the story and what she deemed important-- an important aspect of evaluating a child’s
comprehension and centering the assessment around the child and what they value in a text. Through the
retell of the story, ‘Orange Peel’s Pocket’ we see how Eliza put together an understanding of the
characters and details in the text, and how she was able to encompass the majority of features of the story
in her retell displaying her comprehension abilities.

Letter Name Recognition

In the letter-name recognition assessment (see Appendix N) we see Eliza accurately name all the letters
that she is looking at within the assessment. Her ability to correctly name all the letters in the assessment
is another example of her strong alphabet knowledge and is also an important skill to have that will help
her throughout her school years in phonics instruction and her ability to decode and comprehend texts
(Tortorelli, Bowles, Skibbe, 2017). The results from this assessment tell me that she likely has a rich
foundation in early literacy and has most likely had a lot of exposure and immersion with literacy and the
alphabet. Because this assessment was administered within the comfort of her home, the recitation of the
letters of the alphabet may have been more familiar for Eliza since she might have had experience with
the alphabet at home. The setting in which a child has experience with a particular aspect of literacy and
the setting in which the assessment takes place is an important consideration as we assess our students
and what we know about them and assess for what they know. Those who are afforded the opportunity to
learn at home and be assessed at home are able to do so in an environment that may be safe and
supportive and free of judgement.

Narrative Comprehension/Wordless Picture Book

In this reading of her self-made wordless picture book (see Appendix M), Eliza displays what she knows
about narrative structure and the elements that go into a narrative text. Her ability to retell her own story
also informs us about her narrative comprehension abilities and the fact that stories have meaning, which
are open to interpretation by each individual reader. In her story telling, Eliza includes characters, a
setting, a problem or action that takes place, the emotions of the characters, and a resolution. By allowing
Eliza to write and create her own story book, and then tell that story, she takes on the identity of a writer,
giving her a positive experience with literacy where her writing and story is valued and appreciated.

Concepts of print
In the assessment where Eliza is tasked with taking words from a word bank and segmenting each word
into the number of letters that it has and finding that appropriate box on the paper below (see Appendix
G), Eliza showcases what she knows about concepts of print, and more specifically concept of
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letter/word. The assessment required Eliza to rewrite the letters and word into the appropriate spaces, and
rewriting letters with the model that they can see is a helpful task for emergent readers and writers as it
activates an area of the brain identified as the “reading circuit” (Reutzel, 2015). Based on her success with
this assessment, we know that Eliza understands what a letter is, indicated by her ability to put one letter
in each respective box, and what a word is because each set of boxes together was filled when she wrote
the letters and words. This concept of letter and concept of word will aid in Eliza’s ability to write longer
sentences and group words together, and will help her read texts and environmental print as she already
has an understanding of the discrimination between letter and word. We can most likely make conclusions
that Eliza is immersed in a lot of print at home and school and has had experiences with books and texts
where she has been taught about concepts of print, such as book handling skills, beginning and ending of
words and sentences, and the distinction between letters, words, and combinations of words which form
sentences.

Rhyming Assessment
In the rhyming activity (see Appendix H) where Eliza was asked to cut pictures, and glue pictures
together that rhymed, we gain a deeper understanding of her phonological awareness and her ability to
process and think about the sounds that she was hearing. There were eight opportunities on the activity for
the student to match two pictures that rhymed together, and Eliza was able to match all eight sets
correctly. While completing the task, she most likely drew on her knowledge of phonological awareness
and her pre existing knowledge of what a rhyme is and what sounds she was hearing because the pictures
were not matched to letters or text, but simply required the students to use what they knew about the
picture they were seeing and the sound of the name that maps onto that corresponding picture. This
knowledge of rhymes tells me that she may be able to transfer these skills surrounding phonological
awareness to other phonological awareness and phonics tasks, particularly pertaining to spelling and
decoding words when reading.

Letter-sound recognition
The assessment administered with Eliza as seen in Appendix F asks Eliza to identify beginning letters of a
word based on sounds, beginning blends of words, and identify whole words based on a picture and
corresponding name of that picture. This assessment included 10 items for the student to identify initial
letters, initial blends, and the corresponding word. Out of the 10 items, Eliza correctly identified nine of
those, indicating that she has a strong sense of letter-sound correspondence, alphabet knowledge, and
word recognition. In question 1 of this assessment, Eliza was asked to identify the beginning letter of the
animal seen in each picture. Eliza most likely drew on her knowledge of letter-sound relationships to
correctly identify the beginning letter. In question 2 where Eliza was asked to identify beginning blends
of the word that matches each picture, she could have drawn on her strong sense of phonological
awareness as she spoke out the words corresponding to the picture and letter-sound correspondence
knowledge in order to understand and recognize those beginning blends. Eliza can take this strength in
her phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge and apply it to decoding texts and her writing.
Lastly, question 3 asks Eliza to identify the whole word that matches each picture. Eliza correctly
identified 2 of the 3 words in question 3 in which she used her vocabulary knowledge.

