Thoughts about ELP with Kinder Buddy

My kindergarten buddy is a wonderful reader.  He reads better than most of my 2nd and 3rd graders from my main placement.  Before administering the ELP, my partner told me to check off items on the record sheet because she was sure he would "pass" with flying colors.

Even though I agree he is an excellent reader, I've only worked with him once before for 30 minutes.  I wouldn't ever assume his skill level, or any other student's, based on once sit-down.  I found this to be a great learning moment for me.

It is so easy to make assumptions.

This child, a week before, proved to be an eager reader.  I presented a book that I wanted to read to him, and he immediately grabbed it from me and asked if he could read it to us instead.  Blown away by his suggestion, I said yes just as quickly as he had grabbed the book from my hands.  He read that book easily and effortlessly ("How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?" by Jane Yolen).  However, I could not be sure he understood everything he read.  Sometimes I would stop him in the story and ask about certain characters:  what they were feeling, what he thought about a character's role.  Sometimes he could answer me, but sometimes he would tell me something else that was completely unrelated to my question.

The last time we met with our buddy for the ELP, I did not want to flood my open mind with opinions, based on the one story he read to us previously.  I try really hard to keep unbiased.  It really has to be a conscious effort to be an unbiased educator.  My partner was administering the ELP, while I recorded and took notes.  When we came to the "sliding doors" part of the assessment, my buddy did not know where to locate a "group of words."  My partner had to define what a sentence was first before he could nod "yes" to her that he really did  know what a sentence was.

Though he is a skillful reader, I cannot assume that he knows what a sentence is.  He may know what consists of a sentence, and he may simply not know, concretely, the word "sentence."  Another possibility could be that the explanation of "group of words" was not worded correctly for his age level.  I feel it is important to be thinking about possible factors, as well as one-on-one conferences with him, to really get to know him as a reader.