Assessment

SPCD 587Sept. 10 and 17

Questions to Consider

• How do you design individualized, comprehensive instruction?

• How can you determine where to begin instruction?

• What kinds of information might you want to discover through literacy/reading assessment and what do you do with this information? ?

• How do you find assessment tools that are appropriate for students with more significant disabilities or those with sensory or physical challenges?

Model of Silent Reading Comprehension(K. Erickson, based on Cunningham, 1993)

Word IdentificationWord Identification

Automatic Mediated

Language ComprehensionLanguage Comprehension

Print ProcessingPrint Processing

Eye movement

Print-to-Meaning Links Integration

Inner Speech

Knowledge of Text Structures

Knowledge of the World

Before Beginning Assessment

Ensure maximum access to print/picture/logo/writing materials, etc.PositioningAssistive technology/aug com needsSensory issues that require modification of

materials (e.g., increasing size of print or picture)

Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate

Language Level*Level of language or communication (intentional? Symbolic?)Mode of communication (e.g., speech, sign, PECS, other or

combinationVocabulary level (e.g., Peabody Picture Vocabulary)

Listening (receptive) and speaking (expressive) vocabulary

Early or Emergent Literacy: Understanding of printSymbol recognition (if appropriate)Might include sight words or be limited to concrete objects,

photographs, or picsyms E.g., Concepts About Print; Early Literacy Checklist

Word Recognition Skills: Automatic & MediatedLetter name/sound knowledge; single words;

words within connected text; includes phonics skills (decoding)

E.g., running records w/ miscue analysis, Informal Reading Inventories (IRI); standardized instruments, such as W-JR or Brigance; CBM; GDRT

Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate

Listening & Reading comprehension E.g., Informal Reading Inventories; Gray Diagnostic

Reading Test; story re-telling checklists; story grammar maps

Reading fluencyE.g., CBM procedures using fluency norms

Writing (composing text)E.g., rubrics or classroom based assessments

Attitudes toward literacyE.g., Reading attitude surveys; observations, interviews

Organizing Assessment: Areas to Evaluate

Defining Assessment Accommodations

Accommodations are changes in the way a student takes a test, without changing the actual test itself. access to the test, but does not make the test

content easier.

Accommodations Categorization

Presentation: Read test/directions, reread, cues, prompts, clarification, templates, markers, secure paper to desk, and magnification/amplification devices

Response: Verbal response, pencil grips, special paper, technology, scribe, and pointing, eye gaze, provide word processor

Timing: Frequent breaks and extended time

Scheduling: Over time and over sub-test

Setting: Preferential seating, separate locations, specialized setting, adaptive or special furniture

Using Accommodations During Assessments

Accommodations should be familiar to the studentsReview the IEP

Document the accommodations usedSuccessful and unsuccessful

Evaluating What Students Understand About Print

Examples: Concepts About Print Checklist of Early Literacy

Category/Item Always Sometimes Never

Attitudes Toward Reading & Voluntary Reading Behavior

Voluntarily looks at or reads books

Asks to be read to

Listens attentively while being read to

Responds with questions and comments to stories read to him or her

Concepts About Books

Checklist for Assessing Early Literacy Development(D. Katims, 2000)Name: Date:

Attitudes Toward Literacy

Parent and student interviews

Observation

Phonological Awareness

Example: Yopp-Singer, Dibbles

Also see reading for next week (Copeland & Calhoon for additional ways to assess with students with complex communication needs)

Phonological Awareness Diagnostic Assessment Form

Adaptations for: Awareness of RhymeAwareness of AlliterationAbility to Blend and Segment

Evaluating Word Recognition

Word Recognition Skills: Automatic & MediatedLetter name/sound knowledge; single words;

words within connected text; includes phonics skills (decoding)

E.g., running records w/ miscue analysis, Informal Reading Inventories (IRI); standardized instruments, such as W-JR or Brigance; CBM; GDRT

Reading (Word Recognition) Levels

Independent levelRecognize minimum of 99% of words/comprehend

90%Instructional level

Recognize minimum of 95% of words/comprehend 75%

Frustration levelRecognize less than 90%/comprehend less than 50%

Listening comprehension levelComprehend 75% of material read to her/him

Running Records

Method of assessing oral reading skillsLooking at student’s errors (and analyzing to

see what types they are): self-corrections, repetitions and re-readings, hesitations, and requests for help

Running Records

Use material at student’s instructional level

Record student performance on top line/text on bottom line

Calculate % of errorsCan also examine comprehension w/

running records by using re-tellings, summarizing, etc.

• Miscue analysisMiscue analysis – method to examine – method to examine typestypes of of errors student is making (using info from errors student is making (using info from running record)running record)– Use materials at independent or instructional levelUse materials at independent or instructional level– List errors made and categorize according to type List errors made and categorize according to type

of error of error • Semantic (meaning related)Semantic (meaning related)• Graphophonic (visual, phonic)Graphophonic (visual, phonic)• SyntacticSyntactic• Self-correctedSelf-corrected• NonwordNonword

– Calculate % for each type of errorCalculate % for each type of error

Words Meaning Visual Syntax

Text Child Self-Correction

Similar Meaning?

Graphophonic similarity?

Grammatically acceptable?

grumble

grumbly X

always -

didn’t did not X X X

I’ll I X X X

move make X X

scarf cafr X

of or X

my me X X

scarf self X

taken take X X

scarf scafer X

that they X X

may maybe X

still sit X

Analysis: Seth overrelies on visual cues and rarely self-corrects errors.Tompkins, G. (2007). Figure 3-2 Miscue analysis of Seth’s errors. (p. 79(

Informal reading inventory (IRI)

Assess student’s reading level and reading and listening comprehensionGraded Word Lists (single words)

Graded Reading Passages Reading comprehensionListening Comprehension

Interpreting IRI

Difference between listening and instructional levelsDifference between instructional/frustration levelsDifferences between word recognition and

comprehensionWord recognition in context vs. in isolationReading strategies usedReading rate, hesitations, repetitionsBackground knowledgeType of comprehension questions student

answered/missed

Reading Fluency

Calculate rate (# of correctly read words/time)

Also observe phrasing (chunking), hesitations, prosody (stress and intonation)

Reading Fluency

Word by word reading Reads in phrases Too slow or too fast Appropriate pacing No expression Appropriate expression Not aware of punctuation Aware of

punctuation Poor sight word recognition Automatic sight

word recognition

Assessing Writing

Don’t forget to include this in a comprehensive assessment of a student’s literacy skills!

Teacher-made rubrics and checklists(See handout)