Cubed Assessment – Narrative Language Measures (NLM) & Dynamic Decoding Measures (DDM) languagedynamicsgroup.com

Language Dynamics Group offers this amazingly useful and extensive FREE pdf download for its CUBED Assessment which includes:

1. Narrative Language Measures (NLM); and
2. Dynamic Decoding Measures (DDM).

Measure decoding, story retell listening comprehension, reading, phonemic awareness, writing and more (18 targets total) with this entirely free assessment from Language Dynamics Group.

One of the best features of CUBED’s Narrative Language Measures (NLM) and Dynamic Decoding Measures (DDM)  is that the Speech-Language Pathologist or educator records can score the assessment quickly and easily in real-time! 

The download itself is a zip file which includes the following PDFs for levels Pre-K through 3rd Grade:

1. CUBED Examiner’s Manual 
2. CUBED Norm-Referenced Technical Manual 
3. NLM Listening Assessments (Benchmark & Progress Monitoring Assessments)
   1. These PDF assessment booklets contain short stories at each grade-level from Pre-K through 3rd Grade. The stories are read aloud by the Speech-Language Pathologist for the purpose of assessing story retell abilities. There is also an assessment section for Language Complexity, Wh-questions, Vocabulary-in-Context, and a prompt for personal narrative generation (use the “NLM Flow Chart” in the Examiner’s Manual to assist in scoring the personal narrative).
   2. Optional Pictures are provided for the Pre-K story retells in a separate folder entitled “CUBED Illustrations – Preschool Only.” There is a separate PDF containing the story retell images for the Preschool Benchmark stories and the Preschool Progress Monitoring Stories.
   3. Benchmark Stories for each grade; three benchmark stories for each fall, winter and spring for a total of nine story retell benchmark assessments at each grade.
   4. A total of 16 unique Progress Monitoring NLM Listening stories for each grade level in English.
   5. Assessments in Spanish the Preschool level: a total of 16 unique Progress Monitoring NLM Spanish Listening Stories and a total of nine story retell Benchmark stories in Spanish (three each for fall, winter and spring).
4. NLM Reading Assessments (Benchmark & Progress Monitoring Assessments)
   1. Grade-level short stories read by the students for the purpose of assessing Decoding Fluency and including the same optional evaluation of Story Retell abilities with targeted Story Grammar Elements, Language Complexity, Wh-questions and Vocabulary-in-Context pertaining to the story.
   2. The Student Reading Passage is found in the Student Stimulus Materials folder.
   3. A prompt for personal writing generation is provided. The Examiner’s Manual contains an “NLM Flow Chart” to assist in the scoring of the narrative generation.
   4. Benchmark stories for each grade; two reading benchmark stories for each the fall, winter and spring for a total of eight unique benchmark stories at each targeted grade level from 1st Grade through 3rd Grade.
   5. A total of 16 unique Progress Monitoring NLM Reading stories for each grade level from 1st Grade through 3rd Grade.
5. DDM Assessments
   1. Word Identification PDF Booklet targeting Irregular Words, Letter Sounds, Letter Names. There are 16 Progress Monitoring PDFs total. The student reads the corresponding irregular words, letter sounds and letter names from the Student Stimulus Materials.
   2. Phonemic Awareness PDF Booklet targeting Phoneme Segmentation, First Sounds/Initial Sounds, Phoneme Blending. The download includes a total of 16 Progress Monitoring PDFs.
   3. Decoding pdf Booklet targeting CVC, CCVC and Silent ‘e’ words. The decoding section contains a ‘Pretest,’ a ‘Teach’ Section with two rounds (one with a script for ‘Explicit Instruction’ and one with a script for ‘Minimal Instruction’), and the “Posttest.’ The Decoding PDF download contains a total of 16 Progress Monitoring pages.
   4. Benchmark PDF booklet for all three: Word Identification, Phonemic Awareness & Decoding. A separate benchmark is provided in each of the targeted areas for fall, winter and spring.
6. Student Stimulus Materials
   1. Benchmark PDF booklet for DDM Word Identification, DDM Decoding, and NLM Reading.
   2. Progress Monitoring PDF booklet for DDM Word Identification, DDM Decoding, and NLM Reading.