Top
  1. confidentlearners
  2. Progress Monitor
  3. Overview

PARA Teacher Guide

Phonics Advantage Reading Assessment

Getting Started

Welcome to the Phonics Advantage Reading Assessment (PARA)! This guide will help you navigate your way through assessments. PARA includes both a ‘training version’ and a ‘child version’. Use the training version to familiarize yourself with the assessment. Then, when you’re ready to assess a child, switch to the child version.

Assessing a Child

Start by selecting the child version of PARA. In this mode, you’ll see the Challenges Menu where you can select the Challenge you want to access. For the children’s first (or baseline) assessment, start at Challenge 1. Simply follow the audio prompts to move through each Challenge. Jot the scores down on your Scoring Sheet, then once you complete the assessment, record the scores in the online Progress Monitor.

To exit the assessment, click the Exit button in the bottom right corner of the Challenges Menu. The exit door icon will bring you back to the Challenges Menu. You can also exit by clicking the “X” at the top right of the screen.

If you are assessing a child virtually, ask a parent or caregiver to support you and provide feedback.

Challenge and Scoring Overview

There are three types of challenges, each with its own scoring rules:

  • Challenge 1- Concepts about print (you will need a book)
    Scoring rule: 0 or 1 correct answer: 1 point; 2 correct answers: 2 points; 3 correct answers 3 points; 4 correct answers 4 points. There are no half points.

  • For Challenges 2-13 and Challenges 17-22, a demonstration is given, followed by a warm-up activity (“let’s try some together”). If a child makes a mistake at this point, they can try again.

    Then for the scored portion—indicated by a numbered blue button at the bottom of the screen—the child will be asked to complete three or four tasks. All these Challenges use the following scoring rule: Count the number of errors in each task. If the child made 1 or more errors, stop the assessment, and choose the score in the left corner. If the child did not make any errors, click on the Next button to continue with the next task. The last task is timed; an audio prompt will tell you when to start and when to stop. For the last task, score 3 if the child makes 1 or more errors. Score 4 if there are no errors.

Here is what is covered in each Challenge:

Challenge 1 - Concepts about print

Challenge 2- Lowercase letters

Challenge 3- Uppercase letters

Challenge 4- Sound-letter correspondence for 10 basic phonemes

Challenge 5- Decode words with 10 basic phonemes

Challenge 6- Sound-letter correspondence for 13 basic phonemes

Challenge 7 - Decode words with 23 basic phonemes

Challenge 8 - Decode non-words with 23 basic phonemes

Challenge 9 - Read basic high-frequency words

Challenge 10 - Spell decodable words (you will need a pencil and paper)

Challenge 11 - Read simple decodable sentences

Challenge 12- Sound-grapheme correspondence for 7 advanced phonemes

Challenge 13 - Decode words with 7 advanced phonemes

Challenges 14-16 – Accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension

Challenge 17 - Sound-grapheme correspondence for 9 advanced phonemes

Challenge 18 - Decode words with 16 advanced phonemes

Challenge 19- Sound-grapheme correspondence for 5 advanced phonemes

Challenge 20 - Decode words with all 44 phonemes

Challenge 21 - Read advanced high-frequency words

Challenge 22 - Spell advanced high-frequency words

Challenges 23-25– Accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension

 

  • For Challenges 14–16 and Challenges 23-25, we are checking for accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension. Each has its own scoring rule.

  • Challenges 14 and 23 - Accuracy scoring rule: More than 7 errors: 1 point; 6-7 errors: 2 points; 4-5 errors: 3 points; and 3 or fewer errors: 4 points

  • Challenges 15 and 24- Fluency scoring rule: More than 5 minutes: 1 point; 4-5 minutes: 2 points; 2-4 minutes: 3 points; and less than 2 minutes: 4 points

  • Challenges 16 and 25- Comprehension there will be three questions and the scoring rule is: 0 correct answers: 1 point; 1 correct answer: 2 points; 2 correct answers: 3 points; and 3 correct answers: 4 points

Scoring example

In her baseline assessment, Mia received the following scores: Challenge 1: 4 points; Challenge 2: 4 points; Challenge 3: 3 points; Challenge 4: 2 points. At this point, the assessment was stopped. The following scores were recorded on the Scoring Sheet, then in the Progress Monitor for Mia: 4, 4, 3 and 2.

Later, you are ready to assess Mia’s progress. The second assessment starts from Challenge 3, the one that Mia had not quite mastered (hadn’t achieved a score of 4) during the baseline assessment. Then you continue with Challenge 4, then Challenge 5, and so on until you encounter a Challenge in which Mia scores a 1 or a 2.