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Time to Talk- Riverina language project
Session 2
Assessing Talking and Listening
Characteristics of a students with a language difficulty
A student experiencing difficulties with language may exhibit some or many of the following characteristics:
• Difficulty expressing needs and providing information to others• A very literal or concrete use of language. A student may not 'play around' with language, with words jokes puns• Difficulty following direction, may only hear key words or phrases• Have poor categorisation skills, grouping and classifying words• Difficulty with sequencing stories and or recounting events coherently• Difficulty answering a variety of question types
• An auditory processing deficit can interfere directly with speech and language, but can affect all areas of learning, especially reading and spelling. When instruction in school relies primarily on spoken language, the individual with an auditory processing disorder may have serious difficulty understanding the lesson or the directions.
• Common areas of difficulty and some educational implications:• Phonological awareness
– Phonological awareness is the understanding that language is made up of individual sounds (phonemes) which are put together to form the words we write and speak. This is a fundamental precursor to reading. Children who have difficulty with phonological awareness will often be unable to recognize or isolate the individual sounds in a word, recognize similarities between words (as in rhyming words), or be able to identify the number of sounds in a word. These deficits can affect all areas of language including reading, writing, and understanding of spoken language.
– Though phonological awareness develops naturally in most children, the necessary knowledge and skills can be taught through direct instruction for those who have difficulty in this area.
• Auditory discrimination
– Auditory discrimination is the ability to recognize differences in phonemes (sounds). This includes the ability to identify words and sounds that are similar and those which are different.
Characteristics of a students with a language difficulty
Difficulty speaking clearly and conveying meaning to peers
Difficulty re-phrasing statements to increase clarity
Uses non-specific words e.g.: sort of, stuff, junk, thingy
Has trouble finding the exact word e.g. a stamp is at first called a badge ,label or sticker
Vocabulary lacks variety eg. uses big to mean tall, strong, enormous or good to mean happy, polite, kind, generous
Difficulty getting to the point when explaining something
Difficulty adjusting speech to suit situations e.g. when talking to a younger child, or the principal
Characteristics of a students with a language difficulty
Problems with the social aspects of language and communication such as
• Poor turn taking skills• Inappropriate eye contact• Inappropriate personal space• Difficulty with changes in routine• Difficulty initiating and sustaining
conversations• Difficulty staying on a topic• Understanding appropriate terms of
address• Requesting needs• Gaining attention appropriately• Inability to clarify when not understood• Often has verbal misunderstandings with
others
Characteristics of a students with a language difficulty
• Auditory memory– Auditory memory is the ability to store
and recall information which was given verbally. An individual with difficulties in this area may not be able to follow instructions given verbally or may have trouble recalling information from a story read aloud.
• Auditory sequencing– Auditory sequencing is the ability to
remember or reconstruct the order of items in a list or the order of sounds in a word or syllable. One example is saying or writing "ephelant" for"elephant".
• From The National Centre for Learning Disabilities
Developing a talking and listening assessment task
Easter bunny recording form
Some examples could be:
Indicators of success:…………………….. used the following skills
Student understood the concept or positional wordsbelow circle around bottom small
above large
Demonstrated an understanding of the numbers three two
Followed instructions of up to three steps or ideas
Demonstrated an understanding of coloursgreen yellow orange brown red
Demonstrated an understanding of the shapescircle square stripe star
BEHAVIOURS to OBSERVEAsking questions, seeking clarificationWatching speaker, eye contact, keeping on task
The task is linked to the following English outcome(s): TS1.1 Communicates with an increasing range of people for a variety of purposes on both familiar and unfamiliar topics in spontaneous and structured classroom activities
TASK: The student is asked to follow directions to complete a picture. The instructions are simple one and two step instructions(activity from Listening Comprehension - Jn Level by Graeme Beals Curriculum Concepts Aust. Pty Ltd)
TASK: The student is asked to follow directions to complete a picture. The instructions are simple one and two step instructions(activity from Listening Comprehension - Jn Level by Graeme Beals Curriculum Concepts Aust. Pty Ltd)
1. Write your name at the top of the page2. Colour the end of the lion’s tail brown3. Put a circle around the lion4. Colour the lion’s body yellow5. Give your lion some more teeth6. Colour the lion’s hairy mane brown like his tail7. Find the piece in the drawing that shows the lion has been roaring and go over the lines in red8. Think about what the lion might have been eating for dinner and draw it on the ground behind the lion9. Colour the lion’s eye red10. If you would like to be this lion’s dinner put a x under your name, but if you would not like to be this lion’s dinner, put a x along the bottom of the page
English : Talking and Listening
Task:
Indicators of success: …………………………….. used the following skills.
� student understood the positional wordstop end of around under behind
� demonstrated attentive listening skills - made eye contact, appeared focussed on the talker
� asked questions to clarify � completed the activity independently
� indicated the ability to recall and execute oral directions containing the linguistic concepts of ‘if’ and ‘but’
Add any comments about the student’s listening skills……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Assessing/observing language in the classroom
Form of language.
