Pennington Publishing Blog

I recently responded to this FB post from a middle school teacher inquiring about reading skills for ELA teachers and their students. I’ve been there and asked the same question! I was teaching high school ELA and students were simply not equipped to read and write at anywhere near grade level.

Help! I have quite a few students in my grade 7 ELA class this year who can barely read and write. Our SPED teacher’s caseload is full. I only had one reading class in my teacher credential program and don’t have the faintest idea about how to teach reading. However, I don’t want to simply band-aid their issues by giving them audio files of our class novels, etc. I want to make a difference in their lives and teach them how to read. 

What reading skills do I need to teach and how to I teach them? How much time will it take? I don’t know what I don’t know. Are their reading resources that don’t require extensive training? I looked into LETRS and OG training, but those are hundreds of hours and expensive, too.

Most of us have similar challenges in our ELA classes; however, you do have some extreme examples of kids who can barely read and write. You can’t send them “out” and, frankly, you shouldn’t. Why not?

The most current reading research shows the importance of language comprehension i.e., literary analysis, syntax and text structure, vocabulary/morphology, and writing. Stuff you do everyday.

But that’s not enough. Some of your kids desperately need the other side of Scarborough’s famous rope: word recognition. Phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, and fluency practice.

As a former MS reading specialist and ELA teacher, I’ve designed a program for you to focus on that word recognition piece.

Now, it’s going to take 15-20 minutes of explicit instruction every day, so if you can’t figure out meaningful independent activities for the grade-level readers to complete each day, this program is not for you.

Also, your struggling readers and writers are going to need 15-20 minutes of practice per day in class, at home, in study hall, etc.

I designed the program with no prep and no correction. No advanced training–you train as you teach this scripted program. The program is for secondary ELA teachers, not reading specialists, and their students. For example, the decodable booklets feature teenage characters and plots with comic illustrations.

Help for Students

Here’s the resource with both print and Google slide options. If you can’t get your principal to purchase, email me and I’ll get your students this program. You can preview the entire program. https://penningtonpublishing.com/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-1

Not sure if the program will match the specific needs of your struggling students? Administer the free vowel sounds phonics assessment, diagnostic spelling assessment, and the individual reading fluency assessment here: https://blog.penningtonpublishing.com/reading/pennington-publishing-elareading-assessments/

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Mark Pennington is a former ELA teacher at the middle school, high school, and community college levels. Mark is also an MA reading specialist and author of many fine Pennington Publishing programs.

Grammar/Mechanics ELA reading intervention resources, reading skills, reading skills instruction

Canadian English Spelling Programs

Differentiated Spelling Instruction (the Canadian English Version) consists of separate grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 full-year spelling patterns programs. Each program in the series features weekly grade level word lists, tests, and spelling sorts plus diagnostically targeted worksheets to help students master previous grade level spelling patterns. In other words, students catch up while they keep up with grade level instruction. 

With this program, Canadian teachers can truly differentiate instruction for all students with maximum instruction and practice, using minimal class time.

The research-based program resources help students orthographically map the sound-spelling patterns and retain what they have learned. Students learn the conventional spelling rules, spelling-vocabulary connections, and foreign language influences they need to write with confidence. No silly themed lists of colors, animals, or words that end with “ly.”

This no-prep program is easy-to-teach. We even provide two quick YouTube training videos to ensure your success!

This program focuses on instructional spelling patterns. Most are consistent between Canadian and American English, but where they differ, students will learn the Canadian spellings with notations that American English differs. Canadians often muse about their spelling inconsistencies; however, the vast majority of Canadian spelling patterns are quite regular and dependable.

Differentiated Spelling Instruction features 30 weekly grade-level spelling word lists and tests. Each spelling pattern has a corresponding spelling sort. Quarterly summative assessments with progress monitoring matrices help teachers monitor individual and class mastery of the grade-level spelling patterns.

To address the needs of diverse learners, the program provides the comprehensive Diagnostic Spelling Assessment with recording matrix to help teachers individualize spelling instruction (includes printables, Google Forms, and Google Sheets). The corresponding 64 remedial spelling pattern worksheets each include a spelling sort, a word jumble, rhyme, and/or book search, and a short formative assessment to determine whether or not the student has mastered the spelling pattern.

