Tips for Effective Assessments of Phonological Awareness Skills
- Assess one student at a time.
- Give a student one task at a time.
- Do not have any print visible, since you’re assessing a phonological skill.
- Do not set a time limit for tasks (typically, each takes two to three minutes per student).
- Record incorrect responses. Address misunderstandings later on.
- Do not mark issues caused by a student’s dialect or speech impediments as errors.
What Do Your Assessment Results Mean?
Students who respond correctly 80% of the time (or higher) on the assessment we’ve provided are ready to move on to the next skill in the phonological awareness continuum (in this case, onset-rime).
For those who aren’t reaching 80%, there are three instructional options you can use to provide additional support:
1. Add Time and Repetitions
You can consider bumping up the amount of time for instruction, slowing the pace of instruction, and increasing practice time. For example, while some children might catch on with blending compound words after working through five words, other children might need 10 or 20.
2. Change Your Instruction
If Quiet Yell doesn't deliver results, you could try another instructional approach. For example, you could use picture cards that represent both of the individual words within a compound word (a picture of a foot and a picture of a ball) and use them to help students both segment and blend.
3. Change Your Student Groupings
If students have been practicing only in whole group, try small group instruction. If students are practicing in a small group and are falling behind most kids, consider one-on-one practice. Some students may need numerous individual practice opportunities with prompt corrective feedback.