Teachers who have used this assessment technique say that it is also an assessment of children's ability to focus, concentrate, and remember sentence patterns and details as well as an assessment of their understanding of the sentence's meaning.





























A further activity that can be used when children are familiar with this activity is to involve the children in sentence production. Group children in pairs and have them take turns making up sentences for the other to repeat. This is particularly appropriate for older students.

Repeat my Sentence

This simple activity can be used to assess children's knowledge of and fluency with the sentence structures of conventional English (syntactic knowledge) and their abilities to articulate its sounds. Clay (1991) says: When a child is asked to imitate a set of carefully selected sentences and his responses are recorded one can observe how he phrases a sentence compared with what he was asked to repeat (p. 74).

Children for whom English is not a first language or dialect may have difficulty learning to read book language if it contains sentence patterns very different from the ones they are accustomed to hearing at home. Such children need to be read to often from appealing, good quality stories and nonfiction books. As well, many opportunities need to be created for them to participate in language games that make use of the sounds and patterns of the English language.

Procedures

1. Introduce as an instructional activity. Use this assessment technique first as an instructional activity with your whole class or a small group. Introduce it as a language game and keep your focus on enjoyment.
   1. Tell children to listen and repeat your sentence. Challenge them to listen very carefully in order to repeat exactly what you say. Have them respond as a whole group.
   2. When you first introduce this activity, use sentences related to a single topic or concept--one that is familiar to all children. Young children should be given some form of concrete illustration of the topic or concept. This is particularly important for children who speak English as a Second Language/Dialect. You might illustrate the concept or topic with concrete objects or pictures, or have children demonstrate the action or role play the concept.
   3. Begin with short sentences and gradually increase their length, complexity, and form. For example, one progression follows.

      James can run fast. (Use the names of children in the group.) James can run very quickly. Can you run quickly without stumbling? Wow! You can run very fast! Can anyone run faster than James? Sarah can run faster than James because her legs are longer.

   4. Keep the activity short. For example, the sequence above might be enough for one game.
   5. Plan your sentences ahead of time with attention to some of the following:
      • Make use of sentence structures or language patterns with which some children appear to be unfamiliar. (For example, when you notice that a number of children substitute "gots" for has, you might include sentences such as Damion has new runners with bright yellow laces.)
      • Choose sentences from fiction and nonfiction books that have been read to the children recently as well as from unfamiliar books.
      • Use sentences that include a range of conjunctions including and, then, because, but, if, when, so, why and different sentence types (declaratives, questions, exclamations, expository statements).
   6. When children have had some experience with repeating sentences as a group, ask for volunteers to repeat them individually. Note children who appear to be having difficulty.

      While this technique is not intended for use as an assessment of hearing, if you suspect hearing loss to be involved in a child's inability to repeat sentences, follow up with an appropriate referral.

2. Use as an assessment tool. When children have some familiarity with this language game, you can use it as a tool for the assessment of individual progress.
   1. Develop a set of 10-14 sentences arranged from simple to complex. Use them for an individual language assessment with those children with whom you have some concern. Assess these individuals every 6-8 weeks, using the same set of sentences each time. This will help you to note progress in articulation or reproduction of conventional sentence structures.
   2. Reproduce the sentences on a simple assessment form such as the example on page 32.
   3. Say the sentence. Pause for the child to repeat it. Mark on the form by:
      • crossing out words that were omitted
      • inserting words added
      • writing what the child said under the sentence
      • putting a check mark beside any sentences that the child repeated correctly.
   4. On the back of the form, note to what extent the changes that the child made to the original sentence retained or changed its meaning.

The results of the Repeat my Sentence assessment require interpretation
-- the type of mistakes children make have instructional implications.

"I find 'Repeat my Sentence' useful as an assessment tool. The exercise is purely mechanical with poorer students - involving repetition of words without meaning. Higher level students interpret the meaning and repeat it back, but not necessarily using the same words. Students substitute their own words when sentences become more complex. One of the ways I use the information gained from this assessment is to decide upon what level of instructions a child will need - for example, a child who jumbled most of the sentences requires short instructions, slowly given, and many repetitions."
- a Saskatchewan teacher

The most common mistakes young children make are to omit words, mispronounce words, and/or substitute other words that approximate themeaning of the sentence. Some children may add words while retaining the overall meaning. The examples that follow show the sentence the child was asked to repeat followed by what the child actually said and an interpretation of the child's response. You may have different or additional interpretations--particularly in situations where you know the child and her/his circumstances well.

Examples My sister reads a lot of books and sometimes she read magazines. "My sister reads a lots a books and sometimes she reads magazines." This child does not appear to use the conventional sentence pattern "a lot of" when speaking and is not likely to read a sentence using this pattern accurately. However, the child does retain the meaning of the sentence and thus could possibly predict the word "books" from context clues and use graphophonic knowledge to predict the word "magazines" when reading. I need to go to the store before I can make supper tonight. "I go to store tonight." The child was not able to retain the meaning of the sentence. If this is the case with other sentences in the assessment as well, s/he is likely to struggle with independent reading without a good deal of one-on-one support. A child exhibiting this level of language development would benefit most from being read aloud to frequently from a variety of engaging stories, participating in lots of language play, and being given many opportunities to talk informally with good language models. Her little sister wanted to play too. "Her little sister wanta play too." The child appears to have a general understanding of what the sentence means with the exception of the use of past tense. As well, s/he may not be able to voice-print match if asked to read it. A teacher who notes this substitution of "wanta" for wanted to might draw attention to the difference between these while articulating each clearly in a large or small group Repeat my Sentence activity but would not single out and correct an individual child's speech in front of her/his peers.

Children in grades one to three who have difficulty repeating all or most of the sentences in this assessment may require:

• more experiences of being read to from good quality fiction and nonfiction books and lots of opportunities for language play (see Reading to Children Daily, p. 57 and Exploring Sound Patterns, p. 85)
• many more informal literacy experiences such as those described in Chapter One of this resource
• good language models, and teachers and other adults who value their attempts to communicate (see Enlisting Other Adults and/or Older Students …", p. 60 and Mentor-supported Literacy Development, p. 139 for ways to increase children's opportunities to communicate regularly with a caring adult).

"The child is deprived without the close, understanding, warm, readily available listener, talker, and speech model. If the child's language development seems to be lagging it is misplaced sympathy to do his [her] talking for him. Instead, put your ear closer, concentrate more sharply, smile more rewardingly and spend more time in genuine conversation, difficult though it is." (Clay, 1991, p. 69)

Sample Assessment Form for Repeat My Sentence¹¹