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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently. Students can complete the activities in small groups, pairs, or individually.

Accompanying these Student Center Activities is a Teacher Resource Guide that offers important insights on differentiated instruction and how to use the Student Center materials.

Component

Name of the reading component: Phonological Awareness (PA), Phonics (P), Fluency (F), Vocabulary (V), or Comprehension (C). Each component is color coded: PA is purple, P is orange, F is red, V is green, C is blue.

Subcomponent

Name of the reading subcomponent, which is a subskill of the component.

Activity Name

Activity Number

The letters correspond with the reading component (PA, P, F, V, or C). The numbers are listed in ascending order within each component. The activities are sequenced from simple to more complex within each component and subcomponent.

Student Icon

The suggested number of students for the activity. One student icon indicates that students may work independently or with a small group. Two student icons indicate that the activity requires students to work in pairs. Two student icons with a plus sign indicate that the activity requires two or more students.

Objective

States the goal of the activity, which is aligned with the subcomponent.

Materials

Materials are located on the pages that follow the Activity Plan. Most materials are non-consumable to be prepared and used repeatedly (e.g., word cards can be laminated). Some materials are consumable and will need to be duplicated for each student doing the activity. Other materials, such as counters, are commonly found in most classrooms.

Activity Statement

One sentence explanation of the purpose of the activity and what students do to complete the activity.

Activity Steps

The first step describes how to setup the center. The second step begins with: The student, Students, Working in pairs, or Taking turns depending on the number of students needed to complete the activity. The second step also starts the series of steps to complete the activity. The next steps explain what the student does to complete the activity. The last step lists one of three accountability methods: Self-check, Peer evaluation, or Teacher evaluation.

Example

A visual of the activity and key materials.

Extensions and Adaptations

Suggestions that extend or provide an adaptation for additional practice on the skill addressed in the activity. Materials for the extensions and adaptations are included after the pages that align to the Activity Plan.

Users may use the FCRR Student Center Activities resources as long as modifications are not made, the resources will only be used for non-profit educational purposes, and the copyright belong jointly to the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Center for Reading Research. These resources may not be used for any commercial purposes. These resources on our site may be linked to but not reposted, reproduced, modified, or copied to other sites. For questions about the use of these resources, please contact The Florida Center for Reading Research at fcrr@fcrr.org.

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From 2004 to 2010, a team of researchers and teachers at FCRR collected ideas and created Student Center Activities for use in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms. The activities are designed for students to practice, demonstrate, and extend their learning of what has already been taught, sometimes with teacher assistance and sometimes independently.

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PA and Phonics in Our Current Curriculum

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PA and Phonics in Our Current Curriculum

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nAFEID1qohBmpqVp5X2ueNKLtT4ONXToWWPpGsSPJGk/edit?usp=sharing

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On October 3, 2019, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) announced a public inquiry into human rights issues that affect students with reading disabilities in Ontario's public education system. The Right to Read inquiry, which focused on early reading skills, found that Ontario's public education system is failing students with reading disabilities (such as dyslexia) and many others, by not using evidence-based approaches to teach them to read.

The Right to Read inquiry report highlights how learning to read is not a privilege but a basic and essential human right. The report includes 157 recommendations to the Ministry of Education, school boards and faculties of education on how to address systemic issues that affect the right to learn to read. The report combines research, human rights expertise and lived experience of students, parents and educators to provide recommendations on curriculum and instruction, early screening, reading interventions, accommodation, professional assessments and systemic issues. Implementing the OHRC's recommendations will ensure more equitable opportunities and outcomes for students in Ontario's public education system.

More resources

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On October 3, 2019, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) announced a public inquiry into human rights issues that affect students with reading disabilities in Ontario's public education system. The Right to Read inquiry, which focused on early reading skills, found that Ontario's public education system is failing students with reading disabilities (such as dyslexia) and many others, by not using evidence-based approaches to teach them to read.

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Curated resources (videos, print resources, digital resources) to support implementation of UFLI Foundation in your classroom.

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https://sites.google.com/scdsb.on.ca/scdsbliteracy/ufli-foundations

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What's Wrong with Predictable or Repetitive Texts

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What's Wrong with Predictable or Repetitive Texts

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What's wrong with predictable or repetitive texts

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1StL4ynUjq40bQ37KX3qQhdsxb7y0jBwxPhf5hcguYKE/edit?usp=sharing

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Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching

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Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching : Gentry, J Richard, Ouellette, Dr Gene, Gentry, J Richard, Ouellette, Dr Gene: Amazon.ca: Books

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Orthographic Mapping Summary & PreSkills Needed For It

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Sound walls are becoming more common in classrooms thanks to a clearer understanding of the science of reading.

A quick search on Teachers Pay Teachers shows there is a demand for materials for sound walls, but not all the information out there is accurate. While well-intentioned, we need to understand why a sound wall is set up differently than an A-Z alphabetical word wall and how to use a sound wall effectively. The goal is to elevate daily instruction during Tier 1 by reviewing the 44 speech sounds and the options for spelling each of the sounds. By doing this daily review, it becomes automatic for students to access sounds and know how to match spelling to each sound. A confusion between letters and sounds still exists on the part of the teacher in many situations. For example, the silent letter grapheme represents the /n/. (When you see the diagonal lines with a letter in between, this represents the sound.)

Our goal is to help you transform word walls into sound walls. Many practices are being used with word walls that we can adjust to use with sound walls. Following is some advice for teachers making the change from a word wall to sound wall. These tips can be used to guide the explanation of how to set up a sound wall.

Step 1:

We begin with the speech sounds and then add the print. Phonemes can be classified by articulatory features that have to do with placement in the mouth, airflow, and voicing. Begin by talking about how your lips come together when saying the /p/. Notice what happens with your tongue when you say /l/, it is lifted in the top of your mouth behind your teeth. There is also a vibration when saying /l/, and we call that voicing. During a two- to three-week period, introduce all of the 44 speech sounds by the articulatory features.

