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Phonemic Awareness: Why and How to Teach it.

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Phonemic Awareness: Why and How to Teach it.

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What is Phonemic Awareness? Why is it important? How can I teach it?

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Page 4: Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to listen, identify, and manipulate phonemes-the smallest units of sounds that are combined to create words. For instance, the three phonemes in the word "mop" are /m/ /o/ /p/. Students learn to read more easily when they are aware of these phonemes.

For Your Information

Phonemic awareness is not the same as phonics. Phonemic awareness relates exclusively to spoken sounds. Phonics, on the other hand, corresponds to how spoken sounds are represented in written text.

Why Should I Teach It?

Students who acquire phonemic awareness skills in the early grades generally:

Have an easier time learning to read

Acquire better reading comprehension

Learn to spell more accurately

Learn how to decode words

Conversely, when difficulty with sound blending and segmenting occurs, students often have a hard time learning how to transfer spoken sounds into written text, exacerbating reading difficulties.

Research Shows

Students with poor phonemic awareness skills in first grade are more likely to have reading difficulties in fourth grade.
(Pressley, 2006)

Phonemic awareness is the best predictor of students' ease of early reading acquisition, better than IQ, vocabulary, and listening comprehension.
(Sensenbaugh, 1996)

How Do I Teach It?

When Should I Teach It?

Phonemic awareness is typically taught in kindergarten and first grade.

A teacher's primary focus is to help young students listen for, identify, and manipulate speech sounds so they can learn to recognize and create different words. It is important for teachers to introduce beginning readers to the relationship between sounds and words by providing auditory examples of how words are formed with sounds.

Here's an example of how a teacher might introduce the relationship between sounds and words to help students understand how words are formed.

Phonemic Awareness

Teacher: We are going to learn about sounds today. We are going to move sounds around to form new words. To make a new word, you have to change the beginning sounds and then say the new word out loud.
Listen, /mat/. I am going to change the word mat to hat. Take off the first sound /m/. That leaves /at/. Then add /h//h/ /at/. The word is /hat/. Now, change the /h/ to /p/. Say the new word.

Below are some helpful hints on how kindergarten and first-grade teachers can incorporate phonemic awareness instruction in the classroom:

Tips for Teaching

Start with easy "blend" sounds that are continuous, such as /m/, /s/, and /f/, rather than with short, "stop" sounds, such as /b/, /d/, and /t/.

When modeling sounds, instruct students to watch your lips and mouth.

Ask students to practice in front of mirrors as you model, so that they can watch the movements of their lips and mouths.

Use games, music, pictures, and objects to teach early phonemic awareness skills.

Engage students in active learning techniques. For example, students can hold up fingers for each sound heard in the word "bubbles." Or small toys and objects can be used to cue students (e.g., a student holds a toy dog and says the sounds /d/ /o/ /g/).

Avoid adding in extra sounds such as the "schwa" / ə / after individual phonemes (e.g., /tə/ instead of /t/).

The Bigger Picture

Phonemic awareness is part of a bigger picture called phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is composed of a continuum of skills that support students as they learn to read and spell accurately. Phonemic awareness (which is composed of blending, segmenting, and manipulating phonemes and words) contributes more to reading success than do the other phonological awareness skills. The graphic below illustrates this continuum of skills.

Phonological Awareness Continuum

discriminating counting rhyming alliteration blending segmenting manipulating

Phonemic Awareness

For Your Information

Although this page discusses the technical differences between phonemic awareness and phonological awareness, be aware that other resources sometimes use the terms interchangeably.

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Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to listen, identify, and manipulate phonemes-the smallest units of sounds that are combined to create words. For instance, the three phonemes in the word "mop" are /m/ /o/ /p/. Students learn to read more easily when they are aware of these phonemes.

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What is Phonics? Why is it important? How can I teach it?

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Page 5: Phonics and Word Study

The term phonics instruction refers to teaching students about the relationship between sounds and written letters (known as the alphabetic principle) so that the students learn how to decode and read words. In word study instruction, students learn to use complex elements of reading to decode more advanced words (e.g., students learn how to decode words based on associated word meanings and by learning how to identify word parts, such as affixes and root words). The combination of phonics and word study helps students with word recognition, reading, and spelling.

Why Should I Teach It?

The ability to sound out and recognize words is a major factor in text comprehension. More specifically, when students possess strong phonics and word study skills, they are able to translate written text into spoken words accurately and quickly. This allows students to concentrate on the purpose of reading: understanding the meaning of the text.

Research Shows

When phonics instruction is delivered systematically and explicitly, students' decoding skills are improved. Furthermore, students show greater growth in word study skills as the school year progresses.
(Foorman, et al., 1998)

Phonics instruction is most beneficial when it is initiated early in students' education-preferably in kindergarten and first grade.
(Partnership for Reading, 2006a)

How Do I Teach It?

When Should I Teach It?

Phonics and word study instruction should begin by kindergarten or early first grade and continue through third grade and beyond.

When to begin phonics and word study instruction depends on the emerging development of students' phonemic awareness skills. Typically, students learn letter-sound relationships before they move on to phonics instruction.

Phonics

The ability of students to sound out printed words will unfold as teachers instruct them in the relationship between letters, sounds, and written language. It is best to begin teaching sound-to-print associations that are easiest for students to pronounce, read, and comprehend. Letters should be introduced so that students can quickly blend the sounds into words that they can read. For example, after s, m, t, and a have been introduced, students can read " am," " Sam," " at," " sat," and " mat." For letters with more than one sound, teachers should first teach the more commonly used sound (e.g., the short "i" sound is used nearly twice as often in words as the long "i" sound).

Teachers should begin phonics instruction by teaching letter-sound correspondences in a specific sequence, during which students learn to use these relationships to decode words. Phonics instruction includes teaching letter-sound combinations (e.g., the printed letters "t" and "h" together correspond to the sound /th/) and word patterns, such as consonant-vowel-consonant.

There are various ways to teach phonics instruction. See the table below for an example.

Phonics Instruction

The use of word families is a systematic way for students to learn to categorize patterns. Students recognize that if they can read one member of a word family and blend other combinations then they can read many words sharing the same pattern.

Teacher:
This is the /op/ family.
Let's put a /m/ in front. What's the word?

Teacher:

Good!
Change the "m" to a "p."
What's the word?

Word Study

Word study takes into account the more complex elements of reading, such as irregular words and word parts. Teachers should introduce and provide practice with some basic irregular words (e.g., " was," " you ") so that students can begin to read simple text. Additionally, by understanding the different parts of words, students can increase their ability to decode. As students' decoding skills progress, teachers should gradually introduce word parts (e.g., root words, prefixes, and suffixes) in order to help students better understand word meanings.

There are various ways to teach word study instruction. See the table below for an example.

Word Study Instruction

Phonics and word study instruction often overlap and should be delivered in a systematic format. Students should be given ample opportunities to practice phonics and word study skills through reading and writing. When spelling is used as part of phonics and word study lessons, teachers should connect spelling activities to phonics and decoding. For example, teachers can ask students to practice decoding words and spelling them aloud or instruct them to practice reading words and then defining them.

The table below offers some helpful hints for incorporating phonics and word study instruction.

Tips for Teaching

Include instruction on high-frequency sight words (e.g., "was," "you," "said").

Teach explicit strategies for decoding and reading multi-syllable words.

Reinforce decoding skills with spelling activities.

Provide ample practice for the decoding skills that students have already learned.

Include activities that allow students to practice decoding skills through writing and spelling.

Encourage students to use context clues to support their decoding efforts.

Use word-building activities to help students decode words.

Utilize short books and stories that feature words with the specific letter-sound relationships being taught in class.

Give students activity sheets with the letters and letter combinations they are learning and ask them to form new words using these combinations.

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The term phonics instruction refers to teaching students about the relationship between sounds and written letters (known as the alphabetic principle) so that the students learn how to decode and read words.

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Students will use this interactive game to stimulate their alphabetic and phonemic awareness skills.

