Laura Gillett

Foundations and Methods of English Language/Literacy Development and Content Instruction

Week 7: Let’s Think -- Role Play

In our preschool special education setting, we use and have access to several different literacy assessments.
We use formal and informal assessments, as well as formative and summative assessments to guide our
instruction and evaluate student learning and knowledge.

Many of our students are English learners, however, we do not formally assess and categorize our students as
English learners at the preschool level. As students go through assessment to qualify for special education
services, the IEP team produces a multidisciplinary report. During the creation of this report, the school staff
considers assessments and interviews the family to gain information about a student’s language abilities and
English language development. Teachers also work informally with families to learn about each student’s home
language and cultural background to ensure classroom learning opportunities are engaging and meaningful for
each student.

Teachers assess students’ literacy abilities daily through informal assessments. These might include
teacher-made checklists for large group and small group literacy instruction, observations made during large
group and small group instruction, analysis of student work samples, and use of curriculum resources such as
The Carolina Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers / Preschoolers with Special Needs, Handwriting Without
Tears, Unique Learning System, GLAD instruction, and The STAR Program.

These informal assessments are formative and help teachers inform daily instruction and plan for
differentiation.

Teachers also use formal assessments to determine students’ literacy abilities. In the special education setting,
these assessments include collecting data to show progress on annual IEP goals and benchmarks, the
Student Annual Needs Determination Inventory (SANDI) Assessment, and the DRDP. Data on IEP
benchmarks can be formative, as teachers use this data to inform daily instruction and meet as an IEP team to
revise goals if needed. Data on annual IEP goals is summative as it shows if a student has achieved the
annual goal. IEP goals are always aligned with the California Preschool Learning Foundations. For
moderate/severe special education students, data is also collected using the SANDI and reported on twice a
year and used for annual IEPs. SANDI data is formative and summative, as it definitely informs daily
instruction, and shows student growth over time and shows where students are functioning developmentally.
DRDP data is collected twice a year for each student through observations. The DRDP is aligned to the
California Preschool Learning Foundations
(​https://www.desiredresults.us/drdp-2015-aligned-california-foundations​).

Informal assessments should be done continuously throughout the school year to inform instruction. Formal
assessments, such as the DRDP are done within a student’s first 60 days and then six months after that. IEP
progress is formally reported three times per year, usually aligning with reporting periods for all students. The
SANDI data is reported twice per year on set dates, however this is a great tool to use before annual IEPs as
well.

Out of the resources available, here are a couple that I use frequently and examples of how they might be
used or what information might be drawn from the assessment.
Informal assessment tools, such as checklists, observations, and student work samples, are meant to provide
quick, on-the-spot feedback to inform instruction and differentiation. These are great to use during large group
and small group literacy instruction.
The Carolina Curriculum provides a developmental sequence for literacy instruction; which makes it an easy
assessment tool and instructional tool to use for large group and small group instruction.
The SANDI is also a developmental assessment and can help inform IEP goal areas. The SANDI is a great
way to track long-term progress.

One of the challenges that these assessments have is that each assessment in itself is not comprehensive.
Each assessment provides unique data and information, which is also a positive for teachers. Most of these
assessments, formal and informal, are based on child development, which is beneficial to teachers.
Assessment and data collection are so important for special education teachers -- assessment drives
instruction. Having multiple assessment tools allows teachers to gather unique, meaningful data for each child,
and in turn, inform instruction and differentiation for each child.