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Assessing Children's Oral Storytelling in Their First Year of School

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Title: Assessing Children's Oral Storytelling in Their First Year of School
Language: English
Authors: Riley, Jeni, Burrell, Andrew
Source: International Journal of Early Years Education. Jun 2007 15(2):181-196.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/default.html
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2007
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education
Kindergarten
Primary Education
Descriptors: Control Groups, Foreign Countries, Language Skills, Intervention, Speech, Oral Language, Emergent Literacy, Story Telling, Children, Research Projects, English (Second Language), Receptive Language, Language Tests, Expressive Language, Reading Fluency
Geographic Terms: New Zealand, United Kingdom (London)
DOI: 10.1080/09669760701289136
ISSN: 0966-9760
Abstract: This paper discusses a micro-study within an intervention project, conducted in four London primary schools, to enhance the spoken language skills of reception children. There were 60 children in each of the intervention and comparison groups. The focus here is to explore a classroom assessment of young children's oral narrative skills. Effective early language and literacy teaching with children from diverse backgrounds depends upon having detailed knowledge of children's oral skills, especially oral narrative skills, since the ability to narrate and report is a vital skill for future academic success and is highly correlated with later fluency in reading. Teachers need detailed descriptions of their pupils' spoken language skills and this is especially important where populations are diverse. A story retelling activity, developed and used extensively in New Zealand, gives teachers information about their pupils' language skills on entry to school. This procedure ("Tell Me") can be used in the normal course of classroom teaching and its evaluation for use in the UK is the focus of the present study. (Contains 4 tables.)
Abstractor: Author
Number of References: 23
Entry Date: 2007
Accession Number: EJ764334
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0024975787;54r01jun.07;2019Feb13.17:21;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0024975787-1">Assessing children's oral storytelling in their first year of school. </title> <sbt id="AN0024975787-2">Introduction</sbt> <p>This paper discusses a micro‐study within an intervention project, conducted in four London primary schools, to enhance the spoken language skills of reception children. There were 60 children in each of the intervention and comparison groups. The focus here is to explore a classroom assessment of young children's oral narrative skills. Effective early language and literacy teaching with children from diverse backgrounds depends upon having detailed knowledge of children's oral skills, especially oral narrative skills, since the ability to narrate and report is a vital skill for future academic success and is highly correlated with later fluency in reading. Teachers need detailed descriptions of their pupils' spoken language skills and this is especially important where populations are diverse. A story retelling activity, developed and used extensively in New Zealand, gives teachers information about their pupils' language skills on entry to school. This procedure ('Tell Me') can be used in the normal course of classroom teaching and its evaluation for use in the UK is the focus of the present study.</p> <p>A number of researchers have explored the centrality of storying in our lives. Wells, for example, writes: 'To try to make sense, to construct stories, and to share them with others in speech and in writing is an essential part of being human' ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref1">22</reflink>], p. 222). Theorists such as Bruner ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref2">2</reflink>]) maintain that we are driven by narrative, and Hardy ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref3">11</reflink>]) describes narrative as 'a primary act of the mind', a central human activity as we experience and make sense of life as narrative. Narrative has an important role in the intellectual and emotional development of children and 'many believe passionately that stories are the most important means by which individuals come to know the world and their place within it' (Riley & Reedy, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref4">20</reflink>], p. 67).</p> <p>Sharing story and picture books has received considerable attention from researchers since for many children this is the main literacy experience prior to starting school, where the formal task of learning to read and write begins. The benefits of hearing and reading stories as a socially created, interactive activity are well documented (Heath, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref5">13</reflink>]). Furthermore, Wells ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref6">22</reflink>]) found a strong positive relationship between hearing stories and success in reading throughout the primary school.</p> <p>Research has indicated that very young children seem to acquire knowledge of the story and its conventions more readily than other genres. Engel ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref7">6</reflink>]), for example, has proposed a theory in which she argues that, right from the start, 'mothers tell stories about themselves and invite their children to participate in these stories'. Young children spend a great deal of time and energy in collaborative storytelling. By the time they are six, children will have heard all kinds of stories told to them by their parents, friends and teachers and will have a wide repertoire of stories that can extend from oral to written versions. So, it seems that children's experiences of both stories and storytelling support the development of complex linguistic and discursive structures. Storytelling (whether their own stories or retelling those read to them) gives children opportunities to speak at length and in longer utterances than in conversation. Fox suggests that in telling stories children draw upon tacit knowledge of narrative and that this also includes 'knowledge of syntactic and conversational competence' ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref8">7</reflink>], p. 25).</p> <p>Traditionally, primary schools have placed considerable emphasis on the development of children's narrative skills in writing. However, fewer opportunities appear to exist for children to invent and retell stories orally (Harrett & Benjamin, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref9">12</reflink>]). There is a close relationship between children's oral language skills and their ability to use written language effectively (Lindsay & Dockrell, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref10">16</reflink>]). Not only are there benefits in developing oracy, but because spoken and written language are interdependent the development of literacy will also be enhanced. Goodman and Goodman write:</p> <p>Written language development draws on competence in oral language, since, for most learners, oral language competence reaches a higher level earlier. As children become literate, the two systems become interactive, and children use each to support the other when they need to. ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref11">9</reflink>], p. 150)</p> <p>For example, Jones ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref12">15</reflink>]) demonstrates how oral storytelling could go through a process of drafting—an important skill for later literacy activities.</p> <p>Children arrive at school with a wide range of rich but highly idiosyncratic knowledge about literacy (Riley, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref13">19</reflink>]). Snow ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref14">21</reflink>]) found that the number of stories that pre‐school children had heard differed very widely and impacted differentially on their literacy progress once in school. Researchers have shown that literacy practices vary considerably in different communities (Heath, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref15">14</reflink>]; Gregory, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref16">10</reflink>]) and that in some the oral tradition is stronger than reading aloud. The extent to which teachers capitalize on these understandings and enable children to progress, through appropriate teaching and closely matched activities, varies considerably and depends upon careful assessment.</p> <p>The current document for the Foundation Stage covers the phase of education from a child's third birthday to the end of the reception year. <emph>The statutory framework for the early years Foundation Stage</emph> (DfES, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref17">4</reflink>]) identifies six areas of learning and sets out what most children are expected to achieve by the end of the Foundation Stage. Teachers in the UK working within the Foundation Stage are required to complete a keystage profile for each child at the end of the Foundation Stage, which describes children's progress in relation to the six areas of learning. Spoken language is acknowledged as a key starting point for learning and several of the early learning goals for the Communication, Language and Literacy area relate to children's narrative development: '... make up their own stories ...', 'Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events', 'Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories' and 'Show an understanding of the elements of stories, such as main character, sequence of events, and openings ...'.</p> <p>The ability to narrate orally encompasses a range of complex language skills and is an important predictor of later language and literacy achievements. Effective early language teaching depends on having detailed knowledge about children's skills, especially those children from diverse backgrounds. Greater emphasis is placed on developing the spoken language of young pupils in the Rose Review (DfES, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref18">3</reflink>]), which states:</p> <p>The indications are that far more attention needs to be given, right from the start, to promoting speaking and listening skills to make sure that children build a good stock of words, learn to listen attentively and speak clearly and confidently. Speaking and listening, together with reading and writing, are prime communication skills that are central to children's intellectual, social and emotional development. (p. 3)</p> <p>Therefore, it would appear that teachers and other practitioners working in reception classes in the UK would benefit from an assessment instrument that increases their knowledge of their pupils' oral language skills, in particular their ability to narrate.</p> <p>The 'StoryTalk' research project (funded by the Esmè Fairburn Foundation) took place in 2004/05. The study monitored the development of the oral language skills of 120 reception children in four inner‐city multicultural primary schools serving deprived communities. The research measure used was the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF) which assessed language development during the reception pupils' first year in school. The CELF indicated that the children's language skills were depressed in comparison with national norms throughout the study. An intervention group of 60 children took part in weekly specifically designed language‐enrichment sessions supported by trained volunteers. Language development was seen across the whole group over the year of the project and statistically significant progress was made in two out of three reception classes in the intervention group.</p> <p>A subset of findings from within the larger dataset provided an opportunity to examine the usefulness in the UK setting of the NZ Story Retelling task for assessing children's narrative skills during their first year of school. It compares the scores from this practitioner‐oriented assessment with the standardized psychological assessment of language obtained from the CELF which is designed for use by psychologists for clinical assessment and research purposes. And, as such, the use of this assessment is not recommended for use by classroom teachers.</p> <p>This story retelling activity forms part of the NZ School Entry Assessment (SEA) (Ministry of Education, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref19">18</reflink>]), which is conducted within eight weeks of a child starting school at the age of five, and enables teachers to assess children's narrative skills on entry to school. In addition to assessing children's oral narrative skills, the SEA also includes tasks designed to assess children's early literacy and numeracy skills. The CELF comprises six subtests, three of which assess receptive language and three assess expressive language. One of the expressive language assessments is a Story Retelling task, in which the child repeats a specified sentence of the (extremely dull!) story as it is read. This task in the NZ SEA is a more natural assessment conducted with a lively book, written by a children's author. This is in line with Fox's point that stories need an affective dimension of fear, danger, excitement or pleasure to make a retelling worthwhile ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref20">7</reflink>], p. 27).</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-3">Method</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0024975787-4">Participants</hd> <p>The participants were a subgroup of the children taking part in 'StoryTalk', an intervention study designed to enhance children's spoken language skills, including their ability to narrate orally. The children were assigned randomly to the mini study reported here. Most of the children taking part in 'StoryTalk' had English as an Additional Language (EAL), with over 10 languages spoken by those children in the subgroup. All the children in the study began their Reception year in January 2004, aged four to five years. The children's spoken language skills were assessed both on the CELF and the NZ Story Retelling task during this term and then one year later when they were in Year 1 (five to six years of age).