Many things changed with the “New Normal” that emerged as the Covid- 19 pandemic subsided. But the science of reading, how to help children efficiently develop reading skills, hasn’t changed. A recent evaluation of learning loss found that while some schools have found ways to recover and “catch up” to mitigate learning loss, some have not (Education Scorecard, 2024)[1]. And so, it’s crucial to remember what IS known, what efficiently works, and how to use it to adaptively support early reading development. There is no time to waste!
For example, we know that systematic, explicit instruction helps beginning readers “crack the code” (master the phonics principles of reading). Too many years were spent battling over whether to use implicit OR explicit methods to help students develop fluent reading skills. It’s time to recognize that we need both. A balanced approach creates an expedited, beneficial, compounded effect: brief, focused explicit instruction COMBINED WITH implicit approaches that develop reading in different ways. Students need to know what to directly focus on and the basic “rules of the game” when reading AND they also need to know broader skills that support decoding, but more broadly reinforce reading development. They need to build their oral vocabulary, which facilitates word recognition by providing concepts to work with. They also need to practice generating inferences and thinking critically about text, which cultivates a mindset and clear aim for making meaning from what is read. In addition, experience with interesting and varied text (beyond what they can independently read) can drive their motivation to read, create familiarity with language structure (syntax and discourse) and feed their imaginations and understanding. All these implicit methods matter and enrich the more explicit and systematic methods.
We also know that formative assessment information used wisely can pinpoint instructional needs effectively and efficiently—while students are actively learning. CBMSkills can help teachers easily gather vital information about students’ current levels of proficiency across key early reading skills. When teachers use an online assessment delivery system, they benefit from timely opportunities to measure, monitor, and evaluate how reading skills are developing. This proven approach enables teachers to focus on how they meet students’ instructional needs. Not only can they choose which assessments to use, but they can use the results more deeply. Because the wrong answers on CBM Skills were designed to offer teachers information, students’ responses can be analyzed, both for identifying strengths and error patterns. For example:
For emergent readers or struggling non-readers:
The “Isolating Sounds” task assesses students’ ability to accurately recognize initial and final sounds in words they hear, a key aspect of phonological sensitivity.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student detect and know these sound parts? What is the main pattern in the errors – do they get similar sounds confused or are responses really off the mark?
The “Blending” task assesses students’ ability to recognize words they hear that are composed of newly combined sound parts, a crucial phonological awareness skill.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize words that are created when different sound-parts are combined? What is the main pattern in their errors – where is the greatest blending difficulty: At the compound word, onset-rime, or phoneme level? How close is the response to the correct answer?
For emergent or struggling readers:
The “Segmenting” task assesses students’ ability to recognize words they hear that have had different sound parts removed, an advanced phonological awareness skill that directly supports decoding and spelling skill development.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize words that are created when different sound parts are removed? What is the main pattern of errors – where is the greatest blending difficulty: At the compound word, onset-rime, or phoneme level? How close are responses to the correct answers?
The “Word Identification” task assesses students’ ability to recognize highly frequent, K – 2 sight words (drawn from the Fry and Dolch word lists).
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize common words found in print? What is the main pattern of errors – where is the greatest difficulty based? Is there evidence of an overreliance on how the word looks or sounds OR on the recognition of a specific letter? How close are responses to the correct answers?
The “Short and Long Vowels” task assesses students’ ability to distinguish between printed words containing short and long vowel sounds.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize simple words? What is the main pattern of errors – where is the greatest difficulty based? Is there evidence of the student’s understanding about both the long and short sounds? How close are responses to the correct answers?
For struggling or on-grade level readers:
The “Complex Vowel Team” task assesses students’ ability to recognize printed words that contain common vowel team combinations.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize words containing a vowel team pattern? Is there a particular combination that appears most challenging? How close are responses to the correct answers – is there evidence of confusion pertaining to a specific team sound (a misapplication) or a less clear misconception?
The “Blends” task assesses students’ ability to recognize printed words that contain common consonant blends.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize words containing common consonant blends? Is there a particular combination that appears most challenging? How close are responses to the correct answers – is there evidence of misplaced (but correct) blend application or a less clear misconception?
The “Digraphs” task assesses students’ ability to recognize printed words that contain common consonant digraphs.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize words containing common consonant digraphs? Is there a particular combination that appears most challenging? How close are responses to the correct answers – is there evidence of a partially correct recognition or a less clear misconception?
The “Pseudoword” task assesses students’ ability to recognize nonsense printed words to clarify their “pure” decoding skill without the benefit of real-world context.
Teacher questions to ask of task results: How well does the student recognize nonsense words that mimic basic phonics rules? Is there a particular pattern that appears most challenging? How close are responses to the correct answers – is there evidence of a partially correct recognition or a less clear misconception?
The “Tricky Words” task assesses students’ ability to recognize printed words that regularly break basic phonics rules or contain a complex sound pattern.
Teacher questions to ask of the results: How well does the student recognize common “rule breakers”? Is there a particular combination that appears most challenging? How close are responses to the correct answers – is there evidence of an emergent phonics principle at work or is decoding skill moderately weak (suggesting further assessment using the tasks noted above)?
Ten tasks, of course, can’t solve all the reading problems encountered between kindergarten and second grade, but they sure can help teachers quickly tackle where instructional support is most needed.
[1] Education Scorecard: https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/ ( Jan 2024)