The Observation Survey
1. Purpose/ Audience (why use this assessment? Who wants the results and
why?):
An Observation Survey is used to help classroom teachers observe young children’s pre-reading,
reading, writing, listening, and comprehension skills by giving students a series of tasks.
Classroom teachers want the results of this assessment in order to see a student’s progress in
literacy areas over time. An Observation Survey also helps teachers find students strengths and
weaknesses, so they can planinstruction more efficiently and effectively for an individual child, especially
for those children who are struggling with literacy tasks.
2. Materials/ Consistency of use (What are the materials? How does one get access
to them? How consistent are materials from one administrator to another?):
The materials include Marie M. Clay’s book entitled, An Observation Survey of Early Literacy
Achievement which can be purchased by any classroom teacher. In Clay’s book there are assessment
sheets that can be printed off, instructions for giving the assessment, and scoring scales. The book
also includes examples of each assessment.
The materials are consistent from one administrator to the next. There are instructions for each of the
tasks in order to keep teachers testing in a consistent way. Marie Clay suggests watching the video,
reading the book, and receiving training on this assessment in order to use it effectively and get reliable results.
3. What does the learner do? How authentic are the tasks– that is,
how close are the tasks to the reading and writing of school, home, or other
contexts.
The learner will takes a variety of different subtests that focus on their reading and writing
skills. The learner will complete the following assessments
Letter Identification to determine which letters the child knows.
Word Test to determine if the child is building a personal reading vocabulary.
Concepts About Print to determine what the child knows about the way language
is represented in print.
Writing Vocabulary to determine if the child is building a resource of known words.
Hearing and recording Sounds in Words to assess phonemic awareness by
determining how the child represents sounds in graphic form.
Text Reading to determine an appropriate level of text difficulty and to record
what the child does when reading text (using a running record)
The observation Survey is an authentic assessment for the younger
students. These are skills that the learners work on daily in their classroom
setting.
4. Group or individual administration? How is it flexible and
responsive to individuals?
This assessment is administrator individually. The Observation survey is very flexible.
Even though the assessments do have a script the teacher uses. The teacher does not
have to follow the script. The teacher is able to response to the learner based on their needs.
If a learner struggles in one area the teacher has the flexibility to pull another source in that
maybe more familiar to that learner and show more of what they actually know.
5. What information can be discovered about someone’s reading and writing?
Is the information gleaned generalizable to the classroom?
The OSELA allows teachers to gain information about a student’s knowledge of pre-reading
skills and reading. Some of these skills include how many letters and sounds a student can
identify, how many words a student can write,knowledge of print concepts such finding the
front and back cover of a book, ability to write a dictated sentence and reading fluency. This
information is specific to individual students and cannot be used to generalize the needs of a whole group.
6. What is the reference group? What criteria are used to evaluate and interpret scores?
The OSELA is scored using a raw score which translates into a stanine group. After each test is given, the
administrator finds the raw score and the student’s age, then a stanine group is given to correlate with
different age groups.
7. Affordances (What are the opportunities afforded by the use oft his type of assessment or
reasons to use it for particular purposes or with particular persons?)
An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement provides a systematic way of capturing early
reading and writing behaviors. All of the tasks were developed in research studies to assess emergent
literacy in young children. It assesses skills in many areas from letter knowledge to running records, which
measure reading miscues. It gives the teacher a very clear detailed report on student strengths and
weaknesses. It is easy to access all the testing forms and instructions are clearly laid out.
The Observation Survey has sound measurement instruments: standard tasks, standard administration,
and real-world tasks to establish validity.
8. Issues (What are limitations, concerns, or reasons not to use it for particular purposes/persons?)
The issues in using this assessment tool include time restraint, consistency, and level of difficulty.
Obtaining all the data you need to sufficiently assess a student takes relatively a long time. You need
to plan at least three different sittings to complete the assessments. Consistency is relative in administering
this assessment. Since most of the work is based on observation, a lot of the data could be measured differently to
different teachers. It is a very individual, sensitive test that needs to be assessed from a neutral
position. The level of difficulty could be an issue when working with very young learners. If a child is still unable to
read, a majority of the assessments will be insignificant.
