2. Phonemic Assessment/Strategy:
Yopp-Singer Test of Phonemic Segmentation
Directions for Administering
1. Have one test sheet for each child in the class.
2. Assess children individually in a quiet place.
3. Keep the assessment playful and game-like.
4. Explain the game to the child exactly as the directions specify.
5. Model for the child what he or she needs to do with each of the practice words.
Have them break apart each word with you.
Children are given the following directions upon administration of the test:
Today we're going to play a word game. I'm going to say a word and I want you to
break the word apart. You are going to say the word slowly, and then tell me each
sound in the word in order. For example, if I say "old," you should say "oooo-llll-d"
(The teacher says the sound, not the letters.) Let's try a few words together.
The practice items are ride, go, and man. The teacher should help the child with each
sample item - segmenting the item for the child if necessary and encouraging the child
to repeat the segmented words. Then the child is given the 22 item test. If the child
responds correctly, the teacher says, "That's right." If the child gives an incorrect
response, he or she is corrected. The teacher provides the appropriate response. The
teacher circles the numbers of all correct answers.
If the child breaks a word apart incorrectly, the teacher gives the correct answer:
Child You
Says say
Uses onset and rime /d/ - /d-/o-
Repeats word /og/ /g/
Stretches word out dog /d-/o-
Spells letters in word d-o- /g/
Says first and last g /d-/o-
sounds "d" - /g/
Says another word "o" - /d-/o-
Says a sentence "g" /g/
/d/ - /d-/o-
/g/ /g/
bark /d-/o-
3. I don't /g/
know /d-/o-
/g/
The child's score is the number of items correctly segmented into all constituent
phonemes. No partial credit is given. For instance, if a child says "/c/-/at/" instead of
"/c/-/a/-/t/," the response may be noted on the blank line following the items but is
considered incorrect for purposes of scoring. Correct responses are only those that
involve articulation of each phoneme in the target word.
A blend contains two or three phonemes in each of these and each should be
articulated separately. Hence, item 7 on the test, grew, has three phonemes /g/-/r/-
/ew/. Digraphs such as /sh/ in item 5, she, and the /th/ in item 15, three, are single
phonemes. Item 5, therefore has two phonemes and item 15 has three phonemes. If a
child responds with letter names instead of sounds, the response is coded as incorrect,
and the type of error is noted on the test.
Students who obtain high scores (segmenting all or nearly all of the items correctly)
may be considered phonemically aware. Students who correctly segment some items
are displaying emerging phonemic awareness. Students who are able to segment only
a few items or none at all lack appropriate levels of phonemic awareness. Without
intervention, those students scoring very low on the test are likely to experience
difficulty with reading and spelling.
Student Test Sheet
Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
Student's name _________________________________ Date _____________
Score (number correct) _______________
Directions: Today we're going to play a word game. I'm going to say a word and I
want you to break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in
order. For example, if I say "old," you should say /o/-/l/-/d/." (Administrator: Be sure
to say the sounds, not the letters, in the word.) Let's try a few together.
Practice items:(Assist the child in segmenting these items as necessary.)
ride go man
4. Test items:(Circle those items that the student correctly segments; incorrect responses
may be recorded on the blank line following the item.)
1. dog _________________________ 12. lay _________________________
2. keep _________________________ 13. race _________________________
3. fine _________________________ 14. zoo _________________________
4. no _________________________ 15. three _________________________
5. she _________________________ 16. job _________________________
6. wave _________________________ 17. in _________________________
7. grew _________________________ 18. ice _________________________
8. that _________________________ 19. at _________________________
9. red _________________________ 20. top _________________________
10. me _________________________ 21. by _________________________
11. sat _________________________ 22. do _________________________
Return to the Test Directions
The author, Hallie Kay Yopp, California State University, Fullerton, grants permission for this
test to be reproduced. The author acknowledges the contribution of the late Harry Singer to the
development of this test.
5.
6.
