Chapter 3 Resources
Informal Primary-Level Language and Literacy Assessment
Lee Gunderson
Reginald D’Silva
Dennis Murphy Odo
The purpose of the following assessment is to measure primary students’ language and literacy
skills to determine whether they might benefit from literacy instruction in English. The following
items are easily constructed. Indeed, you can assemble this assessment package in a fairly short
time. Suggestions for management of your assessment package are given at the end. The test
should be administered at a small table if possible since the table itself will form part of the test.
Assessment #1: Responding to Questions
This is an oral assessment administered in a one-on-one session. This assessment should take
place in a fairly quiet place with as few interruptions as possible. Ask the following questions
and record student’s answers, if any. You should record responses on a student record form (see
below).
1. What’s your name?
2. How old are you?
3. Where do you live?
4. Who lives with you here?
5. What food do you like to eat?
6. What game do you like to play?
Answers are usually one or two words in length. If answers are more complex, make note of
them, but 1 point is given for each correct response regardless of the length of the utterance for a
total of 6 points for this subtest.
Assessment #2: Following Directions
This test involves the student being able to follow directions. It requires knowledge that is
somewhat more complex. You will need the following items to be placed on the table where you
are administering the test: an eraser, a book, a ruler, and a piece of paper.
Please give me the eraser.
Put the ruler under the book.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Open the book.
Pick up the paper.
Put the paper in the book.
Close the book and put it on the table.
Score 1 point for each correct response for a total possible score of 6.
Assessment #3: Reciting the Names of the Letters of the Alphabet
Ask the student to recite the names of the letters of the alphabet in order. Score 1 point for each
correct letter produced in order up to 10 (up to the letter J). Ten is the total possible score even if
student is able to produce all letters accurately.
Assessment #4: Copying a Sentence
Print the following in large, primary manuscript writing. Ask the child to copy the sentence:
The boys and girls are going to school.
Score the copying: 0 = unable to copy; 1 = able to copy two or three letters; 2 = able to copy
about on third of the letters; 3 = able to copy about half of the letters; 4 = able to copy about twothirds of the letters; 5 = able to copy nearly all of the letters; 6 = able to copy all of the letters,
including both capital and small letters accurately. Judgment is an important scoring variable in
this case. If the letters are terribly primitive, but recognizable, they should be scored as correct. If
the sentence is copied, but as a line of letters with no spaces, subtract 1 point from the total score.
Assessment #5: Writing Numbers 1–20
Ask the student to write in English the numbers from 1 to 20. The following scoring rubric is
used:
no numbers written = 0 points
1–5 numbers = 1 point
6–10 numbers = 2 points
11–15 numbers = 3 points
16–20 numbers = 4 points
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Order is important, so numbers score only when they are in the correct positions. It is often
difficult to count items correct because the writing may be so completely illegible.
Assessment #6: Printing the Alphabet
Ask the student to print the letters of the alphabet in order:
no letters produced = 0 points
1–5 letters = 1 point
5–10 letters = 2 points
11–15 letters = 3 points
16–20 letters = 4 points
21–26 letters = 5 points
Order is important, so letters are scored correct only when they are in the correct order. It is often
difficult to count items correct because the writing may be so completely illegible.
Assessment #7: Upper- and Lower-Case Letter Recognition
Print the following in large, primary-size manuscript. Ask the student to read the letters aloud to
you.
A
p
G
c e i
N
f b
B
u
T
S
Q
I
y
Score 1 point for each correct response for upper-case and lower-case letters. So upper-case total
possible is 8 and lower-case total possible is 8.
Assessment #8: Single- and Multiple-Digit Number Recognition
Print the following numbers on a card. Ask the student to read the numbers aloud to you.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
2
4 5
8
3
9
7
13 28 87 51 60 106
6
1,000
Score 1 point for each correct response. The total possible for single-digit numbers is 8 and the
total possible for multiple-digit numbers is 7.
Assessment #9: Color Recognition and Naming
This test involves naming six colors: red, yellow, blue, black, green, and white. Many versions
are possible; one standard letter-size page with six colored squares or six separate 3 x 5 cards
each with a different color. The easiest alternative, however, is to purchase a box of crayons that
contains all of the colors. The child identifies the colors of one crayon at a time. This author has
noted that the small box of 8 crayons does not have a “white” crayon, but the box of 12 does.
Some teachers have opted to use paint samples they found at paint stores. Score 1 point for each
correctly identified color for a total possible correct score of 6.
Assessment #10: Body Parts Recognition and Naming
This test measures students’ ability to recognize and name parts of the body. The following
should be printed on a separate page. These are sketches, some teachers have opted to use clipart
from the net.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Score 1 point for each correctly identified body part for a total possible correct score of 6.
