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Test of Phonics Skills ToPhs

Test Introduction

The objective of teaching students to read using the phonics approach is to builddecoding skills which are vital in deciphering unknown words.  Assessments that require recall of sight words measure dissimilar skills than those required to decode unknown words.  Therefore, tests that measure sight word recall skills and tests that measure word analysis  skills must be separate.  Tests that assess both skills at the same time are inadequate to rely on for specifically poignant data, because of the differences in objectives.  Tests that assess both skills simultaneously are useful, however inadequate for determining a student?s placement in a curriculum that requires decoding skills.  Inaccurate analysis and diagnosis of skills needed in basic reading can lead to inefficient and fragmentary skills in a literacy program.

A diagnostic phonics assessment that measures phonics skills through recognition, identification and articulation of letter sounds, blends, and words is a necessity. This test must be primarily used to place a student at a skill level in the scope and sequence of a literacy program.  This instrument can be exercised as a resource for testing, not only, decoding (enunciation), but encoding (spelling) phonics skills.  In contrast, many criterion-referenced-reading tests incorporate sight words memorization for determining grade placement.  While ToPhS utilize only phonetically spelled words to inventory decoding skills for sequential growth.  The grade level skills in this test have been criterion-referenced by research of the most recently published texts of several widely used tests and  phonics programs combined.  The aim of this reading inventory of basic skills is primarily for use in elementary, however middle and high school underachievers may benefit from the use of this Test of Phonics Skills.

Test Objectives

Pre-K  The objective of this test is to assess students knowledge of the alphabetic letters.  This knowledge is a reading readiness pre-requisite.

Kindergarten  The objective of this test is to assess students recognition of the letters and proper articulation of the alphabetic sounds.

Grade 1/ Level A  The objective of this test is to assess students proper articulation of consonants blended with long and short vowels.

Grade 2/ Level B The objective of this test is to assess students decoding skills when applied to short and long vowels, and digraph component words.

Grade 3/ Level C  The objective of this test is to assess students decoding skills when applied to short and long vowels, and diphthong component words.

Test Directions

Each test on the following Grade Levels has an alternative test that requires rhyming.  The procedures for taking these tests are to mark a line from a word in one column to a rhyming word in another column. These tests can be taken without the teacher's guidance and at the students' individual pace.

Pre - K Say the first letter (a) in the upper left hand corner.  At the same time, point to it to initiate the student?s enunciation of the alphabets on the test. Circle each letter that the student miss.

Kindergarten- Unsound the first letter (w) in the upper left hand corner.  At the same time, point to the first letter to start the student. Point to each letters.  Circle the missed letters.  Allow  students a choice where indicated. Proceed until all letters are tested on the test page. Refer to the items missed  on the page to determine the basic skills needed for reading readiness.*  The teacher should proceed with a literacy program for the student focusing on the missed components.

Grade 1/ Level A- Start with the first blend (long vowel) on the Level A appropriate test.  Each test column represents a completely separate test.  The columns that the student is not being tested on must be concealed (cover with a blank sheet of paper) during the test.  Point to where you want the student to start enunciating.  Enunciate the first two blends of the test chosen, for example: ?ba,  be.  Now you continue.   Circle the missed long vowel blends.  *Complete the Level A test (all pages). Start over with the first blend (long vowel) on the Level A appropriate test.  Each test column represents a completely separate test.  The columns that the student is not being tested on must be concealed during the test.  Point to where you want the student to start enunciating.  Enunciate the first two blends of the test chosen, for example: ba,  be.  Now you continue.  Mark X across the short vowel blends that the student mis-pronounces. Complete the Level A test* (all pages).

Grade 2/ Level B - Start with the first word on the Level B appropriate test.  Each test column represents a completely separate test.  The columns that the student is not being tested on must be concealed (cover with a blank sheet of paper) during the test.  Point to where you want the student to start enunciating. The examiner must enunciate the first word of the test chosen, then say, now you continue.  Circle the missed words.  When the student misses five consecutive words* - stop.

Grade 3/ Level C - Start with the first word on the Level C appropriate test.  Conceal the  columns that the student is not being tested on.  Point to where you want the student to start enunciating.  The examiner must enunciate the first word of the test chosen, then say, now you continue. Circle the missed words. Stop when students miss five words in a row.*

*Reference the level-unit test page on which the student stopped to the Sequencing and Criteria Scale.  The teacher should proceed with a literacy program for the student that focuses on those skills that the student has not mastered.

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