One of the most important aspects of vocabulary instruction is vocabulary assessment. Without knowing how many words your students already know, and to what extent they understand them, moving forward in your lessons can be difficult. Here are two awesome templates for you to use — one that facilitates traditional vocabulary assessment, and another that helps you with common core academic vocabulary assessment.

Download Vocabulary Assessment Worksheets now.

The Importance of Pre-Assessing Vocabulary

Unless teachers have an accurate understanding of their students’ competence with vocabulary word knowledge, they will not be able to comprehend what lessons students need for improvement. I particularly don’t want to waste the time of my more advanced students when they could be working to augment their knowledge through more complex assignments. At the same time, I don’t want to leave behind the struggling students or discourage average students with assignments that are too advanced for their level.

The best way to pre-assess students’ vocabulary knowledge is to use your vocabulary program’s diagnostic test.

I especially like the Sadlier’s Vocabulary Workshop® Enriched Edition and Vocabulary Workshop® Achieve diagnostic tests because they include a strong sample of important Tier 2 vocabulary words, and they embed each word in a phrase that includes context clues.

If teachers don't have access to a vocabulary program's diagnostic test they can use assessment charts to take inventory. My Vocabulary Assessment Worksheets are a great resource for pre-assessment.

Vocabulary Assessment Worksheets for Teachers

Traditional Vocabulary Assessment Chart

This first handout can act as a pre-assessment, allowing you and your students to gain an understanding of how many of each unit’s words are already known and to what extent. You can give your students this chart on paper, or electronically, with the unit’s words already filled in and ask them to complete it out to assess their knowledge of each vocabulary word. Use this chart again as a post-assessment to see how much knowledge students have gained since beginning the unit they studied.

Academic Vocabulary Assessment Chart

One of the more difficult aspects of the Common Core is making sure that students are familiar with all of the tested vocabulary so that they can answer test questions correctly. To check that students understand the vocabulary embedded in the test questions, give them the academic vocabulary chart assessment with key Common Core words already provided. Again, you can use the results to individualize instruction!

In Summary

I love that these vocabulary assessment charts not only can offer you and your students a helpful pre-assessment, but also can be used again as a post-assessment to see growth. I also love that they can be used as a study guide if reviewed and filled in by students.

I am anxious to hear what you think of these charts and how you will use them. Happy learning and assessing!