How to Assess Long Vowel Sounds

Pre-school children recognize that spoken words consist of sounds. When children begin to read, they learn to identify the vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Next, they discover how to decode the correct pronunciation of vowel sounds---short or long. Learning long vowel sounds requires understanding spelling clues. To assess if young readers can successfully identify words with the long vowel sound, assign children to small groups to complete a word scavenger hunt. With a variety of storybooks available, children can search through texts to find words containing long vowel sounds. Have groups share their findings.

Things You'll Need

  • White board
  • Colored markers
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Instructions

    • 1

      Display posters throughout the room that reflect rules for words containing long vowel sound-spellings so children can review them during the scavenger hunt (Example: Use the long vowel sound for one-syllable words when the vowel appears at the end of a word -- so, me).

    • 2

      Write words on the whiteboard as group members share the words aloud that they have identified as long vowel sound-spellings. Choose a different color marker to represent each group.

    • 3

      Listen carefully as students pronounce the words they found. Write down particular long vowel sounds or spellings that cause the most difficulty. Note if students are able to recognize the same long vowel sounds using different letters or combinations of letters (Examples: the long "e" sound in be, bee and baby).

    • 4

      Create a list of the long vowel sounds and their spellings that you noticed gave students the most difficulty and allow time for additional review on those.

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