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. :)

Basic Math Assessment {Free & Editable}

Over the summer, I designed a quick math assessment to use for both baseline data and progress monitoring of my Title I math students. I needed it to have a few key components.
1. I needed it to involve NO reading.
2. I needed it to give me a quick picture of strengths and weaknesses with BASIC math skills.
3. I needed it to align to 2nd grade standards and our curriculum.
4. I needed it to be quick and also portable.
5. I needed it to grow in complexity throughout the year.

I came up with a spiral bound flip book and some recording sheets that met all of my needs. I hope that you will find these to be user friendly. If you need to tweak a few things, I am also making these editable with PowerPoint.

I printed, laminated, cut, and bound all of the student pages to make a flip book. It has been my experience that students are far less anxious about testing when they can hold something in their hands.

For tasks A - L, students should (at a MINIMUM)  be able to do the red tasks. If they could, I went on to the blue. If they did the blue correctly, we attempted the green ones.
Here's a brief picture walk through each task in the flip book.

Task A: red: count from 1 to 20, blue: count from 84 to 112, green: count from 285 to 310.
Task B: Tell how many hundreds, tens, and ones make each number.

Task C: red: count by fives, blue: count by tens, green: count by tens using 3 digit numbers
Task D: Each set involves: reading the number, telling h/t/o, and expanded form.

Task E: For each number, tell one more/one less, ten more/ten less
Task F: Basic addition facts

Task G: Two digit addition (with one regrouping problem)
Task H: Three digit addition (with regrouping one time)

Task I: Basic subtraction facts
Task J: Two digit subtraction with no regrouping

Task K: Three digit subtraction (with regrouping one time)
Task L: Odd/Even (MUST explain their reasoning)

Task M: time to the hour, half hour, and five minutes
Task N: counting coins (dimes/pennies, larger total, total over $1)

Task O: Counting bills and coins
Task P: Students will interpret the graph to answer 4 questions.

Task Q: Name fractions (1/2, 1/3, 1/4)
Task R: Name each plane shape.

I used the following forms to record student responses. I keep my paper hidden from the students so that they cannot see what I am writing. I give checks for correct responses and write down what they said for incorrect responses. They seem to be less nervous when you make marks for every response. Recording their incorrect responses gives me powerful data about their errors, too. Here's a quick demo student packet.

Let's take a quick peek at the data on "Amy Smith".

 Page 1: Amy's overall score was 18. I set the bar at 27 in the fall. So, she would definitely benefit from math interventions. She had difficulty with rote counting over 109.

 Page 2: Amy needs help with expanded form and 10 more/10 less than a given number.

 Page 3: Note the F and N I wrote in on the addition section. Amy relied on either her fingers or a number line on the wall to solve these problems. She needs help with automaticity. She clearly needs help with subtraction. She added. Then, she added incorrectly. Then, she saw no change at all.

 Page 4: Odd/Even: Amy probably guessed even. She couldn't give a rationale for her answer. She inverted the hour and minute hands on time to the hour. She couldn't count dimes and pennies.

Page 5: Amy has some basic data analysis skills. She is on the verge of combining two items, but really struggled with finding a difference. Fractions were a foreign concept. She needs a little brush up work on her plane shapes.
Lastly, I added a "notes" section where I can record anything that I need to remember to mention to her teacher or bring up in our next RTI meeting.

Benchmarks: As I said earlier, I expect a minimum score of 27 in the fall. I increase it to 50 in the winter. I expect the full 70 points in the spring.

If you think that this editable flip book and scoring sheets would be helpful to you, please download the student flip book {HERE} and grab the teacher's scoring sheets {HERE}. Don't worry if the files look "WONKY" in Dropbox. They should look perfect when you open them in PowerPoint. :)

I have also fully revamped by reading assessments. I hope to share those later this week. If I can answer any questions you have, please comment below or email me. Thanks!!