</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-5">Measures</hd> <p>The following assessments were used:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> 1. Tell Me—New Zealand School Entry Assessment (SEA) Story Retelling task (Ministry of Education, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref21">18</reflink>]).</item> <p></p> <item> 2. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)—Preschool UK (Wiig <emph>et al</emph>., [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref22">23</reflink>]).</item> </ulist> <p>Both assessments are described in detail below.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-6">Tell Me—New Zealand SEA Story Retelling task (Ministry of Education, 1997)</hd> <p>The activity has two phases (familiarization and assessment). Before undertaking the assessment phase, teachers are instructed to carry out the activity three times to familiarize children before formally assessing them. The assessment procedure involves a collaborative reading activity and a retelling activity which together take 15–20 minutes.</p> <p>During the collaborative reading, an unfamiliar, specially written book is read aloud by the teacher, who supports the child's listening through questions or comments on events, characters, activities and setting, and responds to extend the child's participation. At the end of the reading the teacher asks the child three specified questions and the child's responses are then scored for <emph>Comprehension</emph> (C) and noted on a supplied record sheet.</p> <p>The child is then asked to retell the story, using the book, to another child or group of children. Teachers can prompt to support the child's retelling. The teacher scores oral language in the following areas: <emph>Sentence Structure</emph> (SS), <emph>Vocabulary</emph> (V) and <emph>Global Judgments</emph> in terms of Organization (O), Description/Expression (D/E) and Content (Con).</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-7">Sentence Structure</hd> <p>During the reading of the first two double‐page spreads of text and illustration, the teacher listens specifically to the child's sentences and scores these for their degree of complexity.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-8">Vocabulary</hd> <p>During the reading of the second two double‐page spreads the teacher listens specifically to the use and range of vocabulary. This is scored for the degree of complexity.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-9">Global Judgments</hd> <p>The teacher also listens to other features of the child's language and makes judgments on the following:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> • <emph>Organization</emph>. The degree to which the story is sequenced with explicit links for the audience to follow.</item> <p></p> <item> • <emph>Description/Expression</emph>. How well the elements of the story are described and expressed for the audience.</item> <p></p> <item> • <emph>Content</emph>. In this dimension teachers judge the accuracy of the child's retelling by assessing how many of the main points of the story are covered.</item> </ulist> <p>With the exception of <emph>Comprehension</emph>, which also has a maximum score of 3, these dimensions are scored as basic (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref23">1</reflink>), plain (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref24">2</reflink>), developed (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref25">3</reflink>), or no response (0).</p> <p>Teacher judgments for each dimension are added to provide a total score (maximum = 18).</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-10">CELF—Preschool UK (Wiig et al., 1992)</hd> <p>The CELF—Preschool assessment is designed to provide measures of receptive and expressive language skills in the areas of phonology, syntax, semantics and memory, and word finding and retrieval. The test aims (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref26">1</reflink>) to assist in the identification of children with language disabilities, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref27">2</reflink>) to provide a differential diagnosis of the areas of weakness and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref28">3</reflink>) to identify areas for follow‐up for language intervention. The test is designed for use with children aged from three to six years, and its use is restricted to psychologists or those with special training, thus making it unsuitable for general classroom use.</p> <p>The six subtests were administered to each pupil; three assess receptive language and three assess expressive language. The subtests are:</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-11">Receptive language</hd> <p>The following three subtests evaluate receptive language:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> 1. Linguistic Concepts (LC): this subtest evaluates a child's ability to comprehend directions that:</item> <p></p> <item> • contain early‐acquired linguistic concepts such as 'either ... or' and 'not';</item> <p></p> <item> • involve quantifiers and ordinals such as 'some' and 'first';</item> <p></p> <item> • increase in length from one‐ to three‐level commands.</item> <p></p> <item> 2. Basic Concepts (BC): this subtest assesses a child's knowledge of modifiers. It can be used to evaluate a child's ability to interpret one‐level oral directions that contain references to:</item> <p></p> <item> • attributes (e.g. understanding of 'cold', 'dry', 'alone', hard');</item> <p></p> <item> • dimension/size;</item> <p></p> <item> • direction/locality/position;</item> <p></p> <item> • number/quantity;</item> <p></p> <item> • equality (e.g. understanding 'same' and 'different').</item> <p></p> <item> 3. Sentence Structure (SS): this subtest evaluates comprehension of early‐acquired sentence formation rules. It evaluates a child's ability to comprehend and respond to spoken sentences that increase in length and structural complexity.</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0024975787-12">Expressive language</hd> <p>The following three subtests evaluate expressive language:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> 1. Recalling Sentences in Context (RSC): this subtest evaluates recall and repetition of spoken sentences. It is in the form of a story and children are required to recall and repeat lines from the story. As the story progresses, the number of morphemes, syntactic complexity and number of prepositions in each item increases.</item> <p></p> <item> 2. Formulating Labels (FL): this subtest examines a child's ability to name pictures that represent nouns and verbs (referential word knowledge/naming).</item> <p></p> <item> 3. Word Structure (WS): this subtest evaluates a child's knowledge and use of early‐acquired morphological rules and forms.