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I agree with @JennyPenny: . I used dibels a bit when I taught second grade, but so far haven’t seen it at my kindergartner’s school. BUT, I teach 3/4 preschool, and I do very basic phonemic awareness things with my kiddos (snake starts with “s,” what other words do you know that start with /s/?) I actually think it’s more important at this age (my 3/4s) to understand and be able to hear, segment, and blend sounds than to know the letter names and sounds. That part comes easily later if the foundation is there.

That doesn’t mean I necessarily think the drills are the best way to go about it, but I do think finding some sort of way to practice phonemic awareness is important. We do it around the breakfast table with my boys, and get really really silly and changing the first letter to make new words.

@Corduroy: The school my Kinder kiddo is in uses DRA assessments, not Dibels. And the elementary school I used to work in also used DRA. I googled Dibels, and there's a lot of negative information about it online. A lot of people in the educational world feel it's outdated and outmoded and overall, kind of a negative thing for kids and teachers. There's even evidence that the DIBELS test isn't even accurate for predicting reading skills. Even if it were a good assessment, there's no reason for a K kid to be getting mandatory "drills" all the time.

The fact that you say your kiddo is already kind of reluctant about reading--that's concerning. Because it's that kind of kid that is going to be turned off by turning reading into drill-and-kill. Reading at her age should be fun! Mainly you reading to her and the easiest beginner books that she finds interesting for her to try to read. More than phonemic awareness or comprehension or alphabetic principle, the single most important predictive factor for having a good reader is having a kid who enjoys reading. The pleasure has to be there to drive the interest, and the rest will come. KWIM?

@JennyPenny: I didn't say fundamentals shouldn't be practiced--but there are a ton of studies about reluctant readers out there and many of the practices teachers use in a well meaning way to teach actually turn kids off to reading. There are a lot of fun ways a 5 year old could be learning phonemic awareness that don't involve intense drills. It just isn't age appropriate. My 5 year old is reading on a spring 2nd grade level and I've never done any kind of drilling homework with her, and I've never seen any evidence of her class doing it at school. She does like to read though, and she reads about 1 beginner reader every day. And of course, we still read 1-2 books to her before bedtime, but nothing intensive and very little direct instruction.

@Anagram: Sorry, I must have misinterpreted your post. It sounds like we're in agreement that there is an important distinction between practicing skills in engaging and age appropriate ways and drilling. And that both building the fundamentals and having positive shared reading experiences are important.

Let go of the drills! Dibels is not something you should practice for. It is an assessment that measures reading ability by tracking growth in certain areas that usually signal overall success in reading. If you practice for the assessment it invalidates the results.

Talking about letter sounds, or how to break apart words into chunks to sound them out while you read authentic texts together is the best thing you can do. Skills can be practiced in a way that doesn't drive kids away from reading. The most important thing kids learn in the early years is to love to read. If they hate it, they will never master it, because once they become an independent reader the only way they grow is LOTS of independent reading. I would preserve love of reading at all costs. Even if it means they develop slower.

Editing to add more info:

From this article about the Myths about Dibels
https://acadiencelearning.org/papers/Myths_0208.pdf

Misuse 2: Teaching the test and/or artificially raising DIBELS scores without teaching the critical skills.
Appropriate Use: DIBELS are designed as indicators of an underlying basic early literacy skill. The
DIBELS materials should never be used for practice or
instructional purposes. The focus of instruction should
be on the basic early literacy skill, not the test.
Because DIBELS subtests are indicators of important
skills, it is important to teach the skills not the test.
DIBELS work well as a test, but the DIBELS test materials have not been designed for and should not be
used for instruction or to practice. There are many
effective research-based curricula and programs as
well as fun and engaging activities that parents and
teachers can use to teach phonemic awareness, the
alphabetic principle, vocabulary, and comprehension
in ways that will help a child become an accurate and
fluent reader. A child who learns the underlying skills
through integrated and meaningful early literacy activities does well on DIBELS and, more importantly,
is on a trajectory to becoming a skilled reader. Teaching or practicing the test may raise DIBELS scores,
but to do so artificially without changing the underlying skills may be harmful to children by preventing
them from getting the support they need to be successful readers.

@Corduroy: if the teacher is teaching there should be no problem with a child who is regularly exposed to books and language to meet those benchmarks. Likely she is getting pressure and passing it on to you. I would really not worry about it at all. If at the end of the year she isnt at grade level, I would maybe try to determine why, but honestly I wouldnt worry about the pressure. You can't force kids to be ready for learning to read. ETA: the only reason theybqouldnconsider retaining a kindergartener in my district would be severe academic and social developmental delay that they think another year of kindergarten would fix, which is exceptionally rare. All districts are different but I cannot imagine that not meeting the Dibels benchmark would be sufficient grounds for that.

@Corduroy: we had an informational night at our school on the testing and it was so helpful in understanding how the scores are done and some techniques to work on with our students. Again, since she’s in a Spanish program we own working on English instruction at home so I didn’t find the tasks unreasonable but i can see why others would.