Assessment Commentary

Early Childhood
Task 3: Assessment Commentary
TASK 3: ASSESSMENT COMMENTARY

Respond to the prompts below (no more than 10 single-spaced pages, including prompts) by typing your responses within
the brackets following each prompt. Do not delete or alter the prompts. Commentary pages exceeding the maximum will not be
scored. Attach the assessment you used to evaluate student performance (no more than 5 additional pages) to the end of this
file. If you submit feedback as a video or audio clip and your comments to focus students cannot be clearly heard, attach
transcriptions of your comments (no more than 2 additional pages) to the end of this file. These pages do not count toward
your page total.
1. Analyzing Childrens Learning

a. Identify the specific language and literacy learning objectives for the common
assessment you chose for analysis.
[1) Students will be able to recall the first and middle parts of the story and complete the writing
prompts associated with them. 2) Students will be able to phonetically spell the words in their
prompt, and illustrate the sentence they build. 3) Students will be able to recall the last part of
the story and complete the writing prompt associated with it.]
b. Provide a graphic (table or chart) or narrative that summarizes the class/groups learning
for the common assessment.
[The common assessment for my segment is the book that the children put together in the
second learning experience. The class learned through this activity not just how to put the
pages of a book in order, but the reasoning behind doing such an activity. The students were
able to make connections between the conventions of written and spoken English by using their
prior knowledge of storytelling, their own experiences with coming to school and the events that
occur throughout the day, and hearing about and seeing illustrations of Pete the cat going
through the same motions that they go through on a daily basis. The students learned all of this
by being prompted to think about specific instances in the story and then to recreate them on
their own writing prompt with a phonetically spelled sentence and an illustration to match. The
purpose of this assessment was to show me as the teacher two things. First, I wanted to know
how well students understood the concept of sequencing, and that they were able to relate the
vocabulary associated with the segment to their work. Second, and I believe more importantly, I
wanted to know where my students were with their ability to spell words phonetically. I believe
that this is a more important part of the assessment because it will give me the opportunity to
change my instruction based on their results to better meet the individual needs of each child in
terms of their long-term learning. Spelling and writing are not two things that come to anyone
easily, but when instruction of the two is altered to better meet individual needs, students have a
higher chance of succeeding in these areas, whish are the groundwork of any further education
that they will receive. From the common assessment, my students learned how properly to
sequence a story, yes, but above all else, they got an authentic learning experience that will
contribute greatly to their literacy development. By giving the students guidelines for what to
write, but not telling them exactly step-by-step what to do and how to do it, the students were
able to experiment with trial and error. They were able to practice breaking words into individual
sounds and giving those sounds shape on paper in the form of the letter they heard when they
said it. Writing prompts are a wonderful tool for assessing comprehension of a groups learning
while simultaneously building literacy and language skills. By having the children then illustrate
the sentences they had written, their ability to translate their words into an image, and then
assign colors and shapes to those images to make them correlate to their words. They were
also given the opportunity to express their creativity, and work their fine motor skills. All of this
was assessed in their illustrations, and the whole groups illustration of their sentenced indicated
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Early Childhood
to me that they were able to recall specific events from the story in the order that they appeared
both verbally, in writing and in pictures.]
c. Use the class/group summary you provided in prompt 1b to analyze the patterns of
language and literacy learning for the class/group.
[My class is interesting because as a whole group, they seem to be very advanced. They can
identify all of the letter sounds, place them correctly when we are spelling words together and
make coherent sentences in whole-group discussion when I ask them to provide me with
specific examples. My class is able to easily recall and sequence events from an oral story, a
book, a movie, or events that occur in the real world. They are able to create full sentences on
their own, and they are able to associate single sounds with letters, and then write those letters
next to one another to form individual words. Their ability to spell phonetically is still developing,
which tells me that they would all benefit from more writing prompts, regardless of the theme or
topic. They are able to confidently and effectively communicate answers to questions about
things like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and are very good at self-correcting. Often times
when completing the common assessment, children would come up to me to ask for help, and
just as they were standing there about to ask, they would realize their error and fix it without
having to be prompted or shown what the error was. The class is developing spelling skills
slowly, but they are certainly improving with every writing activity. They will benefit from having
lots of opportunities to continue to spell phonetically. As a class, language development is
where it should be. The children communicate effectively, and any errors in speech are
addressed by speech therapists and teachers, and the children always know how things are
supposed to be pronounced, at this point it is more about breaking the habit of saying it the
