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Emergent Literacy Testing - Case Study of William

Consuelo Blake

RED 4312

University of South Florida

EMERGENT LITERACY TESTING

William is a 7-year-old boy enrolled in the second grade at Hemenway Elementary

School in Framingham, Massachusetts. William’s birthday is in July and he is described by his

mother and his teachers as a social, outgoing, and competitive boy who is often critical of

himself and can frustrate easily. William is eager to please, friendly, and confident. He enjoys

sports, loves to play baseball, and has a baseball card collection. William has a baby sister, and

his mother, Pam Daley, volunteers at Hemenway Elementary, often assisting in William’s

computer and art classes. There are 24 students in William’s inclusive education classroom: 12

special needs students and 12 regular education role models.

Hemenway Elementary School is a public school located in the city of Framingham,

Massachusetts, outside and west of Boston. Based on data provided by the National Center for

Education Statistics, in the 2015-2016 school year, Hemenway Elementary had a student teacher

ratio of 14:1 with a total of 562 students. Seventy-five percent of the students were Caucasian,

9% were Hispanic, 7% were Asian, and 4% were African American; 23% of the students are

free/reduced lunch recipients (Hemenway, n.d.).

The ERAS Assessment

The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) was developed by Professor Michael

C. McKenna of Georgia Southern University and Professor Dennis J. Kear of Wichita State

University in 1990 in response to a growing need to gauge literacy attitudes in young readers. As

attitude and achievement have been proportionally linked for successful readers (Purves &

Beach,1972), McKenna and Kear hoped to provide a public-domain assessment tool for

educators to estimate the attitude levels of children. ERAS provides teachers with an efficient

and reliable literacy tool for instructional planning that is based on their students’ viewpoints on

reading. The survey, comprised of twenty single-sentence questions regarding a student’s


thoughts and feelings about recreational and academic reading, can be administered in a short

time frame, about 10 minutes. To respond to the questions, children are asked to choose one of

four drawings of the cartoon character Garfield. The playful cat is pictured as (1) Excited, hands

in the air, (2) Smiling, arms crossed, (3) Dissatisfied, arms crossed and (4) Frowning, fists

clenched. In short, Garfield’s attitude is made to mirror the students’ feelings about each topic.

The assessment continues with assignation of values for each posture: four points for Exited,

three for Smiling, two for Dissatisfied and one for Frowning. The study includes a scoring sheet,

with raw and sub score differentials and the percentile ranking in each category. All data is based

on results from the 18,138-student study group used for their study (McKenna & Kear, 1990, p.

637).

William’s Results

At the beginning of the school year, the ERAS was administered to William and his

classmates (Appendix A, Figure 1). Class averages were established for both recreational and

academic reading. A raw score of 28 in recreational reading placed William in the 37th

percentile when compared to grade-level peers. His academic raw score of 28 positioned William

in the 23rd percentile. The difference in the two numbers revealed that William had a slightly

more positive attitude towards recreational reading than he did academic reading (Appendix A,

Figure 2). Although it is typical for children of this age to prefer recreational over academic

reading, William’s results are cause for concern as his academic score is quite low, near 21

(McKenna and Kear, 1990, p. 628). Answers in William’s ERAS exposed a general dislike for

reading. Dissatisfied and Frowning Garfields trended, reflecting negative attitudes towards

spending free time reading, reading instead of playing, and reading testing. The ERAS also

showed that William would not appreciate a book for a present and had no desire to go to a


library or bookstore. These inclinations are aligned with William’s low total score of 51 which

placed him in the 26th percentile of second graders; nearly 75% of his peers have more positive

attitudes towards reading than William does. The scores are reflective of a struggling reader at

the onset of second grade (McKenna and Kear, 1990, p.628).

Instruction

Attitude testing with ERAS provides a qualitative and quantitative tool to gauge students’

attitudes toward reading. With this reflective tool, educators can utilize the survey to develop

instructional planning focused on increasing reading attitudes and, subsequently, the student’s

ability to read. In William’s case, the ERAS data revealed that there is a need for a

comprehensive developmental plan aimed at increasing his desire to read both in and out of

school. Running records noting William’s word fluency were also taken at the beginning of the

school year and showed that William was struggling with reading at above his grade level. Part

of William’s developmental plan will include using the word running record method during

guided reading to determine his proficiency at specific reading levels. Reading at William’s

proper level will build his confidence and allow him to make significant learning strides. To

support William’s proficiency and reading advancement, teacher modeling via read aloud and

shared reading will be incorporated at the beginning of each month during individual instruction.