Record any correct responses since this will help identify possible items for instruction.
Assessment #11: Common School Items Recognition and Naming
This test measures students’ ability to recognize and name common school items: pencil, paper,
chair, table, and crayons. The items to be named in this test are common school items that should
be collected and kept in the Assessment Kit. It is interesting to note that crayons are a common
school item in North America, but not necessarily in other parts of the world. Score 1 point for
each correctly identified school item for a total possible correct score of 5. Keep a record of the
items not identified.
Assessment #12: Connecting Words and Pictures
The following assessment asks students to draw a line from a printed word to a picture that
represents the word.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Score 1 point for each correctly connected word-picture for a total possible score of 9 for this
assessment.
Assessment Criteria and Instructions
Oral Language (Questions and Directions)
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The following table shows that overall percentage of primary students who correctly responded
to the questions and the directions tests. Overall, 25.60 percent of the students responded
accurately for all questions and 21.20 percent for following directions.
Questions
Directions
#1
60.90%
35.30%
#2
48.79%
23.30%
#3
33.40%
37.50
#4
34.50%
34.40%
#5
34.80%
33.60%
#6
32.60%
33.70%
Total
25.60%
21.20%
Reciting Names of the Letters of the Alphabet
The following represents the scoring for the 1,300 primary-level students reciting the names of
the alphabet. The response A, B, C, D seems to represent a kind of formulaic response to the
question. About one-fourth of the students were able to respond in this fashion, while roughly 40
percent could not recite any of the names of the alphabet.
Letters
10
20.10%
9
1.40%
8
1.00%
7
.90%
6
1.20%
5
2.00%
4
25.50%
3
6.00%
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
2
1.20%
1
2.00%
0
38.60%
Recognition: Letters and Numbers
Upper-Case Letters
The second column displays the percentage of students who correctly named each of the capital
letters, while the third column shows overall percentages of students related to number of items
correct. So, in this case 51.70 percent could not identify any of the letters.
Correct
Items Correct
A
46.20%
0 = 51.70%
G
39.50%
1 = 1.20%
N
39.0%
2 = 2.30%
B
40.60%
3 = 2.80%
T
40.40%
4 = 2.40%
S
40.40%
5 = 1.80%
Q
40.50%
6 = 1.70%
I
37.50%
7 = 2.40%
Total Correct
33.70%
8 = 33.70%
Lower-Case Letters
The following table shows data concerning the percentage of students who accurately named
each of the lower-case letters and the overall percentage of students who 0 to 8 items correct.
Overall, students were less likely to recognize and name lower-case letters than they were uppercase letters.
Correct
Items Correct
p
37.80%
0 = 55.60%
c
41.50%
1 = 2.20%
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
e
36.20%
2 = .90%
i
38.00%
3 = 3.00%
f
37.90%
4 = 2.40%
b
35.50%
5 = 1.60%
u
35.50%
6 = 1.70%
y
36.20%
7 = 2.30%
Total
30.20%
8 = 30.20%
Number Recognition
About half of the students could not recognize and name any of the single-digit numbers and
about 80 percent could recognize none of the multiple-digit numbers.
Correct
Single-Digit
Multiple-Digit
0
49.30%
77.70%
1
.50%
2.60%
2
1.20%
3.00%
3
2.70%
2.70%
4
3.70%
1.20%
5
1.70%
3.20%
6
1.30%
4..40%
7
1.60%
5.20%
8
38.00%
Writing
Students were asked to copy a sentence, to write the letters of the alphabet, and to write numbers.
The following table represents their scores.
Score
Sentence (6)
Alphabet (5)
Numbers (4)
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
0
44.00%
52.00%
46.00%
1
30.70%
30.10%
30.60%
2
16.50%
1.00%
10.30%
3
2.20%
2.60%
4.80%
4
.90%
7.80%
8.30%
5
2.20%
6.20%
6
3.60%
Typical responses to these items are shown in the following three figures:
This student copied the letters so that they are legible; however, she did so without spaces
between letters. Her score for this was 4 (5, but minus 1 for no spaces).
The student scored 5 points for this subtest. All of the letters are in order, but is should be noted
that some were reversed. Reversals are very typical for beginners.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The student missed only one number (15), so her score was 4.
Recognition
Colors
Scores for the recognition of six colors are shown in the following table.