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Teachers can download this set of 25 "say the sound" game boards that build phonemic awareness.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Your young learners will love this set of simple board games that build phonemic awareness!
Phonemic awareness.
What does it mean, anyway?

It's a scary-sounding phrase, but it's really not that complicated. It has to do with hearing and manipulating sounds in words. While some phonemic awareness activities may be used alongside letters, most of them don't.

If you ask a child to tell you the beginning sound of sandwich, and s/he says sssss, that's great! Isolating beginning sounds is one key component of phonemic awareness - and it's exactly what we're going to focus on with this set of games.

We have six children, and our oldest four developed phonemic awareness without a lot of intentionality on my part. I read to them often, and we did a variety of early learning activities - but I didn't have to explicitly teach phonemic awareness. For all of them (now 10, 9, 7, and 5) phonemic awareness just cam e.

This hasn't been true of my Three (almost four). Thankfully, she's catching on with the playful activities and games that I've been sharing over the past few months.

Print and cut apart the dot cards at the end of the file.

Grab playing pieces.

Take turns moving along the board by drawing a dot card and moving that number of spaces.

When you land on a space, say the picture's name and its beginning sound.

How to play the games
When my Three landed on a picture, she often stretched that initial sound instead of isolating it. For example, "Milk. Mmmmmilk." Or "Sandwich. Ssssandwich." Fine by me! My goal was for her to hear and identify that beginning sound - and she was doing it!

Sometimes she was frustrated and didn't want to try. Tiger was hard for her. Can you guess why?

It's because /t/ is not a continuous sound. Mmmmmmm and Sssssss were the other two sounds featured in the first game and were much easier.

When she hit a roadblock, she told me to do it. So I did.

"Hmm... is it /m/? Mmm, mmm, miger! No? Is it /g/? /G/, /g/, geiger?" After I was a little silly she was ready to get back in the game.

I chose to use those dot cards because my Three isn't real quick at knowing the dots on a die yet. Another reason is that it's a short game board. If your learner rolls a six three times, the game is over!

The dot cards gave her just enough turns without a single game overwhelming her.

After we played one game, she was willing to play one more. Each game adds a new letter's sound and bumps one sound off. So for example, the first game featured the sounds of m, s, and t. The second game features the sounds of s, t, and a.

I would say that she isolated (or stretched) the beginning sound correctly about 75% of the time. By the time we were finishing (after about 5-10 minutes), she was tired and gave up quickly. Ax (pictured above) was too hard.

So what do you think? Will these work for your learners? I hope you enjoy the 25 free games you can get in the download. These games come in color, but feel free to print in grayscale if you'd like.

BUILD A STRONG READING FOUNDATION

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If you have learners who struggle to isolate beginning sounds, these free phonemic awareness games are the perfect fit! Use them in preschool or kindergarten. Use them in literacy centers or small groups. #phonemicawareness #preschool #kindergarten

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Students will build essential reading skills while they focus on scoring points and beating the challenge.

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Free Online 1st Grade Phonics Games | Education.com

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Try our First Grade Phonics Games for free today and experience the magic of interactive learning at home or school. Only at Education.com!

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The Alphablocks are 26 living letters who discover that whenever they hold hands and make a word, something magical happens. With adventures, songs and silliness, it’s tons of fun with words – all built on a firm foundation of key phonics skills.

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alphablocks "alphablocks cbeebies" alphabet "learn to read" "learn the alphabet" "learn to spell" phonics education "kids tv" "cartoons for kids" "kids shows...

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The Alphablocks are 26 living letters who discover that whenever they hold hands and make a word, something magical happens. With adventures, songs and silliness, it's tons of fun with words - all built on a firm foundation of key phonics skills.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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Students with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your First Grader

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That’s a complicated sounding term, but it’s meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child’s ability to:

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1st grade word games. Teaches syllables, rhyming, and alliteration.

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ABCya! • First Grade Learning Games, Ages 6 - 7

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Kids LOVE our free online games! Fly dragons, build dream houses, and explore while practicing addition, reading, and more 1st grade skills. Play now!