incorrect way. As a whole, I would say that while this group is certainly not underperforming,
they are not over-performing either. They are a consistently typically developing group, and will
do well from having the opportunity to practice phonetic spelling with every new language and
literacy skill they are introduced to.]
d. Analyze the patterns of learning for the 2 focus children. Reference the 3 sources of
evidence you collected for each of the 2 focus children.
Consider childrens strengths (what children understand and do well), and areas of
learning that need attention (e.g., common errors, confusions, need for greater
challenge).
[Focus child 1s evidence of learning indicates to me that he is on track with his literacy and
language development. The errors that he made are inconsistent, and are most likely a result of
rushing or not paying close enough attention to work before submission. For example, in focus
child 1s work samples, from the 1st to the 3rd prompt, his spelling becomes more accurate, and
as indicated in my observation notes, his finger spaces and punctuation are correct, and is
drawings become increasingly more detailed. This tells me that this child learns well by
repeating similar activities that focus on the same things. He responds well to repetition and
practice, and is not easily frustrated or worried if a word is spelled incorrectly. In the video clip,
at 9:55, focus child 1 is able to clearly tell me the words that he wants to write, and does not
need to say the entire sentence before he breaks it apart into separate words. This tells me that
he was easily able to recall what Pete did last in the story, and that he did not need to reference
the book or need reminders. The learning pattern for focus child 1 is that he is perfectly capable
of doing all of the work given to him, and that he has the prior knowledge and skills required for
this particular task, but I know from this segment and just from spending every day with him at
school, that without redirection of his attention fairly often, he will waste work time and does not
always take his time and do his best work. In all, I believe that the common assessment for the
learning segment was an accurate way for me to gage the effectiveness of my instructional
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methods in relation to this childs needs, and that the activities and content of the lesson were
developmentally appropriate for him. Focus child 2s evidence of learning indicates to me that
this child is a very unique learner. Her work samples show that in prompts 1 and 3, she was
able to recall and write the events of the story. I think that by the time that she got to prompt 2,
though, she became overwhelmed and did not feel confident that she would be able to do the
writing portion of the prompt. She became incredibly frustrated, and once she began to melt
down, there was no point in giving her a bad experience with doing something that she had
already done a fine job with one time, and that is as crucial to her language and literacy
development as phonetic spelling and writing. I noticed from her drawing in prompt 1 that focus
child 2 is very creative, and did a very good job illustrating what she had written. Because of
this, I was able to encourage to child to tell me the sentence she was planning on writing, and
then to avoid a negative experience, I allowed her to simply illustrate her spoken sentence,
which she did very well. This seemed to encourage and calm her down greatly. As I indicated in
my observation notes:
Because Focus Child 2 became so frustrated with prompt 2, I pulled her aside before the
lesson began, and asked her if she felt comfortable participating in this activity. When she
said yes, I gave her the book, and allowed her to look through it to jog her memory through
pictures. Then, when reading the book I made sure that she sat up front so that she could
really see and hear well.
The video clip evidence of learning is from prompt 3. In the clip, focus child 2 begins by asking
what she is supposed to be doing, but with a little bit of prompting, she is able to tell me what
she drew the day before, and is then able to build on that to complete prompt 3. While I believe
that this activity was developmentally appropriate for focus child 2, I learned from this
experience that she struggles with her reading from a lack of confidence, and that she responds
extremely well to being given a creative outlet through which she can communicate her learning.
She is very much a visual learner, and while her verbal English development is on track for a
kindergarten student, her written English and literacy skills are not where they should be. She
benefits greatly from RTI reading instruction, and I have noticed an improvement in her reading
skills, but her learning patterns from this assessment alone indicate to me that focus child 2
would benefit greatly from adaptations that incorporate creativity into lessons that require her to
work on her literacy skills.]
e. If video or audio evidence of learning or a video or audio work sample occurs in a group
context (e.g., discussion), provide the name of the clip and clearly describe how the
scorer can identify the focus children (e.g., position, physical description) whose work is
portrayed.
[Video evidence of learning for focus children 1 and 2 can be found in my video clip from task 2.
The focus children are shown from 9:38 to 10:39, and from 11:14 to 11:58. Focus child 1 is the
boy with blond hair who sits directly in front of the camera, and who appears in the clip from
9:38 to 10:39. Focus child 2 sits directly to the right of focus child 1. She is a female with brown
hair, and wears a striped shirt with pink cuffs. She appears in the clip from 11:14 to 11:58.]
2. Feedback to Guide Further Learning
Refer to specific evidence of submitted feedback to support your explanations.
a. Identify the format in which you submitted your evidence of feedback for the 2 focus
children. (Delete choices that do not apply.)
Written directly on work samples or in separate documents that were provided to the
focus children