Colors
Correct
Total Correct
Red
50.40%
0 = 47.10%
Yellow
49.30%
1 = 2.10%
Blue
48.90%
2 = 1.70%
Black
45.40%
3 = 1.60%
Green
47.40%
4 = 3.00%
White
44.90%
5 = 3.00%
Total
41.50%
6 = 41.50
Body Parts
Scores for the recognition of six body parts are shown in the following table.
Body Part
Correct
Total Correct
Nose
50.30%
0 = 47.80%
Hand
45.60%
1 = 2.00%
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Mouth
46.00%
2 = 2.20%
Leg
33.10%
3 = 2.40%
Eyes
48.70%
4 = 5.90%
Head
42.90%
5 = 8.30%
Total
31.30%
6 = 31.30%
School Items
Scores for the recognition of common school items are shown in the following table.
School Item
Correct
Total Correct
Pencil
47.50%
0 = 49.70%
Table
40.90%
1 = 4.20%
Paper
40.10%
2 = 3.50%
Chair
43.40%
3 = 4.20%
Crayons
33.90%
4 = 9.20%
Total
28.90%
5 = 28.90%
Connecting Word and Pictures
Students were asked to connect with lines printed words with the correct pictures. The following
table shows their scores.
Word-Picture
Correct
Total Correct
table
26.00%
0 = 48.00%
boy
39.00%
1 = 12.00%
chair
26.00
2 = 8.60%
clock
37.00%
3 = 3.20%
book
26.00%
4 = 2.30%
pencil
35.00%
5 = 2.50%
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
door
22.60%
6 = 3.20%
car
33.60%
7 = 1.60%
girl
33.00%
8 = 2.50%
Total
16.00%
9 - 16.00%
Interpretation
Scores are broadly interpreted into four criterion: zero-level English; extremely low English; and
readiness English. It is important to remember that these overall categories are bounded by
fuzziness. Variations in scores can represent the experiential history of an individual rather than
an overall level of knowledge. The ability to recite the letters of the alphabet, for instance, was
more widespread in this primary population than this author expected. It may be that Sesame
Street has had an influence around the world. The following are the criterion for each of the
subtests.
Assessment
Total Score
Zero-level
Extremely Low
Ready
1. Questions
6
0–2
3–4
5–6
2. Directions
6
0–2
3–4
5–6
3. Recite Alphabet
10
0–4
5–7
8–10
4. Copying Sentence
6
0–3
4–5
6
5. Write Alphabet
5
0–2
3–4
5
6. Write Numbers
4
0–1
2–3
4
7. Upper Case
8
0–2
3–5
6–8
8. Lower Case
8
0–2
3–5
6–8
9. Single Numbers
8
0–2
3–5
6–8
10. Multi-Digits
7
0–2
3–4
5–7
11. Colors
6
0–2
3–4
5–6
12. Body Parts
6
0–2
3–4
5–6
13. School Items
5
0–1
2–3
4–5
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
14. Words and Pictures
9
0–2
3–7
8–9
Total
94
0–29
30–64
65–94
The complete battery of tests takes a fairly long time to administer, so teachers often opt to use
only some of the tests, but using the scoring rubric above for the subtests. Some administer the
recognition portions only, while others administer only the oral portions. Some have opted to use
the first three subtests – questions, directions, reciting alphabet – as the subtests they find most
useful in their classrooms to determine readiness for English instruction, while others have opted
for a English recognition score using upper case, lower case, colors, body parts, school items,
and connecting words and pictures to determine readiness for instruction.
Individuals who use this test opt to create a separate scoring sheet and a student response sheet.
In addition, they also create a “kit” to contain the realia for the test.
Web Resources
The following links contain information relevant to key concepts in language and literacy
assessment.
