Section 1: Fast Track

Assessments
There are four assessments in this section designed to support your teaching by helping you document
what your children know before starting the Fast Track and their progress on the Fast Track Objectives
throughout. Use them as best fits your situation.
The assessments include:
1-A: Letter Sounds Student Prompt page 190. (This is a page for you to print out for the child to read.)
1-B: Character Names Student Prompt on page 191.
1-C: Sound Matching Resources and worksheets on pages 192-194.
1-D: Initial Sounds This is a listening exercise. 1-D: Score Sheet on page 195.
Record Sheets are available as online spreadsheets allowing you to collate results easily:
1-S: Individual Score Sheet Arrow-circle-down
1-G: Group Record (optional) Arrow-circle-down

1-A: Letter Sounds

Purpose
This will reveal children’s knowledge of basic consonant sounds a-z plus short
vowel sounds (grapheme phoneme correspondences). Seeing the difference
between the pretest and later the posttest can be very reassuring to parents and
confidence building for children.
Recommended use
• Pretest all the children to check their knowledge before you begin or in the first 1-A: Letter Sounds
Student Prompt
few days of Fast Track teaching.
• For children that you have concerns about, you may want to use this assessment as often as once a
week, quickly assessing only the letters taught to date.
(NOTE: The first six letters of the alphabet are randomly arranged on the first line.
The second line includes the next six, etc.)
• Posttest all the children to measure progress at the end of your Fast Track teaching.
Compare the pretest and posttest scores.
Preparation and resources
• 1-A: Letter Sounds for children to see the letters.
• 1-S: Individual Score Sheet Arrow-circle-down
• 1-G: Group Record (optional) Arrow-circle-down
Assessing the child
• Point to each letter, asking the child to give just the sound.
• Observe whether the child responds quickly or slowly.
Marking and scoring
• Use the Individual Score Sheet to record the answers. If the child gives the Letterlander’s name, you
might say Yes, and what is the sound? If the child then gives the sound, count as correct.
• Enter the total number of correct sounds and the number you assessed.
• Option If you wish to see the results of all the children together, transfer the individual responses to the
Group Record.

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 What to look for
• On the pretest, you may find children who know letter names (aye, bee, cee) but do not know the sounds.
• As you monitor progress after every six letters, you can expect most children to give the correct sound
for all the letters taught to date. For those who cannot, it will be helpful to spend more time on reviewing
either with the whole class (making sure those children participate fully) or in small groups.
• On the posttest, teachers usually find that most of the children give correct sounds for 19 or more letters.
With this score or close to it, children should be able to continue on to Section 2.
• Children with scores much lower than 19 will benefit from continued practice on letter sounds with
activities such as those in the Appendix. This may be done with small groups as everyone moves forward
into Section 2.
Further assessment?
• In addition to Letter Sounds all the children need to be assessed on Initial Sounds. Use either Assessment
1-C or 1-D described below.
• For children who missed some of the letter sounds, assessment 1-B Character Names will be helpful.

1-B: Character names (Optional)

Purpose
Assess children’s knowledge of Letterland character names.
Recommended use
• Use over the course of Fast Track teaching for children who miss some of the
letter sounds taught to date on Assessment 1-A.
• Option Use for all students during and/or at the end of Fast Track teaching.
Preparation and resources
• 1-B: Character Names
• 1-S: Individual Score Sheet Arrow-circle-down 1-B: Character Names
Student Prompt
• 1-G: Group Record (optional) Arrow-circle-down
Assessing the child
• Assess only the letters taught to date. (Or try them all if you think the child may know more.)
• Point to each Letterlander and ask the child to give the character name.
• Option Assess only those characters whose sound the child missed on Assessment 1-A.
Marking and scoring
• Mark every correct response on the Individual Score Sheet. Leave blank if child gave no response or an
incorrect one.
• Enter the total number of correct character names.
• Option If you wish to see the results of all the children together, transfer the individual responses to the
Group Record.