</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0024975787-13">Test administration</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0024975787-14">The NZ Story Retelling task (Tell Me)</hd> <p>This was conducted using one of the specially authored books. All the books in the assessment pack are written by well‐known NZ children's authors. The class teachers administered this assessment task in the context of ongoing class activities and their views were sought via an informal semi‐structured interview. Teachers were asked about ease of administration, quality of texts, how applicable they considered the assessment to the UK context and the usefulness of the assessment information.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-15">CELF</hd> <p>Researchers administered this psychological assessment tool. Children were tested individually in a quiet side‐room away from the rest of the class.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-16">Results</hd> <p>In order to evaluate the NZ Story Retelling task and to compare the information it offers teachers with the CELF test, the results are reported in three sections: Section 1 describes one child's NZ Story Retelling scores at the beginning of Reception year and one year later; Section 2 presents six children's NZ Story Retelling scores and CELF scores at the beginning of their Reception year; and Section 3 explores their teachers' views about the usefulness of the Story Retelling assessment task.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-17">Section 1: children's progress as assessed by the NZ assessment task</hd> <p>In order to assess and discuss the children's progress, the NZ task was administered at the beginning of the Reception year and one year later.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-18">NZ SEA task</hd> <p>The NZ Story Retelling task was conducted using one of the specially written books. <emph>Great times with Great‐Grandad</emph> tells the story of a child visited by his Great‐Grandad and how his feelings towards him change during the stay, from initial resentment to appreciation and love. The first‐person narrative presents an interesting challenge for such young children (see Appendix A, Table A1). This section focuses on one child's assessment. Each area of language assessed is examined in relation to the task's assessment structure and comparisons are made between the two versions produced by the child in her retelling of the story, and her progress is discussed.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-19">Athiqa (first language—Urdu)</hd> <p>In the collaborative reading, Athiqa gave only one correct response to the three comprehension questions on both occasions that the assessment task was administered.</p> <p>Athiqa's retellings of <emph>Great times with Great‐Grandad</emph> (retelling 1 = Reception; retelling 2 = Year 1):</p> <p>Page 2 (text) After Great‐Grandad fell over in the shower and broke his leg, the people at the hospital put his leg in plaster. Now he's come to stay with us. Mum and Dad cook his meals. They take him to the toilet. They're too busy to play with me. I want Great‐Grandad to go!</p> <p>Retelling 1 Man fell over in the bath. Then she got doctor. He wants her dad.</p> <p>Retelling 2 Great Grandad slipped in the bathroom and mum and dad was looking after him and the boy was sad. Mum and dad have to make Grandad the food. He couldn't make it. First he could, now he can't because he got broken leg.</p> <p>Page 4 (text) I took Great‐Grandad a cup of tea. I accidentally spilled some on his pyjamas. 'Say I did it, Sam,' he grinned. 'They won't tell me off.'</p> <p>Page 5 (text) Great‐Grandad gave me one of his ginger biscuits. He let me dunk it in his tea. The biscuit tasted all sweet and sloppy.</p> <p>Retelling 1 She said, 'I want to bring his tea. She put sugar in the tea'. She mixed it with a spoon.</p> <p>Retelling 2 Then the boy bring Grandad a cup of tea with two ginger biscuits but it falled by accident on grandad's pyjamas. Then two ginger, dad let him have one ginger to eat and dad had one as well. And he said to dad, 'Can I put one in tea?'</p> <p>The two retellings (pp. 2–5) demonstrate Athiqa's developing narrative skill and better comprehension of the story at Retelling 2. In Reception, the narrative is retold in short, simple sentences, misconceptions and misused personal pronouns are evident and irrelevant material is included (e.g. she mixed it with a spoon). The use of connectives is limited to 'then' and brief recounts are given. One year later, Athiqa is able to sequence the narrative logically through connected phrases and clauses. For example:</p> <p>Great‐Grandad slipped in the bathroom and mum and dad was looking after him and the boy was sad. Mum and dad have to make Grandad the food. He couldn't make it. First he could, now he can't because he got broken leg.</p> <p>Ideas are connected with 'First' and 'now' and the causal preposition 'because' to generate a more fluent narrative than in the pre‐test. Athiqa's vocabulary has developed, for example 'slipped', which is not used in the original text. An emotional response—'and the boy was sad'—not explicit in the original text, is offered on the event of Grandad's accident.</p> <p>Page 6 (text) Great‐Grandad showed me the tattoo on his arm. It's a blue snake with red eyes, and it twists around a dagger. Amazing!</p> <p>Page 7 (text) Then I showed Great‐Grandad the scrambler bike I ride to school. He told me about the horse he used to ride to school. Neat!</p> <p>Retelling 1 Dad showed his shoe. Then she went out with the baby boy.</p> <p>Retelling 2 Then Grandad told his tattoo. It gotted red eyes and blue colour for his body and the boy went to school on his bike and dad used to go on his horse.</p> <p>Page 8 (text) Mum let me off drying the dishes so I could talk to Great‐Grandad. Choice!</p> <p>Page 9 (text) Great‐Grandad let me draw pictures of monsters all over his plaster. Awesome!</p> <p>Retelling 1 Then she going in the horse [house]. Then she was writing. Then she was talking to her dad. Then she made all of it—all around.</p> <p>Retelling 2 There ... they was talking. There they was talking about the leg and mum was ... washing the cups and then boy writed on Grandad's leg. And Grandad was laughing.</p> <p>Page 10 (text) Sometimes Great‐Grandad calls me 'Rob'. That's Dad's name. 'I'm Sam, not Rob,' I tell him. But I don't mind really. When Great‐Grandad's leg gets itchy, I reach my hand inside his plaster and scratch. When he wants a cup of tea, I bring it with two ginger biscuits.</p> <p>Retelling 1 Dad said, 'Whatever you like to make'. Then she sat in the chair.</p> <p>Retelling 2 When the boy finished Grandad was laughing and the boy was happy. The Grandad was touching the boy's head.</p> <p>Page 12 (text) Mostly we just talk. I've learned heaps about Great‐Grandad. I want Great‐Grandad to stay!</p> <p>Retelling 1 They was talking.</p> <p>Retelling 2 Mum and dad was laughing and grandad was happy and the boy was happy.