Assessment Concepts and Vocabulary
http://www.insites.org/CLIP_v1_site/downloads/PDFs/KeyAssessCncpts.4F.8-07.pdf
http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/basic.htm
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja
&sqi=2&ved=0CFoQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.karencrawfordphd.com%2Fmed
ia%2Fedocs%2Feducational_psychology_ch_15_notes.doc&ei=BhJPUYpFIrc8ATYlIHIAg&usg=AFQjCNGVmPVGDTm5IDNc6MlniFUbEgziog&sig2=UtanF38J
cdXOrieYHb4OOA
ESL (ELL) Assessment
These links contain information more specific to the assessment of English language learners.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/assessment/
http://www.ets.org/s/about/pdf/ell_guidelines.pdf
http://www.madison.k12.in.us/MCSWeb/CSSU/ELL%20Resources/For%20ELL%20teach
ers/Assessing%20English-language%20learners.pdf
Assessing Young Students
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
All of these links go to websites that provide free online tools for assessing the emerging and
developing language and literacy skills of young learners.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Home Language Surveys
http://www.bedford.k12.ma.us/images/stories/pdfs/regforms/Form%20C.1Home%20Lang
uage%20Survey%20(Rev.%205-11).pdf
http://www.doe.mass.edu/ell/hlsurvey/
Oral Language Assessment Rubric
(Designed for adults but could be adapted for children)
http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=L24W4A&sp=yes
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/28743194/Oral-Language-Assessment-Rubric-for-ESLStudents
http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/btg/ed/evaluation/speaking.htm
Concepts about print
http://www.utc.edu/Outreach/ProjectREEL/manuals/print.pdf
http://readingandwritingproject.com/public/themes/rwproject/resources/assessments/readi
ng/concepts_about_print/concepts_about_print_directions.pdf
http://teams.lacoe.edu/reading/assessments/print/concepts.html
Invented spellings
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267/
http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0595.pdf
http://voices.yahoo.com/pros-cons-invented-inventive-spelling-in-28672.html
Observation notes or anecdotal records
http://treeves.coe.uga.edu/edit8350/ARF.html
https://www.k12.gov.sk.ca/docs/kindergarten/anecdot.pdf
Assessments for Phonological Awareness
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
http://www.paec.org/itrk3/files/pdfs/readingpdfs/cooltoolsall.pdf
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_assess.php
http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254/
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/~specconn/page/instruction/ra/case/caseb/pdf/caseb_
scene1_2.pdf
Names Test: Quick Assessment of Decoding Ability
http://199.164.124.66/~dgillila/00238F53-011F531F.3/Names%20test.pdf
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&v
ed=0CD0QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hktaoist.org.hk%2Facademic%2Ftalk%2F
phonics%2Fnames%2520_test.doc&ei=_xlPUcecD43c8wTrsoC4Cg&usg=AFQjCNF0ueOi
YoKYSX-1jz4wUkzpo70r_A&sig2=sjskCz2S0UnQYcQR2HewjA
Cloze procedure
http://bogglesworldesl.com/cloze_activities.htm
Informal Reading Inventory
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/district.cfm?subpage=1640
http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/2688/2753469/Richek_AppD.pdf
Assessing Older English Language Learners
All of these websites provide examples of assessment tools that can be used to evaluate the
language and literacy ability of upper elementary and middle level English language learners.
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
Self/Peer Assessment
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/curriculum/worldlanguages/resources/aaa/selfpeersa
mp4.pdf
Portfolios
http://www.pgcps.org/~elc/portfolio.html
http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/portfolio.html
Strategy Checklist/Rating Scale
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lessonplan/collateral_resources/pdf/l/lessonplans_graphicorg_pdfs_duringreading.pdf
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=9&sqi=2&v
ed=0CFYQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wha.k12.mn.us%2Ffile%2F271%2Fdownlo
ad&ei=Rx9PUe36JpTA9gTMqYGgAg&usg=AFQjCNG9vQ2W17zt2_uMXa07Zp9VLVz1
Aw&sig2=M6OMavpzfVGji5xlCm4WCw
Graphic Organizers
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/graphic-organizers-reading-comprehension
Reading Logs
http://www.k12reader.com/printable-reading-logs/
Interest Surveys
http://www.mswinston.com/DB%20Reading%20Interest%20Survey.pdf
http://coedpages.uncc.edu/dbtaylor/Resources/IntInv1.pdf
Academic Reading
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
All of these links go too websites that contain assessment tools that can be used to evaluate the
language and literacy ability of advanced English language learners.
Content Reading Assessment
(Content Area Reading Inventory)
http://www.pathwaysintoliteracy.com/caris/caris_pdfs/literature_cari.pdf
(Vocabulary assessment) http://www.readingrockets.org/article/41555/
Think-aloud
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=3&ved=0C
EcQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readinglady.com%2Fmosaic%2Ftools%2FMPIR
(Assessment)ReformattedfromKarento2Pages.doc&ei=ASpPUcXIIZPY9ASF4IDICA&usg
=AFQjCNGM3RkyXEOcEaRKragT3jZJqOxbdw&sig2=EH0NXwRZwRImC8m_dih9CQ
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/guidelines-and-student-handouts-implementingread-aloud-strategies-your-class
Dialogue Journals
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-926/journals.htm
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/peyton01.html
http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFL06handouts/Session146-KenStewartHandout1.pdf
http://prezi.com/lk4ggxg0vvr5/meaningful-prompts-in-dialogue-journals-with-esl-students/
Readability Formulas
http://www.readability-score.com/
http://www.read-able.com/
http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php
© 2014 Taylor & Francis