ECE 362 CHILD STUDY

Rachels Assessment Portfolio

Andrea Bland
 Background
Birthday: 3/21/2013
Live in town in Brookings, SD.
Has three cats and two dogs
Parents live together (married)
Dad is John, works at SDSU
Mom is Leah, works at Dordt College
Brother: Patrick
Middle Class
Says a lot of her family lives in Brookings, and Grandma lives in Sioux
Enjoys writing and coloring.
Interests: blocks, lions, elephants, matching games, coloring, and being
a dinosaur.
Why I Chose Rachel

Her reading and literacy goal is to learn to write her name.

She knows almost all of the letters to spell her name, she
skips over the letter e often.
She can write her Rs and a, but needs help with the rest
of the letters.
She writes her Hs as As.
She is very curious about things around her.
Classroom Demographics

Three and Fours afternoon class: 12:30-3:30 pm

Classroom pet: fish
10 Teachers
1 mentor teacher, 3 student teachers, 6 assistant teachers
16 children
10 boys, 6 girls
2 Asian Children, 2 Middle Eastern Children, 12 Caucasian
Children
1 child with single parent
1 autistic child
1 child lives out of town
Pretest

Test: Writing Name

Literacy Goal: Rachels literacy goal is to learn to write
her name properly.
I will give Rachel a blank sheet of paper and a writing utensil
of her choice, and then have her write her name.
I will use this to assess how Rachel forms her letters and how
well she knows her name and the order her letters go.
Pretest
 Rationale for Planning
Results
Rachel needed assistance knowing what letters come next in her
name. She knew it started with an R, but needed help after that.
Rachel wrote her Hs as As.

Data Used To Plan Lesson 1

I will guide Rachel in helping her with what letter comes next.
I will have a guided sheet with her name on it to follow
I will help her distinguish the difference between the letter A and the
letter H.
In the guided sheet I will make sure to point out the difference to
Rachel about two letters and we will discuss how they are different
and the same.
LESSON
1
 Lesson 1 Details
The Lesson
I had Rachel tell me what each letter was in her name.
I asked her about the difference between A and H.
I then had Rachel fill in the missing letters on each line using dashed
lines first.
Once she got that down, I gave her the same sheet but it had a solid
line instead.
The Results
Rachel knew the difference between A and H with A being closed
on the top, and H being open.
When I pointed to a letter Rachel was able to tell me what each letter
was without any prompting from me.
Lesson 1
Lesson 1 Analysis

Results
My next lesson will be more of a freeform name writing for
Rachel. I will make it more geared towards her interests so
that way she will be more intrigued by it. I plan to have her
write her name without having it already wrote for her and no
help from me.
Next Lesson
My lesson will be a Stegosaurus, since her likes dinosaurs. I
will give her spikes to write her name on, and then she will
glue the spikes on in the order that her name goes. Once she
has it glued on correctly I will let her color it.
LESSON
2
 Lesson 2 Details
Lesson Details
Rachel had to find the scales in numeric order, and then write a letter of her name,
in order, on each scale.
The Rachel glued the scales down in the correct order of her name and numeric
order on the stegosaurus.
I let Rachel color the stegosaurus once we were done.
Reason for planning this lesson
I knew that Rachel really liked dinosaurs, so I wanted to have that incorporated
somehow.
Since Rachel could write her letters fairly well, I wanted to see how well she would
do on a smaller space. The size of the scales were about the size of an adult
thumbnail.
I also wanted to see if Rachel could put her letters in the correct order without
having her name in front of her.
Desired Results
I hoped that Rachel was going to be able to make legible letters without asking for help
on what letters come next. I was hoping she would be able to glue them down in the
right order without assistance.
Lesson 2
 Lesson 2 Analysis
Results
Rachel got caught on a few letters. She would pause, and I would ask
her what letter she just made, and she would answer, then I would ask
her what came next, and she would tell me the correct answer. I never
have to give her the answer.
When gluing the scales on, Rachel knew what order name when, and
was able to put the ones with numbers in the correct numeric order.
Next Lesson
My next lesson will work more on Rachel doing her name without any
help. I will have an elephant that is outlined in glitter and has a googly
eye on it. In the center there will be a solid black line for Rachel to write
her name on it.
LESSON
3
 Lesson 3 Details
Lesson Details
I had Rachel write her letters on the blank line of the elephant. I gave
her the choice of writing utensil that she wanted.
Reason for planning this lesson
I planned this lesson because I knew Rachel likes elephants, and I
wanted to keep her interested.
I also planned this because it would prompt Rachel to write her name
with no help and make it fit on the line, like schoolwork would.
Desired Results
I hoped that Rachel would be able to write her name on the line without
any help.
I also hoped that her letters would fit on the line and be decently sized.
Lesson 3
Lesson 3 Analysis

Results
Rachel was able to write her name without any help or
pausing.
She was also able to fit her name on the line with appropriate
sized letters.
Rachel did try to make fancy letters, which she has made
before on lesson 1.
Post Test
 Post Test Analysis
Hoping to See
I was hoping to see that Rachel would pick up the pencil and write her name without
help and make the letters look presentable and in a sort of straight line.
What I Saw
I saw Rachel was able to write her name with no help on what letters came next.
She was able to form all of the letters correctly, and she wrote it in a fairly straight
line.
Connections to Planning and Teacher Effectiveness
I felt that I planned activities that would help keep Rachels attention, and also help
her learn about her name. I would say that it was effective because Rachel stopped
writing her Hs as As. She also was able to write her name with help on what
letters come next, and write in a fairly straight line.
Changes For The Future
I dont think I would change anything. Rachel made really good progress with the
lessons I used, and I think unless they werent working for another child, I would
change the lessons up.
Recommendations

I think that Rachel will do best with activities that she can relate
to or has something she enjoys. I noticed that with the first
lesson she had a hard time paying attention and her attention
span was not there. Once I made lesson 2 and 3 something that
interested her, she was all about it. I know that really liked being
able to color, so if she is able to do her work and color, she will
be happy.
I think in the future Rachel should be worked with on her
lowercase letters since she has such a great start on her
uppercase letters.
Rachel also does best when she is in a room with little to no
distractions. I know that she was very hesitant and distant when
we did the pretest in the classroom.
 Teacher Reflection
I was able to see first hand how lesson plans and assessments go hand in hand. To
help me plan for this child study, I talked with Rachels student teacher and looked
at her file. Rachels student teacher did tell me that Rachel was close to learning,
but she did confuse her Hs with As. With knowing that, I was able to figure out
what I wanted to do for a pretest, and then after the pretest, I was able to plan the
lessons that will help Rachel get where she needs to be. Depending how she did on
one lesson, I would have to make small adjustments to the following ones.
Thankfully, I never did have to make adjustments to the, because Rachel worked
how I wanted her to. Being able to solely focus on one childs area of need was a
great experience. I was able to see how one student can progress so fast just from a
few activities. It gave me the chance to potentially see a student struggle or succeed
on an area. I was able to see first hand on what one on one time can do to a child.
Having a class of 20 would make this very hard and time consuming. Especially if I
am the only teacher in the room. I would have to figure out a time where I could
spend 5 minutes a day with a few children. To do something like this as a class, I
would do a generalized pretest for the class. Since the children are in the same
grade, they should all roughly be in the same area of that content. For those who are
ahead or behind, I could make some extra work for them to take home and get that
extra work and help they need, and those who are where they should be will do an
activity in class. While I am grading the activities for the assessment, I can take
notes on who is doing better, who is staying the same, and who is falling behind.
This will help me realize what areas I need to spend more time on.