Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Information

Student Name:  Kelly Smith                                  Student No:  ********

Assessed By:  Jenni Oldfield                                Date:  20 October 1999

Background Information:  I chatted generally to Kelly about her schooling and she told me she left half way through Year 9, which was about 7 years ago.  She said she hadn’t enjoyed school.  I asked Kelly why she had requested to attend the Reading and Writing class and she explained that she’d generally like to improve her reading and writing skills: punctuation, spelling and grammar.  When asked about the future, Kelly said she’d never thought much about finding a job or courses… all she wanted was to be able to lead a crime free life (this is Kelly’s third time in prison).

Wondering what exercises to give Kelly to assess her written literacy skills, I tried to find out about Kelly’s interests. She screwed up her nose and said “Nothing”, but after some probing I discovered that she liked to read the newspapers, to watch TV, and writing letters to friend was a favorite pass-time.  She also told me she had two children, but they had been taken away from her custody, and she missed them very much.

I gave Kelly 3 written exercises.  I asked her to:

• write a few sentences about her children

• complete a comprehension exercise based on a newspaper article,

• complete a numeracy exercise based on food, shopping and budgeting.

Indicators of Competence

Reading Indicators of Competence:

3.2    Displays an awareness of purpose of text, including unstated meaning.

Kelly was able to read and comprehend the newspaper article about childcare and picked up the tone of the article was chastising women who utilised the service.  She asked for clarification of the meaning of a couple of words.

Writing Indicators of Competence

2.3  Writes about a familiar topic using simple sentence structure and joining ideas through conjunctive links where appropriate.

Kelly’s sentences about her children where well-constructed and her hand-writing is very clear.

Oral Communication Indicators of Competence

3.7  Takes part in short interpersonal exchanges, demonstrating some awareness of register and interactional strategies, for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and developing relationships; exploring issues; or problem-solving.

Kelly gave brief answers to my questions about her experiences in the education system and of her family life.  She asked a couple of questions to clarify some points about the Reading and Writing. 

Numeracy Indicators of Competence

2.10  Selects and uses straight forward mathematical actions in familiar and predictable contexts.

Kelly completed the budgeting exercise using addition, subtraction and multiplication skills.

Other Comments

Kelly didn’t come across as being particularly motivated.  When asked what kind of Reading and Writing work she’d like to concentrate on, Kelly said she’d be happy to do what was given to her.

Recommendations

Needs direction. Interested in Being Australian project to start off with.