Organizing Comprehensive Literacy Assessment: How to Get Started, Part I

1. Organizing Comprehensive Literacy Assessment: How to Get Started, Part I September 10,2008

2. Before Beginning Assessment • Ensure maximum access to print/picture/logo/writing materials, etc. • Positioning • Assistive technology/aug com needs • Sensory issues that require modification of materials (e.g., increasing size of print or picture)

3. Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate • Language level* • Early or Emergent literacy: Understanding of print • Phonological & phonemic Awareness • Word recognition skills: automatic mediated • Reading fluency • Listening & reading comprehension • Writing (composing text) • Attitudes toward literacy

4. Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate • Language Level* • Level of language or communication (intentional? Symbolic?) • Mode of communication (e.g., speech, sign, PECS, other or combination • Vocabulary level (e.g., Peabody Picture Vocabulary) • Listening (receptive) and speaking (expressive) vocabulary • Early or Emergent Literacy: Understanding of print • Symbol recognition (if appropriate) • Might include sight words or be limited to concrete objects, photographs, or picsyms • E.g., Concepts About Print; Early Literacy Checklist

5. Evaluating What Students Understand About Print • Examples: Concepts About Print Checklist of Early Literacy

6. Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate • Phonological & Phonemic Awareness (if student is in early stages of reading) • E.g., observation, Dibbles, Yopp-Singer, . . .

7. Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate • Word Recognition Skills: Automatic & Mediated • Letter name/sound knowledge; single words; words within connected text; includes phonics skills (decoding) • E.g., running records w/ miscue analysis, Informal Reading Inventories (IRI); standardized instruments, such as W-JR or Brigance; CBM; GDRT

8. Reading (Word Recognition) Levels • Independent level – read without support • Recognize a minimum of 99% of words/comprehend 90% • Instructional level – read with support • Recognize a minimum of 95% of words/comprehend 75% • Frustration level – too difficult even with support • Recognize less than 90% of words/comprehend less than 50% • Listening comprehension level • Comprehend 75% of material read to her/him

9. Word Recognition: Phonics Examples of Formal and Informal assessments • The Abecedarian Reading Assessment (can provide this upon request) • Grey Diagnostic Reading Test • Sections of the some of the Brigance tests • Informal Word Recognition skills test

10. Running Records • Are a method of assessing oral reading skills; can determine reading level and do miscue analysis to determine strategies student is currently using • Can also examine comprehension w/ running records by using re-tellings, summarizing, etc. • Can be a part of an Informal Reading Inventory OR can use weekly as a separate informal measure of student progress • Don’t require special materials • Use a set of symbols to record students’ performance

11. Running Records • Use material at student’s instructional level; try to use a passage of at least 100 words • Record student performance (using set of symbols) on top line/text on bottom line • Calculate % of words read correctly: mispronunciations, omissions, additions, substitutions, reversals count as an error; • # of words read correctly/ total # of words x 100 = % read correctly (accuracy)

13. Miscue Analysis – method to examine types of errors student is making (using info from a running record) to determine which strategies for word recognition a student is applying

14. Miscue Analysis • Looking at a student’s errors and analyzing them to see what types they are: • Mispronunciations • Omissions • Substitutions • repetitions and re-readings, • Self-corrections • Hesitations, and • Requests for help

15. Types of miscues • Semantic (meaning related) • Kim lives on an island far out in the sea (ocean). • Graphophonic (visual, phonic) • Kim likes (lives) on an island far out in the open (ocean). • Syntactic • The boy walked tomorrow (through) the door. • Self-corrected • Calculate % for each type of error

17. You Try It: • Listen as Natalia reads. Code her reading on the handout provided. • Then • Calculate her reading accuracy • Categorize her miscues • Determine what strategies for word recognition she is using; what area(s) might you focus on with her to improve word recognition skills?

18. Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate • Reading Fluencye.g., CBM procedures using fluency norms, phrasing, words correct per min, . . . • Calculate rate (# of correctly read words/time) • Also observe phrasing (chunking), hesitations, prosody (stress and intonation)

19. Reading Fluency • Word by word reading Reads in phrases • Too slow or too fast  Appropriate pacing • No expression  Appropriate expression • Not aware of punctuation  Aware of punctuation • Poor sight word recognition  Automatic sight word recognition

20. Next Week • Continue examining areas of literacy assessment and types of assessments within each area. • Read • Jennings et al. Chapter 5 (2006) • Winn & Otis-Wilborn (1999) You will need this background for class discussion and small group activities. • Begin outlining the assessments you will use for the student you will be working with on the literacy project.