Nonsense Word Fluency Part 1: Why Nonsense Words?

Many benchmark screeners and curriculums require teachers to administer nonsense word fluency (NWF) tests to their students.  I often hear, "Why do they have to read these silly words---I want them to be reading REAL words!"  Or kids will say, "I would do better if these words were real!"   I must admit...I WAS one of those teachers.  BUT, that was before I understood the purpose behind these assessments and what I could learn from the data. So, what exactly do these tests tell us, and why are they so important?

What do these tests tell us?

NWF tests measure a students ability to decode individual phonemes and then blend the phonemes together to read.  These assessments are a great indicator of a students progression with alphabetic principal, or the understanding that letters and spoken sounds have a systematic and predictable relationship.  Data from these assessments will give a teacher a window into where the student falls on the phonics continuum. 

Lets take the example below.  John is reading sound by sound (the dashes below each letter tell us this) and he is having difficulty with short vowels and letter reversals for b and d.  Specifically he is having trouble with short vowel a and e. 

NWF tests are particularly important because it will TRULY show you if a student has a phonics skill mastered and if they are able to apply it in word reading.  If we were to give students word reading assessments with real words, we may get a lot mastery "false positives" for phonics skills.  In real word assessments students may have already been exposed to the word or have it memorized.  

Additionally these tests tell us what stage of word reading students are at.  Are students reading sound by sound, partial blends or unitizing?  We will explore what each of these stages mean in a later blog post--so stay tuned!

What do I do with the data?

These assessments should pinpoint where a student needs instruction. In the example above, the teacher should work with John on b and d letter reversals and short vowels.

An NWF assessment may also prompt the teacher into giving a further diagnostic.  For example if the student does really poorly he or she will need letter sounds and naming (if using a cvc NWF).  If a student makes zero mistakes, maybe a harder NWF should be given, or a phonics screener to determine an area of focus.  

Once you have determined the starting place for the student (either though an additional diagnostic, or through information collected from the NWF) its time to plan your instruction.

Instruction should be direct, explicit and have many opportunities for the student to practice at the word, sentence and decodable passage level.  For ideas on direct and explicit instruction check out some of these blog posts below:

Mastering Short Vowels

At a Loss For Words

After the students have had sufficient practice administer another NWF test with the instructed upon skill to determine if they have reached mastery. 

There is lots more to explore with nonsense word fluency!  I will be exploring the following topics during this blog series......so come back for more learning!

Part 1: Why Nonsense Words? 

Part 2: The three stages of word reading

Post 3: The instructional focus for each stage of word reading