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Young Children's Oral Language Development

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Young Children's Oral Language Development

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Young Children's Oral Language Development

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The development of oral language is one of the child's most natural - and impressive - accomplishments. Get an introduction to when and how language is learned.

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Students develop oral language skills when they share clues about an object brought from home.

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Mystery Bag: Developing Oral Language Skills in First Grade

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Four great ways to build key literacy skills through read-alouds.

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3 more ways to keep the read-aloud fun going:

Create a read-aloud sign-up calendar for family and friends-and host special guests once a week. Encourage visitors to bring their favorite age-appropriate books and share a personal story about what the book means to them.

Make your read-aloud a sing-along. Read a musical book, one that focuses on a popular nursery rhyme or an original song. A couple of great examples: The Little White Duck (lyrics by Walt Whippo) or Down by the Bay (written by Raffi).

Host a read-aloud dress-up day. Encourage students to dress up as their favorite author or character, and put together a short description to share with classmates.

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Grades K-1 Lessons: Remarkable Read-Alouds | Scholastic

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3 more ways to keep the read-aloud fun going: Create a read-aloud sign-up calendar for family and friends-and host special guests once a week. Encourage visitors to bring their favorite age-appropriate books and share a personal story about what the book means to them. Make your read-aloud a sing-along.

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Jack Hartman Phonological Awareness Videos

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Jack Hartman Phonological Awareness Videos

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Jack Hartman has a variety of videos on YouTube that make developing phonological awareness fun.

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Beginning Sounds | Beginning Sounds Song | Word Play | Jack Hartmann

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Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

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Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

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There are several informal assessment tools for assessing various components of reading. The following are ten suggested tools for teachers to use.

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In this article:

Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

This list of informal assessments is not all-inclusive; there are components of reading that these tools do not assess. This information is also available in chart form.

Letter/sound recognition

About this assessment

Familiarity with the letters of the alphabet is essential to the development of reading skills. Instruction should be geared towards unknown letters and their sounds. Students should be able to recognize the letters in both uppercase and lowercase forms.

What it measures

Ability to recognize letters and sounds.

Examples of assessment questions

Show student one letter at a time and ask:

Can you tell me what letter this is? (Record the student's response)

Can you tell me what sound it makes? (Record the student's response)

Age or grade typically mastered

Many students enter kindergarten with the ability to recognize letters. Fewer students recognize the letter sounds. Both are taught in kindergarten.

When should it be assessed?

Assess letter/sound recognition three times during kindergarten, at the start of school, at mid-year, and at the end of the year.

Concepts of print awareness

About this assessment

Concepts of print are usually learned incidentally as children are exposed to books and story readings at home and at school. Concepts of print include an understanding that: print carries meaning, that books contain letters, words, sentences, and spaces. It also includes understanding what books are used for, and that books have parts such as a front cover, back cover and a spine. Eventually, students learn more sophisticated ideas such as understanding that we begin reading on the left and read across the page to the last word on the right, and then we got to the next line, begin reading on the left, and so on.

What it measures

If a student understands:

That print has meaning

That print can be used for different purposes

The relationship between print and speech

There is a difference between letters and words

That words are separated by spaces

There is a difference between words and sentences

That there are (punctuation) marks that signal the end of a sentence

That books have parts such as a front and back cover, title page, and spine

That stories have a beginning, middle, and end

That text is read from left to right and from top to bottom

Examples of assessment questions

Give the student a book and ask the following questions. "Can you show me:"

a letter?

a word?

a sentence?

the end of a sentence (punctuation mark)?

the front of the book?

the back of the book?

where I should start reading the story?

a space?

how I should hold the book?

the title of the book?

how many words are in this sentence?

Age or grade typically mastered

Some students enter kindergarten with an understanding of print concepts, but other will master it as the school year goes on.

When should it be assessed?

Assess concepts of print twice during kindergarten, at the start of school and at mid-year. In addition, as you model story reading techniques to help guide instruction, identify students who need additional support, and determine if the pace of instruction should be increased, decreased, or remain the same.