Once the proper reading level is determined, William will be moved to a new small reading

group with peers at similar reading levels. William’s browsing box will be adjusted to contain

the appropriate books for his level. This will be done in partnership with William to ensure that

the books chosen are appealing and to his liking. It is important for William to enjoy what he is

reading. During independent reading, frequent check-ins will be conducted to monitor William’s

subject comprehension. In addition to guided and independent reading, regular vocabulary and


writing activities must be incorporated into William’s instructional plan to build word

proficiency and comprehension.

Reflection

As William’s teacher, having an assessment tool designed to gauge his attitude towards

reading is invaluable. Knowledge truly is power and knowing how William really feels about

reading has been essential in developing an accurate and reflective instructional plan. William’s

eagerness to please, his confidence, and his competitive desire can both fuel and hinder him if

not properly balanced. At first William attempted to “play off,” and hide his lack of

comprehension by posing as a better reader than he was. With many typical standardized tests,

the basis of William’s feelings relating to reading are ignored and he could conceivable become

an unseen student, getting by and smiling but not really growing and moving forward attaining

his potential. Using the ERAS has allowed me to have a window into William’s reading mind.

This knowledge coupled with the directed teaching strategies outlined above will provide a solid

building block on Williams road to lifelong literacy.

The Yopp-Singer Assessment

The Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation was developed to quickly and

accurately assess phonemic awareness in primary grade children. The direct positive relationship

between phonemic awareness and reading success has been well documented (Yopp, 1995). The

more phonemically aware a child is, the better he or she will read and spell through elementary

school and beyond. Yopp, in her 1995 study, noted that Stanovich concluded that, “phonemic

awareness is a more potent predictor of reading achievement,” surpassing common literacy skills

such as nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and listening comprehension. Clearly, phonemic

awareness is key to developing literacy. As one of the five pillars of literacy instruction,


phonemic awareness rates first of the five. Yopp also refers to Adams noting that children who

are not phonetically aware have difficulty developing print proficiency (Yopp, 1995).

Using twenty-two words familiar to young children, the Yopp-Singer test measures a

child’s aptitude to accurately segment words into their phonemes. The test is typically

administered to kindergarten students. Due to the high modality between phonemic awareness

and reading, the Yopp-Singer test is useful for assessing phonemic gaps in kindergarteners and

first graders. The test can be conducted quickly, in 5-10 minutes, by a teacher or a teacher’s

aide/paraprofessional. It is most often administered in a quiet place to an individual student by a

teacher and is presented as a word game. Simple and familiar words are used; for example: ride,

go, and man. The teacher and student work together to correctly segment the words

phonemically: (/r/-/i/-/d/, /g/-/oo/, and /m/-/a/-/n/). The student is then asked to break down each

of the test’s twenty-two words into their separate sounds by themselves. The child cannot read

the words and need only listen to the teacher say the word before segmenting it throughout the

assessment.

Scoring for the test is simple. When a child properly segments the word(s) by sounding

out the phonemes, the teacher circles the question number, acknowledges the child’s correct

response, and moves to the next word. If an incorrect response is given, the teacher then provides

a verbal correction and may note the scoring sheet if desired; but that answer would be marked

as incorrect. There is no partial credit; even if a child properly segments one or two phonemes in

the word. The entire word must be segmented properly in the student’s initial (and only) attempt

to be marked as correct. When complete, the number of correct answers is tallied. In Yopp’s

1988 study, the mean score for kindergarteners taking the test in their second semester was

11.78. Other studies reported a mean score for kindergartens at this stage at 11.39 (Yopp, 1988).


Students who scored perfect or nearly perfect scores are deemed phonemically aware. Any

students missing several words, showing a specific (incorrect) trend, or unable to segment any of

the words, will need instructional intervention. This tool gives teachers the ability to target

students lacking phonemic awareness via a simple assessment. The Yopp-Singer Test is

invaluable to teachers of primary grades. Educators at primary grade levels can use this test to

quickly evaluate their students’ levels of phonemic awareness and then take immediate steps

towards developing the proper instruction plans for each student.