7. Phonics Assessment/Strategy
*Click twice to view powerpoint
Blachowicz Informal Phonics Survey (Barr, 2000)
Test Items:
1. Naming upper and lower case letters. Circle those known when pointed
to.
a S q I R h k
s J d A f O U
l w z Q v X B
n H T b e G P
V N j y K w f
F r Z x L m O
E o C D P g A
8. i M t u c Y d
S j
2. Sound values of isolated consonants. Point to each letter and ask the
child to tell you what sound “this letter makes: or give you a word that
starts with this letter. Circle those not known.
b c k j g t v d m h r
p z l f n s u w y qu
3. Short vowel phonograms blended with initial consonants. Check to see
if the student knows the following simple sight word phonograms: up, it,
am, and on. (If they are not known, try to train the student to recognize
them, or choose phonograms the child does know.) Point to each item and
have the child pronounce it. If an item is mispronounced, write the
mispronunciation about it for later analysis.
mupzamtupsam con rit gam kon
dupvithon quam bupponwup jam
nitfup lam yup
4. Consonant blends plus short vowel phonograms. This and all subsequent
tests follow the same procedure as test 3. Have the child pronounce each
item, and write in any mispronounced words.
brupsconplitskamslup twit dron
gramswisspupfronblitsnamglup
clamtritflonsmamslupcronpritglup
5. Consonant digraphs plus short vowel phonograms.
chupshonthup whit phamshupwhon chon thon
6. Vowel-Consonant-Silent e plus initial consonant.
9. dake mime foletulemedetatefopeduteditesede
7. Long vowel digraphs.
leatmiedboadtay ley moeteefbuelmoeslail
bietoatmeeptayluebainleam
8. R-controlled vowels.
mertirhurdirferdarmortursardor bur
9. Ending-blend phonograms.
seltmextbasp mick dunchmulktand
goftsunchmimpkentmunkjungdulf
baftdilknoltsatchfodgehinkdisp
foltnampdistgelfmondbant ting
dastholffaskreptfelpnold bent
10. Ending-digraph phonograms.
tathfashnichbaphdithsoshtachruph
11. Alternate sounds of c and g.
gapgity cot came gendcendgitcim
12. Three-letter blends.
splanchrinthrupschonstratscrup
squitspronchristhratscrisspron
strupsplupsquisschanshrat
13. Diphthongs.
dowdoydounddointdoydoud
doilfown
14. Silent Letters.
talftambdemnfalm knop wridgnap
10. knopghat word gnomphotpnippsin
15. Multisyllabic words. Show division in responses with slash marks.
bufflehotratrewantsuntingfendleinserg
unpottlerembatrebarkbullingableminkfallrefizwissing
wenkerfilmendlesubmarkableractionbundedmadsion
Student Copy
a S q I R h k
s J d A f O U
l w z Q v X B
n H T b e G P
V N j y K w f
F r Z x L m O
E o C D P g A
i M t u c Y d
S j
___________________________________________________________________________
b c k j g t v d m h r
p z l f n s u w y qu
mupzamtupsam con rit gam kon
dupvithon quam bupponwup jam
nitfup lam yup
brupsconplitskamslup twit dron
12. doilfown
talftambdemnfalm knop wridgnap
knopghat word gnomphotpnippsin
bufflehotratrewantsuntingfendleinserg
unpottlerembatrebarkbullingableminkfallrefizwissing
wenkerfilmendlesubmarkableractionbundedmadsion
The Analogy Strategy: Teaching Children the Excitement of Becoming Word Detectives
I greatly admire the research and classroom application of the analogy strategy for
decoding words by LinneaEhri and Irene Gaslins! They taught teachers and children the
excitement of discovering how to pronounce words as detectives and use the words in
meaningful contexts.