Phonological awareness

About this assessment

Phonological awareness is a necessary part of reading instruction. Children can show you they have phonological awareness in several ways. It is necessary as the classroom teacher to determine strengths and weaknesses to plan instruction.

What it measures

Recognizing a word in a sentence shows the ability to segment a sentence

Recognizing a rhyme shows the ability to identify words that have the same ending sounds

Recognizing a syllable shows the ability to separate or blend words the way that they are pronounced

Understanding onset-rime shows the ability to blend the first sound in the word (onset) and the rest of the word (rime)

Examples of assessment questions

Word
How many words are in this sentence? "I am happy." (Correct response: 3)

Rhyme
Do these words rhyme? big, fig(Correct response: Yes)

What about key, tree? (Correct response: Yes)

Syllable blending
I am going to say a word in parts. Listen: o...pen What word did I say? (Correct response: open)

Syllable segmentation
Can you tell me the two word parts in open? (Correct response: o...pen)

Syllable deletion
Say open without the -pen. (Correct response: o)

Onset-rime
What word do these sounds make? /s/ - /ee/ (Correct response: see)

How about /h/ - /op/? (Correct response: hop)

Age or grade typically mastered

Word: Age 3

Rhyme: Age 4

Syllable blending: Age 4

Syllable segmentation: Kindergarten

Syllable deletion: Kindergarten

Onset-rime: The middle of kindergarten

When should it be assessed?

Typically, phonological awareness is assessed during kindergarten and throughout first grade. During the beginning of kindergarten, assessment should be limited to recognizing words, rhyme, syllable blending, and segmentation to help guide instruction.

Phonemic awareness

What it measures

Phoneme matching is the ability to identify words that begin with the same sound.

Phoneme isolation is the ability to isolate a single sound from within a word.

Phoneme blending is the ability to blend individual sounds into a word.

Phoneme segmentation is the ability to break a word into individual sounds.

Phoneme manipulation is the ability to modify, change, or move the individual sounds in a word.

Examples of assessment questions

Remember, when a letter appears between slash marks, you should say the letter sound, and not the letter name.

Phoneme matching
Which words sound alike? man, sat, sip (Correct response: sat, sip)

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound
What's the first sound in sat? (Correct response: /s/)

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound
What's the last sound in sat? (Correct response: /t/)

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound
What's the middle sound in sat? (Correct response: /a/)

Phoneme blending
What word do these sounds make? /h/ - /o/ - /t/ (Correct response: hot)

Phoneme segmentation
What sounds do you hear in hot? (Correct response: /h/ - /o/ - /t/)

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound
Say mat without the /m/ sound. (Correct response: at)

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound
Say mat without the /t/ sound. (Correct response: ma)

Phoneme manipulation - substitution
Say pig. (Correct response: pig)

Now change the /p/ in pig to /f/. (Correct response: fig)

Age or grade typically mastered

Phoneme matching: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme blending: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme segmentation: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - substitution: Middle to end of first grade or early second grade

When should it be assessed?

Phonemic awareness assessments should be done three times during the kindergarten and first grade years to help guide instruction.

Informal (qualitative) reading inventory

What it measures

Grade level reading

Fluency

Comprehension

Vocabulary

Oral reading accuracy

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a grade level passage for the student to read. As the student is reading complete the oral reading accuracy and reading fluency assessments. After the student finishes the passage, check for understanding through explicit and implicit questions. Also, ask open-ended questions about the vocabulary found in the passage.

Age or grade typically mastered

This assessment can be given to students in grades one through twelve. Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed

The informal reading inventory is an on-going assessment, and should be completed several times throughout the child's schooling. In kindergarten, perform the informal reading inventory twice per year, at mid-year and at the end of school. In first and second grades, it should be done three times, at the beginning of the school year, at mid-year, and at the end of the year. If a child is struggling, the inventory should be done more often in order to have an accurate picture of the child's progress.

