Phonics Assessment

The last subtest in the section was Pseudoword Decoding, which was also difficult as he read from a list of nonsense words. He became very frustrated and asked me, “What am I reading” “Can we please stop”. He finished the section in the 5th percentile and his standard score is 76.

Phonemic awareness is a vital role in literacy instruction. Many schools and districts adopt a commercially published basal reading program and it becomes the cornerstone of their instruction ( (David Chard, n.d.). We also know that through investigation and research it has shown us that word-recognition instruction and instruction in oral language skills related to word recognition were inadequately represented. (David Chard, n.d.) The same researchers have found that the reading passages that students are reading didn’t relate to the words they were learning. In order for students to read at grade level or above a supplemental program should be implemented. I have found that at my school we are lacking a phonics program that will reach different students abilities and make them successful in reading. My goal for this paper is to show my district that using a supplemental phonics program aside from our basal phonics program will prove beneficial to strategic readers who fall below grade level.

Addison read a narrative and an expository passage at Level P, “Plenty of Pets” a narrative passage and then an expository passage, “Animal Instincts”. Addison read both passages with 96% and 99% accuracy respectively. She scored satisfactory on both passages. When reading Level Q, she read a nonfiction passage, “Not Too Cold for a Polar Bear” with 97% accuracy and excellent comprehension. At Level R, she read with 95% accuracy and satisfactory for comprehension, although it is deliberate and arduous. However, when Addison read a narrative and expository text Level S, “Could Be Worse” and “Amazing Animal Adaptations”, reading both passages below 95% accuracy. When considering a fluency score, Addison primarily reads in three and four word groups, however it is not smooth and lacks expression with a slow rate most of the time. Aimweb progress monitoring data were considered to determine Addison’s correct word per minutes. According to the data, Addison’s word recognition skills significantly impacts her ability to read fluently, thus causing frustration. She is currently being progressed monitored at a third grade level, indicating she falls near the thirty third percentile when compared to third grade students nationally, reading a median of 109 correct words per minute.

There are a million adults who cannot read, one in six Londoners is functionally illiterate and people who cannot read or write are excluded from opportunities and may eventually become alienated and turn to crime (Johnson 2010, cited by Gross 2010). Gross (2010) expresses her concern and believes it is not where the children live, it is how they were taught to read and how they were properly motivated to learn to read. She endorses the synthetic systematic phonics approach as opposed to that of the whole word approach and believes we must place our focus on reading as it is indispensable.

There are many components to building a student’s reading skill set. One skill that is introduced in preschool and developed through the primary grades is phonemic awareness. The term phonemic awareness is defined as the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes – individual sounds. The child becomes aware of how sounds are connected to words prior to reading. This awareness creates the understanding of how phonemes explains how the smallest part of sound creates a difference in sound to the meaning of a word. Therefore, the ability to dismantle words, and reassemble them, and then to alter the word into something different explains the concept behind phonemic awareness. It is the primary foundation in which other reading skill sets are according based.

Initial assessments revealed that Cormac has strong listening comprehension and with support and explicit instruction in decoding (print skills) and sight word recognition, Cormac has the ability to read at a higher level. His strengths in certain phonics include many of the early emergent literacy skills such as letter identification and letter sound correspondence as well as initial sound identification and phoneme segmentation. He demonstrates weaknesses in sight word automaticity, effective use of the three cueing systems, and decoding unfamiliar CVC words with short vowels as well as phonograms, phoneme blending and phoneme substitution.

The contrasting perspectives of the two passages, “CliffsTestPrep” by Jerry Bobrow (2006) and “The Place of Phonics in Learning to Read and Write” by Marie Emmitt (2013), address the issue of the importance of phonemic awareness in reading and writing scores. Bobrow believes that phonemic awareness is important to understand since it affects reading scores. Emmitt however, argues that there is no evidence that phonemic awareness has a major impact on reading achievement.

Gemelli’s current Lexile score is 272L. She is able to read and comprehend text at the first-grade level with excellent accuracy. Her most recent reading test (using read theory) placed her at the 1.8 grade level (first grade, eight month). Gemelli’s frustration level in reading is currently at the second-grade reading level. At her ability level Gemelli is currently able to answer reading comprehension with 75% accuracy.

Ehri’s Phases of Word Reading and Spelling Development has four different phases that are used to describe the progressive stages of a reader. The first phase is the Pre-alphabetic phase, in this phase there is no letter to sound consciousness only visual features of a word which the students use as a reminder of how to read the words. Phase two is the Partial Alphabetic. When readers are in this phase they use some of the letters in the word (mainly the first and the last letters) to attempt to pronounce the word. Phase three is the Full Alphabetic Phase. In this phase the readers are now able to use and understand the alphabetic connections in words. The readers are now able to map graphemes to phonemes of words that have been read to them

Based off of the experiences we have shared together so far, the assessments have revealed some of my tutee’s strengths and challenges from several areas of literacy. Bryan excelled in the certain areas of phonics when it came to the spelling inventory. His strengths were consonants, short vowels, digraphs, and blends. There are also other literacy areas that can be explored in this process and some in which I have already seen; areas include reading, writing, speaking, and listening. A challenge Bryan may face when reading or speaking is the pronunciation of words. Although my CT said Bryan was very fluent in English she also told me his mother speaks no English, she only speaks Spanish. I am curious as to if Bryan is struggling with reading

Kyra has been working to use her knowledge of letter/sound relationship to decode unfamiliar words, and apply various strategies to gain meaning of a text including answering WH questions orally and written, and use a variety of evidence from the text to help support her thinking. Kyra benefits from having a teacher scribe for her and then Kyra will write the sentence. Given appropriate materials and instruction, Kyra works to improve her oral reading fluency and to learn new vocabulary in a structured reading program. Kyra continues to make progress with answering “WH” questions and dictating sentences and copying the sentences with correct punctuation and end marks with 75% accuracy.

DJ’s independent level for oral reading was estimated to be below pre-primer, his instructional level was grade 2 and his frustration level was at the third grade level. Compared to DJ’s independent reading on the GWL at grade two, DJ’s independent reading level on oral passages was more than two levels lower being estimated at below pre-primer. DJ’s instructional reading on the GWL was at third grade, whereas his instructional level for oral reading fell in the second grade level. This difference suggests that DJ can read words in isolation easier than reading words in context.

How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.

Kurtis’ overall achievement in reading and written expression fell within the average range with slightly low average scores in reading fluency and oral reading when compared to his same aged peers. Kurtis struggled with word attack skills and had difficulty with sounding out of words. Kurtis could identify beginning sounds, but when he was asked to read nonsense words he struggled with short vowel sounds and correct pronunciation. However, Kurtis’ Letter-Word Identification and Passage Comprehension were within the average range. When he read sentences orally he mispronounced words, and did not slow down to correct his errors even when they did not make sense. On the reading fluency subtest, he was required to read a short sentence and

After the completion of these assessments, Lucy’s reading skills continuously improve by practicing reading strategies for word study that begin at the transitional long vowel patterns within word patterns stage. Word Study strategies should start as a teacher-directed two-step sort that examines the CVC,