What to Assess First in Early Literacy (and What Can Wait)

September 6, 2026

It’s the first week of school.

You’ve got 25 new faces looking at you like you have all the answers, a mile-long to-do list, and the very real question of, “Where do I even start?!” When it comes to early literacy assessment, that question can feel especially overwhelming.

There are so many things you could assess. But what do you assess first?

The temptation? Assess everything immediately. (Or end up feeling paralyzed and assess nothing.)

Here’s the thing: not all assessment data is equally urgent. Knowing what to prioritize (and what can wait) is one of the most practical skills you can develop as a primary teacher.

Early literacy assessment tips for K-2 teachers — what foundational reading skills to assess first and what can wait. — *Image credit: PeopleImages*

In this blog post, I’ll walk you through exactly which early literacy assessments to tackle first by grade level, how to fit them all into a busy school day, and how to turn your data into action quickly so you can launch your small groups with confidence.

Start With the End in Mind

Before you pull a single student to your table, ask yourself two questions:

What do I need to know to plan my first whole-group phonics lesson?
What do I need to know to form my first small groups?

That’s it. That’s your assessment priority list.

Everything else (running records, writing samples, interest surveys) is great. But it can wait until your routines are solid and you have a few minutes to breathe.

What to Prioritize by Grade Level

The foundational literacy skills that matter most will look a little different depending on where your students are developmentally.

Kindergarten

One thing worth remembering as you assess your youngest students: young children come to kindergarten with a wide range of early experiences. Some have had years of early childhood education and arrive with a strong foundation in oral language. Others are walking in on day one with very few formal early learning experiences at all.

Your assessment data needs to reflect that reality.

In the early weeks, focus on:

Letter naming. How many letter names do they know? This is one of the quickest and most telling pieces of data you can gather with young learners. A student who knows most of their letters is in a very different place than one who knows only a handful.
Letter sounds. Once you know which letter names a student knows, check their letter sounds, too. A student may recognize a specific letter by name but not know the sound it makes. Both pieces of information matter for planning your instruction.
Phonological awareness. Can they identify rhyming words? First sounds? Blend spoken words? Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sound structures of spoken language (including rhymes, syllables, and individual sounds). You don’t need a formal test here. A few quick oral tasks will tell you a lot.
Name writing. Can they write their first name? This gives you a window into fine motor skills, letter formation, and print awareness all at once.

It’s also worth doing a quick, informal check on oral language skills. Can students follow multi-step directions? Do they have the vocabulary needed to engage with classroom instruction?

A strong base in oral language development supports everything else that comes with reading and writing. Students who arrive with strong oral language development tend to build on phonics instruction more quickly than those who are still developing their oral language foundation.

These are your most essential early literacy skills for launching kindergarten instruction.

Research supports this: early screening should prioritize A multi-student scoring sheet lets you and letter-sound knowledge, as these are the strongest predictors of both reading success and reading difficulty (Kilpatrick, 2015).

1st and 2nd Grade

For students who’ve had a year or two of literacy instruction, shift your focus:

Phonics patterns: word reading. What words can they actually decode? Not just what was “taught,” but what sticks when they see it on the page.
Phonics patterns: spelling. This is one of the most underused and undervalued data points in early classroom instruction. When a student reads a word, they can sometimes use context clues or partial letter information to guess correctly. Spelling removes all of that. It shows you exactly how a student is processing sound-symbol relationships because they have to produce the word entirely from memory. A student who can read “bright” but spells it “brite” is telling you something important about where their phonics knowledge breaks down.

A simple phonics diagnostic assessment that includes both reading and spelling will give you the most complete picture.

Don’t Over-Trust Last Year’s Data

Cumulative folders are a starting point, not a final answer.

A lot happens over the summer. Students grow. Students slide. A child who left 1st grade reading at a certain level may look very different in the fall.

You need “right in front of you” data to make accurate instructional decisions. Use last year’s records to form initial hypotheses, then quickly confirm or revise them within the first two weeks.

Logistics: How to Actually Make It Happen

“But when am I supposed to assess 25 kids?!”

If you don’t have dedicated assessment days or sub coverage (and many of us don’t!), try assessing in small chunks. Pull 2-3 students at a time during lower-stakes afternoon activities while the rest of your class works independently (in Kindergarten, I let them play).

This is actually great practice for building the stamina and routines your students will need once centers get started. Think of it as a two-for-one: you’re collecting data and training your class to work on their own at the same time.

It also helps to keep your assessment tool simple. The more straightforward your recording sheet, the faster each session goes. If you’re spending more time managing the paperwork than actually listening to students, it’s time to simplify.

You don’t need a perfect setup. You just need a workable one.

Use a Phonics Diagnostic to See the Full Picture

Once you’ve got the basics covered, a phonics diagnostic assessment will help you see the “detailed story” of your class.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. A good diagnostic covers three things: letter sounds, word reading, and spelling.

Together, those three pieces show you not just what a student recognizes, but how they’re actually processing and applying phonics patterns. It also helps you build a stronger understanding of each student’s strengths and gaps so your instruction can meet them right where they are.

But here’s the step teachers often skip: look at your data as a class, not just individually.

A multi-student scoring sheet lets you spot clusters. Groups of kids who all struggle with the same skill (short vowels? blends? vowel teams?). That’s your small group instruction right there.

You’ll also spot outliers: students who may need immediate intervention support, and students who are ready to move much faster. Both matter.

Now What? Turning Data Into Action

Once you have your data, resist the urge to over-plan before you start teaching. Here’s a simple way to think about it:

Look for your biggest cluster first. What skill do the most students need? That becomes your whole-group focus.
Identify your 2-3 most urgent small groups. These are the students whose foundational reading skills are significantly below where they need to be for grade-level instruction to make sense.
Flag anyone who needs a closer look. Some students will surprise you, either because they’re much further ahead than last year’s data suggested, or because they’re struggling in ways that weren’t previously identified.

As Dylan Wiliam (2017) puts it, formative assessment is most powerful when it’s embedded in your daily instruction, not treated as a separate, time-consuming event. In other words, this isn’t a one-and-done task. The goal is to assess, learn something, and do something with what you learn — and then keep doing that all year long.

Best practices suggest keeping your early groups flexible. Your first groupings are a starting point, not a permanent arrangement. As you spend more time in early learning routines with your students, your data picture will get clearer and your groups will shift. That’s not a sign that something went wrong. That’s the system working.

You won’t have everything figured out in the first week, and that’s okay. Early literacy development is a process. The goal is to give every student positive experiences with reading and writing right from the start, and that begins with knowing where they are.

Ready to Get Started?

If you’re looking for a simple, reliable first step, grab this free Phonics Diagnostic Assessment. It includes a letter sounds assessment, a diagnostic spelling test, and a word reading assessment, plus multi-student scoring sheets so you can see class-wide patterns at a glance. It even includes suggested next steps based on what students need, so you’re never left wondering what to do with your data.

And if you want ongoing support with planning and teaching your early literacy block, come join us in the Kindergarten Literacy Club or the 1st & 2nd Grade Literacy Club.

A Membership includes assessments for letter recognition and letter sounds, letter formation, phonics, phonological awareness, print concepts, and sight words, so you have everything you need to get a clear picture of where your students are. You’ll also get organizational tools to plan your small groups and get them started, plus all the centers and small group materials you need to hit the ground running. No hunting for resources, no starting from scratch. Just everything in one place, ready to go.

The clubs only open in January and July, but you can join the waitlist now to receive monthly freebies and stay in the loop on everything happening inside the clubs. It’s a great way to get a feel for the community before the doors open!