Alternative testing techniques

In special education we learn to get creative with how we deliver our teaching and test our students. I have a group of students in my class who i have struggled to formally test. I have used many different techniques to find out if they know their alphabet. For a teacher who has a student who is non-verbal it can be challenging to find out what they know.
Usually i would get them to choose out of 3 cards "show me ___" however what if they cannot yet make choices or don't understand the task? What if they cannot respond to simple instructions like "point to", "show me" or "give me"?
I have a student who i have attempted to test 8 times, ive tried everything from building alphabet towers and getting them to find the correct alphabet block to using  letter stencils to make letters in play dough.
Benjamin (part of my focus group) works well with technology however i couldn't find an app or game that was suitable. I have access to a smart board in my classroom so i made a game where Banjamin had to pop the balloons with the letters on them.
I used peer modelling initially to teach him the task. I used a student who had good alphabet knowledge and as i read out the letter, he would pop the balloon. When it was his turn he completed the task correctly, i was astounded that he knew all his lower case alphabet. I tested him twice to ensure that my data was correct and managed to capture some evidence on video to show his family.
Now that i have found a method to test him, i look forward to finding out what else he knows.

Reading Readiness

I am 3 weeks into teaching my new class. I have 8 students with varied strengths and abilities which is a change from the 5 older students i had for the last 2 years. I have been spending time building relationships, observing what they can do and where they are at.
One of the biggest learning challenges I face is, "how do I know they are ready to read?."
When speaking to a friend of mine who teaches a mainstream new entrant class I understood that most students start school and start on a Magenta reader straight away. This was certainly what i observed when I was out on practicum many years ago.
When i look at my group of students, only a handful would be able to attend to a story or sit at a table long enough to engage.
I came across a blog that has been helpful when deciding on who i was going to start on individual readers. The blog mentions 5 key signs that a child is ready to read with the first one being "engagement" which i believe is key to a successful reading journey as well as concepts about print. This year i want to become more familiar with the assessment tool "concepts about print" which is used widely across our school.

 https://thisreadingmama.com/ready-to-read-reading-readiness/

2017 Inquiry

IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN AN EMPHASIS ON THE KEY COMPETENCIES AND IMPROVED OUTCOMES IN LITERACY?

Scanning: My students need to learn how to manage themselves as individuals as well as in a group to be able to engage and participate in reading.

Focusing: In 2017 for my inquiry i will be focusing on how the Key Competencies (Managing Self and Relating to Others) increase student engagement and improve reading outcomes for students aged 5-10.

Developing a hunch: An emphasis on behavioral and cognitive engagement as well as teaching social skills will enhance my students ability to focus and increase their reading skills.

I will be using Helen Timperley's Sprial of Inquiry throughout my inquiry which meshes well with the specifically designed for Manaiakalani framework "Learn Create Share". You will see labels from both models as they interlock well.

Initial Reading Levels

My target group of students i am focusing on for my inquiry are at all different levels. They all have different challenges that i am going to focus on in order to progress their reading levels.

• Toby : 8 year old boy currently reading at level 1/2 Magenta. Toby uses 1-2 keywords to communicate but does not have the vocabulary yet to answer questions. 
• Evan : 8 year old boy with great vocabulary, reading is a strength of his but he gets frustrated with decoding words he doesn't know. Evan is currently reading at level 14 Green.
• James : 10 year old boy who has been verbal for 5 years. Currently reading at level 2 Magenta, has good initial sound knowledge and uses picture cues when reading unfamiliar text to decode words. 

My boys struggle to focus for extended periods of time. Once they have read their book they want to move onto the next activity quickly so there are limited opportunities to complete activities on each book to further their comprehension of the text. My hunch is that if i focus on extending their 'on-task' behavior by strategies to manage themselves then they their reading levels will improve. Over the course of the term i will share the strategies i am using to increase their on task behavior.