Up, And & Out Test

By James W. Cunningham

RationaleThis subtest is an indicator of a

student’s ability to recognize frequently occurring onsets

(Cunningham et al 1999) in word decoding. It should not be used alone to test a student’s word

identification abilities. It should only be given after a complete Whole-to-Part Stage I assessment has been completed and a student’s profile

indicates difficulties in the area of word identification, specifically

decoding.

Directions for administering• Begin by showing the student the slides with

the words up, and, or out. Make sure they can read these three words. Then, explain that the student will be reading words that are nonsense words that all end with up, and, or out. Give the student 3-5 seconds for each word. Write down exactly what the student says. Each word is followed by a black screen in order to give you time to take notes or get the child’s attention.

• Ask students to try to read every word on the list.

• It is important that the student blends the onset with an ending. The goal is not to see if the child knows letter-sound correspondence, but if the child can use that knowledge to read and unfamiliar word.

Examples

up

and

out

zup

zand

zout

Words Begin on Next Slide

scup

snand

grup

spup

tup

strout

pand

fout

bup

trand

cout

plup

chup

yand

rup

fland

crup

mup

stup

kand

quout

frup

gand

wout

prand

brout

sland

thand

swout

hout

nand

sout

drand

glout

blout

lup

shand

jout

vout

dand

whout

clup

Interpretation • Create a list of all of the onsets the student has difficulty reading.

• Compare that list to the onsets the student finds difficult to read in words on the Real Word test.

• Target the onsets that appear on both lists in your word study instruction.