In the vowel recognition assessment (see Appendix I), Eliza was tasked with identifying the vowel in the
word that corresponds to the picture. Out of the five items presented in the assessment, Eliza correctly
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identifies the vowel in each of those five words, giving me information about her decoding skills and
letter-sound recognition. When Eliza was completing the assessment, she most likely said the word of
each picture out loud and used her phonological awareness and what she knew about letter-sound
correspondence to correctly identify each vowel in the word she was saying. In the bottom portion of the
assessment seen in Appendix I labeled ‘Oral Phonics Evaluation’, instead of the student identifying the
corresponding letter to a sound or word, Eliza had to make the sound as the teacher circled the letter,
which also required her to draw on her phonological awareness and displayed some of her decoding
skills.

The letter-sound recognition assessment in Appendix K further reinforces Eliza’s strength in recognizing
and understanding the relationships between particular letters and the sounds that they make, isolated and
in combination (through blends) with other letters. Her ability to recognize and orally produce the sounds
of different vowels and consonants gives her a firm foundation for decoding and writing, which will
continue to carry her through as she tackles more complex texts and attempts to comprehend texts where
the cognitive load will need to be placed on comprehending and not on decoding.

When assessing students for their alphabet knowledge and making inferences about what they know, it is
crucial to think about how alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness can be connected to a child’s
overall understanding and knowledge of literacy and how they all work in tandem (Huang, Tortorelli, &
Invernizzi, 2014). When we as teachers look at students and what they know from different perspectives
and in holistic ways, we can make appropriate instructional decisions that build on each other and what
the student already knows how to do and what they can do to a greater extent.

Phonemic Awareness
The phonemic awareness assessment in Appendix J asks Eliza to identify which words that the teacher
reads aloud to her have the specific ‘ӑ’ sound within that word. Although Eliza is asked to circle the letter
‘a’ below each picture where she hears the correct ‘ӑ’ sound, I would make the argument that this task
was a way to assess her phonemic awareness and the letter ‘a’ could have been removed and replaced
with something else to circle and still had the same validity of the assessment. This assessment tests her
ability to recognize phonemes, the smallest units of sound, within words which she displays with her
success on this task. Eliza’s ability to identify these individual sounds will support her in her future
reading scores (Reutzel, 2015) and ease at which she can read more difficult texts.
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SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Eliza, a young and emerging reader and writer, showcases her literacy strengths throughout her
assessments and writing samples. Although the assessment data does not tell us the level at which Eliza
reads, we have valuable information about what she knows regarding school-based literacy, particularly
in regards to alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and comprehension.

Eliza has mastered recognizing and naming letters and their sounds, which she transfers over to
her writing and understanding of concept of word. If I had the opportunity to watch her read and assess
her personally for different reading skills, I would make the inference that she would have strong
decoding skills based on her alphabet knowledge that is shown through her assessments.

Eliza’s writing samples also exhibit her concept of word as she distinguishes between each word
through spaces and groups letters that she associates with each word together. Through her writing
samples, I notice how she is able to express her vocabulary knowledge, which would most likely transfer
over to her ability to comprehend texts. In these writing samples and the oral descriptions of pictures that
she gives us, she uses subject specific vocabulary to convey meaning which lead me to believe that when
she is writing or describing an event she has a firm understanding of what she is describing, including
important contextual information, and how to use language to make her point.

In her writing, she also uses vowels consistently, and surrounds these vowels or vowel
combinations with consonants. Her writing samples display an understanding of beginning and ending
letter/sound recognition that we also see in some of the alphabet knowledge assessments where she is
asked to identify beginning blends.

I would like to gain more information about Eliza by observing her read and asking her for an
oral retell with both an open retell, and prompting questions to expand my understanding about her
comprehension abilities. Through observing her read I would be able to see the types of skills she
employs, and how she may tackle a difficult portion of a text. By asking questions, both explicit and
implicit ones, I would assess for comprehension which would help me in making future instructional
decisions for Eliza surrounding text level, tasks, and what she may be interested in. I would also be able
to see the ways in which she applies her vocabulary knowledge and solid foundation of phonological
awareness into the meaning making of the text.

