FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

“INFORMAL READING ASSESSMENT”

o Informal Reading Assessment and Response Analysis

of a Student Work Sample

 Informal reading assessment involves examining the student's daily reading tasks or

administering informal tests to determine the areas which require intervention.

 Informal Reading Assessment

 are cost effective

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  require less time to administer than formal tests

 can be easily administered using the classroom reading material

during regular instruction periods , and

 can assist in making a decision about the causes of the reading

problems shown by the student.

 can be carried out in a number of ways. Some of the most commonly used methods

involve:

o Graded word lists

o Informal reading inventory

o Miscue analysis

o Cloze procedures

 Graded word lists

 Graded word lists are used to assess the word recognition skills of students.

 They are useful in the diagnosis of weaknesses in word attack skills and the determination

of the level at which the student can read fluently and those levels where he/she requires

assistance.

 Administration

 Develop word lists of 25 words from the glossaries of each graded basal readers.

 Type words for each grade on a separate sheet.

 Type each word on a flash card.

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 Show one word (from the list) on a flash card for 1 second and check the student's instant

recognition or sight vocabulary.

 If the student cannot recognise the word this way then the word can be presented

untimed for the student to read.

 If necessary provide prompts.

 Determine the reading levels for each student.

 Levels of reading

 Independent - none or only 1 word missed.

 Instructional reads two words incorrectly.

 Frustration reads more than three words incorrectly.

 Informal reading inventory

 An IRI is a teacher made test device which employs the use of graded reading paragraphs

which are unfamiliar to the child.

 Advantages

o IRI is based upon the material that the students are using

o Inexpensive

o Useful in providing information for instruction

 Administration
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 Select a basal reading series that is interesting to a cross section of students.

 Select 25 words for graded word list

 Select passages for oral and silent reading

 Construct questions for the oral and silent reading passages Informal reading inventory

 Construct questions for the oral and silent reading passages

 In order to assess comprehension of students the following type of questions may be

asked

 Recall of facts: Who, What, Where, When, sequence and facts type of questions.

 Vocabulary: General or specific meaning.

 Inference: Why, Ask students to draw conclusions or main idea, Ask students to think of an

alternative end to the passage/story or to retell the story/passage.

 Yes/no type of questions should be avoided.

 A student can be placed in one of the three levels based on his/her performance on

the reading inventory.

 Independent 95% of the words recognised correctly and 90% of the comprehension

questions answered correctly.

 Instructional 90% of the words recognised correctly and 70% of the comprehension

questions answered correctly.

 Frustration. less than 90% of words recognised correctly with a comprehension score

of less than 70%.

 A student can be placed in one of the three levels based on his/her performance on the

reading inventory.

 Independent 95% of the words recognised correctly and 90% of the comprehension

questions answered correctly.

 Miscue analysis

 Miscue analysis is an analysis of an oral reading sample and an oral retelling of the text .

 It is a useful procedure in making diagnosis of reading problems.

 Miscue analysis

 Administration

 Ask the student to read a complete passage or story (unfamiliar) at one grade level above

the students in his/her class.

 Note down the miscues while student is reading.

 At least 25 miscues should be noted.

 Ask student to retell the story/passage.

 Determine if each miscue interfered with the meaning of the passage/story.

 Determine the nature of errors.

 Miscue analysis

 Kinds of miscues to be counted as errors

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 Substitution

 Mispronunciation

 Omission

 Insertion

 Repetition

 Reversal

 Miscue analysis : Substitution

 Student substitutes another word for the printed text.

 Coding

Underline the substituted word and write the substitution above.

 Example

o Jon and Mary went to the market after swimming at the public pool.

o Jon and Mary went to the market after swinging at the picnic pool.

 Mispronunciation

 Students pronounce the word differently in place of the word printed on the text.

 Coding

o Underline the mispronounced word and write the mispronunciation in

dictionary spelling.

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 Example

o Jack and Jill went up the hill.

o Jack and Jill won’t up the hill.

 Omission

 Student omits one or more words or parts of a word.

 Coding

o Circle the omitted word or parts of the word.

 Example

o Simba and Nala are best friends.

o Simba Nala are friends.

 Insertion

 Student inserts one or more words in the text.

 Coding

o Code by placing a caret at the point of the insertion and writing the inserted

word.

 Example

o Samba and Nala like balloons.

o Samba and Nala like playing with balloons.

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 Repetition

 Student repeats more than a single word.

 Coding

o Code by placing a wavy line under the repeated word(s). Place additional line

each time a word is repeated.

 Example

o Samba and Nala go everywhere together and love adventures.

o Samba Samba and Nala Nala go everywhere Nala go everywhere together and

and love adventures.

 Reversal

 Student transposes letters in a word or transposes entire words.

 Coding

o Code by placing a curved line between transposed letters or words.

 Example

o John saw that there were three thieves in the street.

o John was that were there three thieves in the street.

 Cloze procedure

 The close procedure requires a reader to fill in or identify words that have been omitted

from a passage.
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 It is an effective method in determining student's reading level and in identifying the

possible cause of reading problems.

 Administration

 Identify a suitable passage

 Delete every 5th word from the passage leaving first and last sentence intact

 Delete at least 50 words

 Ask student to read the passage and fill in the blanks

 Note down the responses of the student

 Give a practice exercise if the student is unfamiliar with the cloze procedure

 Scoring Only exact, verbatim responses are counted as correct. Misspelled words are

accepted if they are decipherable. Change of tense is not acceptable.

 Criteria for determining the reading level using cloze procedure.

 Reading level  (cloze test score)

 Independent  58 - 100%

 Instructional  44 - 57%

 Frustration  0 - 43%

o Response Analysis of a Student Work Sample

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