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If a video or audio clip of feedback occurs in a group context (e.g., discussion), clearly
describe how the scorer can identify the focus child (e.g., position, physical description)
who is being given feedback.
[Feedback is given to children directly on the writing prompts. Before the students were able to
illustrate their sentences, they had to conference with me, where they received verbal feedback
as well, which was not documented. When the children came to me, they read me the sentence
they wrote word for word, and as they read it to me I wrote the correctly spelled word below.
Audio feedback was given in the form of a one-on-one discussion in which the student would
read the sentence to me, I would ask them if they could find any mistakes in their work such as
capitalized letters that should be lowercase, or something missing from the sentence, and then I
would verbally confirm whether or not they could illustrate. I only asked the children to make
corrections to their writing if it pertained to technical writing details, or if the phonetic spelling
contained letters that were not in the childs pronunciation of the word (for example, an x in the
word bus.]
b. Explain how the feedback provided to the 2 focus children addresses their individual and
developmental strengths and needs relative to language and literacy development.
[The feedback that I gave to focus child 1 addressed his learning needs in that it encouraged
independence when doing his work. I would like to see him not relying so heavily on the teacher
when he is slightly unsure of what to write, and would like him to use his problem solving skills
to figure out the next step in sounding out a word or remembering the next event in the story.
The verbal feedback that I gave focus child 1 was not as in depth as what I gave to focus child
2, because the next step in his literacy development is to gain confidence in being independent
and using problem solving skills when spelling phonetically. When I gave written feedback, I
made sure that the verbal feedback I gave while writing was all very kind, positive and
encouraging. Focus child 1 is the type of student that responds best to praise, but does not
always work to impress his teachers, so when he does get positive and excited feedback from
teachers, he is very proud of it. Because I only had to correct the spelling of one word on two of
the three prompts, I made sure to verbally praise him, and to make a note of it on his prompts
as well. It is my hope that this strictly positive and encouraging feedback will instill confidence in
him to expand his language and literacy skills on a more independent level. The feedback that I
gave to focus child 2 was similar in format, but very different in tone and purpose. While I had to
encourage independence with focus child 1, I found that the verbal feed back that I was giving
focus child 2 was much more direct and prompted simple answers that I knew she could give
me. Then, when she did give me the answer, I made sure to tell her that I knew she knew the
answer to that question, or that I was so excited that she gave me such a great answer. I was
also certain to ask her a lot of questions about her illustrations, and give her very positive
feedback on them to boost her confidence with the activity and show her that her artistic
interests do not go un-noticed. This verbal feedback made the written feedback easier for her to
take in. Focus child 2 does not like to be wrong, especially in areas that she struggles with such
as reading comprehension and writing, so the written feedback on her paper was very hard for
her to handle at first. However, once I told her that everyone else in the class received the same
feedback, and that I really prefer if she spells her words the way that she hears them instead of
the way that they are supposed to be spelled, she seemed to understand that a little better, and
actually became excited to see if her spelling of a word was the same as how it was actually
spelled, not so that she could correct it, but to make new connections between letters and
sounds, and to know why some letters appear in words that dont have that sound in them. My
feedback for focus child 2 met her needs by encouraging her to continue to try even after she
became very frustrated on the second prompt. By encouraging and praising the childs
drawings, she was able to build on her existing language and literacy skills because she now
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knows that her interest and enjoyment in art contributes to her learning, and that it showed me
that she did understand the concept of sequencing.]
c. Describe how you will support each focus child to understand and use this feedback to
further their learning related to learning objectives, either within the learning segment or
at a later time.
[My feedback will help focus child 1 not to rely so heavily on being micromanaged through an
activity. I have made it clear to the child that I know that he is fully capable of answering the
majority of the questions that he asks me, and that by giving him less verbal feedback than
focus child 2, whom he sits right next to, I am pushing him to use his problem solving skills, and
focus on his work for longer periods of time, all while doing work that he is proud of, and that
meets the expectations I have set for him. For both of my focus children, and for all of the
children in the class, they are aware that their misspelling of the words in the prompts is not a
bad thing, and that I actually prefer that they make errors in spelling while sounding the words
out letter by letter. This feedback is purely for my reference, and they are aware of this. The
children have been doing similar writing prompts for the entire school year, and they are all
assessed this way. The prompts that are assessed in such a way are usually bound into a class
book that the children are welcome to read during reading time. By doing this, the children are
able to take note of their own progression in not just their ability to recognize all of the letters in
a word, but also in the appearance of their handwriting, and the technical improvements to their
writing skills. By assessing this way, the children are given a large role in their own assessment
and the tracking of their progression of language and literacy development over a long period of
time. The verbal feedback that I provided to focus child 2 will help her in future related learning
objectives because she will know that under no circumstances to I expect her work to be one
hundred percent accurate, and that I encourage and welcome spelling and technical writing
errors, because they are all a part of the learning process in building foundational skills as
important as reading and writing.]
3. Evidence of Vocabulary Understanding and Use
When responding to the prompt below, use concrete examples from the video clips and/or
childrens work samples as evidence. Evidence from the video clips may focus on one or
more children.
a. Explain how children were able to use the key vocabulary1 to support their learning of the
content.
For prompt 3a, refer to the evidence of childrens vocabulary use from ONE,
TWO, OR ALL THREE of the following sources:
1. Video clips from Instruction Task 2 and time-stamp references for evidence of
vocabulary use
2. Additional video file named Vocabulary Use of no more than 5 minutes in
length and cited vocabulary use (this can be footage of one or more children).
See Assessment Task 3 specifications in the Early Childhood Evidence Chart
for acceptable file types. Submit the video clip in Assessment Task 3, Part C.
This vocabulary was identified in Planning Task 1 and refers to developmentally appropriate sounds, words, phrases,
sentences, and paragraphs that children use or create to engage in the learning experience.

