Reading Assessment
At Fairfield Elementary, students' Reading is assessed on a regular basis so that strengths and challenges can be identified and extensions and remediation can be provided when necessary. Teachers use a variety of assessment tools and strategies along with the following two formal tools required by the Maumee City Schools district. Both of these assessments are given at least 3 times each school-year (beginning, middle, and end). Progress monitoring is done more frequently for some students.
DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment): This assessment helps determine your child’s independent reading level based on his/her decoding, fluency, and comprehension skills. Students must read a book and demonstrate their
comprehension orally or in writing, depending on the level.
Expected levels are as follows:
End of Kindergarten: Level 3
End of First Grade: Level 16
End of 2nd Grade: Level 28
End of 3rd Grade: Level 38
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)- Reading:
We use the DIBELS reading assessments to monitor students in grades K-3. There are 5 different components of this assessment. The components your child is given depends on his/her grade level (noted in parentheses after each test name).
DIBELS First Sound Fluency (Kindergarten: beginning, middle, and end):
Can your child hear and pronounce the beginning sounds in a word? This skill helps children learn that words are made up of individual sounds. A student's score is based on how many correct first-sounds of words they can identify in 1 minute.
DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency (Kindergarten: beginning, middle, and end) (First Grade: beginning):
Does your child know the names of letters? Can your child recall them quickly and easily, even when upper and lower case letters are randomly mixed together? This is just a screener we use to gain information about students ability to recognize letters. There are no specified expectations for the score students should receive. They get a point for each letter they name
DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (Kindergarten: middle and end( (First Grade: beginning):
Individual sounds are called phonemes. Can your child segment or break apart spoken words into individual sounds?
Example: mat.../m/ - /a/ - /t/.
This skill helps children put sounds and words together in their writing, also. Students are given a point for each
phoneme they identify correctly. Partial credit is given for partial segmentation.
DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency (First Grade: beginning, middle, and end)
Does your child know the sounds that letters make? Do the sounds come to mind quickly and automatically? Can your child blend these sounds together to pronounce words? For this assessment, students are asked to read 3-letter nonsense (made-up) words. Their score based on how many sounds they get correct and how many whole words are read.
Oral Reading Fluency (First Grade: middle, end) (Second and Third Grades: beginning, middle, end)
How many words per minute can your child read correctly? Once your child has learned to “sound out” phonetic words
and learned “sight” words (those that must be memorized), do they become instantly recognized words? When a child can recognize many words easily, reading is much more enjoyable and text is easier to comprehend. Students are given a passage to read for this assessment They get a score showing their Fluency, which is how many words they read in a minute; their Accuracy, which is the percentage of words they read correctly; and their Comprehension, showing how many words were in their retelling, and in 2nd and 3rd grade the quality of their retelling.
DAZE (Third Grade: beginning, middle, end)
Does your child understand what is being read? Is your child using word recognition skills, background knowledge, and an understanding of language and grammar when reading? In a Daze passage, several words are omitted and replaced with a box containing three choices. Students read the passage silently and circle the words that best fit the passage. At the end of 3 minutes, students are scored based on how many words they circled correctly. Deductions are made for incorrect responses.