Phonological awareness diagnostic assessment
Phonological awareness is a critical skill for all students’ literacy development and a predictor of later reading and spelling success.
Phonological awareness consists of five subskills beginning with word, syllable, onset/rime awareness, moving to the more complex subskills of basic and advanced phonemic awareness.
About the assessment
The Phonological Awareness Diagnostic Assessment is a short on-demand assessment that tells teachers how students are progressing in phonological awareness. The assessment complements existing strategies used to identify students' progress in foundational literacy skills development.
It allows students to demonstrate what they know and can do and clarifies for teachers their students’ skill level for the subskills. Teachers will be able to use the assessment flexibly, by choosing which subskills they will assess, to suit the needs of individual students.
The assessment takes approximately 20 minutes and is conducted by classroom teachers with individual students. Teachers use the online tool to enter student responses.
The assessment can be used for any student from Kindergarten onwards.
Watch the video explaining how the Phonological awareness diagnostic assessment can support teachers.
The Phonological awareness diagnostic assessment is a short assessment that tells teachers how students are progressing in phonological awareness.
The short assessment, available to all NSW public schools, allows primary and secondary teachers to individually assess and clarify a student’s skill level for Phonological awareness. It will help teachers to diagnose how students are progressing, determine the focus for explicit teaching and learning, and monitor learning progress.
Phonological awareness is a critical skill for all students’ literacy development and a predictor of later reading and spelling success.
Teachers will be able to use the assessment flexibly to suit the needs of individual students by choosing which subskills they will assess.
The assessment consists of five subskills beginning with word, syllable, onset and rime awareness, moving to the more complex subskills of basic and advanced phonemic awareness.
The assessment will support teachers to target all areas of phonological awareness.
The assessment can be used for any student from Kindergarten onwards.
Listen to this kindergarten teacher talk about how she would use the diagnostic assessment.
Kindergarten teacher:
I have completed some explicit teaching around segmenting and blending syllables.
I’m unsure about the learning of one of my students in this subskill.
I will use the diagnostic assessment to assess their learning in syllable awareness to determine what explicit teaching and practise is required.
Narrator:
A Year 4 teacher is concerned about one of their students who is experiencing difficulties in reading.
Year 4 teacher:
I have a student who demonstrates strong oral language comprehension.
However, when they are reading a book to me they struggle to decode the words on the page and their reading is very slow.
I know a deficit in phonological awareness, particularly phonemic awareness, could be the reason for this.
I will use the assessment to diagnose if this could be the possible cause for their word reading difficulties.
Narrator:
Feedback is provided which informs teachers about next steps in learning and how they can plan additional support that students may need.
Teachers will be able to access the assessment tool via the ALAN portal.
For more information visit the Literacy and Numeracy website.
[End of transcript]
Student feedback and analysis
Student responses are mapped to indicators from the National Literacy Learning Progression indicators with information automatically recorded in PLAN2. A Student Assessment Analysis will provide teachers with feedback to inform decisions about next steps in learning for that student. The analysis will be accessed from the assessment tool in the department's ALAN website.
How can my school access the assessment?
Teachers can access the assessment tool at any time via ALAN..
How will my school be supported?
Visit the resources web page for materials to assist you to implement the Phonological awareness diagnostic assessment.
Visit Literacy and numeracy Professional learning for opportunities looking at practical application of evidence-based teaching of reading.