Reading Assessment and Instruction - Chapter 10

Peregoy & Boyle article: Reading Assessment and Instruction (chapter 10)

This chapter was on analytic reading assessment and instruction. In large part it discussed informal reading inventory as another way to assess reading, in addition to a variety of types of assessments, a “multidimensional” (p. 373) approach. This way the teacher can get a better picture of the student, by gathering as much information through a variety of assessments. The self-assessment by the student was mentioned as an important element. Along with self-assessment, the importance of prior knowledge was mentioned in the article discussed for the ELL along with knowing what interested the students, their life experiences and what they wanted to achieve. Also it discussed in length how we as teachers can use data we gather from student oral language, reading and writing to help us guide the student to a more balanced instruction meeting their needs.
Reading about one teacher’s process of doing an IRI for a middle school student helped clarify the process of doing one. In finding out a student’s levels in reading was shown. There is independent, instructional, and frustration levels. I can see from the sample readings, the teacher in my school would have to work on background building, vocabulary, and making connections to what the student knows, to make these assessments make sense.
An activity that I use for my emergent readers is the Echo Reading. We go over the vocabulary words, and make connections. I have the students look at the book first, I tell them to look at pictures, the words, the letters, etc. I then read page by page, pointing to words and pictures. After this is done, we echo read. After we echo read, I have the students “read” to each other. This helps me see who needs may need re-teaching or more work somewhere.