Assessment: A Literacy Perspective

Julie A. Jeffery

Agenda: Saturday

• News and announcements• Email addresses/myLesley

“business”• Confidence check• Writing up results• Writer’s Workshop• Digging Deeper: Word Identification

and Spelling

Agenda: Sunday

• Assessment Tool Review Assignment

• Emergent Reader Report• Comprehension assessment• Writer’s workshop/conference with

JJ• road map for the next three weeks

Assessment Tool Review (for March 24-25 weekend)

• Tool name, author, publishers information• Administration specifics: time, whole group,

1:1, materials needed• Type of assessment: formal or informal,

criterion or standardized• What it aims to test• Types of information yielded• Reliability and validity as applicable• Your thoughts on this test

Reading Assessment in the News

…What’s the latest?

…What’s YOUR elevator speech for Literacy Assessment?

…watch Animal School …how does this change your elevator speech?

Your Case Study Student

• What key things did you learn in their background?

• What things did you learn in preliminary info?

• What did you learn from the QRI so far?

• K-W-L

Running Record & Miscue Analysis• (RW) Number of running words

• (E) Number of errors –meaning changing miscues

• (SC) Number of self-corrections

• Accuracy rate- 100-(E/RW *100)

• Error ratio- RW/E

• Self-correction ratio- SC/E+SC

• WCPM = (RW-E)/Time (in seconds); take number and multiply by 60 to get WCPM

Writing It Up• Text: level, familiar or not, genre, topic-

What type of text did the student read?

• Accuracy, self- correction, error ratio-How difficult was this text for the student?

• Words correct per minute- How fast did the student read?

• Self-corrections- Do they monitor & fix?

• Types of miscues (substitutions), omissions, insertions, types of words-What types of mistakes do they make?

• How did they sound as a reader?

When writing up your findings…

1. Make a statement of performance

2. Back-up with selected information & examples

3. Write summary statement

• Make a statement of performance Jace demonstrates strong self-correction skills when

orally reading. Jace was asked to orally read a 2nd grade level expository passage from the QRI-4, Whales. The passage was unfamiliar to Jace.

• Back-up with selected information & examples

Jace read the passage at a rate of 67 words correct per minute. This is lower than would be expected for his grade, but is consistent with his word identification skills. Jace read with 92% accuracy, making this level passage (2nd grade) at the instructional level for him. He made 8 errors, 7 of which he self-corrected. All of his errors were substitutions, and most words were high-frequency words. (Examples)While reading he made many repetitions and pauses, which slowed down his overall reading. After reading, he was able to answer 5 out of 8 questions about the passage, but most answers came from his background knowledge.

• Write summary statement Based on this miscue analysis, we can see that

Jace is able to monitor and self-correct while reading. His slower pace is perhaps impacting comprehension. More information needs to be gathered to determine Jace’s difficulties within the area of word identification, specifically sight word knowledge and decoding abilities.

Choose one skill you have assessed and write it up following this pattern:

1. Make a statement of performance

2. Back-up with selected information & examples

3. Write summary statement

Preliminary Section Should Include:

• Getting to know you activities/outer circle– Retelling, LEA, writing, reading

• Observations you made• QRI• Initial Hypothesis of what is going

on- what is the pattern that you have found at this point

Writing up the QRI:

• Look at example reports- high light paragraph

• Take your child’s information, put it on paper

Word IdentificationListening ComprehensionSilent Reading Comprehension

Compare the Student’s Performance on Tasks Across these Processes To Identify Relative Strengths

and Weaknesses

Word Identification

Language Comprehension

Print Processing

Weakness? Strength?

Strength?

Strength?

Weakness?

Weakness?

Case Student Jace• Initial Profile:

– Word Identification: 1st grade

– Listening Comprehension: 4th grade

– Silent Reading Comprehension: 2nd grade

Case Student Jace• Initial Profile:

– Word Identification: 1st grade

– Listening Comprehension: 4th grade

– Silent Reading Comprehension: 2nd grade

• Could identify through decoding 50% of the words up to 3rd grade

• Spelling mistakes are phonetic

• Misspelled several high frequency words in writing tasks

• Fluency rates averaged around 45 words per minute; accuracy was 80-85% on 1st and 2nd grade level passages

• Attempts to ‘sound out’ words considered high frequency

• Need to distinguish between sight words and decoding

Stage II Assessment

• The Stage I assessment provides an overall picture of a student’s relative strengths and weaknesses in the major areas.