</p> <p>In this section, the comparison of the two retellings shows that by the second retelling an improved comprehension of the events in the story can be seen through Athiqa's more extensive vocabulary ('laughing', 'touching') and use of literary language 'The Grandad was touching the boy's head'. She can sequence logically and with greater complexity, and describe and connect events. For example:</p> <p>There ... they was talking. There they was talking about the leg and mum was ... washing the cups and then boy writed on Grandad's leg. And Grandad was laughing.</p> <p>Characters are included and the main points identified. Also by the post‐test, Athiqa is able to make sound judgments to organize her narrative and to make inferences rather than to give merely a limited description of events derived mainly from the illustrations. The last two extracts provide a compelling contrast:</p> <p>Retelling 1 They was talking.</p> <p>Retelling 2 Mum and dad was laughing and Grandad was happy and the boy was happy.</p> <p>These show that, whilst Athiqa has not grasped the main idea of the story in that Sam has come to love Grandad and now wants him to stay with the family, her development of linguistic competence is striking. This developing expressive language capacity is indicated by the CELF also: Athiqa's receptive language score increases from 42/60 to 51/60 in the year, whilst her expressive language score moves from 31/112 to 60/112. The total score remains lower than what might be considered the norm for her age; however, Athiqa speaks English as an additional language and is making progress.</p> <p>Athiqa's scores for the various language areas as assessed by the Story Retelling (Tell Me) assessment task are shown in Table 1.</p> <p>Table 1. Athiqa's Story Retelling (Tell Me) assessment task scores</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>2004</td><td>2005</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Collaborative reading</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td> Comprehension (/3)</td><td>1</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Retelling</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td> Sentence Structure (/3)</td><td>2</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td> Vocabulary (/3)</td><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td> Global Judgments</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>  Organization (/3)</td><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>  Description/Expression (/3)</td><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>  Content (/3)</td><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Appendix B (Table B1) shows Athiqa's scores in the CELF assessment. Her scores in this assessment indicate improvements in every area of language, with the exception of the Basic Concepts where her score remains the same.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-20">Section 2: children's scores at school entry</hd> <p>This section examines the assessments of six children in their first term, all attending the same primary school.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-21">NZ Story Retelling task</hd> <p>Table 2 shows the children's scores on the NZ Story Retelling task at school entry. Three of the children have scored 2 or 3 on each subscore, thus indicating that these five year olds have used language very competently in this activity. The other three children's scores indicate some less developed language areas particularly in relation to Comprehension, which is assessed by the teacher at the end of the collaborative reading.</p> <p>Table 2. Story Retelling (Tell Me) assessment task scores</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>C (/3)</td><td>SS (/3)</td><td>V (/3)</td><td>O (/3)</td><td>D/E (/3)</td><td>Con. (/3)</td><td>Total score (/18)</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Mustaq</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Tarik</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>Natalie</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>Mason</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>Adwaa</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>Ayanna</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>2/3</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>17/18</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0024975787-22">CELF Scores</hd> <p>The children's CELF scores at school entry are shown in Table 3, with two of the children scoring less than a standardized score of 85. A score of 85–110 is described in the CELF—Preschool UK manual as being 'within the average range'. Four of the six children have English as an additional language. Mustaq, Tarik and Adwaa have Bengali as their first language, while Natalie's first language is Chinese.</p> <p>Table 3. CELF test scores</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>Total standard score</td><td>Receptive standard score</td><td>Expressive standard score</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Mustaq</td><td>70</td><td>64</td><td>79</td></tr><tr><td>Tarik</td><td>84</td><td>89</td><td>84</td></tr><tr><td>Natalie</td><td>90</td><td>91</td><td>86</td></tr><tr><td>Mason</td><td>92</td><td>86</td><td>96</td></tr><tr><td>Adwaa</td><td>92</td><td>97</td><td>86</td></tr><tr><td>Ayanna</td><td>102</td><td>93</td><td>102</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>There is agreement in the overall ranking between the total SS CELF score and the total NZ Story Retelling score of the six children. Close agreement also exists when the Expressive SS CELF score is compared to the Total NZ Story Retelling score.</p> <p>Table 4 indicates the children's scores on the CELF subtests. The results indicate that Mustaq had particular difficulty with three of the subtests (Linguistic Concepts, Formulating Labels and Word Structure) in which he achieved fewer than half the available marks. Natalie obtained the lowest score for the Word Structure subtest. Ayanna obtained the highest scores in all three of the subtests for expressive language (Recalling Sentences in Context, Formulating Labels and Word Structure).</p> <p>Table 4. CELF subtest scores</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>LC (/20)</td><td>BC (/18)</td><td>SS (/22)</td><td>RSC (/52)</td><td>FL (/40)</td><td>WS (/20)</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Mustaq</td><td>9</td><td>12</td><td>14</td><td>37</td><td>2</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>Tarik</td><td>16</td><td>14</td><td>19</td><td>33</td><td>18</td><td>10</td></tr><tr><td>Natalie</td><td>14</td><td>16</td><td>17</td><td>40</td><td>25</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Mason</td><td>16</td><td>13</td><td>17</td><td>37</td><td>19</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>Adwaa</td><td>15</td><td>17</td><td>19</td><td>33</td><td>20</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Ayanna</td><td>14</td><td>17</td><td>18</td><td>43</td><td>26</td><td>17</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>The CELF test assesses levels of functioning across a range of sub‐skills for both receptive and expressive language, in an indisputably test‐like situation in which the tester interrogates the child using specified questions. The Story Retelling task is designed to assess oral narrative ability in a way that resembles authentic classroom practice, by ensuring that the child retells the story to an audience. The subtest Recalling Sentences in Context in the CELF approximates most closely the SEA by measuring auditory memory and recall of particular sentences of a story with an illustration as a prompt. However RSC offers the children no opportunity to structure their retelling of the story or to appreciate the purpose of the activity. Comparison of the SEA with the CELF confirmed the relative differential levels of performance between the children.