Tyburczy Nicole Tyburczy Professor Rich Oral Language Assessment

As a future educator, it is critical to acknowledge that literacy is made up of se eral components! reading, writing, listening, and speaking" #t is the framework for how we communicate, generate ideas, and interpret words that are both written and spoken" $ith that being said, it is important to pull away from the idea that literacy solely focuses on reading and writing%it concentrates on the whole of language comprehension& the ability to impro e the ac'uired skills needed to communicate thoughts and ideas, as well as understand stories that are told out loud and read through te(ts" The apprehension of these different components then allows educators to assess their students accordingly" Talk or oral language, helps students identify their own ideas, and it helps teachers obser e students) mental processes" $hat are my students thinking* $hy are they thinking that* $hat are their e(periences* +ow do those e(periences influence their prior or e(isting knowledge* These are all 'uestions that can be answered by following the outline of an oral assessment" # ha e e(emplified this specifically with ,retchen Owocki and -etta ,oodman)s .Oral Language /unctions! 0lassroom

Obser ation1#ndi idual Obser ation2 assessment" 3ecause talk is a reflection of what students are thinking, it can also gi e the teacher an idea of what a student might write, or what knowledge a student has enough of regarding a specific genre" Owocki and ,oodman state this in their book Kidwatching, .4children who learn to report

Tyburczy information or e(plain how to do something ha e important knowledge for writing nonfiction te(t4"2 5Owocki and ,oodman, 678" #n the same way, .0hildren who can tell a cohesi e, logically se'uenced story ha e important understandings for structuring a story in writing2 5678" As a re'uirement for my methods course, 9L: ;<7, # am currently in the process of completing my =unior practicum at an 9lementary >chool in 0entral New ?ersey" # was fortunate enough to be granted my first choice of grade preference, and ha e been paired with second grade cooperating teacher @iss A-B" @iss A-B has twenty students and is a mainstream teacher of an inclusion class" :uring reading workshop students A3 and 0: are pulled out for basic skills, while 9/ and ,+ are pulled out for reading" At home 9/ speaks >panish and ,+ speaks 0hinese, and so this language barrier makes language comprehension more difficult for them" These same four students 5with the addition of another student, #?8 are also pulled for math" #n doing my classroom obser ation part of the oral assessment, # was able to gain a lot of insight to @iss A-B)s teaching style as well as the way her students respond" Almost immediately it was clear that talk is encouraged throughout the day in e ery sub=ect%it is an en ironment where both student to student and student to teacher interactions are highly alued" 9 en if @iss A-B needs e(tra prompting for certain lessons that may be a bit more difficult for the kids, she is ne er the only one speaking or lecturing" :uring writing workshop she did a lesson on .making connections with the character in your book2" The read aloud she used for modeling this skill was a ?enny Archer book" #n this particular book ?enny wants to buy her mom an e(pensi e fur coat,

Tyburczy but she has no means of how to do so" @iss A-B asked the class how ?enny probably feels to which they answered .really sad because she can)t buy her mom the fur coat for her birthday"2 >he then asked students to make a connection to ?enny and think of a time that they felt the way ?enny did" The students took a minute to think about it, discussed with a partner, and then se eral of them raised their hands" @iss A-B called on those who wanted to share, one boy)s response was .# connect to ?enny because one time # really wanted a game, and # told my parents, but they said it was too e(pensi e"2 #n this particular lesson, sharing stories, retelling e ents, e(pressing points of iew, and

e(pressing feelings, empathy, and emotional identification are all oral language functions that took place" >tudents were able to identify their characters point of iew in the story and related to them in a way that emotionally connected them%they then were able to share these personal stories by retelling them to the class" # also witnessed students sharing stories and retelling e ents during their reading workshop time, in which they would tell me about the book they were reading" The writing workshop prior to the one # =ust discussed was a sort of introduction to the unit they will be working on for the ne(t se eral weeks%which focuses on writing about their books" @iss A-B)s first part of this introduction was to establish the importance of making more comple( predictions as well as making inferences about their book" :uring this lesson she had students make predictions and inferences out loud" @any were able to e(press their thoughts by saying .# predict2" >tating that they were making an inference though, was a little more challenging because that terminology is still new to them" /or the most part howe er, # felt that many of the students were able to e(press their language and literacy knowledge when they were talking among themsel es