William’s Results

When tested (Appendix B, Figure 3), William scored a 19 (out of 22) – he is

phonemically aware. This number is consistent with William’s ability to read well in his grade

level. William stumbled on blended words, first with fine /f/-/i/-/n/ which he segmented as

/f/-/ine/, grew (/g/-/r/-/e/-/w/) which he segmented as /g/-/rew/, and that /th/-/a/-/t/, which he

segmented as /th/-/at/. William was corrected after each miscue and was able to properly

segment blended words in the second half of the test, such as three (th/-/r/-/e/).

Instruction

As William’s teacher, the results from the Yopp-Singer test can be used to tailor

phonemic awareness instruction to William’s needs; specifically, to improve his blended

phoneme sound ability and his segmentation proficiency. Given William’s positive score of

19/22 on the assessment, he needs only a few short phonemic exercises to clarify his auditory

and verbal interpretation and comprehension of blended words. A “Say It Move It” activity with

explicitly focused blended phonemes would suffice. This exercise was developed for two-

phoneme words and can easily be adapted for three- and four- phoneme words (Honig, p.154). In

this activity William would be able to hear the proper phonemes as modeled by the teacher and


then work to separate and blend the phonemes together. Buttons would be placed in the center of

the circle, the word “grill” (for example) would be said and then William repeat the word and

move a button for each phoneme, /g//r//i/ /ll/,onto the line and then work to blend the phonemes

together, pronounce the word, and then say it swiftly.

SAY -IT! MOVE-IT

_________________

As Williams gains proficiency with sound separation and blending, sight recognition of

the same and similar blended words would be introduced. Then as he combines sound and sight

word identification, William’s vocabulary and confidence will improve. Knowledge of his

phonemic awareness level acquired from the Yopp-Singer assessment will allow me to place

William in appropriate small learning groups with other phonemically aware children with

blending issues. The inherent desire to learn and read well fuels this competitive child. Reading

aloud and working with others on segmenting blended words will increase William’s confidence,

his phonemic awareness, and word utility. William is also sure to benefit from individual

teacher-student phonemic practice coupled with positive recognition. William scored well on the

Yopp-Singer Assessment and only needs targeted instruction to correct his deficiency. The

assessment will be given to William after two weeks of directed blended sound instruction and

small group reading collaborations to gauge his progress.


Reflection

The Yopp-Singer Assessment allows me to gain a deeper understanding of my case study

student. While William does not seem to have any phonemic challenges on the surface, the test

clearly revealed that he had issues with blended sounds and their segmentation. The ERAS

established that William is an on grade-level reader and the Yopp-Singer phonemic test

supported that assessment. William is on target as a first semester second grader. The focused

instruction, brought to light by the Yopp-Singer assessment, will allow me to get him to the next

level. As a teacher, I welcome any assessment that informs me of the needs of my students. The

Yopp-Singer assessment, a test as that can be quickly administered and provides targeted results,

is a boon to any educator. Working through this assessment allowed me to increase my

knowledge of Williams’s needs and aid him to become the fluid reader he wants to be.

The Spelling Inventory

In order to effectively plan instruction, teachers must have a solid understanding of what

their students “already know about words and what they are ready to learn” (Bear, p. 23).

Without such information, educators would be unable to implement effective instructional

planning. Spelling inventories for educational use were first developed in the late 1990’s (Bear,

p.26). These inventories are quick and easy to administer and are usually comprised of list of 25

or so words that students have not previously studied. The Elementary Spelling Inventory was

administered to William at the end of October. This specific inventory consisted of 25 words,

each increasing in difficulty and is in Words Their Way by Bear et al. The test begins with simple

words such as bed and ship, and spelling complexity increases with each word as a student

moves on to words such as place, shopping, chewed, pleasure and ends with opposition. The

student is given blank paper with lines and was asked to write down the spelling of the word


after the teacher has said it aloud. Test administrators should say the word clearly and naturally

two times and the use it in a short sentence. This clarifies any confusion as to the meaning of

similar sounding words such as seller and cellar. The entire inventory should take about twenty

minutes. For younger students, the test should be stopped after five words are spelled incorrectly.

According to Bear et al, instruction should begin after a student has made two or more errors in

spelling features; but it is better to have too many than too few words.