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3. Childrens work samples analyzed in Assessment Task 3 and cited

vocabulary use
[1. In the video clip from task 2, the students use the vocabulary associated with the learning
segment. The segment of the video where it is most prominent and is directly contributing to the
childrens learning is from 0:33- 1:48. In my introduction of the topic, I ask students to fill in the
blanks with these vocabulary words, and even to try producing the words without being
prompted. By doing this, the children are directly contributing to the instruction, taking the
introduction from a lecture to a whole group activity, in which the students are part of the
instruction. By using the vocabulary myself frequently in my instruction, and repeatedly asking
what types of words we use when telling a story, the children are immersed in the academic
language of the segment, and begin to naturally use it, as is part of the process in language and
literacy development.
3. By having students phonetically sound out words, they were able to associate all of the words
that they wrote with the appropriate vocabulary, because they had to create an accurate
sentence to extend off of the vocabulary words, which were provided on the prompt. While the
students did not have to write the vocabulary words, they did have to say them aloud when
conferencing with me about their writing, and when creating the sentences. The work samples
analyzed to not provide concrete evidence of the children using the words in conversation, but
they do exhibit that the children had to understand the meaning of all of the words to complete
the prompt.]
4. Using Assessment to Inform Instruction
a. Based on your analysis of childrens learning presented in prompts 1bc, describe next
steps for instruction:
For the class/group