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-23">Section 3: teachers' views about the NZ Story Retelling assessment task</hd> <p>Teachers' views about the NZ assessment task were sought through an informal semi‐structured interview.</p> <p>Teachers liked the attractiveness of the storybooks used for the story retelling assessment. The most challenging text was <emph>Great times with Great‐Grandad</emph>, written by David Hill. This story, according to the teachers' notes,</p> <p>tells how the narrator was at first disgruntled with the arrival of his Great‐Grandad with his leg in plaster. However, as different episodes occur, Great‐Grandad proves to be great company and a welcome companion after all. The first‐person narrative presents an interesting challenge, but the child's growing sense of discovering a kindred spirit is readily appealing, the vocabulary familiar, and the time sequence helpful. The illustrations reflect the warmth of the theme. (p. 23)</p> <p>The reception teacher who used this book considered it to be a difficult story for children entering the reception class in January and this view was supported by the Year 1 teacher who administered the assessment one year later. The following issues were thought to affect comprehension:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> • Interest level—some of the children did not find the story particularly appealing and this resulted in loss of interest.</item> <p></p> <item> • There was no close match between the text and the accompanying illustrations. However, whilst perceived as a disadvantage of the book used by the two teachers, it is an intentional feature of the assessment in order to establish how much of the read text the child is able to remember and retell, rather than merely relying on the illustrations for their story as, in fact, Athiqa did.</item> <p></p> <item> • Events mentioned in the story did not relate to children's own experiences and therefore they found it difficult to identify with the main character in the story. Few children were aware that a broken leg is put in plaster and that people often personalize their plaster with drawings and writing. Furthermore, children were unaware that the presence of the plaster would cause itching. This was difficult to explain to the children.</item> <p></p> <item> • Unfamiliar vocabulary ('tattoo' and 'dagger' on page 6; 'scrambler bike' on page 7) and colloquial New Zealand terms ('Choice!' on page 8; 'Awesome!' on page 9). Few children were familiar with the term 'Great‐Grandad' so the reception teacher referred to the character as 'Grandad' instead.</item> </ulist> <p>It was also fairly time consuming to learn how to assess the oral narratives, and repeating it with children in the same class acting as the audience (as suggested in the teachers' notes) was seen as problematic to the teachers. The reception teacher avoided this by asking the child being assessed to retell the story to a friend (or puppet). The Year 1 teacher remarked that she was not very confident in marking the assessment (regarding nuances of language) and both teachers thought it might be helpful for two people to work together initially (in order to reach agreement over scoring). Both teachers felt that with further experience of administering the test they would 'get better at knowing what to record'.</p> <p>The two teachers were positive, however, about the actual assessment, despite these reservations. The test itself took 20–30 minutes to administer. Both teachers remarked that it had provided some really useful insights into the children's developing oral language abilities. The reception teacher, for example, remarked that one boy's retelling had changed entirely her expectations of what he was actually able to do, which was at odds with what he did in the classroom. The assessment gave the children an opportunity to say more than they would normally be able to say in a group or whole‐class situation. Both teachers considered it useful for the child to retell the story to one of their peers (in addition to the teacher).</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-24">Discussion</hd> <p>This study was designed to examine and review the appropriateness and usefulness of the NZ SEA task for assessing children's oral narrative skills during their first year of school in the UK setting.</p> <p>Several principles of assessment of young children were important in the development of the NZ task that are consistent with early years practice in the UK. Assessment should:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> • be child centred;</item> <p></p> <item> • take place in a meaningful context;</item> <p></p> <item> • place importance on both process and product;</item> <p></p> <item> • be useful to teachers;</item> <p></p> <item> • be grounded in research;</item> <p></p> <item> • be unobtrusive</item> </ulist> <p>Recent interest in the role of formative assessment has been considerable. Black and Wiliam have argued that this kind of assessment 'is at the heart of effective teaching' ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref29">1</reflink>], p. 2) and that there is a firm body of evidence to support this. Strengthening the practice of formative assessment produces significant learning gains (Black & Wiliam, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref30">1</reflink>], p. 3). Early oral language abilities are strongly linked to the development of emergent literacy skills and achievement in reading (Dockrell, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref31">5</reflink>]). However, talk can be difficult to assess, thus making it difficult for teachers to describe a child's attainment and progress accurately. In the present study, both the CELF and the NZ SEA task were administered at the beginning of the child's first year at school and again one year later. This enabled the teacher to identify progress that had been made. This assessment tool had not originally been designed to be repeated in this way and there was a tendency for the more advanced readers to want to read the print (rather than retell the story in their own words) during the second assessment.</p> <p>According to Black and Wiliam, 'a good test can be a learning as well as a testing occasion' ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref32">1</reflink>], p. 12). As the NZ Story Retelling assessment guide states: '... the information can contribute to decisions about a child's strengths and needs and assist in planning to provide suitable challenges or address particular concerns' (p. 28).