During this session, participants will review and practice administering an informal reading inventory, also known as an IRI, to the target group of students. The individually administered IRI will provide further insight regarding each student’s abilities to identify words, read fluently, and comprehend texts at the independent, instructional, and frustration levels.
Indicators targeted: 5.1, 5.12
Materials
- QRI-6 Introduction and Practice PowerPoint
- Examiner Directions for Word List Practice in Session
- Copy of Examiner Word Lists
- Student Directions for Word List Practice in Session
- Copy of Student Word Lists
- Student Directions for Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passages
- Level Three Leveled Passages – A Special Birthday for Rosa
- Level Four Leveled Passages – Amelia Earhart
- Examiner Level Three Leveled Passages – A Special Birthday for Rosa
- Examiner Level Four Leveled Passages – Amelia Earhart
- Activity 2.4.1: Three… Two… One… Blast Off!
- Sample QRI Data Collection Sheet
Additional Materials to Consider
- For training purposes in Session 2.4, the facilitators will present and model portions an informal reading inventory from the Qualitative Reading Inventory-6 (Leslie and Caldwell, 2017). Since this publication is protected by copyright law, limited photocopies will be available to participants. Participants in this session who do not have access to their own copy of Leslie and Caldwell’s (2017) QRI-6 will need to purchase or borrow an informal reading inventory (i.e., QRI, ARI, IRI) instrument to complete Part B of the Data-Based Instruction Plan. If the educator’s school does not have copies to lend out, here is a list of suggested commercially developed informal reading inventories the participant may consider purchasing or borrowing:
- Bader, L., and Pearce, D. (2013). Bader Reading and Language Inventory (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
- Burns, P., and Roe, B. (2010). Informal Reading Inventory (12th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Johns, J. (2010). Basic Reading Inventory: Pre-Primer Through Grade Twelve and Early Literacy Assessment (11th ed.). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
- Leslie, L. and Caldwell, J. (2017). Qualitative Reading Inventory (6th ed.). Pearson. Woods, M. and Moe, A. (2010). Analytic Reading Inventory: Comprehensive Standards
- Based Assessment for all Students Including Gifted and Remedial (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Define Session Goals
The educator will…
- Identify key attributes and characteristics of one informal reading inventory (QRI-6).
- Practice administering the QRI-6 and scoring student results for additional insight into student reading performance.
Learn How to Use an Informal Reading Inventory to Collect Diagnostic Information
1. Teach participants how to administer and collect reading diagnostic information using the QRI-6 (i.e., Word Lists).
Classroom teachers can gain valuable insight into an individual student’s ability to recognize words and comprehend passages at various levels when administering an informal reading inventory. According to Leslie and Caldwell (2017):
The Qualitative Reading Inventory – 6 (QRI-6) is an individually administered informal reading inventory (IRI) designed to provide information about 1) conditions under which students can identify words and comprehend text successfully and 2) conditions that appear to result in unsuccessful word identification or comprehension. The QRI-6 provides graded word lists and numerous passages designed to assess the oral and silent reading ability and the listening ability of students from the pre-primer 1 through the high school levels. There are two types of passages. Level-Diagnostic Passages are primarily used to determine a student’s reading level and diagnose areas of needed instruction. Inference-Diagnostic Passages are used to ascertain a student’ ability to answer different forms of inference questions allied to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) (CCSSO, 2010).
The QRI-6 provides a number of assessment options. Results can be used to estimate students’ independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels. Results can also provide information for designing and evaluating intervention instruction and for documenting student growth (p. 1).
Display the QRI-6 Introduction and Practice PowerPoint. During the presentation, the presenter will stop on Slide Five to demonstrate how to administer the Word List portion of the QRI-6 with a volunteer. The volunteer will represent a fifth-grade student, named Phillip Dawson, from Ms. Teacher’s class at Practice Elementary School. While the facilitator is administering the Word List assessment, the other participants will observe the administration and practice recording “Phillip’s responses” on their copies of the Examiner Word Lists sheet.
After the simulation has concluded, allow the participants to share their recorded responses with the whole group to compare results. Additionally, ask the participants to respond to the following questions:
- Why was the testing discontinued after the completion of the fifth-grade list?
