Amy Hunt

ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio
Assessment Portfolio

I.

Introduction
Jim is a ten-year-old student fifth grade student at Village Elementary
School in West Windsor, New Jersey. Jim lives at home with his mother and
father, as well as an older brother and younger sister. Jim lives in a small house,
where he enjoys playing video games in the office room, which is his favorite part
of his house. Jim doesnt enjoy playing sports, and doesnt play with friends after
school. Instead, when he comes home from school he plays mine craft, and video
games on the weekend. Jim likes to watch T.V. especially Nickelodeon. However,
Jim doesnt like to sing or listen to music. When Jim isnt playing mine craft or
watching T.V., his family enjoys eating pizza at DiLoreznos on the weekend.
Both of Jims parents work, so he spends a lot of time with his siblings. When
Jims parents arent busy with work, they like to play catch with Jim and his
siblings. Ultimately, Jim likes his alone time, and doesnt really have many close
friends because he tends to himself.
Jim enjoys going to school because he likes that he gets to have chrome
books in the classroom. When asked what his favorite subject in school was, Jim
replied not math, which shows that he has a sense of humor and he enjoys most
other subjects in school. Also when asked what things bother him most in life, Jim
answered math, which seems to be a troubling topic for him. During recess, Jim
likes playing four square with other classmates at recess. Jim enjoys reading Lego
books as well as books about sharks. Jim loves reading about sharks and other
animals in the ocean that he wants to become a deep-sea diver when hes older.

Amy Hunt
ELD 308
II.

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

Independent Reading Conferences

On October 8, 2014, Jim was released back to his desk after a reading mini
lesson and asked to read independently for the rest of the period. Jim seemed very
distracted that day, and not in the mood to do any work. He wasnt reading like
the rest of the class, so I went up to him to try and peak his interest about reading.
I tried discussing with him his book club book, James and the Giant Peach, but
he found little to no interest with that book. When asked to talk about what he
read, he replied that the boy just went into the peach; there was no further
conversation. Jim then went to put his head on the desk when I noticed a book
about sharks on his desk. I asked him if he enjoyed reading about sharks, and his
interest peaked right up. He began flipping through the pages with me, discussing
different facts about sharks, and started discussing which sharks he liked best and
why. When Jim is interested in what he is reading, he can summarize what he has
read and answer questions about it. However, if the book doesnt seem to interest
Jim, then he doesnt summarize what he read well and has little to no interest in
discussing it.
Jim read the parts of his shark book fluently and quickly. Jim can read at
quite a fast pace for a fifth grader, and is still able to comprehend what he reads.
Sometimes he would trip over his words because he spoke very fast, but when
asked to summarize what he read he still had no trouble. Also, when asked to
answer more critical thinking questions based off the reading, Jim was able to
answer those types of questions accurately based off the information given.

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio
Jim was also given a reading interest inventory during this time, to try and

spark an interest in discussing books and literature. This inventory didnt reveal a
lot of information because Jim wasnt in the mood to do the inventory; he just
wanted to kill time so that he didnt have to independently read. Jims survey
showed that he enjoys reading, he doesnt have trouble picking out books to read,
he enjoys reading magazines as well as chapter books, and that he likes to read
books with boys as the main characters. These answers prove that Jim does, in
fact, enjoy reading, however, when asked if he could tell you about his favorite
book or his favorite author, he answered false and said that he couldnt describe
them. Its difficult to interpret if he really couldnt tell you or if he just didnt
want to answer the question. Overall, Jim does enjoy reading, especially if other
people read to him, and he also surrounds himself with friends that also enjoy
reading.
III.

Directed Reading Assessment or Columbia Reading Assessment

On October 16, 2014, Jim was given a running record. In Village
Elementary School they dont give out Directed Reading Assessments or
Columbia Reading Assessments to each of the students, instead they do a running
record. Jim had already completed a running record with our cooperating teacher
back in September, so she gave me a different one for Jim to try and see if he had
improved with his reading in the past month. The running record was a fiction
piece, The Election, for a level R reader. In Fountas and Pinnell the reading levels
range from M to S. Level M is less advanced for 5th grade and level S is more
advanced for 5th grade. Jim is currently reading at a level Q, so my cooperating

