Developed to assess literacy skills development of children in kindergarten through second grade, the Literacy Snapshot system provides sets of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. These brief performance measures can be used to monitor individual student progress on a regular basis.

Assessments are made in nine domains of learning consistent with the Handbooks of Reading Research, the National Reading Panel Report of 2000, and the National Research Council report of 1998.

Using the Literacy Snapshot, teachers easily and quickly assess alphabetic knowledge, listening comprehension and vocabulary, phonemic awareness of initial consonants, one-to-one matching, letter sounds, developmental spelling, word recognition, passage reading accuracy and comprehension, vocabulary and fluency.

How it works
The Literacy Snapshot automates assessments previously offered only in paper form as the Illinois Snapshot of Early Literacy. Teachers administer the assessment at least twice a year, and more often as necessary to chart the adequate yearly progress of individual readers.

Data is collected using forms on each teacher’s Palm OS-based personal digital assistant (PDA). The PDA forms and materials are identical to the forms and materials that may already be in use in your district or school. As the assessment is administered, teachers simply check the appropriate box to indicate the proficiency of the child in each literacy development area.

At the end of the day, data on the PDA is synchronized with a secure, central, Web-based Literacy Snapshot database established for each student in each class. Teachers using their personal computers may revise or add to their observations.

Reports based on the assessment may be generated immediately for individual students, groups of students, classes, schools, or entire districts.

Benefits

• Data collection is fast and accurate.
• Data is input just once, rather than multiple times using paper forms that must then be re-entered into an electronic database, thus increasing accuracy.
• Data aggregation is immediate, with reports available as soon as data is synchronized from the PDA.
• The flexible reporting system makes it possible for teachers to pinpoint areas where additional instruction is required for each individual student. They may also identify areas of weakness for an entire class, for all boys, or for any other group.
• Training to use ISEL is quick and easy. No special technology skills are required.
• Because progress can be tracked for all classes and schools in the K-2 group, administrators can easily collect information that will help demonstrate the progress of their students.
• The cost of the system is low because it uses standard, off-the-shelf PDA technology married with pre-existing data collection requirements, computers and databases.

Palm Devices
The Technology Center for Teaching and Learning, as a major user of Palm devices, has arranged for unusually low prices, in many cases well below the usual educational discounts, for a range of PDAs. If you would like TCTL to provide Palm devices with Literacy Snapshot software preinstalled, please inquire at info@tctl.org.

If you are interested in this product, click here to request pricing information.