News Release - Reading Assessment Tasks

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New Evan-Moor Reading Assessment Tool Evaluates Foundational Reading and Language Arts Skills

Teachers and paraprofessionals use affordable materials to assess reading skills in pre-K through second grade classrooms

MONTEREY, CALIF. (May 12, 2006) The No Child Left Behind mandate emphasizes the importance of learning at an early age. Scientific research shows that exposing young children to new words, sounds and experiences stimulates the brain's development and fosters reading readiness and comprehension skills.

Reading Assessment Tasks -- Quick Check Activities, a new series of cost-effective assessment tools from Evan-Moor Educational Publishers, gives pre-kindergarten-through-grade 2 teachers a quick and easy way to monitor individual student progress. Designed with the busy teacher in mind, the assessments may be administered by a teacher, paraprofessional, volunteer parent, or teacher's aide.

"To bridge the achievement gap we need to implement reading assessment and intervention strategies as early as possible in a young child's life," said Evan-Moor CEO Bill Evans. "Reading Assessment Tasks -- Quick Check Activities gives classroom teachers an easy, affordable way to assess foundational reading and language arts skills."

Reading Assessment Tasks -- Quick Check Activities is a performance-based tool containing tasks that are correlated with specific grade-level state reading standards. Scripted instruction for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other classroom assistants simplifies the assessment process. Colorful task cards and mats motivate students to perform, while class and individual student checklists make assessment results easy to organize and access.

The reading assessment series consists of one book per grade level for Pre-K, kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2 classrooms. To streamline assessment, record keeping and follow-up practice, each book is broken down into 18 or more convenient units. A unit contains all the necessary materials for assessing an individual skill, including easy-to-follow scripted instructions for administering the assessment task, full-color materials children use to complete the task, checklists for monitoring overall classroom progress and that of individual students, and reproducible follow-up practice activities.

Each assessment task is correlated to a specific grade-level standard. Foundational reading skills are divided into five sections: concepts of print/print awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics and word recognition, vocabulary, and concept development.

Reading Assessment Tasks, Pre-K -- Quick Check Activities includes assessment of phonemic awareness such as using rhyming words in familiar poems and songs, and identifying letter sounds and the beginning and end of words; and beginning reading skills such as retelling story events and predicting a story's ending.

Kindergarten assessment tasks include phonemic awareness skills such as counting sounds and syllables in words; concepts of print/print awareness such as distinguishing letters, words and numbers; and beginning reading/decoding and word recognition skills such as retelling familiar stories and naming all consonants and short vowels.

Grade 1 tasks include concepts of print/print awareness skills such as matching oral words to printed words; beginning reading and decoding/word recognition skills such as reading diagraphs sh, wh, th, ch; and listening skills such as following two-step directions.

Grade 2 tasks include decoding/word recognition skills such as reading and using spelling patterns; vocabulary/concept development such as reading regular and irregular plurals; reading comprehension skills such as understanding cause and effect; and listening skills such as following 3 and 4-step oral directions.

Each grade-specific edition of Reading Assessment Tasks -- Quick Check Activities consists of 176 pages, retails for $24.99.

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For more information contact:
Megan Murray
Marketing Communications Coordinator
Phone: 831-649-5901 ext. 116
Email: meganm@evan-moor.com