Bullimbal School Centre uses a balanced approach to literacy teaching in all classrooms. At Bullimbal School there are a mix of students who are emergent or conventional literacy learners.
The goal of all conventional literacy instruction is for students to read silently with comprehension and to write independently.
The skills are:
Word identification - students need to recognise words automatically but also have some decoding skills to figure out an unfamiliar word. The WTP assessment model assesses whether word identification is automatic or mediated.
Print processing – we use a range of print processing skills, like inner voice and eye movements when we read to enable us to make meaning from text
Language comprehension – to read with comprehension requires language
In the WTP assessment, we assess word identification, reading comprehension and listening comprehension.
Assessing word identification is the most obvious as we know that if a student struggles in this area that this is the area in the model above that needs more work. This equates to the working with words block in our conventional literacy teaching.
Assessing listening comprehension enables us to determine which grade level passages a student is able to understand. If they struggle to understand them when we read to them then we know that language is the area in the model above that needs more work. This equates to guided reading in our conventional literacy teaching.
Assessing reading comprehension enables us to determine which grade level passages a student is able to read with comprehension. If they are unable to read it for themselves, but can understand the same passage when we read it aloud to them, then we know that print processing is the area in the model above that needs more work. This equates to self-selected reading in our conventional literacy teaching.
Finally, we use the Developmental Writing Scale (Sturm et al 2012) to assess a students’ progress in writing.
