Acadience Reading Pre-K: PELI: Alphabet Knowledge (AK)
What is PELI Alphabet Knowledge?
The Alphabet Knowledge subtest of the PELI assesses a child’s ability to recognize and name upper- and lowercase letters. Thus, letter naming serves as an indicator of overall alphabet knowledge. In this subtest, you show the child a page of letters and ask the child to name all of the letters that the child knows. You may use a series of prompts to encourage the child to name letters, beginning with the first letter in the child’s first name followed by the most common letters known by preschool children (Justice, Pence, Bowles, & Wiggens, 2006; McBride-Chang, 1999; Treiman & Kessler, 2004). Continue to prompt the child to name prompted letters until the child misses three letters in a row.
The PELI includes a mix of upper- and lowercase letters on the Alphabet Knowledge subtest rather than all upper- or all lowercase letters. Our research on the PELI indicates that many children who attend preschool lack knowledge of letter names at the beginning of their preschool years, but have mastered all of their uppercase letters by the time of kindergarten entry. To provide a sensitive indicator of letter recognition that is neither too difficult for 3-year-olds at the beginning of preschool nor too easy for 5-year-olds at the end, approximately 75% of the letters are uppercase letters with the remaining 25% being lowercase letters. Among the lowercase letters, approximately half are identical to their uppercase counterpart, while the other half are unique characters. The inclusion of a small number of unique lowercase letters has been found to be an effective way to distinguish the extent of letter knowledge in preschoolers and monitor growth on the skill (Turnball, Bowles, Skibbe, Justice, & Wiggins, 2010). The same mix of upper- and lowercase letters is used in all books, although the order of the letters is randomized.
Overview
| Early Literacy Skill | Alphabet Knowledge |
| Format | The assessor shows the child a page of letters and asks the child to point to and name all of the letters that the child knows. |
| Score | 1 point for each correct letter name (or letter sound) |
| Prompts | Do you know what letter this is? Or What is this letter?
Show me where ______ is, or Point to ______. Do you know the name of the letter in English? |
| Discontinue | If the child misses three prompted letters in a row. |
Scoring Rules and Tips
The child receives 1 point for each letter correctly named.
- Circle letters if the child says the correct name or sound for the letter. While we ask the child to tell us the name of the letter, we do not penalize a child who knows and provides the correct letter sound. A table with acceptable sounds for each of the letters is provided in Appendix D of the Acadience Reading Pre-K: PELI Assessment Manual.
- Slash letters named incorrectly. If you point to a letter and ask the child to name it and the child does not respond, slash the letter.
- Underline letters the child names in a different language. Underlined responses are not counted as correct, but may be useful for instructional planning. A table with phonetic pronunciations of Spanish letter names is provided in Appendix E of the Acadience Reading Pre-K: PELI Assessment Manual.
- Leave blank any letters that the child does not attempt.
- Score the child’s final response. If a letter that was previously named incorrectly is corrected by the child, circle the letter, mark with an “SC” and score as correct. If a letter that was previously named correctly is repeated incorrectly, slash the letter and score it as incorrect. (When scoring the PELI, an SC takes away a slash; a slash takes away a circle.)
For more information, please reference the Acadience Reading Pre-K: PELI Assessment Manual which is available to users who have purchased the assessment.
