Which assessment strategy would provide the best measure of a student's mastery of the alphabetic principle?

• A. Having a student read aloud a list of phonetically regular nonsense words
• B. Reading aloud a connected passage that uses familiar vocabulary
• C. Identifying the main idea of a paragraph
• D. Spelling common sight words from memory

Answer: (A)

This question assesses how well a student can apply the alphabetic principle—the idea that letters map to sounds and can be blended to form words. Reading aloud a list of phonetically regular nonsense words best measures this because it requires decoding new letter-sound patterns from scratch, without relying on memory of real words or context. In other words, success shows ability to apply letter-sound relationships to unknown sequences, which is the heart of mastery of decoding.

Reading a connected passage with familiar vocabulary primarily tests fluency and comprehension, not decoding strength. Identifying the main idea focuses on understanding content rather than phonetic decoding skills. Spelling common sight words from memory gauges orthographic knowledge and memory of familiar words, not the ability to decode unfamiliar letter-sound patterns.