For the 2 focus children and other individuals/groups with specific needs
Consider the active and multimodal nature of childrens learning and the variety of
learners in your class/group who may require different strategies/supports (e.g., children
with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, children at different points in the
developmental continuum, struggling readers, and/or gifted children needing greater
support or challenge).
[The next step for the whole class would be to have students begin sequencing longer stories.
Instead of recalling 3 parts of the story, I would have them verbally recall 4 and then 5, as 5
writing prompts on one story might not keep the childrens interest. I will certainly continue
providing writing prompts to the children, as the value of those to their language and literacy
development is so great. I believe that the next step in the progression of the difficulty of the
prompts will be to have the children finish one sentence, and then wrote one follow-up sentence
on their own. There are a lot of themes in the coming weeks of class that lend themselves to
this kind of prompt, and with the progress that the children made on three similar prompts alone,
the potential for improvement and growth is extremely high. I do not know that I will do anything
with sequencing and writing in the same segment or experience again unless it is something
very short and simple, just because I want to avoid anything too repetitive or monotonous. Using
both of these elements from the learning segment will give me a lot of material to re-visit in the
near future, and provides many ways to build reading comprehension skills, writing and spelling
skills, and the growth of the childrens vocabulary. In all of my prompts I will give the children
some sort of opportunity to illustrate or create something related to the topic to address the
needs of my kinesthetic learners and to give children an outlet to express their personalities
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creatively. To meet the needs of my focus child 1, I will offer him the opportunities mentioned
before, while continuing to provide feedback that encourages his problem solving and
independence in his work. I will be certain to keep the time spent working independently fairly
short to keep his attention, and will figure out an appropriate way to build in brain breaks for him
during work times. This will greatly benefit him, as he does have issues paying attention to the
same thing for longer than about 26 seconds. I would even consider an incentive program if the
need should present itself. The child will receive the same instruction as his peers, but if h is
able to work for a certain amount of time without distractions or problems, he will be rewarded
with something that he enjoys (possibly a Skittle or an M&M, since he really enjoys those).
Because focus child 1 is right on track with his language and literacy development, it would not
be appropriate to provide him with more challenging work than his peers, so he will continue to
receive the same work as the rest of the class. Focus child 2 will also receive the same
instruction and work as her peers, but I will continue to make sure that all of my feedback to her
encourages and reassures her that I do not expect her to be perfect. I will continue to give her
extra assistance when explaining an activity by breaking down the steps into simpler, more
achievable chunks for her. I will still ask her to do the same work as her peers, but am aware
that she may well need extra time when there is a longer writing prompt, or that I should often
give her extra time to illustrate her sentence after she writes it, because that is such a great way
for her to calm down and also meets her individual needs for active and multimodal learning.]
b. Explain how these next steps follow from your analysis of childrens learning. Support
your explanation with principles from research and/or developmental theory.
[I have come to these next steps through my analysis of the childrens learning by looking at
their work samples, feedback, assessment checklists, anecdotal notes and by observing them
while working on the sequencing segment. Even with focus child 2, I feel that there are no
detrimental deficits in the childrens ability to sequence a story, or in their ability to recognize,
isolate and produce individual sounds. All of my children are aware that words are composed of
individual sounds that are represented by letters, and are well on their way to gaining the
familiarity with these sounds that will create a solid foundation when they begin really spelling
words in first grade. The zone of proximal development teaches that children learn best when
they receive some aid from a teacher. The next steps in my instruction will help students to build
on the knowledge acquired in this segment, with which they have become quite familiar and
proficient. They have left the zone of proximal development with basic sequencing and writing,
and are ready for the next step with guidance from the teacher. To avoid discrepancies in the
next steps of instruction, it will be very important that I make sure that I do not move on to the
following steps until I know that the students are able to do the work on their own, and that they
feel confident in their ability to do so. There is no time stamp on this development, as the
foundations for language and literacy are crucial to higher education, and I believe that it is
better to spend more time perfecting fewer skills than to briefly touch on a few without delving
into the higher order thinking of those topics. ]

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Early Childhood

Task 3: Assessment Commentary

TASK 3: ASSESSMENT COMMENTARY

1. Analyzing Childrens Learning

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

3. Childrens work samples analyzed in Assessment Task 3 and cited

For the class/group

Copyright 2015 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.

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