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

teacher gave me a level R running record to see if he has improved at all in the
last month. In terms of comprehension, after Jim finished reading, he was able to
give complete and accurate summaries of what he had read, once after he read
aloud, and one summary after he finished reading the passage silently to himself.
His details were clear and concise, and he was able to answer questions within the
text and beyond the text. Based off of Jims answers during the comprehension
conversation, he scored a perfect 3 out of 3 for each section, scoring him a 9 out
of 9. A score of three reflects excellent understanding of the text. Includes
almost all important information and main ideas.
In terms of word recognition, Jim had no difficulty pronouncing any of the
words in the text. He understood the meaning of every word he read, and didnt
ask for the meaning of any words. In terms of fluency, Jim read very fast, and
sometimes would trip over his words, or repeat certain phrases because he was
reading too quickly. Overall, he had 8 mistakes that involved either replacing
words in the text with his own, or adding a word in the text that wasnt originally
there. Even though there were some mistakes, it didnt hinder his comprehension
of the story in any way. Jims total accuracy rate was at 95%, which is towards
the lower side of the accuracy scale. He received a fluency score of 2, which
states that Jim read primarily in three or four word phrase groups; some smooth,
expressive interpretation and pausing guided by authors meaning and
punctuation; mostly appropriate stress and rate with some slowdowns. Based off
of these findings, I would keep Jim at a level Q reader and would not let him
advance to the next level at this time. Our goal for the year would be to get Jim to

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

read more books independently, and slowly make the books more challenging so
that we are enriching his reading skills.
IV.

Writing Sample
On September 18, 2014, Jim was asked to write a personal narrative. This
piece of writing is the final draft of a personal narrative that the students were
asked to do. Jim chose to write about a new video game that he was going to try
out with his friend. Jim isnt terribly fond of writing, and therefore wrote the piece
as quickly and as best as he could so that he would be done early.
In terms of structure, its clear that Jim is trying to create a beginning,
middle, and end of his story. However, the structure is somewhat unorganized.
There is no title, which doesnt give the reader a little preview of what the story
will be about, and there arent clear paragraphs. In the middle of the story is a
letter, which Jim explains he received from a friend. The letter takes up a majority
of the paper, and separates two paragraphs, which makes up his entire narrative.
In terms of content, Jims narrative had a clear story. It starts with Jim and
his friend playing a video game, getting a package in the mail for a new video
game, and playing that new video game together. There are some story elements
included in the narrative like plot, characters, and setting. There are two clear
characters in the story, Jim and his friend. There is also a plot about playing video
games and the setting is at Jims house because in the story the mailman comes to
the house to deliver a package.
In terms of mechanics, Jim was very unorganized. He didnt have
transitions between sentences, and didnt indent to indicate a new paragraph.

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

Also, he would have a lot of run on sentences, and the whole narrative seemed
very conversational. Jims punctuation was almost nonexistent, between wrong
placements of commas, or no period after sentences, it made the story confusing
in some places. Also, capitalization seems to be another issue for Jim. He isnt
aware that names of characters get capitalized, or that the beginning letter of each
new sentence is capitalized. Jims main problem is that he doesnt proofread. This
narrative feels as though it was written once, and then no edits were made from it.
When brought up to my cooperating teacher, it was mentioned that he still writes
at a 4th grade level. If Jims handwriting were to be analyzed, it is clear that its
not at the level of a 5th grader because the words are still written very big and
messy, like a lower level learner. In order to prepare for future writing
assessment, Jim needs to work on the mechanics of his writing as well as
proofreading what he writes.
Jims spelling stage is listed as Stage 4: Syllables and Affixes Spelling
according to G.E. Tompkins, Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall. In this stage,
students focus on syllables in this stage and apply what theyve learned about
one-syllable words to longer, multisyllabic words. These concepts include
inflectional endings, rules for adding inflectional endings, syllabication, and
homophones. Our cooperating teacher gave a spelling inventory sheet that was the
stage above Jims level to again see if he has improved since the beginning of the
school year. Stage 5 includes derivational relations, for example, soft to soften.
Therefore, these words are the toughest that theyll see this school year. Within
the derivational relations spelling stage there are five categories: silent & sounded