Don't confuse this with all of the spellings of the sounds. By introducing each phoneme, you are giving students an organizational structure to understand the foundation of our language. Even in kindergarten, you are asking children to blend and segment words with all of the speech sounds. Segment the sounds in book, /b/ /oo/ /k/. You wouldn't teach students to read with /oo/, but they use the sound in their speech all of the time. Why not teach the sound explicitly and discuss how we make that sound, what it looks like, and feels like? Once the sound is obvious, it will be much easier to attach the different graphemes for reading and spelling.

Step 2: Attach a keyword to help students remember the sound.

It is unnecessary to print words on different colored paper or outline the shape of a word. Please do not do those things that distract from learning about phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (print).

Once a sound is introduced, teach the most common letter or grapheme that represents the sound. For example, after introducing /p/ teach them that is the most common spelling for that sound. This is easy initially in kindergarten but becomes more complex in first grade because children have to learn about digraphs and vowel teams that are used to spell many sounds.

Step 3: Daily review and discuss all of the sounds that have been introduced.

What are the six stop sounds? /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

What are our vowel sounds? Ask children to repeat each vowel sound as you point to either a picture of a mouth forming that sound or a keyword that represents the sound. Find the / ā/, and what are the spellings we know for this sound? Commons spellings for / ā/ ai, ay, a_e, and a. These will be the most common spellings used in first grade. Use this information to help students attend to sounds as you are segmenting and blending words during your phonemic awareness practice. As they focus on phonemes during their phonological awareness exercises, this connection between speech and print is enhanced and elevates the understanding of how the two work together.

Step 4: Engage in activities using the sound wall.

Identify the distinguishing features of voiced and voiceless consonant phonemes; orally produce individual consonant phonemes after correct teacher modeling of the voicing distinction: /p//b/; /k//g/; /t/ /d/; /f/ /v/; /sh/ /zh/; /th/ /th/; /ch//j/; /s/ /z/

Explore the way related groups of phonemes are pronounced: stops /p/, /b/, /t/,/d/,/k/, /g/; hissy sounds /f/, /v/, /th/, /th/, /s/, /z/,/sh/; nasals /m/, /n/,

/ng/; glides /h/, /w/, /wh/, /y/; and liquids/l/ and /r/.

Play the speech-sound guessing game. Students imitate the sounds and/or look in a mirror to answer questions such as, which sound is made with the lips-/p/ or /k/? Which sound is made with the mouth wide open-/ŏ/ or /w/? Which sound is made with the tongue between the teeth-/f/ or /th/?

Say /b/, /b/, /b/, and then try saying the same sound with your lips together and popping the air out with your voice on. Now, keep doing the same thing with your lips and your breath but turn your voice off. What sound? /p/ /p/ /p/.

Do a picture sort with /p/ and /b/. In this classroom, the teacher has the students working with the confusing sounds /p/ and /b/ which are only differentiated by voicing.

Step 5: Use the sound wall for independent learning by problem solving.

When a student asks how to spell " meet," ask them to find the /ē/ and look at the choices for spelling that sound. This is much more efficient than asking them if they can find a word that sounds like or rhymes with " meet." By using a sound wall and connecting directly to the graphemes, students have much quicker access to mapping speech to print.

If a student stumbles on the word like " night" while reading, point out the and direct them to the long card on the sound wall. What do we know about this spelling and the sound it represents?

Let's keep this conversation going. Please add your comments and questions below so we can add to the understanding of sound walls at work in a classroom.

Listen to Mary's podcast about the importance of Sound Walls here.

Mary Dahlgren, Ed.D., is a national LETRS® trainer and a literacy consultant at Tools 4 Reading. She is the coauthor of Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction, targeted professional development for teachers in grades K-3.

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Implementing a Sound Wall: Because We Need to Distinguish Between Sounds and Letters

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Sound walls are becoming more common in classrooms thanks to a clearer understanding of the science of reading. We need to understand why a sound wall is set up differently than an A-Z alphabetical word wall and how to use a sound wall effectively to elevate daily instruction during Tier 1 by reviewing the 44 speech sounds and the options for spelling each of the sounds.

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but they also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Website: www.literacypodcast.com

Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their experience has been in the classroom from primary through high school, but they also have experience at district and state leadership levels in literacy. Guests include school-based educators and leaders, district leaders, literacy researchers and experts, and passionate parents and community members. Website: www.literacypodcast.com

More confident teacher

I am grateful for the things that I learn from this podcast that help me be a more confident teacher.

Very informative-thank you!!

I love this podcast, specifically Episode 150 with the focus on secondary learners! As a high school remedial ELA teacher, I appreciate Melissa and Lori taking the time to shine the spotlight on literacy needs at the secondary level, a group majorly overlooked by research and intervention programs (aside from Dr. Archer's REWARDS). I would greatly appreciate additional podcasts focused on secondary students, ones that really hone in on multisyllabic decoding, and eventually, reading comprehension. Although these skills need to be taught similarly to primary reading intervention, my students are young adults that need the strategies taught to them in a more age-appropriate way. Building a classroom culture of acceptance and support really doesn't cut it with teens living on the street or on drugs.

Thought Provoking

The speakers that these ladies have on their show always leave me thinking about how I can improve my instruction and implement all the things they talk about. I love how Melissa and Lori put themselves in the teacher's position and ask the questions teachers would have. Every episode is applicable, and I have huge takeaways from each. Thank you for all of the work you put in to making this podcast amazing.

