The Nonsense Word Test
An exercise from Scholastic that tests students' mastery of sound-spelling relationships. Students are presented, then read five short lists (short vowels, digraphs, long vowels, other vowels, multi-syllabic words) of nonsense words aloud while teachers check against their correct pronunciation. Teachers can identify patterns of a student's certain decoding strengths and weaknesses.
The Nonsense Word Test very specifically assesses students' decoding abilities at their grade level in a way that is independent of their semantic comprehension of the words themselves. Since the exercise only consists of lists, it can be modified to target certain particular phonemes or digraphs that impede progress.
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