Skills Assessment

KEY TAKEAWAY: If your child struggles reading (decoding) a word, click "pass." If they read it quickly the first time, click "next." Write down the final results.

The DIVI journey for your child starts with a short skills assessment.

The purpose of the assessment is simple: find out where your child's skills are breaking down in our Scope & Sequence - specifically, which Unit and Level.

Once you know this, you can apply the Unit and Level to each story or book to customize the text to your child's skill level.

This makes the practice of reading becomes much easier and much more enjoyable because you are able to help your child practice right where their skills are strong, and right where they are learning the next rule.

Three Parts

The assessment is broken down into three parts - real words, nonsense words and heart words. The child reads words in each area until they are unable to progress. Let's talk about each one.

Real Words: these are decodable words that track our scope in sequence, meaning, every two or three words, a new skill is needed in order to decode the word. These are real words that the child encounters every time they read, and are fully decodable.

Nonsense Words: these are pretend words - words that use the same letter patterns and follow the same rules, but are not real words. Like "ziff." By asking the child to decode nonsense words, we get an even clearer picture of where their decoding skills break down.

Heart Words: these are words that are frequently used (like "the"), but do not follow the rules. Or maybe only part of the word follows the rules. But because of their importance and frequency, the child needs to start learning them "by heart." Similar to sight words, yes, but there is a difference.

How to Test

It's important to follow these tips when having your child read the words the assessment shows.

1. When your child reads a word quickly and accurately, click "next."

2. When your child struggles to read a word, click "pass."

3. Even if the child accurately reads the word, if they struggle, or it takes time to sound it out, click "pass."

The assessment will continue through each section until you click "pass" three times in a row. It will then begin the next section and continue until you've completed all three portions.

When all the sections are complete, the assessment will show you the results, as well as email the results. We recommend you write these down! The Unit # and Level # are what you will use to customize all future books and stories to your child's exact skill level.

What's Next?

Next, you will use the results to customize books and stories. This article will show you how!