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‎Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ on Apple Podcasts

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Melissa and Lori Love Literacy ™ is a podcast for educators interested in learning more about the science of reading, knowledge building, and high quality instructional materials! Join Melissa and Lori as they learn about new ways of thinking about how to teach reading and writing. Most of their exp...

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It's time to reignite your passion for teaching! Triple R Teaching provides simple strategies and practical tips for PreK-grade 3 educators. Anna Geiger, M.Ed., will show you how to make small changes to improve how you teach literacy concepts. Look forward to episodes about Anna's transition from balanced literacy to the science of reading, and expect episodes that will help you understand the research while giving you practical tips that you can implement today. Hit subscribe, and get ready to transform your teaching!

It's time to reignite your passion for teaching! Triple R Teaching provides simple strategies and practical tips for PreK-grade 3 educators. Anna Geiger, M.Ed., will show you how to make small changes to improve how you teach literacy concepts. Look forward to episodes about Anna's transition from balanced literacy to the science of reading, and expect episodes that will help you understand the research while giving you practical tips that you can implement today. Hit subscribe, and get ready to transform your teaching!

Wonderful!

Just listened to your podcast on 10 tips for instanst homeschoolers. I'm a former homeschool mom and am still very much interested in how younger families are coping with 'education'. Such a great broadcast and thankful that you included the 'dad' as part of the home education. Mom's can't do it all and I can remember having dad help with math as well.
There is always a way to nurture 'the best' in our children. I'll be praying for you and others as many have been thrown into 'instant home education'. It can be a very rewarding time and I am thinking of the single parenting homes ... praying for wisdom as nothing is impossible with a little imagination and insight from others.

10 tips for teaching writing

This was a helpful recap of the course Teaching Every Writer. I found this a engaging reminder of what I can do to teach writing. Thank-you

Excellent

I've listened to the first three podcasts so far and I am so grateful for the information! As a homeschooling mom I am always looking for new information to keep learning valuable and exciting and Anna does a great job explaining how to make shared reading a valuable and educational experience!

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It's time to reignite your passion for teaching! Triple R Teaching provides simple strategies and practical tips for PreK-grade 3 educators. Anna Geiger, M.Ed., will show you how to make small changes to improve how you teach literacy concepts. Look forward to episodes about Anna's transition from b...

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Science of Reading: The Podcast, hosted by Susan Lambert, delivers the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Listen today!

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These Sky Grass and Soil guidelines will come in handy when you are starting to teach your ch'n to write between lines.

Contains:

5 sentence lines

10 word lines

Please let me know if you would like any changes made.

Email: cfraser@avondaleschool.nsw.edu.au

Love having you stop by! I will so much appreciate having your feedback! :)

Don't forget feedback earns you credit points towards your next purchases!

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These Sky Grass and Soil guidelines will come in handy when you are starting to teach your ch'n to write between lines.Contains: 5 sentence lines10 word linesPlease let me know if you would like any changes made. Email: cfraser@avondaleschool.nsw.edu.auLove having you stop by! I will so much appreci...

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THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TEACHIN G PRIMARY READING

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THE ART AND SCIENCE OF TEACHIN G PRIMARY READING : Such, Christopher: Amazon.ca: Books

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading Into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading Into the Balanced Literacy Classroom : Burkins, Jan, Yates, Kari, Burkins, Jan, Yates, Kari: Amazon.ca: Books

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Live stream for the Right to Read inquiry report release | La diffusion en direct du point de presse du rapportThe Right to Read inquiry report highlights ho…

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Structured Literacy in Kindergarten: 5 Key Changes That Made All My Students Readers

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Martha Kovack: How to Organize a 90 Minute Daily Schedule for Grade 1

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Sound walls guide students to investigate phonemes and make informed choices when they're unsure how to spell out a sound.

Dominic Trevett / Ikon Images

A colleague recently messaged us, "How and why should teachers use sound walls-and are they different from word walls?" We believe that both word walls and sound walls can be of value in the classroom, but there are distinct differences between the two.

Word walls, a print-to-speech tool, are organized by a word's initial letter. This can get tricky when you have a word like knot, which begins with the letter K and the sound N. That's where the sound wall comes into play, helping students spell words by listening to the phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound in speech in a word.

Sound walls are speech-to-print tools used to categorize phonemes. The word cat, for example, has three phonemes, c/a/t. In the English language, we identify about 44 phonemes using the 26 letters of the alphabet. In many ways, grasping the sounds of the 44 phonemes is like cracking a code for our early learners. Sound walls allow students to investigate sounds and eventually learn high-frequency words.

Some common materials for sound walls include mouth articulation cards, phoneme group labels, sound cards for phonemes, and sound spelling cards with power bar. For instance, the power bar is a visual cue to show how often the particular spelling of the sound is used. The sound /k/ has three different spelling patterns: "c," "k," and "ck." The power bar cards give clues to show students how often a certain spelling pattern is used in words. This way, students can make more informed spelling choices when they're unsure about how to spell out a sound.
Courtesy of TN Department of Education
Here, the "c" spelling has the largest bar, so this is the spelling most often used for the /k/ sound.

Organizing the Wall

Creating the sound wall before school begins can help teachers consider exactly where each new sound should be positioned. Arranging common sound patterns, mouth position cards, and power bar cards together creates organization.

When setting up the sound wall, arrange consonants on the left and the vowels on the right. The consonants are organized according to the type of sound/phoneme (stops, fricatives, affricates, glides, liquids, and nasals) and if the sound is voiced or unvoiced. The vowels are organized in a V shape called the vowel valley. The vowel valley on your classroom wall will show how the mouth looks and feels as each vowel sound is vocalized. At the top of the valley, the mouth is mostly closed, and slowly, as you descend in the valley, the mouth opens.
Courtesy of Danielle Rusk Carter
Once the sound wall is organized and affixed to your classroom wall, cover each sound with a piece of paper (in the image above, blue paper was used). When sounds that have not been taught are concealed, the wall is initially a mystery to students. Each day, review the sounds already introduced, and reveal a new sound by removing the blue paper. Finally, if appropriate, add the sound card. The sound card is an image and matching word serving as the example for the phoneme.