Once the child’s written answers are received, the teacher then tallies the assessment with

a scoring sheet. The scoring sheet is divided into developmental stages based on the key spelling

features of each word. Correct spelling of the word is used for the child’s power score. The

features guide and power score allow educators to analyze a student’s errors and determine their

spelling stage designation (Bear, p. 30). Early, Middle, and Late stages are subcategories within

the basic emergent spelling stages of Letter-Name-Alphabet, Within Word Pattern, Syllables and

Affixes, and Derivational Relations.

William’s Results

The Elementary Inventory is valid for grades 1-6 and focuses its developmental range on

letter name-alphabetic to early derivational relations. According to Bear, at the beginning of this

stage students “may only segment and represent the most prominent beginning and final

consonant sounds, demonstrating only partly phonemic awareness” (p. 149). Along their path to

full phonemic awareness, students will encounter and master diagraphs, blends, and short

vowels. Appendix C, Figure 4 shows the results of William’s spelling inventory. Here, we see

how William wrote the words he heard. William had no problem with the spelling words at the

onset of the inventory, correctly writing down initial and final consonants, middle vowels, and


digraphs. Out of the first seven words, Williams correctly spelled five of the seven words and

only missed beginning plus ending consonants in only one of the seven words.

Once William’s spelling test was evaluated using the scoring sheet, specific patterns

begin to emerge. Appendix C, Figure 5 shows William’s scoring sheet. Check marks indicate

correct feature identification in William’s spelled words. A circled number indicates that

William’s spelled the word incorrectly and a circled feature indicates improper spelling of the

feature.

William successfully demonstrates his spelling proficiency in the Emergent Stage by

correctly identifying all features incorporated in correctly spelling the first three words, bed,

ship, and when. His proper identification of the short vowel sounds and the diagraphs of those

same words, advances William through the Early Lettername-Alphabetic stage. At word number

four, lump, William’s first misspell is encountered. Although properly identifying the first

consonant and the short vowel features, l and u, William was unable to properly identify the

blended ending feature of the word, writing op instead of mp. He successfully spells the next

word, float, displaying some knowledge of spelling blended features. However, in his spelling of

the next four words, train, place, drive, and bright, the scoring sheet shows his struggle with

consistently identifying and spelling blended features. The tenth word on the inventory,

shopping, again shows William’s proficiency in digraphs and short vowels, sh and o, but

contains a misstep with the inflected ending, pping. The next fifteen words are all misspelled.

William does continue to correctly identify the digraphs in those words as well as exhibit some

proficiency with final syllables. Based on this information, the test reaches its natural stopping

point after the tenth word, shopping. This places William in the Late Lettername-Alphabetic

developmental spelling stage. This stage place is additionally supported by the tallied scores at


the bottom of the score sheet. Williams begins to consistently miss two or more key features per

word beginning at the Late Lettername-Alphabetic stage.

Instruction

Instruction for William should begin at the Late Lettername-Alphabetic stage. Based on

information in Words Their Way, William is on target for an early second grader, with a full

alphabetic reading phase and a late beginning reading stage (Bear, p. 45). I would start

instruction for William by anchoring his use of diagraphs to build his confidence. Lessons

revolving around sound/spelling correspondence would include the use of picture cards with

digraphs at both the beginning and the end of the word, like ship and fish. As William shows his

proficiency with ending sounds, blended words could be introduced, such as train, pluck, drove,

and bring. Moving towards the Early Within Word Pattern stage, common long vowel words like

pale, grave, team and smile, as listed in Words Their Way, page 370.

Word study in small groups of William’s peers would occur with two- to three-day cycles

introduced at the beginning of the week and adding on additional words on as the week

continues. Once the initial words are mastered, William would benefit from using his newly

found digraphs, blended words, and long vowel words in echo and repeated reading exercises to

increase his fluency, prosody, and comprehension. In Words Their Way, Bear makes book level

suggestions for William’s stage, including Lexiles at the 200-400 level, F/G letter stage book, or

10-12 books using the numbers level (p. 45). Finding engaging books for William within these

levels will be beneficial to continue his word knowledge. Writing activities, like word maps and

word/graffiti walls, would be attached to the reading exercises to reinforce word sound/sight

correlation. Spell checks, much like mini-spelling inventories, would be administered after three


weeks of instruction. Afterwards, a monthly cycle would be created with a spell check given

during the first week of the month, instruction during subsequent weeks, and a follow-up

assessment at the end of the month to monitor William’s progress as he continues his journey

towards fluency.

