A longitudinal study of students’ development in literacy and numeracy from the time they entered school until they reached Year 6 identified a number of key research questions. What critical aspects of literacy should be assessed in each of the seven years in order to gather evidence of development over time? What aspects should be assessed in the earliest years? A very specific question concerned the extent to which it was important to assess the knowledge and understandings very young children have about characters, settings, plots, themes and ideas from story books read aloud.

While, as a seven-year longitudinal study, this project involved much more than developing assessments, the assessments were vital tools for gathering data about growth in literacy and in numeracy. Therefore, at the commencement of the study, the design and content of assessments that would provide a comprehensive view of literacy learning was a major focus.

The intention to develop a comprehensive rather than a narrow view of literacy development lead to the decision to include assessment tasks probing students’ understanding of a the content of a picture story book, as well as tasks targeting their skills in recognising print in the environment, their knowledge of the alphabet, phonemic awareness, fluency in reading aloud, and of writing. The literacy assessments used in the study from 1999-2005 have recently been extensively revised, for use in future longitudinal studies. This revision was extensively informed by the data and analyses from the original longitudinal study, s well as from several other major research projects in which the set of five literacy assessments spanning the first three years at had been used. In the course of the revision, questions about the use of picture story books have been re-examined.

Several criteria have been used in shaping the tasks, including criteria for selecting appropriate picture story books. We had data that showed that while, at the end of the first year of school, 43.4% of students in the sample were able to explain how the title of the story referred to the central idea, another 10% were unable to explain this. Other data showed, that, at the beginning of Year 2, 71% of students drew on the text and illustrations to explain how the main character’s feeling changed, while 23% were unable to explain this. Therefore, in order to probe the wide distribution of students’ understanding, it is important to select books that have literary value and some complexity, that cover themes that are likely to engage and challenge students, and that convey meaning through both print and visual images.

The comprehension items involving picture story books have been retained and close attention has been given to selecting texts of sufficient complexity to provide opportunities to ask questions that can be answered by stating information directly stated in the text, as well as questions that require students to make inferences and to reflect on how the text relates to their own experience.  

Meiers, M., Khoo, S.T., Rowe, K., Stephanou, A., Anderson, P., & Nolan, K. (2006) Growth in literacy and numeracy in the first three years of school. ACER Research Monograph No. 61. Camberwell, VIC: Australian Council for Educational Research Meiers, M. & Khoo, S.T. (2006) Literacy in the first three years of school: A longitudinal investigation. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 29 (3), 252-267 Louden, W., Rohl, M., Barratt Pugh, C., Brown, C., Cairney, T., Elderfield, J., House, H., Meiers, M., Rivalland, J., Rowe, K. (2005) In Teachers’ Hands. Effective Literacy Practices in the Early Years of Schooling, Department of Education, Science and Training, Canberra