little pictures..

Little Pictures

During the first week of term 1, I’ve been testing the children in my Prep class using a computer program that’s designed to indicate a child’s general level of achievement at the start of school. The test, made up of a series of picture screens accompanied by questions on an audio, usually lasts about twenty minutes and is carried out one-to-one while the child’s parent or caregiver waits outside the classroom door.
It begins with a sample of handwriting.
Some are quick to do this. So confident with a pencil and piece of paper that before I’ve time to click their details on the screen they’ve already finished writing their name. A mix of capital and lower case letters spread across the page neatly like a row of carriages on a train, or perhaps a swish of sticks and circles that look like musical notes. I have to check to see if every letter of the child’s name is accounted for and whether the handwriting is clear to read before giving it a mark from 0-5. Sometimes children struggle to put anything down on the paper and when this happens I crouch beside their chair and encourage them to write whatever they can remember. Often thick strokes appear that remind me of fence posts being slowly hammered into the ground. One boy comes in holding a soft toy and I watch as he tucks the animal between his tummy and the table then picks up the pencil and grips it like a big stick before sliding the grey-lead so lightly across the paper that only a thread of colour can be seen. When he finishes he puts down the pencil, hugs his penguin and hands me the paper. I find his name on the screen, click the mouse and he stuns me a couple of minutes later by reading words, sentences and then a lengthy story about Cats.





Frigglejang. Denalty. Riotous. Enterprising. Observatory. Their eyes widen and they look at me sideways as they listen then pop their mouths open and repeat these words. I’m concentrating on picking up speech difficulties such as stammers
or lisps but at the same time find myself holding back laughter at the way each one responds. There are mumbles and whispers, shouts and giggles as they roll those sounds along their tongues and out into the air. It’s as if they’re retelling little jokes that they know make no sense. One girl tilts back and forth on her tiptoes as steady as a clock whilst she identifies each letter of the alphabet. I love the certainty in her voice and the surprise in her eyes when I hand her a pointer – a chopstick- to tap on the screen. She could be Degas’ Little Dancer as she leans forwards in the sunlight and tries so hard to match the words and pictures that appear in front of her eyes.


Rockets and puppies, ice-creams and fish. They count and match, add and take away. Michael laughs when the 5 and 10 cent coins appear and he hears “Jasmine wants to buy an apple. It costs 10 cents. Which coin should she use to buy it?” “Apples don’t cost 10 cents!” he cries and I tap the mouse and hope he’ll always be this confident with what he knows.

Each child goes as far as they can with the questions and then the program cuts out.
A thin green line glides across the screen to indicate the results have been archived. Later in the day, I’ll study the information and use it to build up the big picture of the range of ability within the class group. For now though, the little picture of each one standing beside me in the corner of the classroom is all the detail I need.