•Does the child mainly use single words, phrases or sentences.
•Are the sentences of the subject/verb/object form?
•Are there mature negatives, pronouns, sentence structures?
Understanding of semantic intent.
•Does the child respond appropriately to the various question forms (what, when, where, how, why?)
•Does the child confuse words from different semantic classes? Horse/dog; Water/water; sick,sick
Assessing/observing language in the classroom
Language use. • Does the child use language in a
variety of ways, such as asking for information, help, objects; replying; making statements: providing information;
• Does the child take conversational turns?
• Does the child introduce topics and maintain them through several turns?
• Does the child signal the status of the conversation
( talk appropriately to the level of the other participant) and make repairs when conversation may break down?
Assessing/observing language in the classroom
Sequencing. • Does the child relate events in a
sequential fashion based on the order of occurrence?
• Can the child discuss the recent past or recount stories coherently?
Rate of speaking.• Is the rate too slow or fast? • Are there lengthy pauses? • Does the child use fillers
frequently? • Are there frequent word
substitutions
Samples of oral language
1. News
Record or tape news. Evaluate the news by looking at what indicators from the Talking and Listening strand of the K-6 syllabus are appropriate for the stage of the student.
Oral presentation (Expressive language)
Joshua. (K)• I’m going to Sydney and then after that I
might be going to the snow. To the skiing.• Wow. To ski? When are you going to
Sydney?• I don’t know.• Why are you going there? Are you going
to see something special or visit somebody?
• I’m going there to see my sister when she has her baby because she might have had it.
• Wow. That’s right. I remember you saying that your sister was having a baby very soon. How exciting.
• She said she might be in the hostipal now.
• My goodness well you’ll be waiting to see Mum this afternoon to see whether your sister has had the baby or not.
• Is it a big hostipal or a little one?• It’s the one in Sydney.• Is she gonna have two babies or one?• One.
Madison (K)• These are my pictures what I did last night.• Who’s that a picture of?• My doll.• Is it of your doll? What does this say? Who wrote
that? Does it say Daniel?• This is, this is meee.• How many do you have in here Madison? Were they
all from last night?• A lot. And this is my mummy. And I cutched it all out.• Did it take you a long time to cut them all out?• No.• Who’s this one/? Is this one mum?• And this is a duck.• A duck?• A funny duck. And this is a thing that makes the duck
fly.• What are they called – the things that make a duck
fly? Wings. Thank you Robert. You were very very busy. What’s this one?
• Nothing.• This is myyyy ummmm, my picture of a --- horse.• And what about this one? This is very beautiful.
You’ve used lots of colours.• I drawed and I drawed and I did it all by myself.• You’re clever doing that all by yourself and you’re
getting much better at colouring in, staying inside the lines and using lots of beautiful colours. Would you like to take some questions?
• ELLIE.• Which picture was your favourite?• All of them.• Did you get any help with it?• No. I’ll have to do more at home.
Nathan (K)• Mum wouldn’t, uh Mum didn’t put a bandaid on
this.• Your cut? Today, you had a bandaid on there
yesterday. Would you like to tell everybody what happened?
• Mum cut dis yesterday, last night.• How?• With the sharp knife.• Were you grabbing something from Mum
when she was cutting? What were you grabbing?
• The sharp knife. And it slipped, cut my fingers.• Did she say sorry?• Is there something else you’d like to share with
us Nathan?• Food.• Food?• At home.• OK. Is there something else you would like to
tell your friends?• I got, I got, I got a car to turn around.
(Describes downward spiralling movement with hands.)
• On different levels is it? Do you let it go? Does it come down by itself?
• Yeah, one black, push it up and it goes down the bottom.
• What day did you get it?• Um, yesterday. Get what?• Get the car racing.• (Some unintelligible remarks.)
Assessing and Planning- where am I going? • CONTENT: Mid Stage 1 (p.52
English K-6)• Use spoken language for a variety
of purposes on an expanding range of topics- e.g. sequence real or imagined events in time order, express opinions and ideas to known adults, teachers, peers on familiar topics.
• Practise speaking clearly and varying voice in a variety of formal and informal situations
• Practise making effective contributions to class discussions on familiar topics, focusing on turn-taking, seeking clarification, body language, staying on topic
Assessing news- activity
Activity 2- Intro to Talking and Listening Assessment
How In small groups the participants discuss and identify specific outcomes and indicators that could be used to evaluate how a student gives and listens to information given during news time. What would they be looking for in order to assess talking and listening skills for the identified stage?
Learning to Talk and Listen- Stage 1 assessment task
CONTEXT: The student will deliver news or an oral
recount on a familiar topic to a known audience. This activity may take place with the whole class, in a small group, or pairs. The teacher will target a particular student or group of students to observe how the student(s) interact during this session. The teacher should tape or attempt to scribe the interactions as carefully as possible in order to fully evaluate the student’s ability to give a coherent oral recount. Evidence of the students’ skills may be gathered over time.