</p> <p>An individual's acquisition of oracy allows access to a powerful symbolic system which enables the expression of needs and desires, the establishment and maintenance of relationships, and is a vehicle through which to learn about the world. The ability of teachers to assess spoken language accurately is crucially important, particularly, as stated above, for those teachers of children from diverse backgrounds. This micro‐study to explore the value of the NZ Story Retelling task in the UK has highlighted two issues connected with assessing young children's developing competence in spoken language.</p> <p>The first issue is the nature and extent of teachers' subject knowledge of oracy in general, and of linguistic and syntactic structures in particular, rather than merely using increased vocabulary as the only indicator of development. One reason for this insecurity might be that courses of initial and continuing teacher education focus more on the indicators of progress in written language. Another reason might be that reading and writing development, whilst complex, are more easily observed and recorded by the very fact that they are written. The assessment of spoken language is problematic because it is ephemeral.</p> <p>The second issue, which is connected to the last point, is the availability of classroom‐friendly and manageable assessment tools for early years teachers to use. The principles that underpin the design of the NZ Story Retelling task do seem to make it, with local adaptation, precisely this type of assessment tool. Adaptations would include the production of specially authored, lively texts for use in multicultural schools in the UK. Professional development and practice opportunities, prior to adoption, would also be necessary for all practitioners. As we saw from Athiqa's oral narratives, the Story Retelling task offered rich opportunities for listening to andcomprehension of a story, to use language creatively in the retelling, to structure and organize ideas, and to demonstrate growing control over sentence structure and choice of vocabulary. Finally, the Story Retelling task provides an authentic vehicle for children to speak at length on a topic.</p> <p>Previous research (Gilmore, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref33">8</reflink>]; MacDonald & McNaughton, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref34">17</reflink>]) has found the Story Retelling assessment task to have high validity and reliability. This indicates that this procedure can provide useful information for teachers on narrative aspects of language. In addition, agreement between the Story Retelling scores and the comprehensive standardized CELF was revealed in the present study. Given that the ability to narrate and report is a vital skill for future academic success and is highly correlated to later fluency in reading, it is important to examine ways in which teachers can use the assessment information from the Story Retelling task to make their teaching more effective and monitor children's developing competence in spoken language.</p> <hd id="AN0024975787-25">Appendix A</hd> <p>Table A1. The text of Great times with Great‐Grandad</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td>Page no.</td><td>Text</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>2</td><td>After Great‐Grandad fell over in the shower and broke his leg, the people at the hospital put his leg in plaster. Now he's come to stay with us. Mum and Dad cook his meals. They take him to the toilet. They're too busy to play with me. I want Great‐Grandad to go!</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>I took Great‐Grandad a cup of tea. I accidentally spilled some on his pyjamas. 'Say I did it, Sam,' he grinned. 'They won't tell me off.'</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Great‐Grandad gave me one of his ginger biscuits. He let me dunk it in his tea. The biscuit tasted all sweet and sloppy.</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Great‐Grandad showed me the tattoo on his arm. It's a blue snake with red eyes, and it twists around a dagger. Amazing!</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Then I showed Great‐Grandad the scrambler bike I ride to school. He told me about the horse he used to ride to school. Neat!</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Mum let me off drying the dishes so I could talk to Great‐Grandad. Choice!</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Great‐Grandad let me draw pictures of monsters all over his plaster. Awesome!</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Sometimes Great‐Grandad calls me 'Rob'. That's Dad's name. 'I'm Sam, not Rob,' I tell him. But I don't mind really. When Great‐Grandad's leg gets itchy, I reach my hand inside his plaster and scratch. When he wants a cup of tea, I bring it with two ginger biscuits.</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Mostly we just talk. I've learned heaps about Great‐Grandad. I want Great‐Grandad to stay!</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0024975787-26">Appendix B</hd> <p>Table B1. Athiqa's CELF test scores</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead valign="bottom"><tr><td /><td>2004</td><td>2005</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Receptive language</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td> Linguistic Concepts (/20)</td><td>11</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td> Basic Concepts (/18)</td><td>15</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td> Sentence Structure (/22)</td><td>16</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>Expressive language</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td> Recalling Sentences in Context (/52)</td><td>21</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td> Formulating Labels (/40)</td><td>5</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td> Word Structure (/20)</td><td>5</td><td>12</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <ref id="AN0024975787-27"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref23" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Black, P. and Wiliam, D.1998. Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment, London: King's College London, University of London.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Bruner, J.1990. Acts of meaning, London: Harvard University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref18" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> DfES. 2006. The independent review of the teaching of early reading: final report, London: DfES.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref17" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> DfES. 2007. The statutory framework for the early years Foundation Stage, London: DfES.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref31" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Dockrell, J. E.2001. Assessing language skills in pre‐school children. Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review, 6: 74–85.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref7" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Engel, S.1995. The stories children tell: making sense of the narrative of childhood, London: W. H. Freeman.