Depending on the grade, sound walls may look and progress differently. In kindergarten, for example, not all sound patterns are introduced, so the wall may not be completely uncovered at the end of the year.

In my (Danielle's) kindergarten classroom, the following five steps help me support my students:

1. Review: Reviewing all previously learned sounds and reciting a chant for each sound: /d/, /d/, /d/, /d/ as in dog (the word being the sound example for that pattern).

2. Practice: Practice the new sound for the day, focusing on mouth and tongue positions. We use small mirrors when possible to observe our mouths.

3. Notice: Notice if the chin drops to determine whether the sound is a consonant or a vowel. Ask students to place the top of their hand flat under their chin to feel the drop. Query students, "Did you feel your chin drop? Does the sound belong in our vowel valley?"

4. Explore: Explore the new sound. Practice singing the sound together. Can the sound be held out, or does it stop? Query students, "Can you hold the sound out like a musical note?"

5. Determine: Determine if the sound is voiced or unvoiced by feeling for vibrations in the throat. Ask students to place their entire hand lightly around their neck. Then, make the sound and feel for vibrations, and ask them, "Can you feel the vibration?"
Courtesy of Danielle Rusk Carter
Spicing Up the Sound Wall

If you're looking to add some color to your basic sound wall configuration, consider taking photos of your students' mouths making the stops, nasals, fricatives (and so on) and post their mouth images on classroom walls or on your classroom digital portfolio. Students can then use these images to make individual mini-books for future reference; and if they have access to iPads, the Book Creator app works nicely for this purpose. Teachers can even generate QR codes on each sound and capture video of student mouth positions with sound. Now students can use the QR code to verify sounds and mouth positions.

Highlight use of the sounds; continually refer to the wall throughout the day and not just during the literacy block.

When teachers notice that students have mastered a sound, it can be uplifting to let students teach their peers about the sounds they're familiar with-for example, saying "Wow, Oliver and Samhar both have the "oo" sound; if you need help, ask Oliver or Samhar."

Set up mirrors in front of the sound wall to get students to practice the sounds as part of their daily routine.

Add a lowered table or floor space under the sound wall where students can freely sit while writing. They can use the wall for referencing sound card words, self-checking spellings, and practicing sounding out to support independent writing.

To ensure that students retain the sounds they've learned, here are a few tips to incorporate sound wall learning into the existing school schedule:

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Using Sound Walls in Early Elementary Classrooms

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Sound walls guide students to investigate phonemes and make informed choices when they're unsure how to spell out a sound. Dominic Trevett / Ikon Images A colleague recently messaged us, "How and why should teachers use sound walls-and are they different from word walls?"

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Small Group Instruction Using Decodable Text (1).pdf

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Lesson Resources

The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

Some of the companion lesson resources you will find below include:

Lesson slide decks (in PowerPoint and Google Slide formats)

Decodable passages

Homework sheets

Games and activities for additional practice

We have grouped the lessons into smaller units so you can access these resources more easily. Scroll down to use the buttons below to find the resources for each lesson or groups of lessons.

Please note that we are still building out these free resources, and we will be editing this page over the next few weeks. We wanted you to be able to access some materials as soon as possible, but be sure to come back later to see the rest!
New to UFLI Foundations? Learn about its development, check out a sample lesson plan, view the scope and sequence, and more.

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The UFLI Foundations Toolbox contains all the lesson resources to accompany the lesson plans provided in the UFLI Foundations manual. (Don't have a manual yet? Click here to order one) Every lesson has companion resources that will help you implement the lessons efficiently, effectively, and consistently.

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Flyleaf Publishing - Online Materials Portal

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This portal is offered as a free resource through the 2023-2024 school year.

There are two areas of the site, one for Students and one for Instructors. Materials are organized by our Foundational Skills Scope & Sequence, and can be quickly navigated using the Menu at the top of the page.

If you would like more information about Flyleaf products, please visit flyleafpublishing.com.

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Home - Flyleaf Publishing - Online Materials Portal

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Online Materials PortalThis portal is offered as a free resource through the 2023-2024 school year. There are two areas of the site, one for Students and one for Instructors. Materials are organized by our Foundational Skills Scope & Sequence, and can be quickly navigated using the Menu at the top of the page.

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Are you looking to build a library of Decodable Readers in your school as recommended by the Science of Reading? Check out SyllaSense Decodable Readers! Our Decodable Readers provide opportunities for students to develop and practice letter-sound correspondence as well as an understanding of syllable types, introductory prefixes and suffixes, and common spelling patterns.

The Green Series (20 titles) introduces the "closed syllable" concept (a single vowel followed by one or more consonants will make its short sound). The Purple Series (10 titles) introduces the "vowel-consonant-e" concept (the vowel will make its long sound and the "e" is silent).

These books are ideal for educators searching for a more systematic approach to teaching the building blocks of reading while still keeping meaningful text and natural language structures at the forefront. Created in Canada, these engaging, meaning-rich stories are a great addition to any school or home library!

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Are you looking to build a library of Decodable Readers in your school as recommended by the Science of Reading? Check out SyllaSense Decodable Readers! Our Decodable Readers provide opportunities for students to develop and practice letter-sound correspondence as well as an understanding of syllable types, introductory prefixes and suffixes, and common spelling patterns.

