Assessment Experience #1: Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation

Samantha M. Smith

College of Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

CIL 542: Literacy Instruction I

Dr. Carly Waters

October 23, 2020

Student Data

The student that participated in this assessment is a second grader at Vail Pittman

Elementary School going by the pseudonym of Rosie. Rosie is seven years old and lives in a

nuclear family consisting of her mother, father, and two older brothers. English is the only

language spoken in her home.

Name and Purpose of Procedure

Rosie was given the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation in order to assess her

phonemic awareness and to identify any potential struggles with her reading and writing abilities

(Yopp, 1995, p. 20). This test was administered during a small portion of Rosie’s class time

earlier this week. During this assessment, I read aloud twenty-two preselected words and

instructed Rosie to repeat each sound of the word in order. I recorded her results after each word.

Results

Rosie performed very well on her assessment, receiving a score of 20 out of 22. Although

she correctly segmented the sounds of almost all of the words I gave her, she incorrectly

segmented sounds for #7 (grew) and #12 (lay). She added an extra sound to the end of both

words instead of blending the end sounds together. For example, she pronounced grew as

“r/g/-/roo/-/oo/,” instead of “/g/-/roo/” and pronounced lay as “/l/-/ay/-/y/” instead of “/l/-/ay/”.

Conclusions

Upon reviewing Rosie’s results in her assessment, it is clear that she is considered

phonemically aware. This is due in large part to English being her native language, since the

Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation is dependent on students “understanding task

directions and familiarity with vocabulary” (Yopp, 1995, p. 28). Rosie may have had more

difficulty assessing the phonemes of this test had English been her second language as many

languages do not share the same phonemic sounds.

Instructional Strategy

Although Rosie performed well in the Yopp-Singer assessment, I would continue to

administer sound-blending activities as a part of additional instructional strategy. Tompkins

includes a sound-blending guessing game called “What Am I Thinking of?” which aligns with

RF.2.3, “Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.” This

activity requires children to “[identify] several characteristics of the item and then [say] its name,

articulating each of the sounds slowly and separately” (Tompkins, 2014, p.151). I believe this

strategy would benefit Rosie because it would give her extra practice in sound-blending, since

she had trouble adding extra sounds to words.

 References

Yopp, H. K. (1995). A Test for Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children. The Reading

Teacher SELECTIONS, 49(1), 20-30. Retrieved February 21, 2020.

Tompkins, G. E, et al. (2019). Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced Approach. Melbourne,

Australia.