Free Assessments for Phonics Skills

These assessments serve as a quick "check in" to see if students understand a skill and if your instruction is effective before moving on. Learn about reading assessments, including the different types and why they're important for literacy instruction.

List of Assessments by Skill

Reading Universe offers a free collection of 40+ assessments organized by phonics skill. Each assessment packet has a set of instructions, a teacher recording sheet, and a student read sheet. 

1. Sound-Letter Correspondence

• Letter Naming Assessment for Mastery (opens in new window)
• My Fluency Graphs for Reading Sounds and Naming Letters (opens in new window)
• Letter Sound Assessment for Mastery (opens in new window)

Watch reading specialist Alison Ellis monitor and assess how many letter sounds her student reads correctly, and see the letter names and sounds skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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2. Short Vowels

• Assessment: Short Vowels in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the short vowels skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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3. Closed Syllables

• Assessment: Short Vowels in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the closed syllables skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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4. Glued Sounds

• Assessment: Glued Sounds -ng and -nk (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Glued Sounds -am, -an, -all (opens in new window)

See the glued skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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5. Open Syllables

• Assessment: Open Syllables in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the open syllables skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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6. Spelling with ‘c’ vs. ‘k’

• Spelling Assessment: 'c' vs 'k' with Short Vowels (opens in new window)
• Spelling Assessment: 'c' vs 'k' in Blends (opens in new window)

See the spelling with ‘c’ vs. ‘k’ skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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7. Consonant Digraphs

• Assessment: Consonant Digraphs in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the consonant digraphs skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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8. Blends

• Assessing Beginning Blends in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessing Ending Blends in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

 See the blends skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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9. '-ck' Spelling Rule

• Assessment: '-ck' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the '-ck' spelling rule skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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10. FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule (Double Consonant Endings)

• Assessment: FLoSS(Z) in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the FLoSS(Z) spelling rule skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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11. ‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer

• Assessment: 'y' as a Vowel (Long 'e') in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: 'y' as a Vowel (Long 'i') in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the ‘y’ as a vowel skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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12. Magic 'e' (also known as Silent ‘e’)

• Assessment: Magic ‘e’ in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the magic 'e' skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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13. Soft ‘c’ and Soft ‘g’

• Assessment: Soft 'c' ('-ace' and '-ice')  in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Soft 'g' ('-ge') in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Soft 'c' (Multisyllabic Words)  in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Soft 'g' (Multisyllabic Words)  in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

 See the soft ‘c’ and soft ‘g’ skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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14. R-Controlled Vowels

• Assessment: 'ar' and 'or' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Reading Assessment for 'er', 'ir', and 'ur'  (opens in new window)

See the r-controlled vowels skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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15. Vowel Teams and Diphthongs

• Assessment: Vowel Teams 'ay' and 'ai'  in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the vowel teams and diphthongs skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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16. ‘-tch’ Spelling Rule

• Assessment: '-tch' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the ‘-tch’ spelling rule skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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17. ‘-dge’ Spelling Rule

• Assessment: '-dge' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: '-dge' vs. '-ge' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

 See the ‘-dge’ spelling rule skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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18. Consonant ‘-le’

• Assessment: Consonant '-le' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the consonant ‘-le’ skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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19. Schwa

• Assessment: Schwa in Reading (opens in new window)

See the schwa skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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20. Prefixes and Suffixes

• Assessment: Prefix 'un-' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Prefix 're-' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Prefix 'mis-' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-s' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-ing' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-es' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-ed' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-er' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffix '-est' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffixes '-ful' and '-less' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: Suffixes '-y' and '-ly' in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the prefixes skill explainer and the suffixes skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

Build Your Own Reading Assessment

Use this editable PDF to create an assessment with 10 words of your choice. You can test students on words with a particular phonics pattern or on irregularly spelled high-frequency words (heart words).

See the irregularly spelled high-frequency words skill explainer for more instructional resources.

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Multisyllabic Words

• Assessment: The VCCV Pattern in Multisyllabic Words with Closed Syllables in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: The VCCV Pattern in Multisyllabic Words with Closed and Open Syllables in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: The VCCV Pattern in Multisyllabic Words  with Closed and Magic 'e' Syllables in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: The VCCV Pattern in Multisyllabic Words with R-Controlled Syllables in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)
• Assessment: The VV Pattern in  Multisyllabic Words in Reading and Spelling (opens in new window)

See the multisyllabic words skill explainer for more instructional resources.