Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Listening
“Four year olds gain knowledge about their world by watching and listening”
(Dichtelmiller et al., 2004, Pg. 5). Just like sponges, preschoolers soak up all of the
information they can from caregivers, teachers and other relevant people in their
lives in order to make sense of the world around them. This is why developing
efficient listening skills, especially in the group setting, is crucial for preschoolers, as
this will be how they obtain a majority of the information presented to them
through out their schooling career. Gabe demonstrates this ability with great
during whole group read alouds. During the previously mentioned “shapes” read
aloud, my coordinating teacher asked the whole class if they could find a square on
the page she had stopped on. Gabe promptly raised his hand, pointed to a picnic
table, and said, “that’s a square,” demonstrating his developing listening skills
through “responding to stories read to the whole class, rather than responding only
when read to as part of small group” (Dichtelmiller et al., 2004 Pg. 5).
Gabe’s developing listening skills are also recognizable by his ability to follow
two- or three step directions. At the end of every day of class after nap time, the
students are instructed to put away their blankets and sleeping mats, get their book
bags from their cubbies, and come sit on the rug. Gabe is successful in putting away
his sleeping mat and blanket without adult assistance, and always remembers to
bring his book bag with him to the rug, which indicates that he comprehends the
Torgesen, 1987, Pg. 192). While assessing Gabe’s phonological awareness, I recited
ten groups of two words, and asked him to tell me if the two words in each group
rhymed or not after I said them aloud. For every group of words I recited, Gabe
claimed that they rhymed, while only seven out of the ten groups had two words
that actually rhymed. This reveals that Gabe’s phonological awareness is not quite
be able to “listening to the word the teacher says and then finding a word to rhyme
with it” (Dichtelmiller et al., 2004, Pg. 5). Despite this, Gabe does recognize the same
letters in different words, like the “g” in “gorilla” and “go,” which he demonstrated to
me when I asked him to point to all of the “g’s” on a page when I read him the “G
Book.” This information tells me that while he may not understand the concept of
different words. This indicates that his development in this area is still progressing,
and that he will likely require specific instruction on phonemic awareness and
Speaking
Gabe’s ability to effectively articulate and pronounce words is one of the
main reasons I chose him to be the subject of my case study. He is very well spoken,
and has a clarity in his speech that many of his classmates lack. This clarity is also
evident to others who are not typically around him, as I observed him effectively
communicating with a substitute teacher during a read aloud in early October. The
substitute asked many different questions to the class about a book on family
structure, such as “What kinds of people are in a family?” and “What kinds of
animals have families?” Gabe answered several of her questions with responses
such as “sisters and brothers are in family,” and “gorillas have families,” and these
(2010), “The average child has achieved nearly adult language facility by the age of
four” (Pg. 409), and Gabe clearly demonstrates this competency through his ability
Gabe is also very capable of using his speech and proper vocabulary to
describe his feelings. On one particular day at gym in mid-October, Gabe was not
participating in the activity the rest of his classmates were engaged in, and was
sitting by himself at one end of the gym. When I approached him and asked why he
wasn’t playing with his friends, he responded with “I don’t feel good.” I then asked
him what was wrong, and he said that he “had a tummy ache,” and felt “sick.” After
consulting his teacher, he ended up going to the nurse and was confirmed with a
fever. His use of language, while relatively basic, was sufficient in communicating his
feelings, and was a form of self-maintenance necessary for higher level functioning.