I advocate their best practices and would like to share my favorite success story about the
value of teaching the analogy strategy. I was fortunate to assist with teaching reading to a third
grade student in a low socioeconomic school named Rashad. Rashad had a wonderful teacher
Virginia who was teaching the class the analogy strategy. Rashad was reading at a Pre-Primer
level and was known to sit alone quietly and rarely smiled. Initially, I assessed his reading
strengths and weaknesses. After an analysis of the assessments I taught him the analogy strategy
with positive reinforcement over a period of three months from January to March. We met once
weekly beyond the daily teaching in small groups of the strategy by Virginia. Rashad progressed
and began to smile… All was well until we learned that his neighborhood had been redistricted
and he would be attending another school. We were devastated! Fortunately, Virgina was able to
tutor Rashad that summer. Rashad learned to attack unfamiliar words as an excited word
detective. His joy about his progress overcame the barriers to his happiness as a reader. The
following is an explanation of the assessments and the process I used to teach him the analogy
strategy.
Assessments and Process
Assessments: The Bear Spelling Test: I used the Bear Spelling Test from the text, Words Their
Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction by Bear, Invernizzi,
Templeton, and Johnston. The test is a spelling inventory designed to determine students’
stages of development with a feature guide. The test is excellent for students at all grade levels
who experience difficulty decoding words and spelling. The spelling features include the
Emergent, Letter Name Alphabetic, Within Word Pattern, Syllable and Affixes, and Derivational
Relations Stages. The stages are from the earliest to most advanced stages of spelling.
13. Rashadscored at the late emergent to letter name stage. Late emergent readers have difficulty
determining and sometimes omit the vowels in syllables in words. They often search for
environmental clues to decode words such as the golden arches to read the word McDonald’s.
Rashad was only able to spell the word bedout of the list of words bed, ship, when, lump, and
float. I stopped asking him to spell words when he missed 5 words in a row. The results indicated
that Rashad needed help understanding that syllables have vowels and that spelling patterns such
as ip in the word ship and ump in the word lumphelp with decoding unfamiliar words. Spelling
patterns are the vowel and what comes after it in a syllable.
Informal Reading Inventory: Qualitative Reading Inventory(QRI) by Leslie and Caldwell. The
test is designed to determine students’ ability to decode words and comprehend words in context.
Rashad scored at the Pre-Primer level on the word list. He was able to decode a narrative at the
pre primer level with pictures for comprehension. Analysis of the test results indicated that
Rashad depended on pictures and guessing for decoding words. He had difficulty comprehending
text based on word recognition problems.
Analogy Strategy Process and Positive Reinforcement: The analogy strategy helps students
decode unfamiliar words by using familiar words with the same spelling patterns. For example,
the spelling pattern in the word cat is at (the vowel and what is after it in the syllable. Spelling
patterns are also referred to as the rime in a syllable). Students need to understand that syllables
often have an onset-the beginning consonants in a syllable and a spelling pattern-the vowel and
what comes after it in a word in order to pronounce words.
I helped Rashad understand how his successful pronunciation of the word bed which has the
edspelling pattern evolved. Then I taught him the spelling pattern in the word cat which is at. I
used the word cat in the sentence, “The cat is my pet.” He learned to decode the word cat and
underline the at spelling pattern. We used the word cat as the key word to decode other words
with the same at spelling pattern. Next, we created word families with the key word cat to create
hat, sat, mat. We used the words in a language experience story that he dictated for me to write
on chart paper and underlined the spelling pattern at when appropriate. Then Virginia used the
key word cat during the week to help him decode words with the same at spelling pattern. The
key word cat was also placed on a personal word wall under the vowel a. The vowel word wall
helped him find the spelling patterns in unfamiliar words easily. For example, when Rashad was
reading and came to an unfamiliar word like sat he was able to compare it to the key word cat on
the word wall under the 1st letter of the spelling pattern a rather than refer to a word family list of
words with the same spelling pattern but different beginnings (onsets) that might be confusing to
him. This enabled him to think and say, “If I know cat, I know sat.” “If I know cat I know mat.”
When he discovered the value of the analogy strategy in this process to decode a word he would
smile so broadly that it would touch my heart. I praised and gave him a sticky note with a phrase
such as “you are a great reader!” I would stick it on his shirt and he would grin from ear to ear!!
