Letter and Sound Assessment

I like to take an inventory of the letters and sounds my students know at the beginning of the school year.  To do this, I use my Letter and Sound Assessment!  
I use this as a means to assess and then monitor the progress throughout the year. 

I begin by showing the students the upper case letters.  I ask them to tell me the name of each letter and what sound it makes.  I then move on to the lower case letters.  Although this isn't a "timed" test, I only give the child credit if they are able to name the letter or sound automatically (within 3 seconds).  They do not get credit if they need to employ some type of strategy in order to recall the letter name or sound (i.e., they have to recite the alphabet, spell their name, etc...).

Because I use this informal assessment multiple times throughout the school year, I make sure to mark the letters and sounds in a different way and with a different color each time I assess.  There is a space to assess the child three times on one form (6 times total if you print front-to-back).

There is also a box to write notes each time the child is assessed.  (I tend to take a lot of notes on my students, do you?)  I like to keep track of what letters/sounds they did not know, especially if they demonstrate inconsistencies between assessment periods.  Another thing I like to note is if the letter or sound seems to be emerging and I note the strategy the student is using to identify it (i.e., they had to spell their name, recite the alphabet, state the letter-keyword-sound in order to produce the sound).  Here is a picture of the assessment with one of my students for some of the year:

I do suggest that you print pages 2-3 front-to-back.  Then you are able to see the child's growth and have the data for six different assessment periods on one sheet of paper!

Thanks for stopping by!!

StickerUSA Activity Book Giveaway!

Today I get to share the fun we had with the 

StickerUSA Activity Book 

from Barker Creek

This book is jam-packed with information about the states!  My little one loved to learn about the different states.  Each state has their own page and reviews the state name, nickname, capital, flag, flower, state bird, and abbreviation.  I love how each state page has a map that shows where the state is located within the United States. On the back of each page there is room to write notes about each state.  All of the pages are very clear and are in black and white, so they will be easily reproducible.  There are also tear-out flashcards for each state that lists all of this information, plus a neat fact about the state!  

Here are just a few samples of some of the pages we completed.  

We began by learning about our home state.

Since we just made our first trip to Walt Disney World, we learned about the Sunshine State.

Would you like to win one of your own?  Please enter below!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Thank you Barker Creek for contacting me to review this great book!  Please make sure you visit their website to see all of the great teaching materials they have!

Emergent Student Readers Set 1 & 2 UPDATE

I have been busy updating and revamping my Emergent Student Readers!  

This has been something I have been meaning to do for quite awhile now.  I wasn't really pleased with the order they were listed in, because they weren't listed in the order I teach them to my own students.  So I went ahead and fixed that.  Now they are listed in order of difficulty.  Each reader builds upon the previous reader as the sight words are reviewed and new words are slowly introduced.  The sentence patterns change slightly from line to line, to ensure the students focus on the text and do not just memorize a patter that is repeated over and over again.

Set 1 now consists of 7 Emergent Student Readers.  Each reader includes a copy for the student to read in class and also a Home Reader to take home.  

Also included are sight word flash cards and pocket chart picture cards to go along with each reader.

The following sight words are reviewed in Set 1:

I, see, a, my

I, see, a, the

I, see, a, and, the

I, see, a, and, the, my

I, see, my, the, can, go, you

I, see, my, the, can, go, you, is, in
I, see, a, my, can, is, it, no

In addition to introducing sight words, this set is geared to help students develop their concept of word.  I have placed dots under each word in the first five readers to remind students where to point with their finger as they read.  I also use this set to introduce the reading strategies of looking at the pictures for a clue and also using beginning sounds to determine unknown words. Rhyming pairs can be reinforced with the 1^st, 2^nd,  and 4^th readers in this set. 

You will find 6 different readers in Set 2, which continues to build upon Set 1.  

The following sight words are reviewed in Set 2:
I, see, my, the, can, is, no, in, on, me, like, look, it
I, see, the, can, you, is, on, me, like, little, we
I, see, the, can, you, is, in, on, look, it, at
I, the, my, is, me, look, at, this, that, am
a, is, this, that, he, she, has, have, do, or
a, my, the, you, is, on, this, that, he, she, do

In addition to introducing sight words, this set is geared to help students develop and apply additional reading strategies. I generally reinforce the following with this set:  checking the pictures for a clue, using beginning sound knowledge, thinking about all of the sounds to decode simple words, and making sure what they are reading makes sense.

If you want to learn more about how I use these Emergent Student Readers in my classroom, please click here.

Also, stay tuned because Set 3 is currently in the works!