Reading comprehension

About this assessment

Reading comprehension assessments are the most common type of published reading test that is available. The typical type of reading comprehension assessment involves asking a child to read a passage of text that is leveled appropriately for the child's age or grade, and then asking explicit, detailed questions about the content of the text. An example of a common reading comprehension assessment is the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI), also known as the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI).

There are variations on the basic reading comprehension assessments. For example, instead of questions about facts found directly in the text, the child could be asked to answer questions about information that is implied in the text, or the child might be asked to retell the story in the child's own words.

Oral reading accuracy

About this assessment

This assessment provides a measure of a student's oral reading accuracy by giving teachers insight into a student's individual reading level. It allows the teacher to listen and record reading behaviors such as the number of errors a student makes, if the student substitutes words, or if the student needs prompting from the teacher.

The information offered by this assessment is limited. For example, it does not measure phonological ability, vocabulary, or comprehension. This is why it is often given in conjunction with other assessments such as the informal reading inventory. It should never be used in isolation.

Note: When children read orally, they usually concentrate on reading accurately and do not pay as much attention to comprehension of the content. It is also important to remember that if this assessment is used with students who are new to learning English, it should be given both in English and the child's primary language.

What it measures

Oral reading accuracy. It also provides the teacher with insight into a student's ability to use strategies to decode unfamiliar words.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a passage for the child to read aloud. As the child reads, take notes on words read correctly and incorrectly.

Age or grade typically mastered

First through third grade.

When should it be assessed?

Reading accuracy assessments can be given as part of an informal reading inventory or combined with a comprehension assessment to yield more information. Reading accuracy should be assessed several times throughout the year to help you plan on-going instruction. Are students reading on grade level? Do some students require additional support? Do your students have rich vocabularies? Are your students able to read age-appropriate material?

Steps in administering this assessment

1. Choose a book that is age appropriate, but unfamiliar to your student. (This gives a more accurate picture of a child's ability in handling texts.)

2. Ask the student to read the story aloud to you and then at the end tell you what the story was about.

3. You should familiarize yourself with the following scoring information prior to administering this assessment:

Reading behavior

How to score

Read correctly (no error)

Check mark over word

Omission (one error)

Long dash over word omitted

Insertion (one error)

^ at point of insertion with the inserted word written above it

Repetition of a word (no error)

Mark above word with a capital R

Repetition of a phrase (no error)

Capital R with a line and an arrow stretching across phrase repeated

Self correction (no error)

Capital SC above the word to indicate child has self-corrected

Unable to read word (one error)

T for Teacher prompt

Decodes a word in an obvious manner (no error)

Mark individual sounds read within the word followed by a check mark if eventually read correctly or a circle if read incorrectly

Read incorrectly (one error)

Circle word

What should you count as an error when giving this assessment?

Substituting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall far tree.

Omitting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall tree.

Inserting a word

Passage reads: A dark and stormy night.

Student reads: A dark and stormy winter night.

Needs prompting (if the student has to be told a word by the person administering the running record)

Passage reads: I wish that people...

Student reads: I wish that... (pauses) that... (teacher prompts "people")...

4. As the student reads, mark each word on the form by using the symbols above. Place a check mark above the words read correctly.

5. If the student reads a word incorrectly or substitutes a word, record what is said above the actual word.

6. As the student reads, pay attention to his or her behavior. Is the student using context clues (from the sentence or pictures), structure (language sounds correct) and visual cues (using beginning sounds, familiar word chunks, etc.) to read words and gather meaning?

7. Intervene as little as possible when a student is reading.

8. If the student is stuck on a word, wait 5-10 seconds before you tell him or her the word.

9. After the reading, ask the student to tell you about what he or she has just read. Make notes on the following:

Can the student tell you what happened in the story in his or her own words?

Does the student include the different parts of a story (the characters, setting, events, problem and resolution)?

Can the student identify the main idea and supporting details?

Does the student use some of the vocabulary found in the text?

Is the student's retelling minimal, adequate or very complete?

What do I do with the information obtained from this assessment?