Word analysis is a part of the analogy strategy. For example, for the unfamiliar word mat I
would use the following chart found in an article by Ehri, Gaskins, et al (19 ):
14. Talk to Yourself Chart
1. The word is____________________________. (mat)
2. Stretch the word. I hear ____sounds. (3 sounds m a t)
3. I see _________ (3) letters because__________________. (I can hear each letter and the
a makes the short sound as in the word cat)
4. The spelling pattern is ________________.(at)
5. This is what I know about the vowel: ______________________ (It is short because it
makes the short a sound).
6. Another word on the word wall with the same vowel sound is______________________.
(cat)
Important: I always asked him to create his own rule for the vowel and asked if the
vowel broke a rule he already knew about it. He was able to conclude that if a word has a
consonant vowel consonant (CVC) it might be a short vowel.
Sometimes using word analysis would get tricky as in the unfamiliar word farusing the key
word car. For example,
Talk to Yourself Chart
1. The word is____________________________. (far)
2. Stretch the word. I hear ____sounds. (2 sounds c ar – controlled vowel)
3. I see _________ (3 )letters because__________________. (The vowel a has an r next to
it=r controlled vowel)
4. The spelling pattern is ________________.(ar)
5. This is what I know about the vowel: ______________________ (It is not long or short
because it has an r next to it).
6. Another word on the word wall with the same vowel sound is______________________.
(car)
Important: I always asked him to create a rule for the vowel and asked if the vowel broke a
rule he already knew about the vowel. For example, if you have an r next to a vowel it might
not sound long or short.
It was important for student Rashad to share their word analysis with another student to
reinforce their learning and to remind them how to decode words when reading in context.
In summary:
The analogy strategy process I used with Rashad is the following:
1. Introduce a key word to be used during the week. Emphasize and underline the spelling
pattern and create word families with the same spelling pattern. For example, key word
cat- mat, sat, hat.Do not simply write cat, mat, sat, and hat. The key word must be
15. emphasized as the word to help decode the other words in the word family. I placed the
key word on a colored index card and placed the other words in the word family under
the key words on white index cards. Use the phrase “If I know (key word), I know (word
family word).” Sometimes you have words that have different spelling patterns but sound
the same such as bear and bare. In that case use parenthesis around words that have a
different spelling pattern and tell the student that they are great word detective who
recognize that some spelling patterns sound alike but are spelled differently.
2. Use the key words and some related word family words in a Language Experience Story.
Have the student(s) find the words with the same spelling pattern as the key word
3. Review the key word or words and analyze the words and use the Talk to Yourself Chart.
4. Use the key words in sentences and words with the same spelling patterns in challenging
sentences. Challenge the student(s) to find words with the same spelling patterns
throughout the week.
5. Apply the key patterns in games such as concentration, dice with onsets on one dice and
spelling patterns on another dice and create fun stories with the words.
6. Create vowel word walls. Notice that only the key words are used on the word wall not
the word family. For example,
Word Wall
A E I O U Y
Cat bed ride boat Up Yes
Car feet kite rice rug by
Remember to use a form of positive reinforcement throughout the process!!
Vocabulary Assessment/Strategy
Bear and Barone (1989) Spelling Stages, adapted for Ways With Words (Prentice Hall) To analyze
students' spelling determine which phase they are in by looking at how they spell the following words.
Administer the following assessment like a spelling test and analyze your students' strengths and
weaknesses. Determine the students' spelling stage. Which spelling patterns, etc. does the student
need help with to improve? What spelling strategies do you need to teach the student to help them
move to the next stage? If the student misses five in a row stop the test.
