3.++Early+Years+Readers

Each member of our group used similar strategies to assess comprehension during our engagements with early years learners, in particular, one approach which proved to be very affective was asking comprehension questions - literal, interpretive and inferential – throughout the reading and after the reading of the text. We have discovered that these comprehension questions prove to be effective both when a text has been read by the child andwhen the text has been read to the child. Literal questions “prompt the reader to recall literal information that is written in the text” (Hill 2006), some examples used in our interactions are “What was the lump in the girl’s bed?”, “How much bush tucker was there?”, “What did Horton catch?” and “What colour is Scruffy?”. Interpretive questions, where“children interpret information and make inferences by reading between the lines” (Hill 2006) including “What does the wombat like to do?”, “Was the girl happy, sad or scared about the lump in her bed?” and “What animals do you think live in the park where Scruffy is being walked?” were asked. And inferential questions which “prompt the reader to think beyond the text to synthesise information and then provide a critical or creative response” were also asked. These included “What do you think Josh and his dad have learned?” and “What do you eat as your tucker, and why is it different to the boy in the book?”.

Another useful tool in assessing comprehension, utilised within our group is asking the child to write and draw about the text. While this is essentially a writing activity, it can provide some insight into a child’s understanding of a text. For example, when asked to draw and write about ‘Diary of a Wombat’ the child I interviewed opened the text and copied the first picture he saw directly from it. I then asked him to write what he had drawn. Rory wrote,“treeing to clim out” – ‘trying to climb out’, which suggests that he didn’t fully understand what the images and text on this page were about, as in actual fact, the wombat had just dug a new hole to live in.

Fluency was assessed in our interviews using the ‘Reading Fluency Rubric’ (Hill 2006). We each discovered that the children we interviewed could not necessarily be placed in any one level; they each had different strengths and weaknesses and were reading at different levels for most categories. ‘Olivia’s reading fluency was gauged at level three for four of the criteria, and level four for the fifth’; ‘Miss H did not fit neatly into one certain level. She was certainly level 2 but touched on some level 3 and 4 requirements with her phrasing and rate pace’; ‘Tom was placed as a Level 2 with his rate, phrasing and stress and in Level 3 for pausing and intonation’;‘Lili could be clearly defined at level 3 but not quite at level 4. She was still lacking the ‘full attention’ to punctuation and a clear variation of tone, pitch and volume throughout the entirety of the text.’ And ‘Rory was placed in level 1 for most aspects of his reading fluency, excluding ‘Pausing: reflects punctuation’ where he falls into level 2’.

Another effective way of assessing reading fluency and in turn identifying suitable texts is by creating ‘running records’ which were encountered by many of us during our teaching practicum. “Taking a record of reading behaviour helps teachers to find books at an appropriate learning level for children.” (Hill 2006) Similarly, all forms of assessment listed above can be taken into consideration in order to do this. We have found that an appropriate text for a child should have some aspects that are challenging for the child as outlined by Hill (2006), “The learning level of a particular text is the place where children benefit from teacher guidance.”

As we have each discovered throughout our interactions with early years learners, each child may have different strengths and weaknesses compared with each other as well as within their own comprehension and fluency. It is important to note also that assessment is a significant aspect of teaching literacy that greatly benefits the student’s reading practice.