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PearsonSchoolCanada.ca - Bug Club Phonics Decodable Readers | Release Packs

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Comprehensive textbooks, digital products, teaching materials and services for Elementary, High School and Professional Education for Reading/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, FSL, AP and IB, Music, Art, Career & Technology, and ESL/ELL/ESOL.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wgMKIUmkybs_wznoe3Q5wW99DGRen819/view

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nch3tD-BJqHtSTXuU21NpuwVeMtoG23V/view

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Vol. 3 No. 2 Strategy Bytes_ Powerful Prompts_ What to do When a Reader is Stuck.pdf

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix it

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Up to 90% off Textbooks at Amazon Canada. Plus, free two-day shipping for six months when you sign up for Amazon Prime for Students.

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Part 1: Becoming a Literacy Leader Workshop Series

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Original Live Video: August 31, 2022 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm EDTJoin us for a series of panel discussions with educators who are at the forefront of implementing s...

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Part 2: Becoming a Literacy Leader Workshop Series

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Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading

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Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading

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Add to favorites
Written by Una Malcolm, M.A., OCT
Introduction: Why Assess

Assessment for learning plays a critical role in informing and driving literacy instruction. Nearly all students are capable of learning to read; while specific numbers vary, estimates indicate that approximately 95% of students are capable of learning to read (Fletcher & Vaughn, 2009). Rigorous, systematic, and explicit instruction that addresses the essential components of literacy including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000), is key to allowing all children to reach their full potential. This instruction often referred to as structured literacy, must go hand-in-hand with a comprehensive assessment system to allow educators to adjust instruction to meet the specific needs of students (Spear-Swerling, 2018). Assessment is critical for students with learning disabilities (LDs) in terms of both the prevention of reading difficulties and intervention to remediate skill gaps.

Formative Assessment: Answering Questions

Assessment for learning plays a key role in meeting the needs of all students through the creation of equitable learning environments. Assessment for learning, "is used in making decisions that affect teaching and learning in the short-term future" (Growing Success, 2010, p. 30). Multiple research reviews and meta-analyses have identified that systematic formative assessment has consistent strong, positive effects on student learning (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986; Black & Wiliam, 2005; Hattie, 2009) across a variety of factors including student age, measurement frequency, and disability status. In essence, assessment for learning allows educators to identify where students are and inform plans to get students where they need to be.

Even within assessment for learning, multiple types of assessments exist. Growing Success (2010) distinguishes between formative and diagnostic assessments but emphasizes that "what matters is how the information is used" (p. 31). Assessment answers questions; different types of assessment tools answer different types of questions. In a Response to Intervention model, assessment purposes include universal screening, diagnostic assessments, and progress monitoring; all three of these purposes for assessment answer key questions about shaping instructional environments to meet students' needs.

1. Screening - Assessment for Learning

The development of skilled reading is a complex process that hinges on the development and the integration of cognitive and language skills. Many of these skills can be observed and measured well before children receive any formal reading instruction (Catts, 2015). With data indicating that reading trajectories are established early and are very stable (Juel, 1988), it is critical to identify reading difficulties early on in a student's academic career to inform support. Since reading remediation at an earlier age is more effective than later intervention (Lovett et al., 2017), screening plays an important role in preventing early reading difficulties from being exacerbated over time.

All students should be screened with universal screening measures three times per year (Good et al., 2011). These assessments are very brief, standardized measures that quickly and efficiently identify which children are at risk. Standardized assessments are tests that have specific procedures for administration and scoring, perhaps with scripted directions and specific scoring guidelines (Farrall, 2012). Students are assessed on several indicators of early literacy skills appropriate for their age and grade. For example, Kindergarten and grade one students may be screened on phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding, while older students may be screened on oral reading fluency (ORF) and retell for comprehension.

Universal screening measures are widely available and very accessible. Many of the universal screeners currently available are either low-cost or free. Often there can be a fee for training or optional computer data analysis systems, but many of the testing materials are very accessible.

These assessments are technically reliable and valid, and scores are interpreted in relation to a benchmark criterion. Benchmark cutscores are not determined arbitrarily but instead are derived from research; researchers use longitudinal studies to determine what threshold a child must reach to have a strong chance of meeting future reading goals. This means a child's score allows educators to predict future reading performance with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Students who fall at or below the cutscore are at risk and will likely need additional support to allow them to meet future goals. For example, a benchmark cutscore on Acadience Reading assessments is the score needed for a child to have an 80 - 90% probability of meeting successive reading goals (Good et al., 2011). In interpreting a child's score in comparison to a benchmark score, educators can quickly and efficiently assess the level of risk of future reading achievement or difficulty before difficulties emerge or worsen.

Screening allows educators to quickly and easily catch students who are at risk. Screening does not, however, give teachers a full understanding of what the underlying cause of a problem is. Screening is akin to a blood pressure or temperature check at a doctor's office; these are simple, efficient and cost-effective ways to find problems, but abnormalities on these screeners require additional diagnostic testing to decipher what exactly is wrong.

2. Diagnostic Assessment - Assessment for Learning

Diagnostic assessments allow educators to probe deeper into the learning profiles of students in question. For many students, universal screening three times per year provides all the assessment data necessary to ensure students are making sufficient progress. For students who are at risk, though, careful analysis of reading subskills must occur to differentiate instruction and plan intervention. These assessments allow educators to ascertain which specific skills or knowledge a student has mastered, and which skills or knowledge need to be taught.

If universal screeners are similar to a blood pressure or temperature check to identify problems in a brief and cost-effective manner, diagnostic assessments are similar to more comprehensive blood tests or diagnostic imaging to dig deeper into a problem. The information from these more investigative approaches directly informs treatment, similar to how diagnostic reading assessments allow teachers to differentiate classroom instruction or plan targeted interventions.