Spelling Stages and Test
Student Name: Date:
Letter
Early Letter Within Word Pattern Syllable Juncture
Word Name Derivational Stage
Name Stage Stage Stage
Stage
17. puncture
17. cellar
18. pleasure
19. squirrel
20.
fortunate
21.
confident
22. civilize
23. flexible
opasion, opasishan, opasition, oposision,
24.
opozcison, opishien, oppasishion, oposition,
opposition
spasitian oppisition opposition
25.
emphasize
Vocabulary Strategies
Use a story to teach the word and have students create word stories: Henrietta Hippo Story Example
Word Wizards (found on www.readwritethink.org)and Shape Poems
You Try It! (Isabel Beck) Use check marks to indicate knowledge:
Word Know it well, can explain Know something Have seen or Do not know the
it, use it in a sentence about it, can relate heard the word word
(include sentence) it to a situation
tyranny
grapnel
18. Purport
Word Associations: After discussing explanations for the words accomplice, virtuoso, philanthropist, and
novice, ask students to associate one of their new words with a presented word or phrase:
Which word goes with crook?
Which word goes with “gift to build a new hospital?”
Which word goes with piano?
Which word goes with kindergartner?
Have you ever?
Describe a time when… (you might urge someone, etc.)
Applause! Applause!
Clap how much they would like to be described by the target word: Ex. Frank, vain, wise, funny, etc.
Idea Completions
Students indicate word meanings into a context in order to explain a situation.
Ex. The audience asked the virtuoso to play another piece of music because…
The skiing teacher said Maria was a novice on the ski slopes because…
Vocabulary Activities
Language Arts Core Curriculum
VOCABULARY Standard 4000-06
Objective: 0601 Learn new words through listening and reading widely.
Objective: 0602 Use multiple resources to learn new words.
Objective: 0603 Use structural analysis/context clues to determine word meanings.
Instructional
Strategy
Goal – Use it
when you want
to…
Directions
Context Clues
Storybook Reading Provide meaningful
listening experiences with
new words. It is also good
for motivation and
language development.
Should be some direct teaching of vocabulary
with storybook reading in schools - Incidental
19. word learning will occur but some students
need direct teaching of vocabulary.
Adult/child discussion should be interactive
Stories should be read multiple times
Text Talk – Rich talk and discussion around
words – example from Isobel Beck using book
A Pocket for Corduroy (Freeman, 1978)
Teacher’s notes using the word “reluctant.” In
the story, Lisa was reluctant to leave the
Laundromat without Corduroy. Reluctant
means you are not sure you want to do
something. Say the word with me: reluctant.
Someone might be reluctant to eat a food that
they never had before, or someone might be
reluctant to ride a roller coaster because it
looks scary. Think about something you might
be reluctant to do. Start your sentence with
“I might be reluctant to _________.” After
each child responds, call on another child to
explain the response. For example, if a child
says, “I might be reluctant to eat spinach” ask
another child, “What does it mean that _____
is reluctant to eat spinach?
Dual Language Charts Create synonym lists
Help show value of
bilingualism
For ESL students, create word lists that use words in
their native language as well as English. If you leave
spaces, students may provide their own picture clues.
Classroom Labeling Associate words with
concrete objects; develop
concept of word
Works well for ESL and
foreign language; for
science or technology
classes
Objects and situations in the classroom provide
natural contexts for learning. This process can also
assist the students in spelling when they want to
describe the classroom aquarium or write about the
mealworms in science class.
CD-Rom Books Increase motivation;
provide dual-language and
multimodal input
Computer based books allow students to read the
words as they listen to the story. Several versions
allow them to highlight the words.
20. Fluency Assessment/Strategy
*Please click twice to view powerpoint
DIBELS Benchmark Assessment
Assessment of Big Ideas in Beginning Reading
Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and
Development
Institute for the Development of
Educational Achievement
University of Oregon, College of Education
Oregon Department of Education
Repeated Reading Procedure
1. The teacher selects a short passage (100-200) words which is of interest to the student and at
his/her instructional reading level (Informal Reading Inventory samples are useful for this, since
they have been assessed for readability level and the number of words is noted.)
2. The student reads the passage (sight unseen-no practice) orally into a tape recorder.
3. The teacher directs the student to listen to the recording and to note any oral miscues
(deviations from the printed text) by circling them in the script.
4. After counting the miscues and calculating the words per minute rate, the teacher enters these
data on the repeated reading chart as Trial 1 (repeated reading chart is on CourseDen).
