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Interpreting winter assessment data will help you determine the best way to support your students. This data tells you who needs an intervention and who is on target. It can also help you set goals for spring.

Who needs phonics support? Allow our QPS diagnostic phonics assessment to answer this question for you quickly and effectively. Did you know the latest edition of this popular tool allows you to assess an entire group of students at once and then use this data to determine which students need a more in-depth, individual phonics assessment? Both the group assessment and the individual assessment are now included in QPS, making it easier than ever for you to identify which students need phonics support and which skills an intervention should target.

​In my last post, I shared the many assessment mistakes I’ve made over the years. Blunders aside, I actually love spring assessments for one simple reason. The spring assessment gives me an opportunity to show my students the big picture and remind them that the best reward of all is taking ownership of their own progress. This is usually just a short conversation, but it’s one of the most important talks I will have with them.

​Is it really assessment season again? It feels like yesterday that I opened the lab at this new school, met my students, and screened them for reading difficulties using benchmark assessment. The winter assessment window seemed to arrive just a short time after that. And now it’s springtime already, and spring assessment window is almost here. It is time to prepare to assess the students yet again.

Pop quiz! What do you do when you’re staring down a pile of winter assessment data?

With the addition of Word Warm-ups Live, we’ve expanded our phonics offerings to reach a greater number of students and to provide more flexibility. It is our hope that any student in need of phonics support can benefit from our programs. The first step, of course, is to determine who needs that support. We offer a general phonics assessment, Quick Phonics Screener, as well as an assessment specifically for Word Warm-ups Live. What’s the difference, and how will you use these assessments to understand your students’ phonics needs?

It’s that time of year again! The recommended winter benchmark assessment window is December 16 – February 6, which means many of you have already completed assessments and many of you will do so in the coming weeks. Here are some helpful resources to utilize as you analyze your students’ data.

To determine if a student is a good candidate for a reading intervention like Read Naturally, teachers will rely on the data from benchmark assessment. Clear, well-organized assessment data allows teachers to make these important decisions efficiently and accurately. Teachers love our web-based benchmark assessment program, Benchmark Assessor Live, because it is easy to administer and it presents straightforward, automatically generated, and detailed reports.

“How do I know if my students need Read Naturally?” Many teachers ask us this question, and our answer is always the same: “Benchmark Assessment!” Teachers determine who needs a Read Naturally intervention by assessing all students on their reading aptitude using benchmark assessment. Early in the school year (aka, right now!) is the ideal time to do this.

Quick Phonics Screener (QPS), developed by renowned literacy expert Dr. Jan Hasbrouck, is one of our most popular assessment tools. Teachers who have used QPS can attest to the fact that it is a convenient, inexpensive, and accurate way to identify individual students’ strengths and instructional needs in phonics/decoding. Once these needs are identified, teachers can make informed decisions about how to support students in their literacy development. We are pleased to announce that this handy tool is now upgraded and better than ever!

Make Your Student a STAR!

Read Naturally Star of the Month​Share your student’s success story—nominate him or her for our Star of the Month award. Win a Barnes & Noble gift card for the student and a Read Naturally gift certificate for your class!

pointer Submit a Star-of-the-Month entry

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