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!!