The appendix also includes these spelling resources: sound wall printables, supplementary word lists, spelling review games, proofreading activities, spelling rules, and memorable spelling songs.

Now that’s effective differentiated instruction! Your students can catch up, while they keep up with grade level spelling instruction.
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Teachers and administrators are invited to preview every page in all six spelling programs (grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Click HERE to view the programs and affordable pricing. Lifetime license per teacher. All digital. Both student workbook and teachers guide included. We also publish American English versions of Differentiated Spelling Instruction.

Grammar/Mechanics Canadian English Spelling, Canadian Grade 3 English Spelling Programs, Canadian spelling programs, Grade 4 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 5 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 6 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 7 Canadian spelling programs, Grade 8 Canadian spelling programs

Morphology | Greek and Latin 25 Power Words

Rationale and Purpose

Teachers and students are all about pragmatic tools. High utility and high frequency vocabulary words give them the most bang for the buck. Teachers want to teach both the high utility Tier 2 academic vocabulary and the the high frequency Greek and Latin prefixes, bases, and suffixes. Thee 25 Greek and Latin Power Words provide both.

Methodology

I examined the results from vocabulary research studies on high frequency Greek and Latin morphemes and chose the 60 highest frequency prefixes, bases, and suffixes. I then combined two or three of these morphemes for each of the 25 Greek and Latin Power Words. We simply remember linked items better than we remember items in isolation.

I used the More Words site to check the number of words in which each of these 60 word parts appear in the English language. The results were staggering: The 60 word parts are found in over 60,000 words, including their inflections (a conservative total). With our English lexicon of about 600,000 words, these 60 word parts constitute 10% of the words in our language.

Format

• 25 Tier 2 Academic Language Power Words Divided by Morphemes (meaning-based word parts)
• Two or Three Morphemes for Each Word with Concise Definitions
• Word Counts for Each Word Part
• Research Studies

FREE Download

25 Greek and Latin Power Words

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Mark Pennington is the author of the grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 Comprehensive Vocabulary.

Comprehensive Vocabulary

Grammar/Mechanics 25 Greek and Latin Power Words, Academic Language, greek and latin morphemes, morphology

The Science of Reading Intervention Program for Ages 8-Adults

If you were tasked with developing a secondary reading intervention program from “the ground up,” where would you start and what resources would you consider using? I’ve been there and done that a few times with plenty of mis-steps and quite a few success stories.

Disclaimer: I’m the author/publisher of a reading intervention program for ages 8-adult. The following link will allow you to access the entire print portion of the program (not the corresponding Google slides): https://penningtonpublishing.com/collections/reading/products/the-science-of-reading-intervention-program-bundle

Now to the heart of my question: “If you were developing a secondary reading RTI program from the ground up, what materials/programs would you include?”

That is precisely the question that 23 reading specialist colleagues faced 20 years ago in a large and diverse California school district. Our reading test percentiles were in the 40s and we were locked into what became balanced literacy instruction. Enter one of the first SOR programs: Open Court. With a generous grant, our district was able to hire and train another 24 literacy coaches in Open Court for beginning readers.

Our reading scores increased dramatically into the 70 and later the 80 percentiles. However, our ages 8-high school scores remained stagnant. Our reading specialists were tasked with creating both upper elementary and secondary reading curricula for grade-level and intervention to pick up where Open Court and our fantastic teachers left off. Our progressive district incentivized those of us who took the lead in writing program resources by freeing us up from teaching duties and allowing us to retain ownership of what we created. All of this to say that I’ve had the challenge and pleasure of creating a secondary reading intervention from “the ground up.”

A few suggestions:

For trained reading intervention teachers, a “add this, use that” piecemeal approach is fine; however, not so for most secondary teachers who are content experts, but not reading experts. Although the suggested resources in this post’s comments are terrific, inexperienced secondary teachers will feel more comfortable using one comprehensive program. Less training, less juggling and coordinating programs, less time management issues.

My next suggestion will definitely get some pushback. Beware of “one size fits all” claims regarding program materials. Yes, a high school student who does not understand the alphabetic principle has the same needs as a beginning reader, but the quickest way to shut down a secondary student or teacher is to squeeze a primary “square peg” into a secondary “round hole.” For example, using childish decodables are not acceptable; my 54 decodables feature teenage illustrations, themes, and plots.

