Fiji Hub - Dawasamu Achievement Report

January 2017
Objective: Education Enrichment

Education Reading Record Testing

Objective:

At the end of the academic year we will be able to see if there is a positive correlation between the
children attending reading groups and their progress in reading record tests, and reflect and adapt
our education programme accordingly.

Summary:

We are working towards creating a rotation of different reading tests that can be read with children
at both schools at the start of each term (in January, April and August). This will enable us to monitor
the progress of each child in the school - putting in place targeted interventions if necessary for
particular students

Report:

GVI staff and volunteers have been at both Navunisea District School (NDS) and Dawasamu District
School (DDS) since the start of the new school year, working with all of the children to assess their
reading levels. Prior to school starting the volunteers were trained on how to administer the reading
record assessments consistently through a combination of demonstrations, paired role-plays and
observations. Staff and volunteers with previous experience of reading record testing at NDS last
year paired up with new volunteers so that the testing process was carried out as fairly and
consistently as possible. During the test one volunteer was responsible for reading with the child
and asking the comprehension questions while the other volunteer took notes on important reading
behaviours e.g. misreading words, missing suffixes, phonetic decoding, use of picture clues, etc. as
well as recording the children's responses to the comprehension questions verbatim. Using these
notes the volunteers were able to assess which level the children could read independently, thus
assigning them a reading level, (Level A being the lowest comprehension level, through to Level Z).
Children often read several books with the volunteers until the appropriate level was found,
sometimes this process was carried out over two days so that the child was not out of class for
longer than 30 minutes at any time. Some children who were assessed were unable to read and
answer the comprehension questions at Level A, the volunteers then discussed and decided if they
were a non reader or a mechanical reader. A non reader is classified as a child who does not know
the sounds in English and is unable to blend them to read words and a mechanical reader may know
many sounds and blend them to read words, but they are unable to answer comprehension
questions correctly about the text they have read.

For these children a different test has been formed, which assesses their knowledge of letters and
sounds, blending these sounds to read words as well as basic comprehension of these words. The
test is modelled on the British Phonics Screening Check which children take at age 7 in the UK, but
has been adapted as when trialled the children at NDS struggled to read 'alien words' e.g. jair, blum,
and instead tried to read them as words they knew. To combat this, the phonics test that we have
now completed focused on assessing the children's ability to read simple English words which are
phonically decodable e.g. sat, jar and it was created in conjunction with the teachers in Class 1 and 2
of NDS who gave their advise and feedback before testing began. The test was administered in a
similar way to the reading record testing, with one volunteer encouraging responses from the child
and explaining the activity while the other volunteer made notes on the words the child read
correctly or incorrectly. The volunteers were shown how to make useful notes on any incorrect
sounds the children say by recording all attempts that they make phonetically. This information is
incredibly valuable for future volunteers and class teachers as it shows which phonic phase the
children have learnt up to and where they need more practise.

GVI are now able to say that all children at both NDS and DDS have been tested for the first time
since January 2016. Testing was attempted at NDS last year but due to the disruption in the
aftermath of TC Winston not all tests could go ahead and some of the results we did manage to get
were unreliable. Going forward, we are working towards creating a rotation of different reading
tests that can be read with children at both schools at the start of each term (in January, April and
August). This will enable us to monitor the progress of each child in the school - putting in place
targeted interventions if necessary for particular students. This data will also be frequently shared
with class teachers at both schools, making them more aware of the work GVI do in Dawasamu and
the impact it has. At the end of the academic year we will be able to see if there is a positive
correlation between the children attending reading groups and their progress in reading record
tests, and reflect and adapt our education programme accordingly.