Informal Reading Inventory

Early reading success is the foundation of a student’s knowledge and self-esteem. The foundation also provides future opportunities for growth. Students must learn to read proficiently so that they are able to learn more in future grades, post-secondary schools, and the workforce. Beverly Tyner’s Small-Group Reading Instruction: A Differentiated Teaching Model for Beginning and Struggling Readers states “In the United States, which offers few career opportunities for the illiterate, teaching children to read proficiently is the most important single task in education.” (Tyner, 2009). Beverly Tyner created the Small-Group Differentiated Reading Model which incorporates research-based strategies for teaching beginning reading skills and skills

Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) are diagnostic assessment administered individually to evaluate different aspects of students’ reading. After reading the text, students orally are answering the questions following the text. Teachers take into the consideration additional factors,, such as fluency, students’ prior knowledge, and determine students’ reading levels. This information may to choose appropriate reading material for students, to form reading groups, and to plan future reading instruction taking into the considerations students strengths and needs. According to Chall (1983), the greatest value of IRI is to help educators to diagnose the gaps in the abilities of readers who struggle the most. For teachers, who looking for the better way to address students instructional needs of children, who have reading difficulties, IRI is a very valuable diagnostic tool.

Harris and Jerome A. Niles (1982), the Informal Reading Inventory’s stated purpose is to determine the reading level of a child by identifying their reading comprehension strengths and weaknesses (Harris & Niles, 1982). This test was developed to measure the reading level of a child, and for some students, it may identify their levels of reading comprehension. It is difficult to determine the reliability and validity of this assessment, not knowing the specifics of the original tested population, the size of the tested group, the sex, or the location of where they were assessed. Due to the lack of developmental data, the overall assessment results from school to school can give inconsistent

Phonemic awareness is a vital role in literacy instruction. Many schools and districts adopt a commercially published basal reading program and it becomes the cornerstone of their instruction ( (David Chard, n.d.). We also know that through investigation and research it has shown us that word-recognition instruction and instruction in oral language skills related to word recognition were inadequately represented. (David Chard, n.d.) The same researchers have found that the reading passages that students are reading didn’t relate to the words they were learning. In order for students to read at grade level or above a supplemental program should be implemented. I have found that at my school we are lacking a phonics program that will reach different students abilities and make them successful in reading. My goal for this paper is to show my district that using a supplemental phonics program aside from our basal phonics program will prove beneficial to strategic readers who fall below grade level.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information which is essential in being a productive member of society. If and when a student missed an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for reading, it’s has a profound impact on their lives. As educators we realize that teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction. We are also aware that children, who are struggling with reading must receive

Teachers routinely monitor and assess the reading levels and progress of individual students. This ongoing evaluation directs and informs instruction.

Yoly Anne is a second grade student at Point Dume Marine Science School. She is categorized as a beginning reader. The study provides insight on Yoly’s attitude towards reading and writing. It also includes the following assessments: anecdotal notes, Informal Reading Inventory, decoding assessment, writing samples, a phonemic awareness interview, letter name and phonic sounds assessment, monster test and an assessment regarding the concepts about print. The anecdotal notes include Yoly’s behaviors and performance in the classroom over the semester. The assessment suggests that she reads below grade level. In addition, this data has allowed me to analyze Yoly’s literacy development for recommendations and instructional

The role of the reading specialist is to be able to teach all children to read, which requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction and that children who are struggling with reading receive additional instruction from professionals specifically prepared to teach them. Teaching all children to read also requires reading specialists in every school because the range of student achievement in classrooms, with the inclusion of children who have various physical, emotional, and educational needs, requires different educational models from those of the past. In order to provide these services, schools must have reading specialists who can provide expert instruction, assessment, and leadership for the reading program. Reading specialists are professionals with advanced preparation and experience in reading who have responsibility for the literacy performance of readers in general and struggling readers in particular. This includes early childhood, elementary, middle, secondary, and adult learners. Learners can be in public, private, and commercial schools, or in reading resource centers or clinics (Roles). This paper will explore what it means to be able to encourage and enhance instruction within content area learning and literacy competence, as well as identifying research initiatives, which have a profound impact upon teaching, and learning of reading and the language arts.

A doctor once said ‘the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go’. That doctor was, of course, Dr Suess in his book 1978 book, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!. Reading is the orchestration of many skills. It is much more than simply decoding words. The National Reading Panel Report (A Closer Look, 2004, p. 1) summarised a child’s reading process and teachers’ effective reading instruction into five essential components. These five critical elements are phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Each element is individually important; however, each cannot occur independently of one an other. The most effective way to teach these elements is through a balanced

Using guided reading could be another way that educators tap into individual students and their needs. Abbott, L., Dornbush, A., Giddings, A. & Thomas, J. (2012) found that students in four kindergarten and first grade classrooms were identified as having poor reading strategies. They were lacking processing, comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and fluency skills. Site A included 712 students and site B served students ranging from 3-8 years of ages with a total enrollment of 577 students. The researchers used a parent survey to gain insight into the students reading habits at home. They also used an observational checklist. It was used to observe students’ behaviors during whole group and small group instruction. Researchers also used baseline assessments. The reading strategies that were implemented were successful. Through the use of guided reading, small instruction groups, students were provided ample support and time to utilize new

We currently use the STAR Reading and STAR Early Literacy assessments to gather diagnostic information about the knowledge students bring to reading. The students are assessed in the fall and the spring. However, the teachers have the choice to use the STAR as a progress monitoring tool also. In the fall all first graders get a mass screening using first grade oral language screener. Any student that fails the screener is given a criterion referenced screener called the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Also, any Grade 2-5 students who fall below the 25th percentile on the STAR assessment are selected and will be screened using the CELF-V screener. The end of the year data indicated that a very high percentage of the students

The main focus of the study was primary grades. “The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) assessment has been used in K-3 classrooms across the country to measure reading progress and identify students in need of extra support” (Helman, 2005, p. 668). In this study, the literacy assessment results were collected from the Nevada Reading Excellence Act (NREA) partnership, in which “52 low-performing high-poverty schools throughout Nevada were granted funding to participate over a three year period in a variety of activities to support the literacy achievement of their pre-K through third grade students” (Helman, 2005, p. 669). The assessment was administered each fall and spring in order to identify students in need of extra support, monitor their progress, and guide teachers in their teaching goals to meet the needs of the students (p. 669). The PALS was given to first through third grade students in order to determine: word recognition in isolation, spelling inventory, and oral reading in

Reading is an essential skill required to be proficient in any subject. Decoding and word recognition allow learners to “recognize most words with little effort(Vaughn & Bos, 2015, p. 17)”. There are many components of reading instruction and according to the text they are phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondence, alphabetic principle, word identification, decoding, word study, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension(Vaughn & Bos, 2015, p. 178)”.

My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be

Many students are passed on through the education system without having proper reading skills. These skills consist of fluency, comprehension, and phonemic awareness. Reading skills are foundational building blocks for elementary aged students. Students who lack proper reading skills, such as fluency or the rate in which they read, will ultimately lack comprehension of what they are reading due to the amount of time in which it takes the students to read. This leads to the question, how does fifth grade students lack of fluency affect his or her reading comprehension? Unfortunately, because reading skills taught in kindergarten and first grade focus mainly on phonemic