Reflection

The spelling inventory is another resource in my “Teacher Toolbelt.” It informs me of

just where my student is in his learning continuum. It helps me guide William on his path to

literacy. By knowing what he knows, I can then know what I need to teach him. Use of the

spelling inventory is helpful throughout the year as well, allowing me to gauge his progress and

helping me determine which steps to next take. The spelling inventory can also be an effective

tool when working with parents to quantify and relate their child’s spelling development in a

more concrete format. Parents can immediately see where their child may have struggled and

where they have succeeded. By doing so, it enables teacher and parents to engage in a better-

informed partnership for the student.

The test also reaffirms my previous assessments of William. William is “on point” as a

second grader in the beginning of the school year. He is a capable learner and is eager to improve

his skills. William wants to read well and enjoys reading at home. The moment Williams learns

how to do something right, his face lights up and he wants to use that knowledge to excel.

During parent-teacher-student conferences, he loves showing his mother, Pam Daly, the

improvement in his work. William takes pride in a job well done. I found administering the test a

simple and straightforward process. Scoring the test is not so simple. Much attention to detail

must be paid when scoring a spelling inventory. Certain errors are not counted as a negative,

such as a reversal, where a student, meaning to write the letter d in dog, reverses the letter and


writes bog. Teachers need to take their time when scoring the assessment, should be neat and

organized in their writing, need to double check their math, and use a pencil.

Conclusion

Early detection of literacy deficiencies and needs is key in planning instruction for the

emergent reader. The assessments in this case study were administered to determine William’s

points of difficulty (Askew and Fountas, p. 128). It is critical to know where a child “IS” in order

to get them to where they need to “GO.” William is a bright and competitive student who,

initially upon entering the second grade, was not progressing well as a reader. Children cannot

articulate their instructional needs, and it is the teacher’s role to build instructional planning on

specific knowledge of students during their early literacy experiences (Askew, p.132). The

ERAS provided the context within which to relate William’s attitudes toward reading. By

knowing he enjoys recreational reading much more than academic reading, I worked to close his

reading chasm and bridge that gap by find connections between reading at home and in school.

Choosing book types that William enjoyed reading at home and incorporating them into

William’s IRLA block alongside leveled reading texts greatly increased his desire and enjoyment

of academic reading. All language is a code and how we hear words and decode them is the first

step in literacy. The Yopp-Singer assessment helped determine William’s phonemic awareness.

Knowing how William breaks down the words he hears, allowed me to isolate a few

segmentation deficiencies that were easily corrected with individualized targeted instruction. The

Spelling Inventory pinpointed William’s location on the developmental scale by isolating the

features needing attention and allowed me to provide specific instruction anchoring diagraphs

and providing word study in small group setting. The assessments showed that, while William is

on target for a second grader, he did have specific needs. Armed with the results from the


assessments, I had the ability to create instruction specific to William’s key needs, creating a

successful roadmap for his path to literacy. These assessments proved to be effective tools for

creating targeted quality instruction for William and for communicating his needs with parents

and fellow teachers through easily explainable, quantitative data.


Appendix A – ERAS Results

Figure 1: Sample from William's ERAS

Figure 2: William's ERAS Scoring Sheet


Appendix B – Yopp-Singer Assessment

Figure 3: William's Yopp-Singer Scoring Sheet


Appendix C – Spelling Inventory

Figure 4: William's Spelling Inventory Test

Figure 5: William's Spelling inventory Scoring Sheet


References

Askew, B. J., and I. C. Fountas. "Building an Early Reading Process: Active from the Start." The

Reading Teacher 52 (1998): 126-134.

Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2012). Elementary spelling

inventory. Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling

instruction, 270-271.

Hemenway. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2019, from

https://elementaryschools.org/directory/ma/cities/framingham/hemenway/250498000721/

Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2018). Teaching Reading Sourcebook. Oakland, CA:

Arena Press.

McKenna, M.& Kear, D. (1990). Measuring Attitude Toward Reading: A New Tool for

Teachers. The Reading Teacher, 43(9), 629-630.

Purves, A.C. & Beach, R. (1972). Literature and the Reader: Research in Response to Literature,

Reading Interests, and the Teaching of Literature. National Council of Teachers of

English. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED068973

Yopp, H. K. (1995). A test for assessing phonemic awareness in young children. The Reading

Teacher, 49(1), 20-29.

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED068973

https://elementaryschools.org/directory/ma/cities/framingham/hemenway/250498000721/

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