• PSF assesses a student’s ability to fluently segment two- to six-phoneme words into their individual phonemes. Kindergarten is just 2-3 phonemes. In PSF, the examiner orally presents a series of words and asks the student to verbally produce the individual phonemes for each word.

• For example, if the examiner said “sat,” and the student said “/s/ /a/ /t/", the student would receive three points for the word. After each response, the examiner presents the next word. Students are given 1 minute to segment the words into phonemes.

Kindergarten:

• 20% - words with 2 sounds (13% for first grade)

  • us = /u/ /s/

• 80% - words with 3 sounds (87% 3+ sounds)

  • fun = /f/ /u/ /n/

  • nest = /n/ /e/ /s/ /t/

    
    

• BOY - MOY - EOY

  • Student Performance Measure via Observation 👁️

    
    

• Directions for Scoring and Rules PDF: psf-all-scoring-practice-materials.pdf

  
  

• Scoring Video: Scoring Practice – Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) | DIBELS®

In kindergarten, the first 20% of items have two phonemes, while the remaining 80% have three phonemes. In this way, PSF now avoids the distinct floor effects (i.e., many students scoring zero) in kindergarten that have plagued previous versions and, thus, eliminates the need for a separate measure of initial sound fluency. In first grade, the progression in difficulty is a bit more rapid, with the first 13% of items having two phonemes and then increasing in phonemes with additional increases after every eight items.

Scope and sequence PDF:

20143_Wonders23_Scope-Sequences_GK_D01_final.indd

DIBELS 8 Adminstration and Scoring Guide

Note the discontinue rule for PSF in general (5 in a row 0) and the beginning kindergarten discontinue rule:

DIBELS 8 Adminstration and Scoring Guide

The lessons take just ten minutes to complete and are guaranteed to fit seamlessly into current literacy instruction.

Overview:
35 weeks of lessons

10 skill components in each lesson

Grade level:
Kindergarten

Setting:
Whole group instruction lessons can be used in small groups to provide intervention and support for Kindergarten students who need additional support with targeted skills instruction.

Lesson length:
10 minutes

The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Kindergarten lessons are designed to supplement your existing literacy curriculum and easily integrate into half-day or full-day kindergarten programs. When lessons are taught daily, teachers see improvement in students’ reading, spelling, and writing as the students learn to hear the sounds in words.

• identifying phonemes (sounds)

• blending phonemes to form words

• segmenting words into phonemes (sounds)

• deleting and adding phonemes to form new words

• substituting phonemes to make new words

Fundations instructs students to listen to the seperate phonemes in a word and develop an understanding for spoken language; this can be done with card manipulation and the sound-tapping process.

Teachers can use the letter manipulatives (Sound Cards and Letter Tiles) to support the understanding of phoneme segmentation and manipulation, and identification of initial, medial, and final sounds in CVC words. This is linked to the alphabetic principle (letter-sound/grapheme phoneme correspondence).

Word-

Isolating phonemes in a spoken word happens in Echo/Find Words (beginning Unit 3). To teach phoneme segmentation for spelling, the same tapping method is used. A student hears the word dictated and then he or she taps out each sound. The teacher (or students) use the corresponding Letter Tiles to form the word to reinforce segmentation skills and the spelling-reading connection.

In the Word Play-Make Words for Decoding and Echo/Finds Words activities, teachers are directed to manipulate the sounds in words.

Level K - short vowel sounds are emphasized and practiced daily in the Drill Sounds/Warm-Up and Vowel Extension activities because students are taught the closed-syllable pattern, where the vowel is short.

Students apply the letter-sound correspondences to determine something that has not been memorized.

The "Word Work" (25 minutes) includes activities that pertain to PSF though.

• Fluency

• Phonemic Awareness

• Phonics

• Handwriting

• High-Frequency Words

• 24 weeks of daily lessons that focus on phoneme isolation, blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds in 7-12 minutes.

• Lessons are scripted.

• Instruction begins with larger sound units and progresses to phonemes, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of sound.

• Weekly lesson plans provide structured guidance for teachers, emphasizing oral and auditory skills without printed words.

• It also integrates early literacy skills such as alphabet knowledge and language awareness.

  
  

Sounds Sensible 3rd Edition Lesson Sampler.pdf

This is ideal for K 2-phoneme words like:

am

an

at

in

it

on

ox

up

us

• SPIRE Phoneme Chart covers multiple steps of the 10 step lessons used for research-proven reading intervention program

• Phonemic chart combines visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (hands-on) learning styles to provide an effective study resource for rhymes, blending, and segmentation

• Vocabulary chart for students can be used for self-practice, one-on-one direct instruction, or for educational vocabulary, spelling, and oral vocalization games

• There are assorted white circles (representing consonant sounds), green circles (vowel sounds).

SPIRE is 45-60 minutes, because there are ten steps, but it can be easily divided into 3-4 steps per day (20-30 minutes).

1st Grade Blast Classroom Setup Virtual Components - Primary Level - SY 2025-2026 | Really Great Reading

Lesson 2 (Tuesdays) involve phonemic awareness practice.

Students:

• practice fine-motor skills and letter formation through tracing and writing consonants.

• learn through visual activities.

• use matching exercises to develop visual discrimination and letter recognition.

• reinforce letter recognition through the use of capital and lowercase letters.