Providing students with a clear agenda so they can check off tasks as the day goes on and they have a clear expectation of the day.
Assessments for Phonemic Awareness: The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Learning Skills and AIMSweb are large tests that assess segmenting as the key skills targeted.
Texas Primary Reading Inventory assesses blending whereas PALS assess both blending and segmenting tasks
An example of a more targeted test would be the Next First Sound Flunecy(FSF) assessment which is used to identify issues with the initial sound of words
Progress Monitoring for Beginning Word-Reading Skills:
Letter-Sound Correspondence- Asking students to identify the letter sounds that they have learned after about 4 or 5 have been taught to the student. We are looking for 100% accuracy with this assessment.
Reading Pseudowords: This assessment looks at students’ ability to pronounce nonsense words with their sounding out abilities.
Reading High-Frequency Regular and Exception Words: This assessment works with students to test their ability to read high-frequency words and some exception words.
To test a student’s fluency a few different components need to be monitored. Fluency is composed of accuracy, rate, and expression. To see where the student is overall a 1-minute reading assessment is given 3 times (or three different passages are read by the student) and during this time the teacher marks any errors that the student made and when the minute is over a bracket is written down as to how far the student got in the story. With the words per minute of these three stories, the teacher can then find the median of WPM and see where the student is at and where they should be according to the grade level. The student can then be put into the proper tier according to this score.
Lacking skills are specific skills that students may be struggling with which could be overall affecting there fluency. These specific skills need to be targeted to help students succeed.
When are these tests given?
■ “The AIMSweb ORF assessments are given at the beginning, middle, and end of first through eighth grade; the DIBELS Next ORF assessments are given midyear and end of the year in first grade and three times a year from second through sixth grade.
■ The TPRI screening assessment does not have an oral reading fluency measure, but the TPRI oral reading fluency inventory assessment is commonly given to all students and can be used as a screening measure at the end of first grade and at the beginning and end of the year in second and third grade. Screening word identification lists are used to place students in inventory passages determined by the highest level at which the student can read the word list with 90% accuracy. Because passages range from “less challenging” to “more challenging,” and are not equivalent in difficulty, TRPI fluency equating tables have been developed so teachers can determine whether students are improving over time.
■ The PALS measures passage accuracy beginning in the fall of first through third grades. Fluency is optional. Students first read word lists; the highest level at which they are able to read 15 or more words determines which passage they read, and those results are used. Passages are read orally and scored for accuracy using a running record.” (Bursuck, Damer, page 193)
References:
Sousa, David A. HOW THE BRAIN LEARNS TO READ. SAGE Publications Ltd., 2014.
William D. Bursuck, Mary Damer. Teaching Reading to Students Who Are At Risk or Have Disabilities. Pearson, 2015.
