You may be wondering what beginning year reading assessments you should do for your first grade students. Well here is a list of five beginning year reading assessments that will offer you a lot of information about your new students.
Many other grade levels use written tests to assess student’s readiness for the grade level. Younger students reading skills may not be as developed to show what exactly they know, so other assessments may be used with these students.
These assessments will help teachers get to know the reading skills of each student. This, in turn will guide teachers in their planning and instruction to meet the needs of each student.
1: Letter Identification
Teacher shows students each letter of the alphabet individually and student responds by saying the letters name. Teacher records student’s response. The assessment should include both upper and lowercase letters.
2: Sound Identification
Teacher shows students each letter of the alphabet individually and student responds by saying the sound the letter makes. Teacher records student’s response. The assessment should include both short and long vowel sounds.
3: Phonemic Awareness
There are three parts to the phonemic awareness assessments: Rhyming, Phonemic Segmentation & Nonsense Words Fluency.
- Rhyming: Students are shown a list of rhyming short vowel words to read. Teacher records student’s responses.
- Phonemic Segmentation: Teacher says a word for student. The students say each individual sound they hear in the word the teacher said. Teacher records student’s responses. Ex: Teacher “cat”; Student: “/c/ /a/ /t/”
- Nonsense Words Fluency: Students are given a list of nonsense words which they must read or sound out individually. Teacher records student’s responses
4: Sight Word Identification
Teacher provides student with a list of beginning of first grade sight words. Student read words while teacher records their response.
5: Reading Comprehension
There are three parts to the phonemic awareness assessments: Word Meaning, Sentence Comprehension & Reading Passage Comprehension.
- Word Meaning: Students are shown a word and must decide which picture shows the meaning of the word. Ex: Word cup is shown; student must find the picture of cup.
- Sentence Comprehension: Students must read a partial sentence and decide which word will complete the sentence correctly. Ex: Did you eat the _______? Student’s choices are cat; cake; car; and truck.
- Reading Passage Comprehension: Students must read a passage and answer the comprehension questions that follow the text. Ex: After reading a passage about Tom getting ready for bed, students’ question is: What does Dad do? Reads a story to Tom; tells Tom to go to; plays with Tom; or has a snack with Tom.
Grab your Free, First Grade Quick Assessment Here!
In summary, beginning year reading assessments provide teachers with important information about their new students. They are an important tool for teachers to plan student instruction to meet individual needs of all their students.
You also may want to take a look at these first grade assessment resources. The Reading Comprehension Assessment resource can be found in PDF, Digital & BOOM Card forms.
Find some more reading activities and assessments in my store, The Teaching Scene by Maureen.
To read more topics check out my blog, “Seven Effective First Grade Assessment Tools”
