Blends and Digraphs Decodable Passage Fluency Probes

About this resource

A student can read "frog," "shed" and "spring" correctly on a word list and still slow to a crawl when those same words show up inside a sentence. This probe measures that gap directly: four equivalent decodable passages, built from a word bank where blend and digraph words are most of the content, read aloud and timed, scored for words correct per minute (WCPM) and accuracy together.

WHAT IS INCLUDED - 16 pages, 4 timed probe forms, 434 type-in fields

The Goal Page

• What the probe measures, in one paragraph
• A sample goal, invented, with every bracket meant to be edited by the team
• The six-part goal frame as type-in fields: by (date), given, student will, criterion (WCPM and accuracy together), on ___ of ___ consecutive probes, as measured by
• A baseline table: three probes and the median WCPM
• Two benchmark rows with target date, target WCPM/accuracy, actual and met
• The administration and scoring directions, including the WCPM and accuracy formulas and the rule that both numbers have to clear together
• Lines for this student's own scoring accommodations, and a box for what the errors say to reteach

The Scoring Guide

• Five error codes (S substitution, O omission, H hesitation, SC self-correction, N insertion) and exactly what each one counts
• The WCPM and accuracy formulas spelled out
• Blank lines for this student's accepted pronunciations or dialect variations, and any stop rule the team is using

A Binder Cover, Spine Label And Six Divider Tabs

• Print, cut and slide into a binder front, spine sleeve, or folder tabs, so the file drops straight into whatever system the team already uses

Four Timed Decodable Passages, A Through D

• 47 words each, built from a fixed, code-checked vocabulary: a 27-word bank of blend/digraph words, a 29-word list of short connecting words, and four character names that themselves carry a blend or digraph — every word in every passage checked against this closed pool, not just a sample
• Every passage draws at least 14 of its 47 words from the 27-word blend/digraph bank
• A large-print passage card, a quick-reference error-code legend, and a five-box scoring strip (time, errors, words correct, WCPM, accuracy) — kept as two separate pieces, never a score bolted onto the bottom of the reading text
• A card for what to do if the student stops or refuses a word, and a cold-read/hot-read plus prosody field
• Name, date, form letter and word count at the top of every form

An Error Analysis Log

• Twelve rows, one per probe: tallies for S, O, H, SC and N, and a notes column for which words or patterns kept coming back wrong

The Data Log And Graph

• A y-axis scaled 0 to 60 WCPM, twelve probe columns, and the instruction to draw the aim line from the baseline to the criterion first
• A twelve-row log: date, form, time, errors, words correct, WCPM, accuracy percent, and notes

A Family Update, Team Handoff And Phrase Bank

• A fill-in-the-blanks note home with an observable-language phrase bank for the "in our own words" box or the error log's notes column
• A team handoff for a substitute or new provider
• A second, simplified version of the same routine written for a paraprofessional, reading volunteer, or family member reading with the student at home — plain-language directions with no error codes required

The Caseload Summary

• Twelve student rows, baseline WCPM and criterion, eight probe columns, a trend column and a decision column

A Worked Example

• An invented second grader, twelve weekly probes: the baseline taken as a median, a session that reached the WCPM target but not the accuracy line (and so did not count), the criterion met on three consecutive probes, and the progress-report sentence the log produces. Every number in that sentence is on the log.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF. The goal page, scoring guide, organizer, error analysis log, data log, communication page and caseload page are type-in fields: open the file in a PDF reader, click a line or a cell, type, and Save As once per student. The four probe forms are meant to be printed; the student reads from paper. It works offline with no account or subscription. It does not calculate WCPM or accuracy for you, and it does not draw the graph.

It is not a norm-referenced fluency assessment and it carries no benchmark WCPM or "typical" rate for any age or grade. The criteria in the sample goal are in brackets because your team sets them from the baseline. It is not a Google Sheets file, a Google Doc, or an Excel workbook.

It is also not either of the store's two related probes, on purpose. Our Blends and Digraphs Progress Monitoring Probes (the word-list version) measure ten words at a time, untimed, right or wrong — this file measures four whole passages, timed, for rate. And our Pre-Primer Reading Fluency Probes measure connected text too, but that file's entire word pool was built to carry no blend or digraph at all, for a brand-new reader who should not be slowed by them; this file is built the opposite way on purpose, because the blend/digraph density is the exact thing being measured here.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and case managers writing blends-and-digraphs fluency goals once a student already reads the pattern correctly on a word list, kindergarten through second grade reading intervention and Title teachers, and the paraprofessionals or family members who give the weekly probe.

If You Want The Word-List Version, Or The Step Before This One

Blends and Digraphs Progress Monitoring Probes measures the same patterns as a ten-word list, untimed, for decoding accuracy rather than connected-text rate. Pre-Primer Reading Fluency Probes measures the step before this one: connected text built to have no blend or digraph in it at all.