Developmentally Appropriate Assessment of Reading and Writing in the Early Childhood Classroom

This article presents principles for devising and utilizing developmentally appropriate procedures for assessing young children's reading and writing. It contends that informal observations and structured performance sample assessments are more appropriate than standardized tests for measuring early childhood literacy learning. Observations and performance samples are more consistent with the developmental characteristics of the young child. Furthermore, because observations can be conducted in conjunction with instruction and performance samples are more like actual teaching practices, these procedures yield information more useful to teachers. The article also illustrates specific examples of observational and performance sample techniques for assessing the following aspects of young children's literacy development: knowledge of the functions of written language, emergent reading of storybooks, writing strategies, and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences.