Please note that any references to the Alphabetic Code Charts being found in 'unit 1' are correct only in that the information in unit 1 will now lead you to a purpose-designed Alphabetic Code Chart where you can find your preferred teaching and learning alphabetic code charts. The site is:
www.alphabeticcodecharts.com
[These charts have been really well-received and are used in settings all over the world including as training material for student-teachers. I have now designed charts specifically for student-teacher information and have included some charts with the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols (IPA) for adult information and for international friends and colleagues.]
Please note that there is a section about 'Assessment' in the Overview and Guidance booklet which is free to download in unit 1.
There is a comprehensive assessment package for code and word level assessment (alphabetic code knowledge and phonics skills) available for 'free' on the Free Resources webpage of this Phonics International website:
http://www.phonicsinternational.com/assessment.html
http://www.phonicsinternational.com/new ... urces.html
Assessment is important particularly for learners who are not at the very beginning stages of learning to read. The teacher (be it professional teacher, parent or tutor) needs to gain an insight into the code knowledge and skills and 'reading reflex', spelling and handwriting skills of the learner at the start of the programme to identify just 'where' best to start.
If the learner is literally a 'beginner', then it is straightforward to start using the Phonics International programme from the very beginning without the need for a 'starting assessment'.
Having said that, in a pre-school (Reception class, perhaps, as in the case in England), the teacher is likely to want to know what her new pupils can, or can't, do - even at a simple level. For example, does the pupil know any letters at all? Does he or she recognise the letter shapes? Does he or she link a letter 'name' (ay, bee, see, dee) or a 'sound' (/a/, /b/, /k/, /d/) with any letter shapes? The pupil may have attended a nursery setting and/or may have parents who have taught some basic letter shapes, names and/or sounds. The pupil may also recognise some common words from experience of words in the environment or from frequent reading of favourite books by a family member.
Increasingly, parents are realising that it is better to associate letter shapes with the sound they represent (letter 's' is "sssssss" - rather than the letter name - "ess". The 'sound' is useful for reading and spelling whereas the letter 'name' has no real use for beginning to learn how to read and spell.
Thus teachers may want to undertake some simple assessment with their Reception (or kindergarten) children. In the free unit 1, there is a simple assessment consisting of the letters of the alphabet provided in a random order (not alphabetical order). This is because some children may have learnt to say the alphabet in rote order, but may not really know which letters to associate with which letter names. It is quite an achievement for a young child to 'say the alphabet' - so well done - but this is a discrete skill in itself and not the direct route to learning how to read through 'sounding out and blending' the sounds the letters represent. It is one piece of the jigsaw puzzle of learning about letters, however, so I am trying not to sound disparaging about this piece of learning. As you can see from reading the Overview and Guidance booklet in unit 1, it is important that learners are taught about both The Alphabet and The Alphabetic Code and the roles of each.
A simple type of single-letters assessment gives the teacher a quick idea of 'prior knowledge' and this has a twofold benefit: It creates a 'baseline' (at this point in time, this child knew this information) and it informs the teacher of the appropriate starting point for teaching. You can provide a copy to place infront of the learner to work from and tick off and make notes on your own second copy dated with the same colour pen. At a later date, you can use a different colour pen (date) and repeat the exercise to measure learning.
You can use the simple alphabet letters assessment for finding out the learner's knowledge about 'sounds' and knowledge about letter 'names'. It is better to test for these separately, however, to avoid confusion.
Having said that, it may well be that a young child or an older learner may confuse letter names and sounds - this is very common indeed. The adult must ensure from the outset that the learner really understands what is being asked of him or her. The adult, therefore, needs to be very lighthearted about the assessment occasion and provide a clear explanation of what is required and provide an example (or several if necessary) of the difference between a 'sound' or 'name'.
For a very young beginner, don't get complicated about asking for the 'difference'. You might simply say, "Have you seen any shapes like these before? Yes, they are letters - well done. Yes, we do see them in books. I wonder if you can tell me about any that you recognise. Oh - well done. And do you know what this one is?"
If the learner gives you the impression that he or she doesn't know what you are referring to - then don't pursue this exercise any further but say something like, "Isn't it exciting. As you get older, we are going to teach you more and more about these letter shapes and help you to learn how to read and write all by yourself [just like mummy, or daddy, or your big sister!]".
Another word of caution. If the child has not been at pre-school or school for very long and doesn't yet know the teacher very well, silence and shyness may be misinterpreted as absence of any knowledge of letter shapes/names/sounds. If you really want an accurate picture of prior knowledge and understanding, you may want to allow the child sufficient settling-in time to a new setting or with a new teacher and you may want to consult with the parents about any learning that has been undertaken at home.