Diagnostic assessments are longer and more in-depth than screening assessments and are typically not standardized. While screeners are quick assessments of indicators of basic skills, diagnostic assessments can be thought of as inventories of skills that directly inform instruction. Can a child segment two, three, or four phoneme words? Can a child decode words with short vowels or consonant digraphs? Diagnostic assessments allow teachers to differentiate classroom instruction and plan intervention if necessary.

Diagnostic assessments should be selected strategically. The Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) indicates that reading comprehension, the end goal of reading, is a product of two sets of subskills, word recognition and language comprehension. When selecting diagnostic assessments, teachers can probe both areas of this model to clarify a student's specific patterns of strengths and needs. When weaknesses exist in reading comprehension, is this due to difficulties with word recognition, with language comprehension, or with both?

3. Progress Monitoring - Assessment for Learning

With screening and diagnostic data in hand, teachers can differentiate core instruction and/or provide targeted intervention through intervention supports. Progress monitoring assessments allow educators to quickly measure a student's response to instruction. Instead of waiting until the next benchmark assessment several months in the future, progress monitoring allows for more rapid adjustment of instruction. While universal screening measures students' skill level with grade-level material, progress monitoring is at an individual child's instructional level to directly measure response to instruction. A grade four child reading at a grade one level would be screened at the beginning, middle, and end of the year with grade four assessments. Progress monitoring assessment, though, would be at a grade one level in order to measure the child's response to intervention.

Many universal screeners also supply progress monitoring materials. These materials are often very similar to universal screening measures in that they are brief and standardized. When selecting an assessment for progress monitoring, it is important to consider practice effects. Progress monitoring assessments typically have multiple forms so students are not tested with the same material. Progress monitoring data are usually graphed so student growth can be compared visually to an aimline, or the line between a child's current score and the benchmark goal.

Progress monitoring assessments are purposefully brief. Depending on student age and needs, this assessment may take between one and three minutes. Struggling students need to catch up quickly; Torgesen (2004) describes the "devastating downward spiral" that occurs when students do not receive timely, evidence-based intervention. Struggling readers do not have time for a "wait and see" approach. Weekly or biweekly progress monitoring allows for enough data to quickly and clearly establish patterns. Educators can quickly judge if a child's rate of progress is strong enough to meet the goal. If not, there are several options that can be considered to intensify instruction:

Increasing frequency or length of support

Decreasing group size

Making groups more homogeneous

Increasing level of explicitness

Increasing opportunities for practice

To see an example of how the Thunder Bay Catholic DSB uses tier 1, 2 and 3 reading interventions, click here to view the LD@school video The Tiered Approach

In addition to informing instruction, progress monitoring data allow for insight into students learning profiles. Research indicates that data from a child's response to intervention can give important insight into whether a child may have a learning disability. Patterns of inadequate response to evidence-based instruction, established through progress monitoring data, are key factors to consider when evaluating for a learning disability (Miciak & Fletcher, 2020; Catts & Petscher, 2021).

4. Outcome Evaluation - Assessment of Learning

Outcome assessments measure student achievement. While progress monitoring assessments show if instruction is working, outcome assessments are assessments of learning and identify if instruction worked.

These assessments are typically comprehensive assessments that measure student mastery of provincial curriculum expectations or the specific learning goals outlined. Outcome assessments often occur at the end of a period of learning, including a unit of study, a term, or a school year, for example.
Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading: Cheat sheet - Comparing and Contrasting Assessment Purposes Click here to view and download the Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading: Cheat sheet
Assessment Data and Differentiating Tier 1 Instruction

Patterns in universal screening data can support teachers in differentiating classroom instruction. Instead of using student reading levels from a running record to group students for small group instruction, universal screening data allows educators to use reading skills to more specifically build homogeneous groups of students for instruction. A grade 2 teacher, for example, could split students into several groups based on their universal screening data:

Fluent and accurate readers needing continued content and vocabulary instruction to build comprehension

Students who read accurately but need fluency instruction

Students in need of word-level decoding and phonics instruction.

Data from screeners as well as diagnostic testing for deeper probing allows for more sophisticated and specific differentiation for intervention, instruction, or enrichment since it focuses on specific skills instead of generic reading levels.

Student vs. System Analysis to Strengthen Universal Instruction

One of the strengths of universal screening is it allows educators to analyze not only individual students' growth but also the strength of classroom core instruction. If more than 20% of students are below the benchmark on universal screening, it is a clear indication that efforts to strengthen core instruction should be made. Prioritizing intervention when a large proportion of the class is at risk misses out on a valuable opportunity to strengthen the universal tier of classroom instruction. With class-wide screening data, teachers are able to better differentiate instruction and potentially implement class-wide interventions, such as Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (McMaster & Fuchs, 2016). For example, a grade 3 teacher could implement a paired repeated reading instructional routine (Stevens et al., 2017) in response to weak fluency screening data. Instead of just problem-solving at individual student levels, teachers have the data necessary to develop action plans to strengthen core instruction for all students.

To learn more about Peer Assisted Learning, click here to access LD@school's article and video Peer-Mediated Learning Approaches.

Oral Reading Fluency and Running Records: Frequently Confused

Oral Reading Fluency assessments are commonly used in both screening and progress monitoring for developing readers. While individual assessments vary, generally Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) measures involve timed passage oral reading for one minute. Accuracy rates and words correct per minute scores are calculated and interpreted in relation to a benchmark score. ORF assessments are highly correlated with reading comprehension (Fuchs et al., 2001) and serve as a proxy for this critical outcome skill.

ORF assessments are often confused with running record assessments that are commonly used in literacy programs. While both assessments do involve the reading of connected passages, running records differ in that a text "level" is often indicated as a student's instructional or independent level based on the accuracy percentage. Fluency is typically assessed through teacher observation or rubrics. Running records do not meet desired characteristics for the selection of a screener. They do not act as brief, reliable and valid indicators of key early literacy skills, and they do not allow for interpretation of scores in relation to a benchmark criterion derived from predictive probabilities. In fact, Parker et al. (2015) found that a commonly used running record assessment had a .54 correlation with a district-provided criterion reading test. These data indicate that running records were only 54% accurate in predicting student reading performance, in comparison to the established technical validity and reliability of ORF measures.