Kelsey Gift, Jennica Basler, Angie Hoogenstyn, & Abbey Tiffany
why?):
An Observation Survey is used to help classroom teachers observe young children’s pre-reading,
reading, writing, listening, and comprehension skills by giving students a series of tasks.
Classroom teachers want the results of this assessment in order to see a student’s progress in
literacy areas over time. An Observation Survey also helps teachers find students strengths and
weaknesses, so they can planinstruction more efficiently and effectively for an individual child, especially
for those children who are struggling with literacy tasks.
2. Materials/ Consistency of use (What are the materials? How does one get access
to them? How consistent are materials from one administrator to another?):
The materials include Marie M. Clay’s book entitled, An Observation Survey of Early Literacy
Achievement which can be purchased by any classroom teacher. In Clay’s book there are assessment
sheets that can be printed off, instructions for giving the assessment, and scoring scales. The book
also includes examples of each assessment.
The materials are consistent from one administrator to the next. There are instructions for each of the
tasks in order to keep teachers testing in a consistent way. Marie Clay suggests watching the video,
reading the book, and receiving training on this assessment in order to use it effectively and get reliable results.
3. What does the learner do? How authentic are the tasks– that is,
how close are the tasks to the reading and writing of school, home, or other
contexts.
The learner will takes a variety of different subtests that focus on their reading and writing
skills. The learner will complete the following assessments
Letter Identification to determine which letters the child knows.
Word Test to determine if the child is building a personal reading vocabulary.
Concepts About Print to determine what the child knows about the way language
is represented in print.
Writing Vocabulary to determine if the child is building a resource of known words.
Hearing and recording Sounds in Words to assess phonemic awareness by
determining how the child represents sounds in graphic form.
Text Reading to determine an appropriate level of text difficulty and to record
what the child does when reading text (using a running record)
The observation Survey is an authentic assessment for the younger
students. These are skills that the learners work on daily in their classroom
setting.
4. Group or individual administration? How is it flexible and
responsive to individuals?
This assessment is administrator individually. The Observation survey is very flexible.
Even though the assessments do have a script the teacher uses. The teacher does not
have to follow the script. The teacher is able to response to the learner based on their needs.
If a learner struggles in one area the teacher has the flexibility to pull another source in that
maybe more familiar to that learner and show more of what they actually know.
5. What information can be discovered about someone’s reading and writing?
Is the information gleaned generalizable to the classroom?
The OSELA allows teachers to gain information about a student’s knowledge of pre-reading
skills and reading. Some of these skills include how many letters and sounds a student can
identify, how many words a student can write,knowledge of print concepts such finding the
front and back cover of a book, ability to write a dictated sentence and reading fluency. This
information is specific to individual students and cannot be used to generalize the needs of a whole group.
6. What is the reference group? What criteria are used to evaluate and interpret scores?
The OSELA is scored using a raw score which translates into a stanine group. After each test is given, the
administrator finds the raw score and the student’s age, then a stanine group is given to correlate with
different age groups.
7. Affordances (What are the opportunities afforded by the use oft his type of assessment or
reasons to use it for particular purposes or with particular persons?)
An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement provides a systematic way of capturing early
reading and writing behaviors. All of the tasks were developed in research studies to assess emergent
literacy in young children. It assesses skills in many areas from letter knowledge to running records, which
measure reading miscues. It gives the teacher a very clear detailed report on student strengths and
weaknesses. It is easy to access all the testing forms and instructions are clearly laid out.
The Observation Survey has sound measurement instruments: standard tasks, standard administration,
and real-world tasks to establish validity.
8. Issues (What are limitations, concerns, or reasons not to use it for particular purposes/persons?)
The issues in using this assessment tool include time restraint, consistency, and level of difficulty.
Obtaining all the data you need to sufficiently assess a student takes relatively a long time. You need
to plan at least three different sittings to complete the assessments. Consistency is relative in administering
this assessment. Since most of the work is based on observation, a lot of the data could be measured differently to
different teachers. It is a very individual, sensitive test that needs to be assessed from a neutral
position. The level of difficulty could be an issue when working with very young learners. If a child is still unable to
read, a majority of the assessments will be insignificant.
Kelsey Gift, Jennica Basler, Angie Hoogenstyn, & Abbey Tiffany