Akeem age 6 years and 9 months
Akeem, who is in Year 1, is an Arabic speaker with English as an additional language. Initially, Akeem was given two passages to read – Beginner Level B: Postcard from Grandma, followed by Level 1B: First Day at School. His standard scores were:
Accuracy: 82
Comprehension: <72
This shows that Akeem’s reading accuracy is below average and that he has severe difficulty with comprehension.
In this case, it was appropriate
to turn to the Early Reading assessments to check how Akeem’s
phonic, letter-sound and word recognition skills had developed.
His standard scores on the four Early Reading assessments were:
- Letter Sound Knowledge: 93
- Early Word Recognition: 94
- Sound Isolation: 104
- Sound Deletion: 97
Akeem’s ability in phonic tasks, letter sound knowledge and in word level reading is in the average range and it is clear that the skills essential to developing reading are in place. His age equivalent scores are either in line with his age (Sound Isolation 6:09) or within 5 months of his chronological age (Letter Sound Knowledge 6:05; Early Word Recognition 6:06 and Sound Deletion 6:04).
These results demonstrate the importance of assessing these skills if a young learner has difficulty with the Passage Reading assessment.
Akeem needs to improve his accuracy in prose reading and he has shown that he has the skills in place to do this. It may be that it is a matter of giving Akeem more opportunities to practice his reading in school so that accuracy and fluency improve and come into line with his peer group. Participation in a paired reading scheme could be helpful in terms of offering more reading practice and the motivation of working with pupils with more established reading skills.
Akeem could not answer any of the comprehension questions so strategies to help him understand as he reads need to be incorporated into his daily reading. Instruction in using contextual cues to help Akeem decode unknown words is also recommended.
Akeem was assessed towards to end of the summer term in Y1 so it would be appropriate to allow a period of additional support (say, six months) before re-assessing him in Y2 at which time passages from Form A of YARC Passage Reading may be used.
