1. PALS-PreK

2. Overview Administration & Scoring Training Ordering
Questions & Answers

3. Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening
What is PALS?
Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening
A measure of young children’s understanding of emergent literacy fundamentals
A direct means of matching early literacy instruction to specific literacy needs
A means of recognizing those children who are relatively behind in their emergent literacy development
Explain difference between PALS and PALS-PreK: PreK is for you

4. PALS-PreK History
Developed as part of the Virginia Preschool Initiative
2000 Original PALS-PreK released
2004 Revised PALS-PreK released
Administered to over 13,000 children in Virginia in each of the last two years

5. PALS-PreK Administration
One-on-one, administered by teacher
Conducted Fall & Spring
Alphabet Knowledge section takes about minutes per child
They don’t have to administer the whole thing all at one time, can break up tasks, administer one task to all the children on each day for six days; Alphabet Knowledge section takes 5-10 minutes

6. Teacher’s Manual Child Packet Print and Word Awareness Booklet Beginning Sound Cards Child Summary Sheet
Materials packaged in box; Chapter two tells you how to administer the assessment – pages discuss the alphabet knowledge section

7. Teacher Checklist of Literacy Practices
Sections
Oral Language and Vocabulary
Phonological Awareness
Print functions and Units
Writing
Knowledge of the Alphabet
General Practices
On back of “News You Can Use” sheet in box of materials

8. PALS-PreK Tasks Name Writing Alphabet Knowledge
Upper-case Alphabet Recognition
Lower-case Alphabet Recognition
Letter Sounds
Beginning Sound Awareness
Print and Word Awareness
Rhyme Awareness
Nursery Rhyme Awareness
Each task represents an emergent literacy fundamental that is predictive of future reading success;
Rhyme & Beginning Sounds = adapted from PALS-K; given in individual format. Don’t administer next to each other

9. Name Writing Maximum score = 7 Score=2 Score=5 Score= 0
Scoring came from Liberman’s research on Preschoolers’ name writing attempts (1985)
Child is asked to draw a picture and write his or her name.
This skill is not an all-or-nothing skill, it develops over time
You can tell a lot about a child’s level from this task.
Name Writing is a proxy to emergent literacy development and highly correlated with both phonological awareness and print awareness.
Janelle = 0
0 points- Scribble or picture represents both picture and written name
Taylor =2
2 points-Picture is separate from written name but is unrecognizable scribble
Linear

10. Alphabet Knowledge Scoring Administration Upper Case
Alphabet Recognition
Lower Case
Letter Sounds
Alphabet recognition has consistently been the best predictor of later reading achievement.
Child is shown a page of letters and asked to name them.
Start with Upper Case letters because they have more distinctive features.
Turn to page in materials booklet
Introduce task-”point to letter, tell me the name of the letter. If you come to a letter you don’t know, you may say “I don’t know” and move on to the next letter. Ready?”
Child or teacher may point
Use another sheet or create a magic window to show only a few letters at a time
Scoring
Administration

11. Part A: Upper-Case Alphabet Recognition
Note directions and show VIDEO CLIP (1:06)

12. Part A: Upper-Case Alphabet Recognition Scoring Sample
Follow up with scoring sample and when to move on to Lower-Case

13. Part B: Lower-Case Alphabet Recognition
Note directions and show VIDEO CLIP (:36)

14. Part B: Lower-Case Alphabet Recognition Scoring Sample
Note scoring sample and when to move on to Letter Sounds

15. Part C: Letter Sounds
Note directions and show VIDEO CLIP (:55)

16. Part C: Letter Sounds Scoring Sample
Note scoring sample – Alphabet Knowledge section complete

17. Alphabet Knowledge Proceed to Beginning Sound Awareness Task
Conditional Task Sequencing
16 or greater
9 or greater
15 or fewer
8 or fewer
Proceed to Beginning Sound Awareness Task

18. Beginning Sound Awareness
Administration
Show the picture
Say what it is
Ask for the beginning sound
Score the item
Say the correct answer and
Sort the card
This task gets directly as phonological awareness by requiring initial phoneme segmentation in an oral production format.
Can help teach the task,
model teaching method – “instructionally transparent”
Do not administer Rhyme and Beginning Sound next to each other

19. Beginning Sound Awareness
Scoring
Score based on child’s first oral response
Letter sound OR letter name are both acceptable
If child gives letter name, use prompt in manual

20. Print and Word Awareness
Natural book-reading format
Use script to ask questions as indicated
Administration and Scoring unique for each item
Materials management
Reading books with kids and calling attention to print are things that should be done every day.
sample graphic removed

21. Rhyme Awareness
Important aspect of phonological awareness, children enjoy this!
For practice and scored items, ask child to look at target picture
say names of all pictures, pairing words and ask child to identify one that rhymes with target picture;
Child can point or say word
Practice can be used as a teaching exercise, guide child to correct answer on these items
Child’s ability level may determine level of support- I.e. complete scripted instructions or minimal instructions.
Do not administer Rhyme and Beginning Sound next to each other

22. Nursery Rhyme Awareness
Administered orally
Bryant, Bradley, MacLean and Crossland – found a significant relationship between early knowledge of nursery rhymes and success in learning to read and spell over the next three years, “even after differences in social background, IQ, and the child’s phonological skills at the start of the project” were taken into account.

23. Class Summary Sheet Codes on page 12 Leave No Blanks
‘NA’ is Not Administered
Score of zero means task WAS administered
Other must always be specified
Multiple race/ethnicity is other & must be specified

24. Optional to use

25. Spring Developmental Ranges for four-year-olds
PALS-PreK tasks
Spring Developmental Range
Maximum Score
Name Writing
5-7 7
Upper-Case Alphabet
12-21 26
Lower-Case Alphabet
9-17
Letter Sounds
4-8
Beginning Sound Awareness
5-8 10
Print and Word Awareness
7-9
Rhyme Awareness
Nursery Rhyme Awareness
6-10
Chapter 3 in the TM talks about interpreting results. Instructs you to look at the scores and identify areas where children could benefit from further instruction.
Developmental ranges were identified using longitudinal data
End of Year Goals for rising kindergarteners

26. Training to Administer PALS-PreK
Recommended that teachers administer
Prior to administration:
Read the Teacher’s Manual
Watch the PALS-PreK Assessment Training video
Directions for returning data

27. Ordering PALS-PreK Materials
Teacher Set ($55) – one needed for each administrator to screen 20 children in the fall and spring
Consumable Set ($15) – includes additional materials to screen 20 more children in the fall and spring
Assessment Training Video ($15)

28. Ordering PALS-PreK Materials
Info on PALS website ( under “Order PALS”
Through the UVA Bookstore
Phone: (434)
Fax: (434)

29. Activities for Teachers
PALS Web site Instructional resources

30. Please contact the PALS office if you have any questions:
1-888-UVA-PALS