Abstract of

Tile Test: A Hands-on Approach for Assessing Phonics in the Early Grades

Kimberly A. Norman

Robert C. Calfee

An instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system is presented. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within hands-on interactive activities reveal the nature of children's problem-solving strategies for decoding and spelling words. The instrument is efficient and flexible, and offers feedback to guide instruction. The authors describe the instrument, its administration, and scoring, as well as offer evidence of its validity and reliability. Examples of students' responses are provided to illustrate how analysis and interpretation of results are used to make instructional decisions. The authors discuss ways for teachers to adapt the individually administered test to match their curriculum and to accommodate small-group settings.

Abstract from Norman, K.A., & Calfee, R.C. (2004, September). Tile Test: A Hands-on Approach for Assessing Phonics in the Early Grades. The Reading Teacher, 58(1), 42–52. doi: 10.1598/RT.58.1.4