In order to help Eliza grow and continue to develop in her writing, I would suggest explicit
instruction surrounding vowel patterns and moving into multi-syllabic words. After explicit instruction,
Eliza can apply this new knowledge to her writing and her reading as she decodes. Another
recommendation that I would make for Eliza regarding her writing, would be to encourage her to
distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters when she writes, which can be done through
exposure to texts and making these differences explicit during read alouds or feedback on her writing.

I would continue to allow Eliza opportunities to engage in literacy practices in authentic and
meaningful ways which were done abundantly in these assessments. Allowing her to take on the identity
as a reader and writer, choosing texts that are of importance to her, and giving her tasks that she can
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succeed on will allow her to continue growing in her reading and writing abilities and continue to foster a
love of literacy. Through the videos I was able to watch and assess, Eliza seemed to be enjoying her time
participating in literacy activities, which I hope she carries through with her for the continuation of her
school years.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR THE USE OF LITERACY ASSESSMENTS

Literacy assessments help provide a glimpse into what a child knows regarding certain aspects of literacy,
but do not give a whole picture of who a student is and what they know or can achieve. Assessments are a
great way to inform teachers about decisions to make surrounding choosing appropriate text levels for
students, tasks that might be beneficial, and grouping of students for certain areas of work. However,
when we look at data from assessments we have to understand that one assessment does not give us a
comprehensive picture of that student nor does it tell us fully what they know. It is important to never
make a decision about a student based on one assessment, but rather use multiple assessments and data
from different facets of literacy to guide instruction and make decisions for students. It is always
necessary to keep the whole student in mind when looking at data or making a claim about their literacy
achievements-- what the child’s interests are, the context in which they took the assessment, and how they
view themself as a reader or writer are all important factors in understanding literacy assessment data.

I also think it is of value and a good instructional practice for teachers to continuously assess their
students and follow up with them to see if progress is being made, or if interventions need to be put in
place. Students, and the skills and strategies that they use, are always changing and growing, and it is
imperative that teachers are cognizant of how their students are reading, writing, and achieving.
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REFLECTION

As I analyzed these assessments, and reflected on what I learned about Eliza through these
literacy assessments, I am reminded of the importance in really knowing who your students are and what
they can achieve and accomplish apart from and in relation to the assessments that they are given.
Because I wasn’t the one to administer or observe Eliza engage with these assessments, I was truly just
analyzing the data and my noticings from her work on the assessments and tasks she was given. I was
able to notice just how much she knew about alphabet knowledge, narrative storytelling, and writing, but
what I didn’t know was who she was as a person outside of her accomplishments on these tasks. With the
variety of assessments that I had the opportunity to analyze, I was able to look at Eliza’s literacy
knowledge from a range of viewpoints which did give me a more holistic understanding of her literacy
knowledge than maybe an isolated or single assessment would have. This aligns with my belief in
knowing the whole child and assessing the whole student before making conclusions or recommendations
for them. Because I was able to look at Eliza and what she knew from multiple literacy perspectives, I
feel confident in understanding what she knows and can accomplish in regards to school based literacy
but truly knowing Eliza and working directly with her would give me more insight into texts and tasks
that would be meaningful and important to her.

In evaluating Eliza’s successes on these assessments and tasks, and thinking about the same type
of work I will do in my future classroom as a literacy teacher, I am reminded of the value in looking at
your students from an asset based perspective and always thinking about what they can do and
accomplish, and what they do know rather than what they aren’t yet doing or achieving. Within a
classroom, there will be a wide range of student interests and achievements, all of which are worthy of
being met and differentiated for. Entering my role as a literacy teacher from this approach will help me
honor my students for who they are and what they are achieving at the time and helping them to achieve
and learn even more. Being a continual learner alongside my students will help us both grow, as I learn
more about them as people and literacy students through assessment data. Taking what I learn through
these assessment analyses will help me to make the best informed decisions about instruction that is
appropriate for them. I must also be willing to be flexible and adapt as my students grow and change as
well.
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References

Huang, F. L., Tortorelli, L. S., & Invernizzi, M. A. (2014). An investigation of factors associated
with letter-sound knowledge at kindergarten entry. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,
29(2), 182-192.

Piasta, S. B. (2014). Moving to assessment‐guided differentiated instruction to support young

children's alphabet knowledge. The Reading Teacher, 68(3), 202-211.

Reutzel, D. R. (2015). Early literacy research: Findings primary‐grade teachers will want to
know. The Reading Teacher, 69(1), 14-24.

Stahl, K. A. D., Flanigan, K., & McKenna, M. C. (2020). Assessment for reading instruction.
Guilford Publications.

Tortorelli, L. S., Bowles, R. P., & Skibbe, L. E. (2017). Easy as AcHGzrjq: The Quick Letter
Name Knowledge Assessment. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 145-156.