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Free phonics assessment

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Are you looking for a phonics assessment to help you determine your students’ phonics knowledge? I’m sharing a free assessment in today’s blog post!

free phonics assessment

Today I’m sharing what I wish I had in my early teaching years … a phonics assessment!

While most of my teaching career was with first and second grade, the first few years I taught a combination class of third, fourth, and fifth graders.

Looking back, I deeply regret that I didn’t do a phonics assessment for two of my struggling readers in third grade.

At the time, I was very much a balanced literacy proponent. I thought that with enough reading practice, these kids would become better readers.

It didn’t even cross my mind to see if they were getting stuck because of a lack of phonics knowledge.

(Looking back, it’s obvious that this was the issue!)

If I could go back in time (ahem) years ago, I would find a quality phonics assessment and find out exactly what they could (and could not) read and spell.

If phonics knowledge was tripping them up, I would meet with them for 15 minutes a day for explicit instruction, beginning with the skills they lacked. I would send games home for extra practice.

(Both of these kids had loving, involved parents who would have done whatever I asked. I just feel SO BAD that I didn’t know what to ask.)

I thought that by encouraging the parents to read to their kids (they did) and make their kids practice reading more (they did) that this would solve the problem.

But when struggling readers read on their own, it doesn’t magically make them better readers. If a lack of phonics knowledge is the reason they struggle, they need the missing decoding skills to become better readers.

A good phonics assessment will help you pinpoint where that decoding instruction needs to begin.

And I’ve got one waiting for you at the end of the post!

I used my scope and sequence to write the phonics assessment. You can download that for free below. ⬇

When to administer a phonics assessment

There are different kinds of assessment. These include universal screeners (such as Acadience, Dibels 8, Fastbridge, aimsweb, etc.), diagnostic assessments, progress monitoring assessments, and outcome-based assessments.

A phonics assessment is an example of a diagnostic assessment. The purpose of a diagnostic assessment is to figure out what to teach next.

Give a phonics assessment when you are trying to fill in the gaps for a struggling reader OR when you are forming small groups for foundational skills instruction in the primary grades.

How to give the phonics assessment

1-Print the record forms (one per student). You will mark what the students know/don’t know according to the directions on the form.

2-Print one copy of the student pages, and put them in sheet protectors. Store in a binder. This way the assessment is ready whenever you need it!

3- After you’ve assessed your students, write their names and scores on the Decoding Assessment Summary page. You can use this data to decide where to focus in intervention OR to help you form your differentiated, needs-based small groups for Tier 1 instruction (contrary to popular belief, Tier 1 phonics instruction does not have to be delivered to the whole class).

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Best practices for administering a phonics assessment

1-Give the phonics assessment at the beginning of the year so you know where to focus your instruction.

2–Don’t give the full decoding assessment to each child; instead, discontinue the assessment when the student has missed more than two items in multiple sections.

3– Break up the assessment as needed. If a child is tiring, it’s best to discontinue rather than to plow through. You want accurate results.

4-Give an encoding (spelling) assessment if desired. It’s likely that your students will read better than they spell (i.e. they will perform better on the decoding than the encoding assessment), so you may not want to form groups based on the encoding results. However, this is valuable information. Encoding (spelling) is often neglected, but it naturally fits into phonics lessons and should be included through dictation exercises.

You can grab the assessment below!

YOU’LL LOVE THIS PRACTICAL BOOK!

Looking for an easy-to-read guide to help you reach all readers? If you teach kindergarten through third grade, this is the book for you. Get practical ideas and lesson plan templates that you can implement tomorrow!

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!

Get your FREE phonics assessment!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

 Check our the rest of our phonics series!

 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

 

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31 Comments

  1. Jessie

    I see from the key that this assessment could be used for grades 1-3, but how do we know how much of this a student should be able to do at each grade level? I am a parent of a 1st grader, and I’m trying to determine where he needs more help.

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Jessie!
      This could actually be used with any grade if you are trying to find the gaps in a student’s phonics knowledge/figure out where to begin instruction. As to what should be known in each grade, that really depends on the phonics program. If you’re trying to figure out if a child is meeting grade level benchmarks in general, then I suggest using a free universal screener like Acadience. The purpose of a diagnostic assessment is to figure out what to teach next, not to figure out if a child is at grade level. Does that make sense?

      Reply to this comment

    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      Hello Benjamin! The button seems to be working properly. I recommend turning off your pop-up blocker and trying it again. If that doesn’t work, you can try it in a different internet browser.

      Reply to this comment

  4. Paula Lynne Zasada

    Hi- I am trying to download the DEcoding Assessment. It won’t work for me. I have used it before. I can’t seem to find where I saved it. Can you send me another link? I would really appreciate it!

    Reply to this comment

    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      Hello Jessica! Our system is showing that the emails we’ve sent out to you have bounced back to us. Is there a different email that you could try signing up with?

      Reply to this comment

  8. Lisa

    Hi Anna,
    First, THANK YOU, for your incredible leadership, advocacy, and support of teachers. The materials you help create have been invaluable to me for many years. I’ve downloaded and reviewed the phonics assessment in preparation for this school year and have a wondering: Is there anything I need to consider for students who seem to naturally recognize any word before them? In my 32 years working with young readers, there are often children who seem to “inhale” any word put before them. Would I expect to see their skill level become more apparent when using the ENcoding assessment more than the DEcoding assessment? And/or, would you recommend I seek nonsense words for them to decode that follow the different patterns as part of the assessment? I just want to get the best measure for my entire range. Thank you in advance for your insights.

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Lisa!
      Yes, those kids are probably in the 5% of Nancy Young’s Reading ladder … the kids who just learn reading effortlessly. But you’re correct – spelling often lags behind reading, so I would give them the encoding assessment. I’m guessing they’ll do just fine with the nonsense words, but I would definitely focus on those with these kids.

      Reply to this comment

      • Lisa

        Anna,
        I just finished scoring the assessments and entered scores on the checklist. How many errors are acceptable for a section to determine the best starting point for a student? I didn’t see this mentioned in the materials.
        Thanks so much,
        Lisa

        Reply to this comment

    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      Hi Carol! When you click the link on this page, do you see the pop-up appear asking for your name and email address? If not, you may need to turn off your ad blocker and refresh the page. If this doesn’t work, please send us an email at hello@themeasuredmom.com and we’ll be happy to continue to help!

      Reply to this comment

  11. Janice

    Hi Anna,
    I have been trying to get the phonics assessments to send to me for download. I cannot seem to get it to work. I would love to use them next week. Is there any way you can help?
    Janice

    Reply to this comment

    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      Hi Janice! Our system shows that the email containing the assessment was sent out to you yesterday. Did you get that email? You may need to check your spam folder just in case. If you have the email, but are still having download problems, please hit reply to that email and we’ll make sure to help you so you can have it in time for next week!

      Reply to this comment

  12. Wendy

    It is a huge help to be able to access your materials. I am a special ed teacher. With students at multiple levels and scattered gaps, this assessment tool will make data collection much easier and more efficient. Thanks so munch

    Reply to this comment

    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      Hi Claire! When you click the link on this page, do you see the pop-up appear asking for your name and email address? If not, you may need to turn off your ad blocker and refresh the page. If this doesn’t work, please send us an email at hello@themeasuredmom.com and we’ll be happy to continue to help!

      Reply to this comment

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