What skills are assessed on the literacy screener?

Early Reading Skills

2023 Wisconsin Act 20 requires that children are assessed in the early reading skills of alphabet knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and decoding. These skills are assessed differently depending on the student’s grade level. You can learn more about these important early reading skills below:

  • Alphabet knowledge: Knowing the names of printed letters.
  • Letter sound knowledge: Knowing the sounds of printed letters.
  • Phonemic awareness: Hearing, saying, and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words.
  • Decoding skills: Connecting sounds to written letters to read printed words.
  • Oral vocabulary: Understanding the meanings of words when speaking or listening.

aimswebPlus Early Reading Screening Assessments 

The aimswebPlus reading screener measure the skills above based on a student’s grade level. You can learn more about these assessments below:
Letter naming fluency (5K) measures a student’s knowledge of upper and lower-case letters. Your child will have one minute to say the names of visually presented upper and lowercase letters that they know.

Letter word sounds fluency (4K-1st grade) measures a student’s letter sound knowledge. Your child will have one minute to say the sounds of visually presented letters, syllables, and words that they know.

Initial sounds (4K-5K) measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will be provided a page with four pictures. Your child will be asked to either point to a picture of a word that matches the initial sound the teacher says or make the initial sound of a word spoken by the teacher. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.

Phoneme segmentation (1st grade) measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will listen to a word that is spoken by the teacher and then say each sound they hear in the word. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.

Auditory vocabulary (5K-1st grade) measures a student’s knowledge of words commonly found in 5-year-old Kindergarten and Grade 1 reading materials. Your child will match a picture to an orally presented word. This assessment will take 2-4 minutes.

Vocabulary (2nd- 3rd grade) measures a student’s knowledge of the meanings of grade-appropriate words. Your child will choose the meaning of target words by selecting from multiple-choice options. This is an untimed, computerized assessment that typically takes 4-7 minutes.
Oral reading fluency (1st-3rd grade) measures a student’s decoding skills. Your child will read two stories aloud, each for one minute.