Tyburczy or when they were writing in their =ournals" >till with that said, the use of literacy knowledge is something that can be continued to be reinforced throughout the year& so that students may use those terms such as inference more fluently when communicating their thoughts to others or e en =ust to themsel es" Taking leadership, building collaborati e relations, reporting information as well as e(plaining how to do or make something are all functions that # saw to be e ident during the allotted math and science periods" @y first day in the field, @iss A-B had her students finishing up their math unit pro=ects on graphing" /or this pro=ect the children worked in small groups" +er reasoning for this was because she recognizes that it is really difficult for second graders to work together and agree on one single thing" 3y working in groups she is reinforcing cooperation between students%they need to collaborate as a group in order to successfully complete their assignment" As # was obser ing one of the groups, # was thoroughly impressed with the way they were cooperating with one another" 9ach student had a specific =ob to perform" A couple key sentences # o erheard were! Student 1: .AAAAA is really good at making straight lines, AAAAA can # help you so that the whole graph fits on the piece of paper"2 Student 2: .@iss A-B says we only ha e ten more minutes left guys, # think ------- and # should draw pictures on each line so we can be done faster"2 #t is clear that these students are taking leadership and building collaborati e groups" :uring science students were able to e(plain how to do something and report information" $hen learning about solids, li'uids and gas, students were able to tell @iss A-B that the water on the roads turned to iced because the temperature was below

Tyburczy freezing and that when it)s that cold the li'uid water turns into a solid layer of ice" 3eing able to e(plain how to do something or report information can help these students to comprehend nonfiction te(ts more easily" :uring another science lesson students were to obser e the properties of the ob=ects that were placed in front of them%in this case being sugar and a sugar cube" >tudents had the chance to describe both similarities and differences" The students # spoke with said they obser ed that they are both solid, but that the sugar cube would dissol e in water more slowly because it is more closely put together2" Allowing students to use their senses, and describe their sensory e(periences re eals a great deal about what they understand from the content they ha e already learned" Thus far, on a whole class le el # ha e not had the opportunity yet to obser e the following oral language functions! creating imaginati e worlds, taking social action, and planning e ents" As for my indi idual assessment, # chose a student by the name of A-" A- is not pulled out for any e(tra support and so # am able to obser e him for the hours that # am there" #n the short amount of time that # ha e had in the classroom # ha e obser ed that A- is a student who lo es to talk" +is participation le el is high regardless of whate er sub=ect is being taught" +e plays an acti e role in the classroom as he has many interactions with other students as well as with @iss A-B" :uring writing workshop, when # sat down with him, A- was able to retell e ents from the ?enny Archer read aloud" +is accuracy and comprehension seemed good, but # was realizing that he was ha ing some difficulty differentiating the main ideas from small details in the te(t" #nstead of summarizing and telling me main points his ideas seemed =umbled as he thought out loud%he would report e ery detail he remembered from the

Tyburczy book and not necessarily in order" # noticed this occurrence a second time as # was working with him to fill out a worksheet that @iss A-B handed out as an assessment of her .Retelling @ain #deas2 lesson" Accordingly, the worksheet)s purpose was to guide students in understanding and retelling the main ideas of a story" They were to complete it using a book they ha e already read and were already familiar with" As # sat with A-, # found that he needed prompting to complete the worksheet, as if # had to pull his ideas out of him" # am glad that # was able to sit with him because # was able to witness his thought process& he seemed ery indecisi e of what he wanted to record on his paper" # prompted him in asking 'uestions like, .what does this character want*2 .$hat is standing in this characters way*2 +e responded with se eral answers, .$ell there are two characters and they want different things"""the problem is that they both are working on growing the same pumpkin, but they don)t know it4no that doesn)t sound right4# think it)s because the pumpkin is green42 $e further analyzed the book, and because he could not decide on what the primary conflict of the story was, # asked him .:o you think it might be a problem that the two mice are working on the same pumpkin without knowing it*2 +e hesitated but responded in saying, .-es that might be a big problem"2 # asked him why and he told me that it)s a problem because they want the pumpkin for two different reasons" Cltimately, he was able to complete the worksheet successfully" # had brought it to @iss A-B)s attention that # really saw him struggling with this assessment" >he then told me that A- is a perfectionist" $e also re iewed his book choice for the assessment and agreed that the book he had chosen was a difficult book to complete the worksheet with" @iss A-B acknowledged that retelling main ideas is a skill she will need to reteach because the class is split between really grasping the skill and struggling with it" Though

Tyburczy A- was able to complete the worksheet, he needs to be able to retell the main ideas of a story without so much prompting" #n order to do that he would probably need a book that was simpler%a book where the main idea was more clearly stated and that is focused on one character" #n this case, ha ing him retell and share the book he was reading enabled me to inform @iss A-B what area he needs more support or practice in" Taking a step away from reading and writing workshop, A- e(pressed content knowledge in math by using the oral language function of e(plaining how to make something" +e was able to tell me that a pyramid 5among se eral other shapes that he knew the make up of8 is a ;: solid figure that is made up of four triangles and one s'uare" +e e(plained to me, .To make a pyramid you put the s'uare at the bottom and the triangles on the sides so they connect at the point2" $hen # asked him what the point is called he 'uickly corrected himself and told me it was a erte(" #n obser ing A-, the oral language functions that # was not able to take note of were! creates imaginati e worlds, plans e ents, and en=oys language for its aesthetic alue" # also did not obser e him take leadership, howe er # feel that because he is highly moti ated in participation, his leadership may be a reflection of such& from what # ha e seen, he is always willing to help other students"