• A Stage II assessment is only completed in the areas of relative weakness to provide a more sophisticated understanding of the nature of the relative weakness.

Going Deeper: Analysis within Area of Weakness

• Using our Preliminary Information and Stage I assessment we will:

• Go to appropriate area of manual based on profile

• Design an assessment model that will answer the questions and hypothesis that come from ‘outer circle’ work

• Only test in the areas that are weaknesses; do not test strengths when time is of essence

• Keep smaller constructs in the context of the whole: silent reading comprehension

Nick

• Word Identification: 2nd grade• Listening Comprehension: 4th grade• Silent Reading Comprehension: 4th grade• What area of the manual would you look

in?• What would you do next?

Josie• Word identification: 1st grade

– Could decode words up to the 3rd grade level• Listening Comprehension: 3rd grade

• Silent Reading Comprehension: 2nd grade level• What area of the manual would you look in?• What would you do next?

Potential Profiles from Initial Assessment

Weakness

Middle Strength Next?

Word Identification

Language Comprehension

Print Processing Go to A

Word Identification

Print Processing Language Comprehension

Go to A

Language Comprehension

Word Identification

Print Processing Go to B

Language Comprehension

Print Processing Word Identification Go to B

Print Processing

Word Identification

Language Comprehension

Go to C

Print Processing

Language Comprehension

Word Identification Go to C

WORD IDENTIFICATIONAutomatic word recognition

and Mediated word identification

• Both are required for successful silent reading comprehension

• We are not allowed to make instructional decisions based on our philosophical beliefs or skills - we must find a way to teach both.

Questions/Levels of Word Identification Assessment

• Does the child have more automatic sight words or rely more on decoding?– Ratio of automatic words to decoded words

• What level of words is the child able to decode? – Single syllable, two-syllable, multi-syllabic– Onset-rime knowledge, particular patterns, word families– Affixes, prefixes, suffixes

• What does the child’s encoding(spelling) look like? – Developmental Spelling (Gentry)– Spelling Patterns(Words Their Way)

• If the child shows significant difficulty with decoding, and does not have an adequate sight word bank,– look at phonemic awareness, letter-identification, hearing sounds

in words, early developmental spelling

Student #1• QRI

– L1-10 Automatic 3 Decoding– P- 18 automatic- 1 Decoding

• Decoding Test– Passed List A, 7 out of 12 on List B

• Z Test– 20 out of 37, missed silent e rule words

• Up, And & Out Test– 17 out of 42 words, trouble with /and/ words,

consonant digraphs

Student #2 QRI

PP- 3 automatic, 6 decodingP- 4 automatic- 5 decoding

Decoding TestList A- 3 out of 8

Z Test30 out of 37- with a lot of time

Fry Word List22 out of first 100

http://www.literacyconnections.com/

Dolch.html

High Frequency Word Lists

Onset-Rime Knowledge

• Decoding Test• Z Test (cd-rom and pg. 143)• Up, And, & Out• Real Word Test• Test of Onset Knowledge (pg. 146)• Names Test of Decoding (cd-rom, and article)

Tests in McKenna & Stahl

• In pairs:– Read about one test of word

identification– Determine what question(s) it

answers– Show class briefly how to give– Pros and cons of assessment

Spelling Assessment

Gentry & Gillet (1993) Monster Test

Developmental Spelling Developmental Spelling Test Test

(11-year-old, multiple disabilities)(11-year-old, multiple disabilities)

BECA [back] SCRVL [sink]ML [mail] SOUA [dress]LCA [lake] PATP [peeked]SK [stick] D [side]FT [feet] TS [test]

Developmental Spelling Developmental Spelling Test Test

(adult, severe speech and physical impairments)(adult, severe speech and physical impairments)

back [back] sta [sink]mail [mail] dress [dress]lake [lake] peeked [peeked]stack [stick] side [side]feet [feet] test [test]light [light] s [dragon]

