The writing assessment required the student to write down short words read out aloud by the teacher. It was meant to assess the student’s ability to write basic words which are ordinarily learnable at his level. The next stage involved writing simple sentences to assess the student’s ability to make meaningful word connections in writing. Assessment was based on the ability of the students to write the words successfully; a score of ten would be considered excellent, between eight and nine good, between five and seven average and a score below four as below average. The student, Adams Johnson, is in the second grade.
The words that were to be written down were: boy, cow, one, house, tree, table, cup, apple, sun, snow.
Sample student work
The student managed to write the words as follows in the above order: boy, cow, one, hause, tree, talbe, cup, appu, sun, snow.
This indicates that the student has made some progression, though not perfect, on his ability to write down common words. The three words that he misspelled indicate that he needs more practice in writing so as to improve his capacity to write fluently.
Sample student work
In the reading assessment, the student was provided with several sentences to read aloud to the teacher. These sentences were as follows:
I am a boy.
That is a cow.
Today is sunny.
Reading all the sentences correctly was considered excellent, reading at least two correctly as above average and failure to read any sentence completely would be considered as poor and in dire need of practice and attention.
The student showed a remarkable reading ability, and read most of the words correctly. However, he seems to have hesitation about his ability despite the remarkable reading ability. It is thus imperative that efforts are made to improve his confidence level.
Communication skills
This section was intended to make an evaluation of listening and speaking skills. To assess the student’s listening skills, he was placed in a group of five students and a task was given to each student to tell the others why he or she liked their pet. This required the other students to be silent and listen to the narration given. Assessment would be through observation that the student is able to listen to another individual for a period of ten minutes without shift in attention or discomfort. A question and answer analysis on what had been described would follow, and correct interpretation would indicate that the listening skills are well developed. Speaking skills would be evaluated through the same exercise, and ability to give good and detailed descriptions and reasoning would be considered as an excellent performance. The level of confidence of the student when talking to other students, and the ability to hold the attention of the other students when giving a description would be considered also.
Upon assessment, it became obvious that listening capacity of the student was average at best. He on several occasions attempted to start a conversation with the student next to him. On realizing that there was need for absolute silence, he fidgeted and moved on his seat, and his attention occasionally wandered from the narration to other objects in the room such as the roof and pictures on the wall.
Speaking skills were assessed through the same method; when the student was required to give a narration to his group on why he liked his pet. His narration was quite remarkable, and showed that his speaking skills were well developed. He gave a detailed description of his dog, and generally passed information through on why he loved his dog.
The conclusion was that the student, while seemingly poor in his listening skills, was very good in speaking skills. It was thus evident that the listening skills of the student needed to be natured to improve his ability to listen to others without letting his concentration shift to other things.
Motor skills
Sample student work
The fist activity involved kicking a ball into a miniature goal from a considerable distance. This was meant to gauge the motoring ability with regard to distance, a successful score indicating strong motor skills. The second activity involved running round the playground and stopping immediately the whistle was blown by the teacher. This was to assess the coordination of the motor skills. Assessment was through establishing the motor abilities by evaluating the ability of the student to kick the ball through the goal, establishing the distance of the ball to the goal and making enough effort to kick the ball with the appropriate energy to reach the goal.
The student Adams was very good in kicking the ball through the goal, and this was confirmed by three perfect scores. The assessment thus showed the student to possess a high level of motor coordination since it means that he could successfully gauge the distance to the goal and aim between the two goal posts. He could also successfully gauge the amount of force necessary to kick the ball to the goal.
Sample student work
In the second activity, the student showed mixed indications. On two of four occasions, he kept running even after the whistle was blown, indicating poor coordination of sensory organs with body motion. This is a condition which the student seemed unable to control himself, even after reminders to keep in mind to stop when the whistle was blown. This means that the student will have to be involved in activities which the coordination of senses and motor skills will be improved. This will be conducted mainly through further practice using similar activities in the playground.
In conclusion, the student displayed an above average performance in the assessment. It is clear that he has developed some skills very well like reading and speaking. However, some skills like writing and listening are not as well developed, and thus need to be improved through continued and constant practice.
Communication to students Parents
The results of this assessment will conveyed to parents initially through correspondence detailing the assessment method, how it was conducted and an invitation for a face to face discussion on the results. A letter to the parent will be given to the student giving these details and requesting that they make an opportunity for further discussion of the results.
On the meeting, a discussion of the results will be carried out, and an effort made to detail the weaknesses of the student as per the results of the assessments. A discussion on how the parents can contribute to the improvement of the various skills will be discussed and plans made for future assessments and review of progress.
References
Bootel, S. & Coviello, H. (2006) “Improving Students Outcomes Through Progress Monitoring” retrieved April 29th 2013 from http://www.studentprogress.org/doc/VASEA9-28-06.ppt
Carney (n.d) "Report Cards and School Success: Improving Grades Using Report Card Data," retrieved April 29th 2013 from http://suite101.com/article/report-cards-and-school-success-a34955
