Alicia Govannicci Professor Rich Oral Language Assessment March 1, 2013 Oral language is a very important part of a childs

education. It helps children communicate with peers in their class and with the teacher. Talking is a way for students to express their thoughts. Assessing a students oral language helps the teacher learn the students strengths and weaknesses, so that they are able to create a learning environment that works best for all students based on their oral language. For this assignment, one child was specifically observed, so that one could see how that student fits in with the rest of the classs oral language abilities. Saeed is a six-year-old student in Mrs. Mulshines first grade class. Saeed is very outgoing and is not shy about speaking in front of his class, which he does very often. All of the desks in the classroom are set up in groups of four or five. This allows for the students to speak and collaborate with each other easily. However, Saeeds desk is not a part of any of the groups. He is placed by himself in front of the teachers desk. This is because Saeed talks so much that he becomes distracting to other students, and also to the teacher. Throughout the day, there are several opportunities for the students to speak. In every lesson the teacher gives the students opportunities to speak by asking them questions about the material, asking for their opinions, asking for their thoughts, or asking if they have any questions. During morning meeting, the students interact with one another through oral language. The students have

reading partners that they read with every day, and they also work with their peers at their tables by sharing different strategies and ideas with each other. Students are expected to share, talk, and collaborate whenever the teacher asks them to work with their classmates. Saeed loves to talk and share his thoughts, stories, and opinions with others. He is not timid at all. He is too talkative sometimes. The methodology of this assessment was to observe how he used oral language in the classroom, and to find out what his strengths and weaknesses are. In order to find out about Saeeds oral language, observation of the oral language functions of the first grade class overall was necessary. A checklist was used to determine what types of oral language functions were present in the class, and which were not. For Saeeds individual observation, a chart was used to record his oral language functions. The class observation and individual observation both helped with seeing if Saeeds oral language was appropriate for learning in Mrs. Mulshines classroom. Classroom observation of oral language function showed that the students in the class constantly answered the teachers questions. It was not always one student, but almost all of the students wanted to participate and say their answer or thought to the class. I specifically noticed that the students liked to tell stories of past events and relate topics to themselves in some way. The students were frequently engaged in talking with their peers either on the rug or at their desks. When Saeed worked with a partner he often hogged the conversation and spoke so much that he would even give too much information and go into too much detail. While reading with Saeed one-on-one, he kept stopping to tell me a story about a

previous event. For example, he was reading a book that mentioned a fire engine and stopped reading and told me about a time when he got to ride on a fire engine with Santa. This was not appropriate because the fire engine was not of great significance in the book he was reading, so it was very off topic. However, he clearly explained his story without hesitating or stumbling over words, which he was doing while reading the book. This is probably because he is more comfortable speaking about a topic that he knows well then one he does not. He self corrected himself several times while reading (he also did this while reading aloud to the class). He speaks with a lot of expression and emphasizes many of his words. It is very impressive that he speaks with so much emotion and takes initiative immediately whenever he wants to speak. Another finding was that Saeed sometimes talks so quickly that he mumbles his words so the teacher will remind him to slow down when she notices this happening. It happens often when Saeed is really excited to share something with the class. Saeed also needs to work on the tone of his voice because he often speaks too loudly when working with a partner and it becomes very distracting for the other students trying to work. He also reads out loud to himself without realizing it. Saeeds use of oral language is extremely frequent in the classroom. It is evident that after this observation Saeed feels very comfortable speaking to his peers, the teacher, and myself. Because Saeed has trouble speaking about material he doesnt know well, as a teacher, I would constantly have him read new material so that he can practice and improve on speaking about topics that dont have much of a connection to him. This will also help with him not going off task

and telling irrelevant stories about a word that he reads in a book. I would probably pair him with two other students and not just one when the students are instructed to do partner work. This will help with him hogging the conversation because it is harder for him to speak a lot when there are two other students that want to speak also. I think it is a good idea to keep his desk separated form the other students because of how distracting he can be with his talking. I would have him read excerpts or short stories aloud to the class whenever I need a volunteer so that the other students can see how to read with emotion and a lot of expression. This is also a good way to let him talk in a productive way. The oral language of students should be assessed in every classroom so that the teacher is able to differentiate the lessons and activities based on each students speaking strengths and needs. If students are unable to have good oral language functioning then it could be detrimental to their education.