Developmental Spelling Test Developmental Spelling Test (9-year-old girl with Down syndrome, 3rd grade inclusion)(9-year-old girl with Down syndrome, 3rd grade inclusion)

bake [back] sinek [sink]mall [mail] drsse [dress]lake [lake] pekd [peeked]stik [stick] side [side]feet [feet] test [test]light [light] baran [dragon]

Words Their Way

Example Student Spelling1. fan 14. frite

2. pet 15. cheewed

3. deg 16. krawle

4. robe 17. whishes

5. hop 18.thern

6. watte 19. shot

7. gum 20. spol

8. suled 21. grwl

9. stik 22. thered

10. shi 23. kampped

11. dreame 24. trys

12. bulade 25. cliping

13. koach 26. rideing

1.Fan 14. frieght

2. Pet 15. chewed

3. Dig 16. krawl

4. Rob 17. wishs

5. Hope 18. thern

6. Wait 19. showted

7. Gum 20. spoyle

8. Sled 21. growel

9. Stick 22. therd

10. Shine 23. camped

11. Dreme 24. trys

12. Blaid 25. claping

13. Coche 26. riddeing

Questions/Levels of Word Identification Assessment

• Does the child have more automatic sight words or rely more on decoding?– Ratio of automatic word to decoded words

• What level of words is the child able to decode? – Single syllable, two-syllable, multi-syllabic– Onset-rime knowledge, particular patterns, word families– Affixes, prefixes, suffixes

• What does the child’s encoding(spelling) look like? – Developmental Spelling (Gentry)– Spelling Patterns(Words Their Way)

• If the child shows significant difficulty with decoding, and does not have an adequate sight word bank,– look at phonemic awareness, letter-identification, hearing sounds in words, early

developmental spelling

Yopp Singer Phonemic Awareness Test

Yopp Singer Example: 5 year old Jake

Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Video Clip: DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/

Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Nonsense Word Fluency

When Writing About One Test• State the name of the test/task performed

– Jace was given the Developmental Test of Word Recognition (McKenna & Stahl 2003).

• State the purpose of the test and what it addresses– This test assesses the areas of word concepts, initial and

final sounds, vowel coding, consonant blends, and polysyllabic word reading.

• State the range of scores the child achieved (full scores go in table)– Jace’s performance on the word concepts, initial and final

sounds was excellent with 100% accuracy in all three areas (5 out of 10, and 10 out of 10). On the vowel and long-vowel coding sections he had more difficult and scored 3 and 4 out of 10 respectively.

• State backup information or observations made.– Jace made several attempts to get the right answers and

commented on how hard he was trying. It was observed that Jace attempted a decoding strategy that was introduced in class while taking this test.

• Summary Statement– Therefore, Jace’s performance on this assessment

indicates he has solid skills in the areas of word concepts,and initial and final sounds for decoding, but is still struggling with vowel and long-vowel coding.

• Make connection to other testing situations/tasks if applicable– This is consistent with information seen in his spelling

and running records.

Jace was given the Developmental Test of Word Recognition (McKenna & Stahl 2003). This test assesses the areas of word concepts, initial and final sounds, vowel coding, consonant blends, and polysyllabic word reading.Jace’s performance on the word concepts, initial and final sounds was excellent with 100% accuracy in all three areas (5 out of 10, and 10 out of 10). On the vowel and long-vowel coding sections he had more difficult and scored 3 and 4 out of 10 respectively. Jace made several attempts to get the right answers and commented on how hard he was trying. It was observed that Jace attempted a decoding strategy that was introduced in class while taking this test.Therefore, Jace’s performance on this assessment indicates he has solid skills in the areas of word concepts,and initial and final sounds for decoding, but is still struggling with vowel and long-vowel coding. This is consistent with information seen in his spelling and running records.

DIBELS

• Oral Reading Fluency

• Retell Fluency

• Nonsense Word Fluency

• Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

• Letter Naming Fluency

• Initial Sound Fluency

DIBELS Investigation

• Find videos• Read about 3 of the subtests• What are the pros & cons?• What grades is it given to?• What information does it yield?• How would you use the information

in your teaching?

Looking at Student Data Sets