This is my Informal Phonics Inventory to help teachers give a whole-group assessment of their students’ ability level in using phonics patterns (alphabetic principles), but it is even easier for parents or tutors to use one-on-one. When I do an assessment, there are three elements of literacy instruction I check when I’m trying to design an instructional plan for a struggling reader. They are:
- comprehension
- phonics
- fluency
(Technically, there are two more important elements. They are phonemic awareness and vocabulary. If I find a student’s phonics ability is below grade-level expectation, I will then do a simple phonemic awareness screening as well. I don’t do an actual vocabulary assessment because and I find vocabulary and comprehension are very closely connected. If one is lacking, usually so is the other. The reverse also seems to be true: as one improves, so does the other.)
One of the best uses of my Informal Phonics Inventory is monitoring your students' progress as they master different alphabetic principles. This tool contains a large word bank where you will find many words using the same principle in order to test whether or not your students are ready to move on. The letters at the top of the columns correspond to those used in my Informal Phonics Inventory