Reading
While Gabe is not yet able to read printed text, he exhibits a basic
books with the students, I always required that they first correctly orient the book
before I began reading it to them. They were to also turn the pages themselves as I
read, being sure not to damage the book as they did so. For all of the different letter
books I read to Gabriel, he was always capable of orienting the book correctly and
quickly, was very gentle when turning the pages, and, more often than not, was very
engaged in the story. According to the Work Sampling System (2004), this indicates
that Gabe “shows an appreciation for books and reading” (Pg. 6), and is on the right
print” (Dichtelmiller et al., 2004, Pg. 7) through his writing. Through out my
serving as the primary subject of research. As part of this portfolio, I had Gabe take
a writing assessment where he was to draw one of his favorite things, such as an
object, place or person, and then write what his picture was on the same page. See
figure 1. I asked Gabe to do this in September during art class, and he chose to draw
his mother and father. He then wrote “Mom” and “Dad” under the corresponding
pictures with some assistance, and was careful to not write the words over top of his
picture, demonstrating his ability to separate writing from drawing, and his
this indicates that Gabe is at the appropriate developmental level for this skill, as he
was five years old at the time of this assessment, and three to five year olds should
typical fashion. According the Work Sampling System (2004), this knowledge is
demonstrated by a child “naming the letters in their first names as they attempt to
write their names“(Pg. 7). Towards the end of my practicum placement, I witnessed
Gabe do this on several occasions, but one specific incidence of this occurred in early
November when I was crafting the “Happy Holidays” greeting card with Gabe. I first
wrote “Happy Holidays” in the middle of the card, and then instructed Gabe to write
his own name underneath of my writing, and tell me the letters as he wrote them.
He was able to accomplish quickly and this with no assistance, indicating that his
Gabe take part in a story retelling of the children’s book “The Three Billy Goats
Gruff” in early October. See figure 2. As part of this assessment, I first read the story
to Gabe, then retold it once more through the use of cut out props that consisted of
the three Billy goats, the bridge, and the troll from the story. Once I finished this, I
then instructed Gabe to retell me the story by using the cut out props. There were
seven story elements that I graded, which included the setting and characters, the
story problem, episodes 1-3 of the story, the resolution, and the reaction of
characters, with each section having a possible score of 0-3. 0 meant that this
retelling. Overall, Gabe scored an 8 out of 15 because he failed to mention the setting
and characters, and story problem, but did fairly well in describing the episodes,
resolution and reaction of the characters, indicating his comprehension of the story.
According to this assessment, this places Gabe in the early retelling phase, which
Sampling System (2004), which states “Four year olds show their comprehension of
stories by retelling the main events of a story just read or told by the teacher” (Pg.
8).
Writing
“comprehend and respond to stories read aloud” (Dichtelmiller, 2004, Pg. 7), but it
also illuminates his ability to “represent ideas and stories through pictures,
dictation, and play” (Dichtelmiller et al., 2004, Pg. 8). By retelling the story using the
cut out props, Gabe was required to give the cut outs symbolic meaning in order
convey the plot, which can be seen as a type of dramatic play. This dramatic play
“affords children the opportunity to develop narratives in formats that they could
use later in writing” (Charlesworth, 2010, Pg. 442), and is typical of a developing
and letter to convey meaning” (Dichtelmiller et al., 2004, Pg. 8). As previously
mentioned, Gabe was able to accomplish this when describing his picture of his
mother and father through his writing of “Mom” and “Dad.” He was initially unsure
of how to spell the two words though, and was hesitant to write them without
knowing with certainty on how to do so. I then verbalized on how to spell each
word, resulting in Gabe writing a fairly legible “Mom,” which went from a proper left
to right orientation, and then a slightly less recognizable “Dad,” which he wrote
going from top to bottom, claiming that he did so because he ran out of space on the
paper. Despite this, both his drawing and writing carried meaning and were
representative of what I assigned him to do for the assessment. These actions are
indicative of properly developing preschoolers, as “at the novice level, children are
usually becoming aware of the alphabet and its relation to writing” (Charlesworth,
observed Gabe utilize his writing for any other purpose than to label his work with
his name. However, when crafting the “Happy Holidays” greeting card, Gabe was
required to sign his name inside the card. I described to Gabe that the writing on the
card would carry the message of “Happy Holidays from Gabe” to his parents, to
four year olds learn that “writing can fulfill many different functions and that
writing can be read for enjoyment as well as for information” (Pg. 9). Since Gabe did
not have a choice in making the holiday card, I cannot confirm that he comprehends
this idea fully, though it is safe to say that he is in the process of realizing this