Additionally, be careful to construct or use a program which has realistic time parameters. You’re not going to be able to cram 90 minutes of instruction into a 50 minute period. Select instructional resources which will allow you to prioritize, cut, and/or expand to your instructional minutes. In other words, flexibility is key.

One last consideration: I’m sure you are familiar with Scarborough’s Rope. Make sure that you incorporate both word recognition and language comprehension instruction in your intervention. Both are essential, but the latter is critically important for secondary students.

Grammar/Mechanics fluency, language comprehension, phonics, reading comprehension, secondary reading intervention programs, word recognition

How to place students in appropriate reading intervention instruction with secondary reading assessments? Teacher/counselor/parent/cumulative file recommendations and normed or even criterion referenced tests to narrow things down (hopefully in the context of a well-structured site-wide MTSS or RtI decision-making team to start.

Thereafter, instead of a screener, I administer three diagnostic assessments: phonics, spelling, and fluency. Teachers want teachable data i.e., they want to know which long /e/ sound-spellings have and have not yet been mastered. They don’t want to know generically that the student has “phonics issues” from a random sample screener. Moreover, teachers hate to “waste class time” assessing for assessment sake.

Of course, after initial assessments, those data will indicate the need for further testing. However, having taught reading intervention at the middle school, high school, and community college levels, I have learned that these older students who struggling with word recognition and language comprehension are qualitatively different learners as opposed to their elementary counterparts. Duh! I’m a slow learner.

Often, secondary students have had a smattering of literacy intervention over the years. Some non and poor readers to squeak through without help, but many have been in remedial reading interventions year after year.

My thought on further diagnostic assessment and differentiated instruction? Wait a bit.

I have found success with accelerated, foundational, explicit word recognition (with PA and some morphology) instruction (whole class), followed by administering mid-year diagnostic assessments. For the balance of the years, those data drive small group instruction, coupled with a language comprehension emphasis.

Waiting a bit on some diagnostic assessments and/or repeating some allows secondary students to piece together past learning. Don’t we want to assess students at their best?

Waiting to assess and differentiate instruction according to the data makes far better sense than assessing from Day One. A thorough A to Z crash course often fills gaps and reminds students of what they have learned. Accelerated instruction makes use of that prior knowledge. My take is that after a coherent “refresher/reminder/a-bit-more-practice” course of instruction, the diagnostic assessments yield much more accurate data. Those data help us know what our students truly don’t know–and we can plan more efficient and targeted instruction without repeating what students have “learned” year after year.

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The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

SCIENCE OF READING INTERVENTION PROGRAM RESOURCES HERE for detailed product description and sample lessons.

Grammar/Mechanics secondary reading assessments, universal screeners

Years ago, my favorite elementary principal tasked me, as a freshly-minted reading specialist, to design a new reading fluency assessment for our school. We had been using the Read Naturally® program in our reading intervention lab with some success, but found the placement assessment to be weak and the program too cumbersome to implement as differentiated instruction in teachers’ classrooms. The principal wanted a more effective diagnostic fluency assessment to place students appropriately in a schoolwide fluency program. (I’ll email you the fluency assessment download free of charge at the end of the article.)

A bit of background… Reading scores at her school and throughout the district for grades 4 on up were relatively flat compared to the improving primary scores as a result of implementing science of reading-based instruction. The primary grade teachers were using their reading program narrative text fluencies.

The principal asked me (with the able assistance of 23 fellow district elementary reading specialists) to create a diagnostic fluency assessment that could be used for grades 4 on up. She also wanted the assessment to use an expository text. She had her reasons for these two requirements:

1. Using the same assessment at all grade levels would provide grade to grade data. For example, how might a student perform on the same assessment measure from, say, grades 4 to 5 to 6? Plenty of opportunities for program review!

2. Students in grades 4 on up struggled far more with expository text than narrative text. Of course, the state testing provided more expository at these grade levels than at the primary levels.

