Pre and Posttests

Rapid Naming - Letter Names and Numbers:

Purpose:  The letter name pre/posttest worksheets consists of upper case letters - A B C D E.  The number pre/posttest worksheets consist of numbers - 1 2 3 4 5.

The goal is to identify the student's maximum capacity (rate per minute) in naming familiar letters or numbers.  Each student will have a different rate.  Some people are fast talkers while some are slow talkers.

When setting goals for letter sounds and sight words, use 80% - 90% of the rapid naming rate.  For example, student number 1 has a letter naming rate of 60 per minute.  His goal for letter sounds would be 48 - 54.  Student number 2 has a letter naming rate of 100.  Her goal for letter sounds would be 80 - 90.  

You may want to compare the scores of letters and numbers.  If there is a significant difference between the two, use the letter rate for reading activities and the number rate for math activities.  If they are similar, you can use either the letter or numbers for variety in doing posttests.

How:  Use the worksheet 3 - 5 times over several days to determine a baseline for letters/numbers said per minute. 

The timing can be a 30 second (multiply results by 2) or 60 seconds.

Calculate the average and use this as the rapid naming capacity.  Due to practice and maturation, you may want to recalculate at least once a month.

Assumption:  The student must be able to say a letter or number in isolation (flash card) within 2 seconds. If not, train the student on the letters or numbers in error before gathering the baseline.

 

Sight Words:

Purpose:  The purpose of this pretest is to determine which lesson should the student start first.  At least in terms of sight word development.  The words are ordered left to right in most frequent usage order.  Since each lesson in My Breakfast Reading Program has 10 words, determine which group of 10 words has 3 or more errors.  That is, the first 10 words are for lesson #1; whereas words 71 - 80 are for lesson #7.

How:  Have the student read the wordlist from left to right - top to bottom as quickly as possible.  The coach should have a copy of the list to mark errors.  An error is counted if the student says a word incorrectly, skips a word or can't say the word within 3 seconds.  For those words where the student hesitates for 3 seconds, say the word and have the student move on. 

Phonics: 

Purpose:  The purpose of this pre/posttest is to determine which vowel sounds the student is struggling with.  The format is designed so that short vowels are on odd numbered rows and long vowel and R-controlled sounds are on the even numbered rows.  In addition, the vertical rows are aligned by a - e - i - o - u.  Each block has four rows allowing two checks for each long and short vowel sound.  Since there are only three words with a true "long u" sound, R Controlled vowels populate the long u cell.

How:  Have the student read a block of words left to right - top to bottom.  The coach should have a copy of the list to mark errors.  An error is counted if the student says a word incorrectly, skips a word or can't say the word within 3 seconds.  For those words where the student hesitates for 3 seconds, say the word and have the student move on. 

The key analysis for this pre/posttest is to look for patterns of which vowels the student is struggling with so that precise teaching activities can be developed. 

An alternative for this activity is to have the student just say the vowel sound for each word.  This would be used primarily if the student doesn't know the initial and/or final sounds or has difficulty with sound blending.