Shifting Your Assessments

Helpful Next Steps and Tools

Dear Readers,

We’ve been talking with lots of teachers lately and thinking about assessment of students’ independent reading proficiency, particularly in kindergarten and first grade. For a long time, we were aiming towards a particular reading level, but we no longer see that as a useful target. So, what does make sense?

First, Determine Decoding Goals

We recommend that you first think about your phonics scope and sequence and also your state standards. (And always, alongside the broader educational community, think about what makes sense and is appropriate and equitable for children.) For example, we’ve taken a look at the Common Core, New York State Next Generation Standards, TEKS (Texas), and the California Common Core Standards. Across these standards, there are some common threads in terms of phonics and word recognition. By the end of kindergarten, students are expected to decode VC and CVC words and continue to decode increasingly complex words thereafter. Some standards (NY, CA) also indicate that students should be able to decode words not only in isolation but also in texts. 

Then, Determine Appropriate Materials to Assess Decoding

Many of the teachers we work with have been using decoding inventories (word list assessments) across the year to inform their teaching. We agree that this should be front and center. We recommend tools that will not only help you screen students, but also diagnose next steps. Some great examples of these inventories are the Informal Decoding Inventory (Walpole & McKenna) and the CORE Phonics Survey. (Note: It is important that your diagnostic assessment matches your phonics scope and sequence.)

But one question that comes up over and over again is: How might we study the way a child uses these skills in the context of continuous text? This can be especially challenging if the books a teacher has typically used for assessment have limited opportunities for kids to apply their decoding skills.

Let’s say a child can read CVC words and knows some high frequency words. You may then ask, “Can they read and decode these words in continuous, connected text?” One answer is to use a decodable text to assess students’ reading, but we know that many teachers have a limited supply of those and would prefer to use them for instruction. So we created a few short, illustrated decodable texts that you can use for this purpose!

From CVC text Fox and the Wet Rug

These books are now available for free on our website (click on the Resources drop-down menu, and then on Free Assessments). The attached recording sheet allows you to take notes as you listen and reflect on students’ reading. Because the text is decodable, you will be able to see how students apply their phonics to decode words, which is often difficult in a traditional “leveled” text.

So, what’s there?

• A decoding inventory (We strongly recommend using the tools we listed previously or an inventory that is part of your curriculum, but feel free to use ours if you do not have one.)

• Printable assessment texts and recording sheets for the following categories:

  • CVC

  • Short vowel words with digraphs

  • Short vowel words with consonant blends

  • CVCe

Note that we do not expect that you’ll use these texts in a highly formal way, reading every text with every child at designated times throughout the year. Instead, we hope these texts will help you reflect on your students’ reading, in a way that honors the phonics instruction you have been doing—whether that means listening to just a snippet of the text, using these texts in a small group and making notes, or having partners take turns reading pages of the book as you observe. 

Notes on one child’s reading of Fox and the Wet Rug

The big message here: If you want to learn about students’ reading abilities, first, find out about the phonics they already know. Then, listen to them read a text that will reward that phonics knowledge. 

We’d love to hear your feedback!

The Still Learning Team