Assessment for Learning: A Case Study
The following case study provides an example of how reading assessment can be used in the classroom to identify at-risk students, pinpoint the skills these students struggle with, and determine the appropriate intervention to get students back on track.
Maya is in grade two. As a part of the beginning-of-year screening process, her teacher administers a brief screening assessment that yields this data about Maya's reading:
Nonsense Word Fluency: Oral Reading Fluency:

Accuracy (passage reading accuracy): Below Benchmark

Words Correct (passage reading fluency): Well Below Benchmark

Maya's teacher, Ms. Kaur, recognizes that Maya is struggling and is not on track to meet future reading goals. Ms. Kaur realizes that Maya is having difficulty reading the ORF passage accurately and smoothly since she is not an accurate and fluent word reader. Based on these screening data, she decides to dig deeper with some diagnostic assessments to help her differentiate instruction. She decides to give Maya a decoding assessment to understand which specific phonics patterns she has mastered, and which patterns she needs to be taught. She learns that Maya hasn't yet mastered short vowel sounds. She also uses a phonemic awareness assessment to check her blending and segmenting, which shows skill gaps as well. Ms. Kaur realizes that Maya is having difficulty with word recognition skills. To check on her oral language skills, Ms. Kaur reads a story to Maya and asks her oral comprehension questions. Maya is easily able to answer questions about what she hears, indicating to Ms. Kaur that Maya's reading difficulties appear to be stemming from decoding and word recognition difficulties and not language comprehension difficulties.

Armed with this information, Ms. Kaur builds her small reading groups. Instead of using reading levels to group students, Ms. Kaur uses reading skills. She groups Maya with other students needing phonemic awareness and short vowel instruction.

As Ms. Kaur uses this screening and diagnostic data to plan her groups and instruction, she also continues to monitor Maya's progress using weekly Nonsense Word Fluency assessments. Since these progress monitoring assessments are one minute each, Ms. Kaur knows that this is a quick and efficient way to make sure Maya is responding to her instruction without having to wait until the mid-year screening time. If Maya is not making sufficient progress toward the benchmark score, she may need instruction to be intensified to allow her to reach the benchmark goal. Ms. Kaur graphs Maya's progress monitoring data, as well as the aimline which shows the path between Maya's current score and the benchmark. Ms. Kaur and her grade-level team can quickly and easily judge if Maya is progressing at a fast enough rate to close the gap.

About the author:

Una Malcolm is a doctoral student in Reading Science and also has a Master's degree in Child Study and Education. She is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers. Una has trained extensively in several evidence-based teaching methods, such as Direct Instruction, Phono-Graphix and Lindamood-Bell. She is an Acadience Reading K-6 (formerly DIBELS Next) Mentor.

References

Black, P. & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7 - 74. doi: 10.1080/0969595980050102

Catts, H.W., Nielsen, D. C., Bridges, M. S., Liu, Y. S., & Bontempo, D. E. (2015). Early identification of reading disabilities within an RTI framework. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(3), 281-297.

Catts, H.W., Petscher, Y. (2021). A cumulative risk and resilience model of dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, doi.org/10.1177/00222194211037062

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups. U.S. Government Printing Office.

Farrall, M. L. (2012). Reading assessment: Linking language, literacy, and cognition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118092668

Fuchs, L.S. & Fuchs, D. (1986). Effects of systematic formative evaluation: A meta-analysis. Exceptional Children, 53(3), 199 - 208.

Fuchs, L., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. & Jenkins, J. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), 239 - 256.

Fletcher, J.M. & Vaughn, S. (2009). Response to intervention: Preventing and remediating academic difficulties. Child Development Perspectives, 3(1), 30 - 37. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2008.00072.x

Good, R.H., Kaminski, R.A., Cummings, K.D., Dufour-Martel, C., Petersen, K., Powell-Smith, K.A., Stollar, S. & Wallin, J. (2011). Acadience Reading K-6 Assessment Manual. Acadience Learning Inc.

Gough, P.B. & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7(1), 6 - 10. https://doi.org/10.1177/074193258600700104

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning. Routledge.

Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437 - 447. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.80.4.437

Lovett, M., Frijters, J.C., Wolf, M., Steinback, K.A., Sevcik, R.A., Morris, R.D. (2017). Early intervention for children at risk for reading disabilties: The impact of grade at intervention and individual differences on intervention outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 889 - 914. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000181

McMaster, K. L., & Fuchs, D. (2016). Classwide intervention using peer-assisted learning strategies. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Handbook of response to intervention: The science and practice of multi-tiered systems of support (pp. 253-268). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7568-3_15

Miciak, J. & Fletcher, J.M. (2020). The critical role of instructional response for identifying dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 53(5), 343 - 353. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219420906801

Ontario Ministry of Education. ​​(2010). Growing Success: Assessment, evaluation and reporting in Ontario's schools: Covering grades 1 to 12. Ministry of Education.

Parker, D.C., Zaslofsky, A.F., Burns, M.K., Kanive, R., Hodgson, J., Scholin, S.E. & Klingbeil, D.A. (2015) A brief report of the diagnostic accuracy of oral reading fluency and reading inventory levels for reading failure risk among second and third grade students. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 31(1), 56 - 67. doi: 10.1080/10573569.2013.857970

Spear-Swerling, L. (2018). Structured literacy and typical literacy practices: Understanding differences to create instructional opportunities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 51(3), 201-211.

