A second-grade teacher wants to identify the areas where a student struggles with decoding and encoding basic words. Which activity would best assess these areas?

A second-grade teacher wants to identify the areas where a student struggles with decoding and encoding basic words. Which activity would best assess these areas?

• A. Reading a list of Dolch words with the student
• B. Conducting a phonological awareness inventory with the student
• C. Completing a running record with the student
• D. Using flash cards to practice individual phonemes with the student

Answer: (B)

Focusing on phonological awareness connects directly to decoding and encoding because these skills begin with hearing and manipulating sounds in spoken language. A phonological awareness inventory asks the student to segment words into individual sounds, blend sounds to form words, and manipulate phonemes, which reveals how well they can map sounds to letters when decoding and how they might spell by representing those sounds with letters. When a student shows difficulty with blending or segmenting, you can target explicit instruction on how sounds map to letters, improving both decoding unfamiliar words and encoding them accurately in spelling. Reading a list of high-frequency words mainly assesses quick word recognition and fluency rather than the underlying sound-by-sound processing that decoding and encoding rely on. A running record tracks reading fluency and accuracy in context, but it doesn’t isolate where the student’s decoding or encoding processes are breaking down. Practicing individual phonemes with flash cards focuses on phoneme awareness in isolation, which is helpful but doesn’t capture how those sounds combine into words or how to spell them in real writing. By directly evaluating how the student hears and manipulates sounds, the inventory provides targeted insight into decoding and encoding strengths and gaps.

Focusing on phonological awareness connects directly to decoding and encoding because these skills begin with hearing and manipulating sounds in spoken language. A phonological awareness inventory asks the student to segment words into individual sounds, blend sounds to form words, and manipulate phonemes, which reveals how well they can map sounds to letters when decoding and how they might spell by representing those sounds with letters. When a student shows difficulty with blending or segmenting, you can target explicit instruction on how sounds map to letters, improving both decoding unfamiliar words and encoding them accurately in spelling.

Reading a list of high-frequency words mainly assesses quick word recognition and fluency rather than the underlying sound-by-sound processing that decoding and encoding rely on. A running record tracks reading fluency and accuracy in context, but it doesn’t isolate where the student’s decoding or encoding processes are breaking down. Practicing individual phonemes with flash cards focuses on phoneme awareness in isolation, which is helpful but doesn’t capture how those sounds combine into words or how to spell them in real writing. By directly evaluating how the student hears and manipulates sounds, the inventory provides targeted insight into decoding and encoding strengths and gaps.