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 1-C: Sound Matching
Purpose
This activity assesses children on matching pictures of items to the letter that
starts with the same sound. This is an indication that children have taken a
critical first step in developing phonemic awareness. 
Recommended use
• Use with a small group or with the whole class.
• There is a new assessment for every 5 or 6 letters. You may want to wait a few
days after introducing a group of letters to give the assessment in order to
evaluate children’s retention of learning.
Preparation and resources
• 1-C: Sound Matching, Parts 1-5
• 1-S: Individual Score Sheet Arrow-circle-down
• 1-G: Group Record (optional) Arrow-circle-down
Assessing the child: Parts 1-5
• Guide children in completing the first row, by saying the name of the picture, isolating the first sound,
then circling the correct letter.
• Let the children continue on their own. Do not help them correct errors. That way you will have a record
of what they still need to learn.
Marking and scoring
• Record responses on the Individual Score Sheet.
• Enter the total number of correct matches.
• Option Transfer the individual responses to the Group Record if required.
What to look for
• For those who have difficulty with this task, it will be important to provide additional teaching. Refer to
pages 280‒284 of the Phonics Teacher’s Guide for activities on initial sounds in words.
 

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1-D: Initial Sounds
Purpose
This is a check up on phonemic awareness, specifically on the child’s ability to
orally isolate the beginning sound in words. The child is asked to give only the
beginning sound, not the letter name and not the Letterland character. This can
be used multiple times with the same child.
Recommended use
• Use with children who have difficulty with the Sound Matching Assessments
to check on development of awareness and isolation of initial sounds. Use at
intervals of one to three weeks. 1-D: Initial Sounds
Score Sheet
• Option Use for all students before, during and/or at the end of the Fast Track.
Preparation and resources
• 1-D: Score Sheet
• 1-G: Group Record (optional) Arrow-circle-down
Instructions
• Three words are given for each letter so that you can give the assessment multiple times with different
words. You may choose any one of the three words for each letter.
• Assess the letters in a random order. (They are arranged in a-z order for your convenience.)
• Use one or two words and sounds as examples:
I am going to say a word. Then I want you to say the word, and then say just the first sound like
this: Say ‘mouse’. Now say just the first sound of mouse.
If the child does not answer correctly say, The first sound in mouse is /mmm/. Say ‘mouse /mmm/.’
The child repeats. Give another example. If you have used the Rubber Band Trick with this child before,
demonstrate how again to use this trick to isolate the first sound (page 266).
• Ask the child to repeat each word and then say the beginning sound. (If the child is not able to, after
a few words you may want to stop the assessment.) Do not tell the child the answer except for the two
examples.
• You may assess on all the sounds or just select some of them to check.
• To count as correct the child must make only the beginning sound, e.g. for the word fork, if the child says
“fff..”, it is correct. If the child says “for…”, it is incorrect.
Marking and scoring
• Record the date and the total correct/number tested.
• Option Transfer the individual responses to the Group Record if required.

What to look for

As you continue to work on initial sounds, look for improvement. It is important to work on initial sounds
until the child is consistently correct on this assessment.

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 1-A: Letter Sounds
Student Prompt 

d c e f a b
j k h i l
n r m q o 
p t g s  
u
v w x z y
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 1-B: Character Names
Student Prompt 

d c e f a b
j k h i l
n r m q o 
p t g s  
u
v w x z y
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 1-C: Sound Matching

Match Sound and Letter: a-e Student Page

Name____________________ Date____________________

b a e c
c d a e
a e b d
c b a e
b a e d
Match Sound and Letter: f-j
Name____________________ Date____________________

f j
j h
g f
h i
i g
192 Phonics Teacher's Guide: Assessment
h g
g f
h i
f g
h f
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May be photocopied only for use within the purchasing school.
 1-C: Sound Matching

Match Sound and Letter: k-o Student Page

Name____________________ Date____________________

o m l n
l k n m
k m o n
m o k l
o l n k
Match Sound and Letter: p-t
Name____________________ Date____________________

s r t p
q p r t
t s q p
p t s r
r q t s
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Match Sound and Letter: u-z
Name____________________
z w
w y
y z
y v
z u
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1-C: Sound Matching
Student Page
Date____________________
y v
v u
u w
z u
v w
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May be photocopied only for use within the purchasing school.
 1-D: Initial Sounds
Score Sheet

Child’s Name_______________________ Teacher___________________ Date_______________

a b c d e f g
at bat call dig edge fork game
add by cone dance ever fall got
animal basket camel date effort forget gorilla
h i j k l m n
had it joke keep lump mouse night
half if just kind log mail nose
himself iguana jet kisses lemon motor never
o p q r s t u
odd pin quick rock seed time us
otter pack quit road send take ugly
office pushing quack river sandwich toaster understand

v w x (ending) y z
vine wide fix yes zap
vote win wax yell zip
vanilla worry mix yesterday zoom

Date a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Score

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