I did struggle with her first requirement. In the Read Naturally® program, the Brief Oral Screener helped place students in leveled reading passages. In other words, if a student scored at the lower fourth grade level, that student would practice repeated readings at that level with many passages until graduating to the fifth grade level. Having been trained in the three levels of reading (frustrational, instructional, independent) and Vygotsky’s Zones of Proximal Development, this made perfect sense. Shouldn’t my diagnostic assessment attempt to re-invent, but improve, that same wheel?

“No,” she reasoned. “The students are all expected to read the same texts in their classes from the district-approved literature anthology, history and science textbooks, and class novels, so fluency practice should be on the same text. It’s not the grade level that we need to differentiate for fluency practice; it’s the reading rate.”

I wisely avoided slipping in my additions regarding prosody, inflection, and attention to punctuation. But I did see her point. However, which reading grade level should I choose for the fluency assessment. A fourth grade level would be too easy for a sixth grader and the results would not be reliable indicators of fluency speed and accuracy. Conversely, a sixth grade level might be too challenging for a fourth grader.

I came up with a fluency assessment idea and brainstormed how to construct and implement it with those 23 district elementary reading specialists I mentioned previously.

I designed a fluency assessment that helps teachers observe how well a student reads at different levels of text complexity. I chose an expository text, rather than a narrative, as its text structure, syntax, and vocabulary are more likely to elicit more useful diagnostic data for older reading intervention students.

The Pets Fluency Assessment is leveled in a unique pyramid design: the first paragraph is at the first grade (Fleish-Kincaid) reading level; the second paragraph is at the second grade level… and, lastly, the seventh paragraph is at the seventh grade level. Thus, the reader begins practice at an easier level to build confidence and then moves to more difficult academic language and syntax. As the student reads the fluency passage, the teacher will be able to note the reading levels at which the student has a high degree of accuracy and automaticity.

The 383 word passage permits the teacher to assess two-minute reading fluencies (a much better measurement than a one-minute timing).

With respect to instruction, I’ve found success with two methods, both using expository texts that are designed in the same easy-to-challenging structure and length as the diagnostic. Check out my article, “How to Differentiate Fluency Practice” for useful tips.

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The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards and speech articulation songs. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

SCIENCE OF READING INTERVENTION PROGRAM RESOURCES HERE for detailed product description and sample lessons.

Get the Pets Fluency Assessment FREE Resource:

Grammar/Mechanics expository reading fluency, fluency assessment, free reading fluency, reading fluency, reading fluency practice, reading fluency test

When discussing reading grade levels, we can get deeply into the weeds. However the purpose of this article is to help teachers deal with the parent question: “What is my child’s reading grade level?”

A recent teacher’s post in a science of reading Facebook group (name not included here) justifies the parent’s question:

…it seems completely reasonable for parents to wish to know, in practical terms, how far away their child is from [the] grade-level target.

If we have universal assessments, NAEP, state assessments, etc. that identify where students fall with regard to grade level reading, it seems appropriate to have a quality measure (in addition to the diagnostic testing) that gives a broad overview of where a student falls on that continuum? It is just one part of the assessment information within the “data folder” we keep on a student. It isn’t the driving force of instruction, but rather a way to indicate where s/he stands in relation to the overall goal.

The problem is that assessments that result in a level are so flawed as to make the data meaningless. 1. The scores have a large standard error of measure that usually equals + and – 2 levels. So a 2.8 is somewhere between 0.8 and 4.8. Two scores within that range are essentially equal. 2. Data never generalize to or from an individual. Thus, if a score equaled 2.8 and if 2.8 actually meant something, that still doesn’t mean that an individual kids at 2.8 could actually read any individual book supposedly written at 2.8. We are better off to abandon levels and describe kids in relation to skills and norms.

Dr. Burns provides a grad level course in reading assessment stats in this one helpful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgxwnoFuDDE 

So if we shouldn’t pull out the state assessment scores indicating reading grade levels, how should we answer the parent question: “What is my child’s reading grade level?”

Remember that what the parent really wants to know includes these two sub-questions: 1. Can my child read and understand the “grade level” stories and textbooks used in class? 2. How well does my child read compared to others in the class?

