From 15 to 85 Points: Behind Every Step Forward Is a Careful Assessment

C.A., a 7-year-old student in the preparatory grade at Perșinari Secondary School, Dâmbovița County, was one of the children who participated in the Glittery Schools literacy project during this school year. Her story of progress is shared by her primary school teacher, Florica Petrișor, who supported the development of C.A.’s literacy skills through careful assessment and personalised educational intervention.

C.A.’s educational journey differs from that of her classmates, as she was born in Germany and attended kindergarten there before entering the Romanian education system. This background influenced the level of Romanian literacy skills she had when she started the preparatory grade.

At the time of the initial assessment, C.A. demonstrated a basic understanding of print and how to use a book. She knew how to hold a book correctly, turn its pages and understood that reading follows the written text rather than the pictures. She was also able to navigate a printed page correctly and had some understanding of words and of the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters.

First Steps in Letter Recognition

In terms of recognising and reproducing the letters of the alphabet, C.A. scored 15 points in the initial assessment and 85 points in the final assessment, marking remarkable progress.

While she initially had difficulty recognising and reproducing letters, she can now identify uppercase printed letters, although she still occasionally confuses certain letters, particularly P and B, and has difficulty correctly reproducing B, D, J and Y.

She also continues to have difficulty distinguishing between certain lowercase letters with similar graphic forms, such as b and d, m and n, and q and p.

Understanding Words and Developing Phonological Awareness

C.A. also made clear progress in understanding the concept of a word, with her score increasing from 2 points in the initial assessment to 11 points in the final assessment. This reflects an improved ability to identify and distinguish words in both spoken and written messages.

Phonemic segmentation was initially one of the most challenging areas for her. At the beginning, she had considerable difficulty identifying individual sounds within words. Throughout the project and during Romanian-language communication activities, she made visible progress and can now partially segment words into phonemes. When working with four-sound words, for example, she can often identify two or three of the sounds.

Her assessment results reflect this development, increasing from 6 points initially to 22 points in the final assessment.

C.A. also has a pronunciation difficulty involving the omission or incorrect pronunciation of the r and l sounds, which may influence the development of her phonological and auditory awareness.

From Word Recognition to Writing

In word recognition, C.A. progressed from 3 points in the initial assessment to 12 points in the final assessment, achieving the maximum score and demonstrating an improved ability to connect the written form of familiar words with their meaning.

Progress in writing was slower, but still visible, with her score increasing from 1 point to 3 points.

Difficulties with phonemic and graphic segmentation remain. She sometimes substitutes sounds and letters that are phonetically similar, such as D and T or P and B. Relevant examples include writing the syllable TA instead of DA, or BIC instead of PIC, indicating that the relationship between sounds and letters is still being consolidated.

Methods That Made a Difference

The progress achieved throughout the project highlights the effectiveness of systematic educational intervention adapted to the child’s developmental level.

Her positive development was supported by repetitive and multisensory letter-recognition activities, sound-letter association exercises, phonological games and consistent exposure to printed materials.

A key element in C.A.’s educational journey was the detailed initial assessment, which allowed her teacher, Florica Petrișor, to accurately identify both her literacy level and her actual learning needs.

A thorough understanding of each student’s skills can make the difference between a general educational intervention and a personalised learning plan built around the difficulties identified from the very beginning.

Based on the assessment results and by dedicating time to analysing them, the teacher was able to continuously adapt C.A.’s learning activities, focusing additional attention where it was needed most: identifying sounds within words, recognising letters, consolidating sound-letter relationships and writing words.

This personalised approach directly contributed to the significant progress C.A. made throughout the project.

Systematic educational intervention adapted to students’ developmental levels consistently produces results at the individual child level.

The books provided through the project also played an important role in C.A.’s progress. They were specifically suited to children at the beginning of their journey towards reading, which was particularly important in her case, as she came from an environment where her exposure to Romanian-language books had been limited.

Among the methods that had the greatest impact were prediction activities, active story listening, sequencing events, the question wheel, and exercises involving tracing graphic elements and letter outlines.

Challenges and Recommendations

Activities using Elkonin Boxes proved challenging because C.A. showed little interest in segmenting words into phonemes, possibly due in part to her pronunciation difficulties.

For this reason, her parents were advised to seek a speech and language assessment and appropriate speech therapy intervention.

The Joy of Reading

During the project, C.A. read the books “Fli, Fla, Flu,” “Alma caută numere,” “Pantofii lui Mili,” “Grădina Bunicului,” “Casa Mamei Antilopă,” “Bria vrea să știe,” “Surpriza de ziua lui Tomi” and “Cari și Moni în zăpadă.” All of these books, together with their worksheets, are available for free download.

Of all the books, her favourite was “Pantofii lui Mili”, because she identified with the main character. As she herself admitted, she also often loses her belongings because she is “a little messy.”

Looking Ahead

C.A.’s progress will continue to be supported throughout the summer holiday.

Her teacher, Florica Petrișor, teaches a multi-grade class combining the preparatory grade and Grade 1. This summer, she will organise a Glittery Summer School, where she plans to involve her students, including C.A., in literacy activities designed to consolidate their reading and writing skills, foster their enjoyment of reading and provide new opportunities to learn through play and exploration.