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref8" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Fox, C.1993. At the very edge of the forest: the influence of literature on storytelling by children, London: Cassell.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref33" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Gilmore, A. M.1998. School entry assessment: the first national picture, Wellington: Ministry of Education.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref11" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Goodman, K. and Goodman, Y. M.1979. "Learning to read is natural". In Theory and practice of early reading, Edited by: Resnick, L. and Weaver, P.Vol. 1, Hillsdale: Erlbaum.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Gregory, E.1996. Making sense of a new world: learning to read in a second language, London: Paul Chapman.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hardy, B.1977. "Narrative as a primary act of the mind". In The cool web: the pattern of children's reading, Edited by: Meek, M., Warlow, A. and Barton, G.London: Bodley Head.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Harrett, J. and Benjamin, T.2005. What is a real story? Investigating the perceptions of Key Stage One children. Early Years, 25(1): 31–42.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Heath, S. B.1982. What no bedtime story means: narrative skills at home and school. Language in Society, 11(2): 49–76.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Heath, S. B.1983. Ways with words: language, life and work in communities and classrooms, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Jones, P.1988. Lipservice: the story of talk in schools, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lindsay, G. and Dockrell, J. E.2002. Meeting the needs of children with speech and communication needs: a critical perspective on inclusion and collaboration. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18(2): 91–101.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> MacDonald, S. and McNaughton, S.1999. Features of children's storytelling on entry to school. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 34(2): 349–353.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ministry of Education. 1997. School Entry Assessment, Wellington: Learning Media.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Riley, J. L.1996. The teaching of reading: the development of literacy in the first year of school, London: Paul Chapman.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Riley, J. and Reedy, D.2000. Developing writing for different purposes: teaching about genre in the early years, London: Paul Chapman.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Snow, C.1991. The theoretical basis for relationships between language and literacy development. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 6(1): 5–15.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Wells, G.1987. 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Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—Preschool UK (CELF–Preschool UK), London: Psychological Corporation.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Jeni Riley and Andrew Burrell</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref34"></nolink>
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  Data: Assessing Children's Oral Storytelling in Their First Year of School
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22International+Journal+of+Early+Years+Education%22"><i>International Journal of Early Years Education</i></searchLink>. Jun 2007 15(2):181-196.
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/default.html
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  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Kindergarten%22">Kindergarten</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Primary+Education%22">Primary Education</searchLink>
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  Data: 10.1080/09669760701289136
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  Data: 0966-9760
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  Data: This paper discusses a micro-study within an intervention project, conducted in four London primary schools, to enhance the spoken language skills of reception children. There were 60 children in each of the intervention and comparison groups. The focus here is to explore a classroom assessment of young children's oral narrative skills. Effective early language and literacy teaching with children from diverse backgrounds depends upon having detailed knowledge of children's oral skills, especially oral narrative skills, since the ability to narrate and report is a vital skill for future academic success and is highly correlated with later fluency in reading. Teachers need detailed descriptions of their pupils' spoken language skills and this is especially important where populations are diverse. A story retelling activity, developed and used extensively in New Zealand, gives teachers information about their pupils' language skills on entry to school. This procedure ("Tell Me") can be used in the normal course of classroom teaching and its evaluation for use in the UK is the focus of the present study. (Contains 4 tables.)
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        Value: 10.1080/09669760701289136
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      – Text: English
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      – SubjectFull: Language Skills
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Intervention
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Speech
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Oral Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Emergent Literacy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Story Telling
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Children
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Research Projects
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: English (Second Language)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Receptive Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Language Tests
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Expressive Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Fluency
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: New Zealand
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: United Kingdom (London)
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Assessing Children's Oral Storytelling in Their First Year of School
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Riley, Jeni
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Burrell, Andrew
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 06
              Type: published
              Y: 2007
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0966-9760
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 15
            – Type: issue
              Value: 2
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: International Journal of Early Years Education
              Type: main
ResultId 1