1. Can my child read and understand the “grade level” stories and textbooks used in class?

In addition to a beginning of the year a diagnostic fluency assessment (I’ll share one at the end of the article), teach parents at Back-to-School Night how to create simple fluencies from “grade level” stories and textbooks with an oral or written re-tell or summary. Parents can be trained how to select an appropriate passage from grade level text to be used in class, listen to their child read and tabulate total word count-errors and the correct percentage of words read in a one-minute timing. No need to train parents to analyze prosody, attention to punctuation, types of miscues, etc.

Parents of younger children can ask, “Tell me about what you read.” Parents of older children can say, “Write a paragraph about what you read.” Creating, administering, and scoring a fluency with re-tell or summary is not rocket science, and the results perfectly answer the Can my child read and understand the “grade level” stories and textbooks used in class? question.

These two tasks help parents answer their own question and can help them complete their own progress monitoring.

As an aside, I also advise training parents how to use simple comprehension cues to discuss reading at home. Teachers might wish to check out my article, Reading Comprehension Cues.

2. How well does my child read compared to others in the class?

To address this sub-question I share two data measurements with parents: Hasbrouck and Tindal Fluency Norms

and the baseline fluency numbers of the other students in class (without names, of course, to protect privacy).

Some teachers have strong reservations about sharing assessment data of other children, even if the identities of the children are unknown. However, the public has access to grade level and school scores of state testing that is far more detailed then fluency numerical scores.

If unsure about sharing this data, don’t do so or ask your principal.

Grammar/Mechanics reading comprehension, reading grade levels

Don’t Assess What You Can’t Teach

In my following criticisms of the CORE and LETRS phonics screeners, I’m reminded that it’s unfair to criticize a duck for being a duck.

Of the plethora of literacy screeners, especially ones which focus on decoding (phonics) and encoding (spelling), the CORE 2nd edition and LETRS Phonics and Word Reading Survey 3rd edition are certainly the most popular. The former has been around for ages and helped pioneer the combined pseudoword and real word approach to phonics assessments. The latter has achieved prominence due to the widespread LETRS training and the omnipresent Dr. Louisa Moats.

These ducks do what ducks do. They are reliable and valid measurements of phonics acquisition. Using these assessments to place students in appropriate tiered instruction will do that job nicely, and they can be used to serve for program evaluation purposes. However, you can’t make a duck walk on all fours. And to beg the question, if you really need a quadruped, why are you using a duck?

Yes, we need to use data for program placement and evaluation; however, other animals can do these jobs and better provide teachers what they need. KEY POINT: Simply put, we need to replace screening assessments with specific and comprehensive diagnostic assessments. Specific and comprehension diagnostic assessments can accomplish all three functions: placement, program accountability (I prefer progress monitoring), and teachable data.

I would caution teachers that using the CORE and LETRS phonics screeners for instructional decision-making is ill-advised. Unfortunately, many teachers use data gleaned from these surveys to place students within small groups on in software modules which introduce or remediate phonics and spelling deficits. Both screeners have included language in their administration directions suggesting this application of their data.

The CORE 1st edition states, “These assessments are best used to plan instruction for students in the primary grades and to develop instructional groups.” Fortunately, the authors of the 2nd edition directions delete this language and suggest that other assessments should be added for instructional decision-making. The LETRS directions state, “The survey is a tool for identifying which correspondences and patterns the student has learned, and which ones the student needs to be taught.” The LETRS verbiage clearly overstates. Although much more comprehensive than the CORE screener, LETRS still uses random sampling and does not identify all correspondences and patterns learned and all those which need to be taught.

One example (the long /u/) should prove my point that the CORE and LETRS phonics screeners should not be used as diagnostics to introduce or remediate phonics and spelling. The CORE 1st edition provides only 1 long /u/ test item, lute. The CORE 2nd edition does not include any long /u/ test items. LETRS does provide 3 long /u/ words: tune, pruse, and commune; however, I’d hazard to guess that any LETRS-trained teacher could tell me why more data should be required to place students in a small group for long /u/ instruction. Most teachers would want to see not only the “u_e,” but also the “u,” “_ew,” and “_ue” sound-spellings on a decoding and spelling diagnostic to make informed instructional decisions.

My point is that we have plenty of diagnostic phonics and spelling assessments that will test those 4 long /u/ sound-spellings (including my own free-to-use diagnostics which I will provide at the end of the article).