5. The student rehearses the passage a few times, with the aid of the teacher or another student.
During the rehearsal, the teacher should discuss the passage with the student and teach as
necessary to ensure that misreading isn’t due to a lack of comprehension: Determine cause of
miscues such as unknown words, unclear meanings, and observation of punctuation marks. A
useful sequence for rehearsing the passage is: echo reading, neurological impress, choral
reading. During the rehearsals, the teacher must encourage the student to read with vocal
variety and expressiveness to match the meaning of the passage.
6. The student again reads the same passage into the tape recorder.
21. 7. The student and the teacher listen to the re-reading, noting miscues and rate on the repeated
reading chart as Trial 2.
8. Steps 2 through 7 are repeated until criterion levels for rate and number of miscues is reached.
Criteria may vary slightly from student to student, but usually are at or near the following:
WPM (words per minute)=rate of 100 WPR (or faster) and
MPH (miscues per hundred words)=1 or 0 miscues per 100 words of text
The student’s final reading should be fluent and expressive, as if the student were narrating the
text in his own words.
The teacher analyzes the results to plan instruction and determine what reading skills interfere
with fluency.
Repeated
Reading
Chart
Title:
Week of:
200
190
180
W 170
o 160
r 150
d 140
s 130
120
P 110
e 100
r 90
80
M 70
i 60
n 50
u 40
t 30
e 20
10
0
10
9
E 8
r 7
22. r 6
o 5
r 4
s 3
2
1
0
Name:
SIGHT WORDS
Sight words are those words that a reader needs to be able to know “on sight,” that is, without
any hesitation or sounding out. Dr. Ed Fry calls these “instant words” because a reader should know
them the very instant he or she sees them.
What is so important about these words? Believe it or not, the very first TEN words on the first
list make up about 24% of all written English material! That is, every fourth word you come across is
likely to be one of those ten words. The 100 words on the first page represent almost half of all written
English, while all 300 words (pages 1-3) make up nearly two-thirds of our language! On any typical page
of text, 2/3 of the words will likely come from the words on just these three pages.
Please note that many of the words on these three pages are also considered sight words if they
contain the variant endings (suffixes) such as s, ed, or ing. These endings do not change the need to
learn and know the basic root of these words. Approximately 60% of the first 300 Instant Words have
common variant endings.
Each of the 100 Instant Words on the following three pages compares fairly closely with the
grade level of the list: the first 100 words represent words known by a majority of first-grade students
by the end of the first year of school, the second 100 by the end of second grade, and the third 100 by
the end of third grade. Past the third grade level, most students will be expected to have seen and
learned all 300 Instant Words.
If a reader does not recognize these words instantly when reading, he or she is likely to have
difficulty with both fluency and comprehension. In fact, slow and labored reading is a major factor in
poor comprehension. If two-thirds of written English is made up of this rather small number of words,
then it is extremely important for all readers to know them without hesitation.
If a child does not know all the words on any particular vertical list of 25 words (starting with the
very first one), LOTS of practice should be done with just that column. Flashcards and easy-book reading
will often reinforce them. After all 25 words on any vertical column are known by the child reading at his
or her own pace, then it is time to work on speeding up the rate of recognition. It should take no longer
23. than 12-seconds to get through any list. Again, this should not be worked on until the child can
recognize all twenty-five without being timed. But once 100% accuracy has been attained, speed of
recognition should be practiced until that particular list is mastered. Only then should the child work on
the next harder list of twenty-five words.
*Presented by*
Jilene Coleman
Kelly Cottingham
Kimberly Anne Elshazly
Susan Gilchrist
June Gual
Darice LeAnne Shelton
Rachael West
Comprehension Assessment/Strategies
24. *Please click twice to view powerpoints
Constructivism Theory and Assessing
and Teaching Literacy Across the
Curriculum
Dr. Elaine Roberts
The Elements of
Comprehension
By Witt, Hutchinson, Boisis,
Davis, and Roberts
Bas e d on the 7 Ke ys to Compr e he ns ion by S. Zimme r man and C.
Hutchins