Student: Age: Date:
Indicators:
Purpose recounts events in a logical sequence uses vocabulary labels specific to the topic (not using words
like ‘thing’ ‘stuff’) maintains a single topic where appropriate combines ideas in sentences that make senseText StructureIncludes features relevant for a recount such as: when who where what happenedand perhaps why how they feltCorrect syntax evident tense is consistent and appropriate to the content word order is correct- e.g SVO pronouns are used consistently and appropriately conjunctions are used to join sentences or ideasQuestions answers a range of questions, both teacher and student,
appropriately
Audience, Subject
matter
talks comfortably with peers
Interaction skills uses appropriate body language and gestures
rephrases statements to increase clarity
Oral presentation skills
experiments with varying voice, tone, volume and pace to indicate emotions
with prompting varies rate and level of speech to aid understanding
makes eye contact as and where appropriate with audience
JoshuaPurpose recounts events in a logical sequence uses vocabulary labels specific to the topic
(not using words like ‘thing’ ‘stuff’) maintains a single topic where appropriate combines ideas in sentences that make
senseText StructureIncludes features relevant for a recount such as: when who where what happenedand perhaps why how they feltCorrect syntax evident tense is consistent and appropriate to the
content word order is correct- e.g SVO pronouns are used consistently and
appropriately conjunctions are used to join sentences or
ideasQuestions answers a range of questions, both teacher
and student, appropriately
Samples of oral language2. Retelling a story• Tell a simple story to the student, using
picture cues, sequence cards to assist the student in remembering the story. It is important for the story to have some sort of problem to be resolved. A textless book or a set of sequence pictures are an ideal tool. The story can be taped and scribed later.
• A simple story familiar to the student can be used as well. Record the story and look at the grammar used as well as the elements that should be included in a story. A checklist may be useful in evaluating a retelling activity .
• Retelling a story will give an idea of the students ability to understand a story but in some cases asking probing questions about the story can also assist a teacher to evaluate the receptive language skills of a student.
Oral presentation
(Expressive language)
What to look for- during story telling, news and/or conversation
Does the student :
•Have persistent grammatical immaturities such as :
PRONOUNS eg It’s hers ball; Him did it all
TENSE FORMS eg They goed to the movies
PLURALS eg The cat catched two mouses
•Speak in short sentences using simple grammar; relies on well practised sentence forms
•have difficulty giving instructions for games or directions to an exact location
•Tell stories that seem to be disjointed, miss important details about characters and events
•Have poor recall of main points of a story - sometimes focussing on irrelevant details
•initiate conversation less often than peers
•have a lot to say but what is said lacks specific detail, leaving the listener confused
•hesitant speech , fill gaps with pauses or numerous ‘ums’
Understanding language (Receptive language)
2. VocabularyCompile a list of the names of things
the class teacher feels are important for the student to know. The student should not only be able to name the items but also tell what they are for or what they may mean.
Common vocabulary items may include: Animals; wild, zoo, pet,
Australian, ocean Clothing; school, home, hot,
cold, At Home; rooms, kitchen, tools,
activities Toys, games, equipment Classroom stuff
‘Vocabulary’ has layers
a. Labellingb. Functionc. Simple descriptiond. Similarities and differencese. Associationsf. Categorising or classifyingg. Synonyms and antonymsh. Multiple meaningsi. Figurative connotations
Focus on expanding classroom discourse
• More teacher quiet- more space for talk• Listen to what they say rather than how• Scaffold small group work- 2s and 3s• Distribute turns more evenly• Hold the ‘evaluation move’ ;use
placeholders….• Encourage risk taking around ideas and
expression• Extending, linking, reframing students
responses- keep a record on a pad- e.g discussion between 2 students
Spoken language needs to be scaffoldedCazden, C. Classroom discourse (1985)
Activities to explore
• Cooperative learning Visual/critical literacy- picture books
• Text orientation
• Higher order thinking
• Substantive communication
• Questioning
• Philosophy and picture books
General Strategies Use News Time or Class talks as an
activity to practice sentence structure, recount and retelling as well as answering WH questions
Practice Following Directions during activities such as craft activities, Science and Sport time. Playing games such as Simon Says, Barrier games or Follow the Leader are activities to practice following instructions.
Teach sentence structure and comprehension through Story Retelling and oral Narratives. Students can use picture cues and tape their stories. Someone can scribe their stories
Use Barrier Games to teach Following Directions, Asking for Help, the understanding of Positional concepts
During Maths be aware of the use of concept words such as quantity words, position and size words.
Teach story telling with sequence pictures as prompts. Story telling circle
The use of puppets as prompts for talking Lester and Clyde barrier game
General strategies to consider
the language requirements of the lesson or activity
the teacher talk involved in explaining or discussing the activity
the classroom environment, is it conducive to oral language use, are questions and answers freely allowed and does correct modelling occur
Research- some classrooms kids get to talk only once per day!
are classroom routines set and predictable for those students who have difficulty following directions
do activities need to be adjusted or extended to allow for talking and listening goals to be met
what exactly are the specific language needs of all the students – do I know or do I need to investigate some more???????