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

consonants, consonant changes, vowel changes, Latin-derived suffixes, and

assimilated prefixes. Jim struggled a lot with these new spelling words. Out of the
25 words that were included in the spelling inventory, he only got 11 completely
correct. The point system is based off of a zero to two scale. Each word gets
graded separately. A score of 2 indicates that they spelled the entire word
correctly. A score of 1 indicates that they misspelled the word, however, they
correctly spelled the underlined part of the word. A score of 0 indicates that the
word was spelled wrong including the underlined part. For example, if given the
word accommodate. A score of 2 would be the word spelled correctly; a score of
1 would be if a student wrote accomodate; and a score of 0 would be if the student
spelled acomodate. The student doesnt see the underlined part of the word; its
only available on the answer key to properly evaluate the inventory. Jim seemed
to have the most trouble with assimilated prefixes. These words include
commence, immature, accommodate, suffice, and irresistible. Jim had trouble
with the double letters, and would only put one letter (comence). On the other
hand, Jim only got 1 word in the consonant changes category wrong. For
example, he spelled electrician and impression correctly, which was surprising to
see. Overall, Jim till needs some work on his spelling, which is why he isnt in the
last stage quite yet, but with weekly spelling challenges he can certainly improve.
V.

Summary
After performing multiple informal and formal assessments on Jim, I have
concluded that Jims strength, as a reader, is his ability to understand what he has
read and think critically about the material. Another strength that Jim has is his

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

fluency. He can read at a quick pace, with minor mistakes, and can still understand
the reading. To further enhance Jims skills as a reader, I would continue to have
him read out loud when possible, because it helps him with fluency. Jim also loves
attention from other adults in the classroom; therefore, by allowing him to read out
loud to you when possible, it will give him more enjoyment and excitement about
reading. Jim needs to expand his horizons and try out different genres to see other
types of books he may like, besides books about sharks. According to Fountas and
Pinnell, a few good options for mini lessons include choosing easy, just right or
challenging books, recording the difficulty level of your books, keeping a list of
reading interests, and preparing for and giving book talks. Jim would benefit the
most by preparing and giving book talks because it gets Jim to read the selected
text, but also be able to talk and share ideas with other students in the class. Also,
during book talk students have the opportunity to read the text aloud for part of the
time, which is good experience for Jim.
In regards to Jims strength as a writer, he has a clear plot in his writing
pieces, as well as characters and a theme, which are key elements in a story. Jim
needs to improve upon the structure of his writing, by formatting paragraphs
correctly, making sure he has punctuation and capitalization, and proofreading his
work. One way to improve Jims writing is by making sure that he writes a little bit
everyday. According to Kim Kautzer, blogger and homeschool teacher, states that
on average students should spend 30-40 minutes per day writing. There should also
be 8 to 10 major writing pieces for the year, and several smaller writing pieces for
the students to have ample amounts of experience with different types of writing.

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio

Its important to follow a routine for the writing process, such as planning, writing,
editing, and rewriting the final draft. Its also important to have writing partners
that can peer edit each others work. Jim would also benefit from having mini
lessons on punctuation and the mechanics of writing. For example, one excellent
book on punctuation, specifically on the use of commas, is the book Eats, Shoots
& Leaves by Lynne Truss. Lastly, I would conduct weekly conferences with Jim
during the writing period to discuss what he is working on and to make sure he is
on the right track. Often times, Jim gets distracted or bored, and he needs to be
reminded to do his work. Its important to make sure hes on task and focused on
his work to provide the best pieces of writing possible. Lastly, to help with Jims
spelling skills I would have weekly spelling assessments. This would include
giving Jim (as well as the other students in the class) a list of spelling words. Jim
would have to find the definition of the word, a synonym and an antonym of the
word, as well as part of speech. I would recommend several apps they can use on
their chrome books to practice with throughout the week, and assess at the end of
each week with a spelling test. There is a website where you can type in words for
the spelling test for them to take by themselves, that way youre not taking up the
whole class period testing different students based off their vocabulary experience.

Amy Hunt
ELD 308

November 12, 2014

Assessment Portfolio
Works Cited

Fountas, Iren C, and Gay Su Pinnell. Guiding Readers and Writers Grades 3-6.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 2001. Print.
Kautzer, Kim. "Helping your 3rd-5th Grader with Writing." In Our Write Minds.
Blogcatalog, 5 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.writeshop.com/
blog/helping-your-3rd-5th-grader-with-writing/>.
Tompkins, G.E. "Stages of Spelling Development." Education.com. Pearson Allyn
Bacon Prentice Hall, 22 July 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-spelling-development/
?page=2>.