Informal Reading Assessment
Informal Reading Assessment
Robin Ekpunobi
9/17/11
Mrs. Sarah Wolf SPE 525
Bay Path College
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Informal Reading Assessment
Student Name:
Date of Birth:
Dates of Evaluation:
Evaluator:
SPE 525
Jill (Not her real name)
5/7/04
7/19/11, 8/17/11, 9/8/11
Robin Ekpunobi
Test Administered:
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Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS)
Yopp-Singer
Phonics Testing using phoneme cards
Developmental Spelling Inventory
Dibels Oral Reading Fluency
Invented spelling and drawing exercise
Running Record using Diebels Passages
Background Information:
Jill is a happy, well-adjusted, normally developed 7-year 4-month old girl second
grade student. Both her parents are involved in raising her and they are highly educated.
She also has a ten year old brother who is normally developed. She attends the
elementary school in Mansfield, loves to read and dance, and misses school since it is
summer vacation.
Behavioral Observation:
Jill was very happy and excited to meet me. When I told her we were going to
play some word and sound games, she was eager to begin. We talked briefly before we
began so she would feel comfortable with me. We discussed her day with her aunt at the
zoo and how much fun she had.
Test Results:
Phonological Awareness
Jill was administered two phonological awareness tests. Phonological awareness
measures students’ literacy development through their ability to hear and manipulate
sounds in words. Good phonemic awareness is an indicator of future reading success.
Poor phonemic awareness is one of the main reasons for reading difficulties.
The Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS) is designed for students
Kindergarten through Third Grade. It measures the students’ ability to listen and
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Informal Reading Assessment
process auditory information. This ability is crucial to learning and reading. She was
given 13 words and asked to delete part of the word or a sound with in the word. Jill
was able to complete the task and scored 13/13, even though she took extra time on
two items. This score shows Jill’s auditory process level is established for entering
second grade.
The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation assessment is helpful in early
identification of sound awareness in reading and spelling to show if intervention is
needed. This test is designed for Kindergarten through Second Grade. Jill was
administered 22 common words orally and asked to break apart the sounds and give
back each sound of the word in order. For example if given the word “old” you
should to say /o/l/d/. Jill scored 18/22 correct which categorizes her with strong
phonemic segmentation ability.
Phonics
Phoneme cards are used to test the phonics awareness of sounds and their
corresponding symbols. Phonics involves teaching how to connect the sounds of
letters or groups of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of
unknown words.
Jill was administered 55 phonemic letter cards and was asked for
the sound associate with a given symbol or symbols. Jill was able to correctly
associate 48/55 sounds with their given symbols, which indicates that she has strong
phonemic ability. The following are the phonemes Jill had difficulty with: ai, au, ei,
eu, ew, ue, and r.
Spelling
A developmental spelling inventory provides an assessment of the word
knowledge a student brings to spelling and reading. The words are ordered in relative
difficulty. Her responses are included in the table below; they indicate Jill is a strong
speller and reader. Jill performed very well on the inventory list and has mastered
many spelling generalization patterns. Her only error was the vowel combination
“oa”, which is a vowel grapheme. Vowel graphemes are more difficult to learn than
consonant graphemes as they can represent more than one sound and are often
difficult to discriminate. One additional note, Jill mentioned she started off her list in
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Informal Reading Assessment
lower case and continued the list in upper case. This demonstrates how focused to
detail Jill is.
Prompt
Response
fan
fan
pet
Pet
dig
Dig
mob
Mob
rope
Rope
wait
Wait
chunk
Chunk
sled
Sled
stick
Stick
shine
Shine
dream
Dream
blade
Blade
coach
Coch
fright
Fright
snowing Snowing
talked
Talked
camping Camping
thorn
Thorn
shouted
Shouted
spoil
Spoil
growl
Growl
chirp
Chirp
clapped
Clapped
tries
Tries
hiking
Hiking
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Informal Reading Assessment
Decoding
The Dibels Oral Reading Fluency (DORF) Assessment determines the accuracy
and fluency with the passages provide. This Assessment also includes a
comprehension portion called Dibels Retell Fluency (RTF). This assessment is a
standardized set of passages that identify struggling readers. Jill read three passages
orally to determine her reading fluency. In one minute Jill’s middle score was
recorded at 146 words. Her score falls above the benchmark for spring of second
grade even though she is entering second grade. Jill’s retell score did not match her
fluency score. Typically the retell score will be half the fluency. She scored a 31
which is less than 25% of her of her fluency. I don’t believe this is a problem since
her fluency was high for her grade level. Two of her three scores were similar and
the other score was higher. Possibly the passage she scored higher on was more
interesting to her. Since her three scores for her retell overall were on the low side,
next time more prompting may lead to improved results.
Invented spelling and drawing exercise
Jill was asked to draw a picture and write a couple of sentences about the
drawing. Since I asked her to draw I believe she was being very conservative. I gave
her an assortment of crayons and she drew a picture of her dog in brown. She wrote
the following sentences: This is my dog. His name is Max. He is cute. She applied
the rules of a sentence correctly. The drawing was very simple but well done. She
wrote the sentences about the drawing and her penmanship was neat.
Running Record
A running record is one method of assessing a child's reading level by examining
the accuracy rate, the error rate and the self-correction rate of a given passage. Jill
was administered three passages at grade two level with a combined accuracy rate of
94%. This indicates she can read the text independently with very little guidance.
Jill’s combined error rate is 1:17 indicates one self-correction for every 17 errors
which is very close to the independent reading level. Her self-correction rate 1:4 is
very good; this is a strategy good readers use.
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Informal Reading Assessment
Impressions and Recommendations:
I administered this reading assessment during the summer prior to Jill entering
grade two. The tests administered to Jill were at grade two level.
Jill was administered two phonological awareness tests. One tested auditory
processing and the other phoneme segmentation; they showed Jill is established in her
literacy development and is on target for grade two.
Her phonics awareness is established; which is a good indicator of her future
reading success. Her ability to handle this task without my direct instruction on these
cards indicates a strong understanding of the sounds in words.
Jill’s spelling is very strong which shows her love of reading has influenced her
spelling. Strong spellers have well developed phonological processing skills that
make them aware of sounds and patterns of the letters.
Jill’s decoding skills were above the benchmark for spring of grade two. This
shows she has developed accurate and fluent reading. Her phonemic awareness is
very strong which is the foundation of decoding.
An invented spelling and drawing exercise was given to Jill. She drew a very
simple drawing of her dog with the following sentences: “This is my dog. His name
is Max. He is cute.” She used the rules of sentences appropriately, with no spelling
errors. This exercise showed her knowledge of phonemes and her confidence in the
alphabet principle.
The results from the running record showed Jill can read independently with little
guidance. The best measure of reading success is continued running records
throughout the year. This shows progress made or if any interventions are necessary.
Jill is an accomplished reader. She is on or above grade level for her
phonological awareness and her reading. The more she reads the stronger her
vocabulary and spelling will become. Her overall fluency is very high which leads to
good comprehension. “Fluency provides a bridge between word recognition and
comprehension.”—National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), 2001, p. 22.
Jill is does not need any interventions at the present time. If she continues at this
pace, she will become a proficient reader. Continued assessments are very important;
they can pick up any changes that occur or if progress is being met.
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Informal Reading Assessment
I’m glad to have had this opportunity to work with Jill. I wish her continued
success. If you feel the need to have future testing or have any questions don’t
hesitate to contact me.
Robin Ekpunobi
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