The information gathered while completing an oral reading accuracy assessment can be used to determine error, accuracy, and self-correction rates. To calculate a student's reading accuracy rate, divide the total words read correctly by the total words read. For example, if a student read a passage containing 100 words and made 5 errors:

95 (total words read correctly) / 100 (total words read) = 95% word accuracy

Use the accuracy rate along with the information gained in the student's story retelling to determine whether the text the student read was too easy, just right, or too difficult for the reader. Below is a general breakdown to use to help guide you when choosing texts for students:

Oral reading accuracy

What this says about the text

95-100%

Too easy; the text does not present a challenge

90-94%

Just right; the text is challenging but manageable

89% and below

Too difficult; the text is frustrating for the reader

If a student can read a book with 100% word accuracy but can only give a minimal retelling of the story, do not choose a higher leveled book. We read to get meaning; if a child is not getting meaning from a text they must be instructed on comprehension strategies. Word accuracy without comprehension is not acceptable.

What should I be looking for when I give an oral reading accuracy assessment?

Giving an oral reading accuracy assessment and asking a child to retell reveals many things about a child's reading ability. There are other things to be on the look out for and can be taught in the moments following this assessment:

Has the student mastered directionality, letter-sound correspondence, return sweep, etc?

Did the student make "good errors" when phonetically reading a word (i.e., reading island as "is land" instead of "eye land")?

Was there an attempt to self-correct errors?

Did the student attempt to decode an unknown word?

Was the student's reading slow and labored, or fluent?

Did the student use expression while reading?

Reading fluency

What it measures

How many words a child reads correctly in one minute.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose an appropriate passage for the student to read aloud. As the student reads, complete a record for one minute.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Fluency assessments should be completed throughout the year to help guide instruction.

Word recognition

What it measures

Sight word vocabulary at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

Ask a child to read from a list of words.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Word recognition should be assessed three times during the year for students in kindergarten through second grade to help guide instruction.

Phonic elements

What it measures

Phonic elements at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

What sound do the letters 's' 'h' make? (Correct response: /sh/)

How can I turn cap into cape? (Correct response: Add an 'e' to the end of the word.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Phonic elements should be assessed several times throughout the year in grades one through three to help guide instruction.

Portfolios

About this assessment

Portfolios can be used to document students' achievement and progress. Portfolios give an accurate picture of an individual's strengths and weaknesses. Instruction on how to pick a piece of work to place in a portfolio (does it show a concept that was struggled with then understood, does it demonstrate an understanding of a concept? Is it something you are proud of?) is beneficial for students. This type of instruction engages the student to reflect on his or her own work. Portfolios encourage students to take an active role in learning information they feel they have not yet mastered.

Portfolios can help guide instruction. Through looking at a piece of child's work, a teacher can quickly see what lessons are further needed. For example, by looking at a student's writing a teacher may determine lessons in using commas correctly need to be revisited.

Types of portfolios

Collection
The collection may consist of a folder that holds samples of a student's work. The collection should include representative examples of the various types of student work, such as tests, writing samples, and homework assignments.

Display portfolio
A container or box containing a selection of work documenting a student's progress may hold work in this type of portfolio. This type of portfolio may be used to share with parents at conferences. Pieces of work are carefully selected by both teachers and students to show and share with parents/guardians during conferences.

Teacher/student assessment portfolio
A collection of documentation including copies of work in the student's display portfolio, tests, anecdotal notes, conference summaries, contacts made with parents, etc. This portfolio is used by the teacher to aid in discussions with administrators, other teachers, parents, etc about a particular child.

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Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

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Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

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Phonemic Awareness Baseline Assessment for 1st Grade

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Phonemic Awareness Baseline Assessment for 1st Grade

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Teachers are able to utilize this assessment to determine a student's prior knowledge.

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Teachers are able to utilize this assessment to determine a student's prior knowledge. Free download from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Phonics-Assessments-3222127

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Award winning educational materials like worksheets, games, lesson plans and activities designed to help kids succeed. Start for free now!

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Students will match consonant blends to the beginning of each word.

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Students will match consonant blends to the end of each word.