This video provides an overview of the student experience in MindPlay.

Fluency/Comprehension

The Comprehension Screener (cloze assessment) is the initial test for all grade 2+ students, determining the text level for the subsequent Expected Fluency test. This adaptive screener requires students to read sentences with blanks and select the best word to complete them. The targeted words are drawn from various research-based word frequency lists, including The Educator's Word Frequency Guide and analyses of major standardized tests like the California Achievement Tests and the Stanford Achievement Tests.

Visual Scanning

This test helps identify whether vision or attention issues affect comprehension skills in 2nd-grade and above students who still need to pass the Expected Fluency test. Before starting, students view a target shape and track its appearance on the screen. After a five-second countdown, shapes move across the screen at a rate simulating text flow, with only one shape visible at a time. At the end of the activity, they select the number of times the target shape was displayed. The activity is repeated three times, with results reported as PASS (green) or FAIL (red); a score of 2 out of 3 correct responses is considered passing.

Phonics

The Phonics test assesses students' understanding of letter/sound correspondence, spelling, roots, and spelling rules across ten progressively complex levels. Each level builds on concepts from previous ones, screening for students who need phonics or phonetic spelling instruction. Students spell nonsense words using English spelling rules, testing their sound recognition and spelling skills without relying on memorization. The program adapts to individual performance levels and aims to evaluate the students' encoding and decoding abilities.

Spelling

The Spelling Real Words test is an adaptive assessment designed to evaluate students' ability to spell commonly used irregular words found frequently in texts. Mastery of these spellings enhances reading fluency, enabling students to recognize these words automatically without decoding them each time they encounter them.

Grammar for Meaning

This test provides information on a student's current grammar knowledge as it aligns with Coach instruction. The questions are randomly selected and distributed between the lessons in the set appropriate for the student's specific grade-level goal. The test ends when the student gets three questions wrong in a row.

Listening Vocabulary

This test determines a student's listening vocabulary level, representing a student's receptive vocabulary. The results isolate a student's ability to recognize a word rather than their ability to decode the word. The words tested are selected from appropriate grade-level lists. The auditory presentation of the prompt makes the Listening Vocabulary Test a pure measure of vocabulary knowledge. The test is adaptive and based on student performance.