- What observations did you note about Phillip’s errors? Where did he make most of his errors (i.e., initial/medial/final sounds, vowel diagraphs, vowel diphthongs)?
- What items did Phillip perform well (i.e., single syllable words, multisyllabic words, consonant blends)?
- Which Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passage should we begin with for the next part of the assessment? Why do you suppose this?
2. Teach participants how to administer and collect reading diagnostic information using the QRI-6 (i.e., Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passages).
After the educator has completed the Word Lists portion of the QRI-6, let’s look at the next set of steps s/he has to complete when administering the QRI-6. The facilitator will continue presenting information from the QRI-6 Introduction and Practice PowerPoint. As the participants are listening to the presentation, they can take down key information regarding the administration and scoring techniques for the Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passages section of the QRI-6.
Once the facilitator reaches Slide 17, s/he will stop the presentation to model how to administer the first Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passage with one of the participants, who will act as the same fifth grade student, Phillip Dawson, from Ms. Teacher’s class. While the facilitator is administering the Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passages assessment, the other participants will observe the administration and practice recording “Phillip’s responses” on their copies of the Examiner Level Three Leveled Passages sheet.
Before beginning the demonstration, ask the participants the following questions:
- Which Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passage should I begin with the student from Ms. Teacher’s fifth grade classroom? Level Three [i.e., A Special Birthday for Rosa] because the student’s independent reading level for the Word Lists section was at Grade Level Three, and according to the directions from the QRI-6, the examiner should begin at the highest word list level the student demonstrated independent level.
- Based on the Phillip’s previous performances and his scores from the benchmark data, as well as his preassessment DIBELS screening data, what inferences might you make regarding how well Phillip will perform on the story, “A Special Birthday for Rosa?” Support your rationale with evidence from his previous benchmark screeners. Based on his most recent iReady scores, he scored: 1 – Vocabulary, 2 – Literary Comprehension, 3 – Informational Comprehension and a Level One for both his Fall and Winter STAR Screening Report, he will probably score at instructional or frustration on this passage.
After the simulation for the first Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passage (the participant should provide responses that indicate instructional level – see Student Directions for Leveled Diagnostic Reading) has concluded, allow the participants to share their recorded responses with the whole group to compare results. Additionally, ask the participants to respond to the following questions:
- Would you discontinue test administration after the completion of this passage? No, pending the student responded to the cues from the Student Directions for Leveled Diagnostic Reading, the examiner should go onto the next passage (i.e., Fourth Grade Reading Passage).
- What observations did you note about Phillip’s errors? Were they mostly related to miscues you identified while he was reading aloud? Or, did they come from his inability to answer the comprehension questions? Both? Support your answer with evidence from the reading performance.
- What items (if any) did Phillip perform well?
Collaborate
Allow participants to get with another person to form a pair. Each partner within the pair will decide which partner will be the test examiner and which partner will play the role of “Phillip Dawson.” Because this is a fourth grade reading passage (Amelia Earhart), tell the partner who is playing the role of the student to demonstrate characteristics and responses which would indicate he is at the frustration level for both his oral reading fluency and his responses to the comprehension questions.
Allow 10 - 15 minutes for educators to practice administering the Leveled Diagnostic Reading Passage with one another. Note: Continued observations may take place after this session has ended.
Reflect and Next Steps
Reflection:
Have participants take five minutes to complete Activity 2.4.1: Three… Two… One… Blast Off! Ask volunteers to share their responses to the activity:
| Three… Two… One… Blast Off! | |
|---|---|
| Directions: Write down… | |
| Three New Things I Learned Today | |
| Two Questions I Still Have About the Content Discussed | |
| One Thing I am Excited about Implementing from this Session | |
Next Steps:
After today’s session, participants should begin administering an additional informal reading inventory (i.e., IRI, QRI, ARI – see suggested list in the Materials section) to each student within the focus group. As they administer each IRI, participants will need to find a way to organize and display their students’ results in a table that can be easily interpreted. A sample copy (i.e., Sample QRI Data Collection Sheet) has been provided for participants to use or recreate for their own student data. Copies of their student IRI assessment data will need to be compiled and displayed in Part B of the Data-Based Instruction Plan. Additionally, participants will need to bring, or access, copies of this assessment data for the first meeting of the Data-Based Instruction Plan: Data Analysis Review and Plan Development Session.
