Assessing Vocabulary Knowledge
Pre-Unit Screening Assessment:
Assessment of student word and definition knowledge begins before starting a ECVI-DHH unit. The purpose of this assessment is to determine the appropriate set of target words. Within an itinerant teaching setting, target word sets should consist only of words the student does not know. It may be more difficult to create a target word set of completely unknown words within a classroom setting. For classroom (i.e., whole group) instruction, word sets can consist of words that the majority of students do not know. It is best to determine student word knowledge by assessing each student individually. In this way progress can be determined on an individual student basis.
Procedures:
- Prepare a set of 12-15 possible target word cards. These words should be taken from both unit books. This set of word cards will be whittled down to 5-8 target words for the unit.
- Present each word card to the student and prompt for the word (e.g., "What is that?").
- After student attempts or gives target word, prompt for definition (e.g., "What can you tell me about that?").
- Use the Assessment Protocol to record student responses. You may want to video record the student so that word definitions can be transcribed accurately after the intervention is completed.
Post-Unit Assessment:Follow steps 2-4 above with the set of target words.
Assessment Demonstration Videos: