What Are the Key Components of a Literacy Evaluation
A comprehensive literacy evaluation typically includes various key components that assess different aspects of a child's reading and writing skills including:
Oral Language Assessment: This assesses a child's listening and speaking skills, including their vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension of spoken language. Strong oral language skills are foundational for reading and writing.
Phonological Awareness: This component evaluates a child's ability to recognize and manipulate spoken language sounds (phonemes). Tasks may include rhyming, blending sounds, segmenting words, and phonemic awareness activities.
Phonics Assessment: Phonics involves understanding the relationships between letters and sounds. Children are assessed on their ability to decode words, recognize letter-sound correspondences, and apply phonics rules.
Vocabulary Assessment: Vocabulary is a critical component of literacy. This assessment measures a child's knowledge of words, ability to define words, and understanding of word meanings in context.
Comprehension Assessment: This assesses a child's ability to understand and interpret written text. It may include reading passages and answering questions, summarizing text, and making inferences from what they've read.
Fluency Assessment: Fluency refers to the speed and accuracy of a child reading text. Assessments may include timed reading passages to evaluate reading speed, accuracy, and prosody (expressive reading).
Writing Assessment: This may involve assessing their ability to generate written text, spelling, handwriting, and the organization and coherence of their writing.
Reading Comprehension Strategies: Assessing a child's knowledge and application of reading comprehension strategies, such as making predictions, summarizing, and visualizing while reading.
Assessment of Reading and Writing Behaviors: Observing a child's reading and writing behaviors, such as their use of reading strategies and their approach to problem-solving when encountering unfamiliar words.
Assessment of Literacy-Related Disabilities: When specific learning disabilities like dyslexia are suspected, additional assessments may be conducted to diagnose and understand the nature of these disabilities.
Parent and Teacher Input: Gathering information from parents, caregivers, and teachers about the child's literacy development and any concerns or observations they have.
This is part of our literacy evaluation blog series. You can also learn more about ten reasons to consider a literacy evaluation, how a literacy evaluation supports your child’s educational needs, and how to use literacy evaluation data to drive student instruction.
This blog series was written by Catherine Scholl, a literacy evaluator and special education advocate with Right to Read Advocacy. Catherine brings a unique and personal perspective to educational advocacy rooted in her extensive experience with Special Education, Individual Education Plans (IEP), and 504 processes. As a parent of two students with disabilities, former special education teacher, literacy evaluator, and educational advocate, she has “worn the hat” of all team members, allowing her to knowledgeably participate in all sides of the process. She serves clients through the state of Connecticut.