Two more relevant points as to why we need to ditch screeners, such as the CORE and LETRS assessments. They waste precious instructional time, and teachers tend to “throw the baby out with the bath water.”

These screeners are time-consuming. In a class of, say 20 students, each assessment takes about 10-15 minutes per student to administer and a few more minutes to score and record–that’s at least 4 hours of administration time. And the CORE 1st edition recommends re-testing every 4-6 weeks. Yikes! And don’t forget the re-testing! Instructional time is reductive. Losing 4 hours of instruction is certainly not useful for any of those 20 struggling readers.

Because the data derived from these assessments is not specific and comprehensive, teachers can’t use the data to inform instruction. Giving screeners undermines the value of teachable diagnostic assessments. Assessment becomes a “have to fill in the blanks” exercise done to meet the expectations of site administrators or reading specialists/literacy coaches or flashpoints for “academic freedom, I don’t have to do them” confrontations.

Replacing screeners, such as the CORE and LETRS assessments, with diagnostic assessments that provide the data teachers can and want to use to help their students makes sense.

Now, teachers jaded by using unhelpful and time-consuming phonics and spelling assessments may be interested in trying these free phonics and spelling assessments. Each is specific and comprehensive and will help teachers make informed instructional decisions for their students. I find them particularly helpful for older reading intervention students.

Oh, how about administration? Whole class, not individual. Audio files. Self-correcting Google forms (or print if you wish). Recording matrices. Vowel Sounds Phonics Assessment (10:42), Consonant Sounds Phonics Assessment (12:07) , Diagnostic Spelling Assessment (17:32-22:38 both American and Canadian English). Oh, would you mind if I included 5 phonemic awareness assessments, a heart words assessment, a grammar assessment, a mechanics assessment, and academic vocabulary assessments? Will do. Plus, think about the ease of using the audio files and Google forms for new students! Scroll down to get the download link sent immediately to your email.

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The Science of Reading Intervention Program

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Word Recognition includes explicit, scripted, sounds to print instruction and practice with the 5 Daily Google Slide Activities every grades 4-adult reading intervention student needs: 1. Phonemic Awareness and Morphology 2. Blending, Segmenting, and Spelling 3. Sounds and Spellings (including handwriting) 4. Heart Words Practice 5. Sam and Friends Phonics Books (decodables). Plus, digital and printable sound wall cards, speech articulation songs, sounds to print games, and morphology walls. Print versions are available for all activities. First Half of the Year Program (55 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Language Comprehension resources are designed for students who have completed the word recognition program or have demonstrated basic mastery of the alphabetic code and can read with some degree of fluency. The program features the 5 Weekly Language Comprehension Activities: 1. Background Knowledge Mentor Texts 2. Academic Language, Greek and Latin Morphology, Figures of Speech, Connotations, Multiple Meaning Words 3. Syntax in Reading 4. Reading Comprehension Strategies 5. Literacy Knowledge (Narrative and Expository). Second Half of the Year Program (30 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program: Assessment-based Instruction provides diagnostically-based “second chance” instructional resources. The program includes 13 comprehensive assessments and matching instructional resources to fill in the yet-to-be-mastered gaps in phonemic awareness, alphabetic awareness, phonics, fluency (with YouTube modeled readings), Heart Words and Phonics Games, spelling patterns, grammar, usage, and mechanics, syllabication and morphology, executive function shills. Second Half of the Year Program (25 minutes-per-day, 18 weeks)

The Science of Reading Intervention Program BUNDLE  includes all 3 program components for the comprehensive, state-of-the-art (and science) grades 4-adult full-year program. Scripted, easy-to-teach, no prep, no need for time-consuming (albeit valuable) LETRS training or O-G certification… Learn as you teach and get results NOW for your students. Print to speech with plenty of speech to print instructional components.

Click the SCIENCE OF READING INTERVENTION PROGRAM RESOURCES for detailed program description, sample lessons, and video overviews. Click the links to get these ready-to-use resources, developed by a teacher (Mark Pennington, MA reading specialist) for teachers and their students.

Get the Diagnostic ELA and Reading Assessments FREE Resource:

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Grammar/Mechanics core phonics, letrs phonics, phonics assessments, reading assessments, spelling assessments, sreening assessments