Checkpoint for Olivia, 16 months old 4/14/2010 While changing Olivia s diaper today, I sang the song, Where are baby s fingers, where is baby s nose... After I said nose, I paused, and Olivia touched her nose. When I sang Here are baby s toes, Olivia giggled and began kicking her feet. 4/30/2010 We were reading one of the animal board books today. When Olivia saw the picture of the puppy, she made a grrr sound. When she saw a picture of a kitten on the next page, she made a meow sound. When I asked her which one was the kitten, she pointed to the picture of the kitten and said Kitty. 4/08/2010 Olivia stepped onto the stool and put her hands under the faucet when I told her that it was almost snack time so we should wash our hands. Rating: Level 4 Justification: Olivia points to the kitten on the page when prompted. She identifies her nose and toes when asked and goes to the sink when told it is time to wash her hands. This demonstrates the indicator at Level 4.
Checkpoint for Grant, 3 years old 3/31/2010 During small-group time, Grant counted bottle caps and put them with the correct numerals on the graph. Later, during choice time, he had many bottle caps spread randomly around the graph (not in columns). I asked him, What happened here? Grant replied, But I don t know how. 4/01/2010 When I asked Grant to find 8 bottle caps for our graph, he accurately counted 6 bottle caps by moving the caps as he touched them and then stopped. 4/15/2010 While playing on the playground, I asked Grant to please go find Damian and tell him it was his turn to use the bike. Grant went over to Damian and handed him a bike helmet. Rating: Level 5 Justification: Grant identifies familiar objects and people and when prompted (Level 4), but does not consistently respond to simple statements and questions appropriately (Level 6). Therefore, his skills are at Level 5, emerging toward Level 6.
Checkpoint for Lydia, 3 years old 3/10/2010 After reading aloud Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I asked Lydia some questions about the characters. Me: Why do you think Goldilocks went to their house? Lydia: Goldilocks. Later in the day, I asked Lydia if she liked the book, and she said yes. I began talking about parts of the story (e.g., Who s been eating my porridge? ) and Lydia said, Bears eating, while she made eating gestures with her hands. 04/13/2010 Lydia tried to line up dolls, but they kept falling over. She continued to try. A parent volunteer, Miss Jane, suggested that Lydia lean the dolls against the wall. Lydia leaned them against a bookshelf and said, Miss Jane, it work! Rating: Level 5 Justification: Lydia responds appropriately when a volunteer suggests that she lean the dolls against the wall and identifies the volunteer. However, when Lydia responds to the teacher s question about Goldilocks and the Three Bears, she demonstrates that she does not consistently comprehend the language or respond appropriately. This demonstrates an emerging ability at Level 5.
Checkpoint for Shalai, Kindergarten 1/12/2010 We did the AOC Let s Read Together today. After I handed him the book upside down, Shalai oriented it correctly when asked and flipped the pages from front to back as he pretended to read Our Tree Named Steve. He ran his fingers over the words, left to right, and when he came to one page that had quite a bit of print, he said, This may take a while. There are a lot of words here. 1/6/2010 When I introduced the gardening tools in circle time today, Shalai raised his hand to talk. When I called on him, he said his granddaddy had a hoe at his house too and he used it to kill a snake one time. When another student asked what kind of snake it was, Shalai said it was a rattley snake because it made noise with its tail. When another student asked what happened, Shalai said they were working in the garden and his granddaddy saw the snake, so he got his hoe, and hit the snake over the head. continued on next page
Checkpoint for Shalai, Kindergarten, continued 12/9/2009 Shalai pointed to the front and back of the book when asked. Rating: Level 7 Me: What does an author do? Shalai: Wrote the words. Me: What does an illustrator do? Shalai: Drew the pictures. Me: Who is your favorite author? Shalai: Ezra Jack Keats, cuz I like Peter s Chair. When I asked him to read me a book, he said, I don t know how to read this. There s too many words and letters. Justification: Shalai responds appropriately to simple requests, statements, and questions (Level 6), and shows that he understands what is being said or asked through his verbal responses. In two observation notes, Shalai offers interesting comments in response to simple request to read a book. This shows that Shalai s skills are beyond Level 6, but not quite at Level 8, because there is no evidence yet that he responds appropriately to complex requests, statements, questions, vocabulary, and stories. Shalai demonstrates emerging abilities at Level 7.