The Alphabetic Principle Of Literacy

What is the importance of assessing the aspects related to the alphabetic principle and reading fluency? The alphabetic principle is the building blocks for literacy; it is the basic foundation on which all other reading skills are built. If we do not assess what the students know about the alphabetic principle, then we will not be able to give them the best, most effective, and appropriate instruction. Students need to be able to make connections between the sounds they hear and the printed letters. ELL’s may have a harder time with this, but if they understand the alphabetic principle for their first language, the skills they know will transfer and help them learn about the alphabetic principle for English. Fluency is necessary for students
to become good readers; students need to read accurately, at a good speed, with expression, and be able to comprehend what they read. Assessing for fluency is necessary and important so we can provide ELL’s with instruction that makes sense to them and is appropriate for their language proficiency. We won’t know where to start assisting students in the reading process if we don’t know what they know.
Describe one strategy to assess aspects related to the alphabetic principle.
One way to assess aspects related to the alphabetic principle is to use the letter-naming task. For this task, students are given a sheet with all 26 letters in both uppercase and lowercase (including different forms of the letters) and are asked to identify the letter by its name; if they cannot tell you what it is called, then have them try giving you a word that starts with that letter. Once all the student has read all the letters, you can score the task to see what their strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to
letters.
Describe one strategy to assess reading fluency
Running records are a great tool to use to assess reading fluency. A running record is a way of recording what a student says and does when they read aloud a text. When assessing reading fluency for ELLs, it can be helpful to take a running record from an instructional level text that is in the ELL’s first language; this may require you to have someone who can speak the language help you. You only have to take a record of about 100 words. As the student is reading the text, you will be recording what he or she says and does using a series of checks for correct answers, R for repeated words, and errors made over the word that should have been said (or words that were added that don’t belong). After the student has finished reading, you will analyze the errors and self-corrections in order to develop appropriate instruction for the student moving forward. Running records allow you to see what they are having trouble with and what their strengths are.
What are Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs)?
Informal Reading Inventories are an assessment tool that can be used to determine an ELL’s reading proficiency. IRIs are available in both English and Spanish, which makes it useful for comparing a student’s skills in his/her first language and then the second language. IRIs sound very similar to the CRI (Comprehensive Reading Inventory) that we have learned about in my reading assessment class; both IRIs and the CRI contain both expository and narrative passages for the student to read. There are multiple passages of each type so you can have a pre-test and a post-test. Before the student is required to read a passage, they first must read some leveled sentences in order to determine what level passages they need to begin on. Once it is determined what level they need to begin reading on, then they will be assessed on their silent, oral, and listening comprehension by reading the passage silently to themselves and then answering questions, then reading the passage outline while you take a running record and then retell the story, and then if the student is still is still having difficulty comprehending, then you will read the story to them while they listen and then they will answer the same questions from the silent
section.
What are cloze passages?
Cloze passages are paragraphs with every fifth to sixth word omitted and left blank, and then the student must fill it in using their background knowledge and context clues. Teachers can create their own passages, or use passages from a text by just omitting every fifth word. Cloze passages can be difficult for ELL students, so they need to be made using an instructional level passage and scored on a sliding scale. It is suggested that if a student is able to fill in 50% of the blanks, that it is instructional. It is also suggested that teachers should not accept any word unless it is the exact word from the original text. This goes against the suggestions I have heard in my other ESL classes; in the other two ESL classes I have taken, my teachers have told me that if it makes sense, it counts. However, I can see where it could be important to accept only the correct, exact word if you have explicitly gone over that specific passage and the vocabulary used at a previous time.