Stevens, E. A., Walker, M. A., & Vaughn, S. (2017). The effects of reading fluency interventions on the reading fluency and reading comprehension performance of elementary students with Learning Disabilities: A synthesis of the research from 2001 to 2014. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(5), 576-590. doi: 10.1177/0022219416638028

Torgesen, J.K. (2004). Avoiding the devastating downward spiral: The evidence that early intervention prevents reading failure. American Educator, 28, 6-19.

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Evidence-Based Assessment in the Science of Reading

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Written by Una Malcolm, M.A., OCT Introduction: Why Assess Assessment for learning plays a critical role in informing and driving literacy instruction. Nearly all students are capable of learning to read; while specific numbers vary, estimates indicate that approximately 95% of students are capable of learning to read (Fletcher & Vaughn, 2009).

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Advantages

Acadience Reading has been trusted by educators for over a decade to help improve student outcomes. When your approach is backed by research, it means less guesswork in the classroom. Acadience assessments are:

standardized

reliable and valid

fast to administer and report

assess core early literacy skills

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Acadience Reading K-6 | Acadience Learning

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Acadience Reading makes it easier to detect K-6 students who are at risk for early reading difficulties to provide timely support and prevention.

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Product Details

Measure what matters

aimswebPlus provides the framework, data, and guidance that administrators, teachers, and specialists need to efficiently allocate and evaluate core instruction and interventions, helping them improve outcomes for all students based on accurate, continuous, and direct student assessment.

Early intervention is the key to success, both in and out of the classroom. With aimswebPlus, you can measure what matters - when it matters.

aimswebPlus can help you:

Meet accountability requirements

Uncover learning gaps faster and more accurately

Screen and monitor students in one seamless system

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Brief: most assessments take 1 to 4 minutes to complete

Predictive: provides accurate predictions of reading and math achievement

Sensitive: includes student Rate of Improvement (ROI) growth percentiles and summaries that allow schools to compare progress against similar students in a national sample

Flexible: delivers strong benchmarking and progress monitoring yet robust enough to add a wide array of additional screeners and instructional supports

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Universal benchmarking

Our partnership with  Shaywitz DyslexiaScreen™ offers an evidence-based, teacher-friendly observational rating scale for grades K-3. It is intended for mass screenings to sort students quickly - those at risk and those not at risk for dyslexia. The data can be used to set direction for intervention and instructional planning for all students, and a ready-to-use handout gives parents and caregivers ideas for supporting at-risk students outside school.

Key Principles:

Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN)

Writing Assessment and Intervention

Social-Emotional Learning

Integrated Technology: Administration, Scoring, and Reporting

aimswebPlus provides comprehensive reporting for each screening and monitoring component. Each report highlights both performance and progress, enabling educators to make informed decisions about students and instruction. Reports include data for students, classrooms, grades, schools, and districts, as well as student norms at the national, state, and district level. Student reports can be generated in either HTML or PDF format and can be filtered to display the precise data needed. The level of information available in each report is based on the user's role and access level. Parent-friendly screening and progress monitoring results are also available.

Key Principles:

Accurately identify at-risk students and learning gaps in key skill areas.

Monitor and report individual and group growth, and group students based on instructional need.

Support dual-discrepancy and special ed evaluations.

Identify students at risk for not meeting end-of-year grade level targets.

Quickly evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for individuals and groups.

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Within 60 days of your subscription's end, you will be notified that you should update your subscription for the next year. You can leave your subscription the same, edit the number of students, or cancel your subscription. On the subscription's renewal date (one year from purchase), you will be invoiced.

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Students will never need to bring a calculator, nor will teachers ever need to provide one.

Starting in Fall 2022, students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade will see some questions where a digital calculator will be provided in the testing application (TestNav). The calculator will not be provided for all questions; the calculator will only be provided for questions aimed at seeing if the student understands an advanced mathematical concept. There are many questions designed to see if students, especially in lower grades, can calculate a solution accurately with only a pencil and scratch paper. For more advanced concepts like permutations, probability, and factorials we want the question to measure, " Does the student understand how to set up the equation?" Or " Do they understand the logic of a word problem? " It's for these kinds of questions that we enable the calculator, so the student is more likely to get the question right or wrong based on their mathematical understanding, and not because of an accidental arithmetic error.

CAT stands for Computer-Adaptive Test.

The Adaptive part means that it is a test that adapts to student responses. The list of questions on the test is not set when the test starts. Instead, there is a large bank of items of varying difficulty. Using a starting point on the item difficulty scale, the test starts with an item at that level. For aimswebPlus tests we start at a relatively easy level. When the student answers the question correctly or incorrectly, the CAT will choose the next item from the bank using that information.

To learn more about the CAT, please read the CAT FAQ

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Classlink

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Branching Minds - Branching Minds partners with schools to help educators streamline differentiation and personalize learning through an MTSS/RTI system solution that simplifies best practices.

Classworks - Online tiered-intervention program helps you pinpoint learning gaps and deliver math, reading, and language arts instruction at the right level to gain real-time insight into student progress.

Panorama Education - Solutions that scale consistent student supports with MTSS, PBIS, or RTI frameworks.

SPELL-Links | Learning By Design - Your speech-to-print structured literacy solution that combines direct multi-component instruction with systematic structured practice and facilitates implicit learning to build independent readers and writers across all tiers.

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Metametrics - Lexile and Quantile Scores

Educlimber Performance Matters

LearnersEdge

LandingZone

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Illuminate

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EdHub

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aimswebPlus is a tool for teachers and educational teams in MTSS/RTI and special education contexts. aimswebPlus offers nationally-normed, skills-based benchmark assessments and progress monitoring integrated into one application across reading and math domains with additional add-on measures across dyslexia and behavior/social-emotional skills.