You will realise that I am very, very keen to get a working partnership between 'teachers' and 'parents' through the Phonics International programme. It is important that there is a two-way flow of information and that, where possible, everyone works together for the common good of the learner. The resources of this programme are designed with this very much in mind and I don't apologise for mentioning this although I hope people don't interpret this as me being patronising or lecturing people in how to conduct their relationships! I apologise if this is the impression I give. I am, however, both a professional teacher and a parent (and now grandparent!) and I know only too well how easy it is to miss opportunities to work cooperatively!
You may already be familiar with assessment sheets with single letters provided in a 'fun' way. This might be something like a 'string of beads', a 'snake' or a 'tree with apples'. This is fine for younger pupils if the letter shapes are well-formed with a suitable font, but a plainer assessment like the one I provide may be more suitable for older learners. It is particularly important for older learners who are struggling with their reading that they do not feel like they are doing their "ay, bee, see baby stuff". You need to make it very clear that phonics for reading and spelling is very much adult stuff! It is likely to be what proficient adults apply with new unknown words, technical words and longer words.
Of course it is perfectly possible to use letter cards shown one at a time to assess prior knowledge in which case you can use the alphabet assessment record sheet in unit 1 to tick off what is known. An alternative way of using letter cards is to lay out a small selection at a time and ask the learner to "point to the /s/, /a/, /t/" and so on. To know letter sounds and shapes from 'sound to print' is a sub-skill needed for spelling.
Quite frankly, you could get a bit obsessed with the detail of your testing and for young learners, you really do just need an indication for your 'starting point'.
Such an indication for writing can be obtained by setting up some fun drawing and 'writing' activity or role-play activity to see what the young learner can do independently with suitable encouragement. You'll soon get a good enough idea of knowledge and capability!
For older learners, the single alphabet letters, some common digraphs (two letters combined representing one sound) and some simple real words and nonsense word assessments are provided in unit 1. These do not include all graphemes but they will give you an indication of the basic knowledge and skills of the learner.
If you want a far more detailed grapheme by grapheme picture, then you can use various resources to assess this. There are 15 'Say the Sounds' posters in units 1 to 5, for example, which will assess for my version of a 'simple code'.
There are flash cards of the 'simple code' free in unit 1. There are flash cards of the complex code in unit 6. There are 'grapheme cards' for each unit provided in each unit.
These resources can be used for print to sound (for reading) assessment and for sound to print (spelling assessment).
Then you can simply say the sound or letter name to see if the learner can write the letter shapes correctly.
If you want to assess using word level standardised tests, you can use the Burt word reading test (revised) and the Schonell spelling test which are free to download from the homepage of the following website:
www.rrf.org.uk (the UK Reading Reform Foundation website)
In terms of 'reading behaviours' for older learners who are struggling with learning to read, you may wish to provide an ordinary reading book and identify whether the learner has a tendency to guess words from picture clues, word shape and the context of the sentence and story-line. If this is the case, remember that this is likely to be product of the absence of good systematic phonics teaching, the direct teaching of these guessing strategies (as this has been prevailing teacher-training for a number of years) and resorting to guessing because the words are beyond the code level of the learner and the skill of blending is not sufficiently developed.
In school settings, existing standardised reading tests should not be abandoned if the school wishes to compare reading standards from a change to synthetic phonics teaching, or a change to a new programme such as Phonics International. But it is noted that here, in England, there may be a tendency for 'over-testing' learners. The key is to ask what assessment is appropriate and when. Just what is being tested and why.
It is important to be able to measure both pupil progress but also teaching effectiveness.
A word of caution - learners can 'regress' as well as 'progress'.
'Teachers' need to use the resources thoughtfully with sufficient repetition and rehearsal to ensure that new learning is not lost over time - but that it is constantly built on - and then 'old learning' revisited. Is the prior learning still secure?
I truly believe that the Alphabetic Code posters - with word examples and without word examples - can play a very important role in organising the code to be learnt and to be remembered. Remember that all my versions of The Alphabetic Code posters are provided for free in unit 1 and they should be suitable to use throughout whole schools and with any synthetic phonics programme - not just Phonics International. Please do tell other people about them.
You can use them with the learners and show them how to tick which letter/s-sound correspondences have been introduced to date and which correspondences they have learnt to date.
Engage the learners with the importance and fun of their own achievement.
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