The Alphabetic Principle Of Literacy

What is the importance of assessing the aspects related to the alphabetic principle and reading fluency? The alphabetic principle is the building blocks for literacy; it is the basic foundation on which all other reading skills are built. If we do not assess what the students know about the alphabetic principle, then we will not be able to give them the best, most effective, and appropriate instruction. Students need to be able to make connections between the sounds they hear and the printed letters. ELL’s may have a harder time with this, but if they understand the alphabetic principle for their first language, the skills they know will transfer and help them learn about the alphabetic principle for English. Fluency is necessary for students
One way to assess aspects related to the alphabetic principle is to use the letter-naming task. For this task, students are given a sheet with all 26 letters in both uppercase and lowercase (including different forms of the letters) and are asked to identify the letter by its name; if they cannot tell you what it is called, then have them try giving you a word that starts with that letter. Once all the student has read all the letters, you can score the task to see what their strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to
Informal Reading Inventories are an assessment tool that can be used to determine an ELL’s reading proficiency. IRIs are available in both English and Spanish, which makes it useful for comparing a student’s skills in his/her first language and then the second language. IRIs sound very similar to the CRI (Comprehensive Reading Inventory) that we have learned about in my reading assessment class; both IRIs and the CRI contain both expository and narrative passages for the student to read. There are multiple passages of each type so you can have a pre-test and a post-test. Before the student is required to read a passage, they first must read some leveled sentences in order to determine what level passages they need to begin on. Once it is determined what level they need to begin reading on, then they will be assessed on their silent, oral, and listening comprehension by reading the passage silently to themselves and then answering questions, then reading the passage outline while you take a running record and then retell the story, and then if the student is still is still having difficulty comprehending, then you will read the story to them while they listen and then they will answer the same questions from the silent