Basic Reading Assessments {Free and Editable}

Over the summer, I redesigned my reading inventories that I use for pinpointing reading difficulties and tracking progress throughout the year. I am happy to share them with you. They will be fully editable by you. That way you can tailor them to your specific intervention program or requirements. WARNING: Don't worry if the file looks all "wonky" in Dropbox. It will look correct when you open the file in PowerPoint.

If you missed my math post, you can read it {HERE}.

These assessments will cover the main areas where kids encounter reading difficulties: phonological awareness, phonics, sight word knowledge, and fluency. I keep track of all of this data on a cover sheet that you can grab and edit {HERE}.

First, I give a phonological awareness inventory. This one is a blend of several that I have used over the years. It has been an invaluable tool to me. I have never had a child score low on this inventory who didn't have significant issues with phonological awareness. Each word/question equals one point out of 50. You can download your own copy {HERE}.

Next, we do a quick sight word inventory. The student receives a flip book of sight words so that they are not overwhelmed by too many words at one time. I used the Dolch list, but you can edit this to use Fry's list. List 1 = preprimer, List 2 = primer, etc. I don't use a score sheet. I just keep count of errors with my fingers. When I reach five, we stop at the end of that page. If they make no errors, I record the date of mastery on their cover sheet. You can get your editable copy of the flip book {HERE}. After you download/edit, just print, cut, and bind them.

Then, I give a phonics inventory. It starts off with letter identification and goes all the way to multisyllabic words. Each section has its own page in the flip book so you can stop whenever the student has reached a point of frustration or excessive errors. During our first session, I try to do letter id through real long vowel words. The flip book pages look like the one below. It always amazes me how you can separate the sight readers from the kids who can truly decode by comparing their ability to read real v. nonsense words with the same sound patterns. You can download the student book {HERE}.

As the child reads each page, I either mark out correct responses or circle incorrect responses. They are less anxious when they hear you making a mark for everything they read. I use this inventory to pinpoint specific phonics deficits. Then, I use it to pre/post assess each skill as I teach it. You can download/edit the 3 page score sheet {HERE}. 

Lastly, we do a one minute fluency read using a passage from DIBELS. You can get the student text and the assessor's sheet for free {HERE}. 

Many thanks to Kimberly Geswein and A Perfect Blend for their amazing fonts! 

I hope that these will be helpful to you! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or comment below. :)

Sounds of C & G Freebies

My RTI sweeties are working our way through learning phonics rules and sounds. Research shows that memorizing sound patterns is one of the best ways to help struggling readers or students with dyslexia. We are about to tackle the hard and soft sounds of the letters c and g.

If these sounds are tricky for your young readers, you might want these 3 freebies. The first one is a song that I have always used for teaching the hard/soft sounds of c and g. I can't for the life of me remember where I first heard it. I have used it since my first year in the classroom. It has always been helpful! I am planning to have my students use a highlighter to look for c/g followed by e, i, or y on the word sort pages before cutting and sorting. I hope these will be useful to you, too. You can download them by clicking {HERE}.

If you need more activities for the sounds of c and g, you might like my latest TPT product. It includes a decodable reader called "Carnival Games", an assessment, a reading/spelling center, and 2 of my students' favorite style card games. One is called "Cinderella's Castle" and practices the hard and soft sounds of c. The other is called "Goldilocks in the Cottage" and practices the hard and soft sounds of g. My kiddos beg to play these games! You can check them out {HERE}.

Word Building Activity

I have seen several activities with Cheez-its and activities with these 3 compartments plates, but I decided to combine the two as a culminating task for my short vowels unit. 

I used the same plates that I also use when I teach part-part-whole during addition and subtraction. I want them to understand that just as equations have parts of a whole so do words. To make the plates I bought several plastic plates at the dollar store. I used some leftover letters from my scrapbooking mama days. Then, I applied mod podge over the top of the letters to seal them down. I have all different styles of lettering and the kids love to use different ones each time we practice. 

I want the kids to know that words need a vowel part and a consonant part to make a whole word (with a few exceptions like I and a, of course). So, we will sort our Cheez-it Scrabble Junior crackers into consonants and vowels. Then, we will use them to build whole words. It will be so easy to differentiate! Bobby Sue can build 3 letter words and Jimmy Lou can try 5 letter words. 

See, easy cheezy! :)

This will wrap up our short vowel study. I just finished my short vowel study bundle. Yippee! You can check it out {HERE} or on the pic below.

Hope you can use this idea! 

Short A (Freebie, too)

Am I the only one with RtI kids who know their consonants, blends, and digraphs, but are completely bumfuzzled by vowel sounds? Please tell me I'm not alone. :)  Whew! These babies need some serious intensive work on their vowel sounds. So, we are working our way through the vowels in my room. I normally would have just bought something on TPT, but most everything I found was just for CVC words. Now, I do have some babies who need that, too, but many of my tier 2 sweeties can handle more than that. So, I am introducing my vowel series today starting with short a!

This set includes several centers and games and a decodable reader with comprehension questions. Again, many of the words are beyond CVC --like branch, trash, and graph. You can check it out in my store by clicking {HERE} or on the pic above. 

I am so excited about this activity that I just had to share it with you. It's called Roll a Rime. The kids roll one die to find out which rime to add to the onset. Then, they decide if they have made a real word or a nonsense word. They color their answer by a code. Easy breezy mac and cheesy for you and fun for them! You can snag your freebie {HERE} or on the pic below.

Thanks for your time and interest! Y'all mean so much to me!