Week 9 QRI5 and DIBELS

QRI5

A QRI is an informal reading assessment tool. It's purpose is to determine a child's reading level, place the child in an appropriate reading group, choose a appropriate reading material for the student, track growth and much more. It is also helpful tool when planning lessons. The testing includes word recognition and comprehension. The instructor starts with the child at a specific level and moves up or down until they find the child's frustration level. I think it is really helpful on so many levels for teachers of students of all ages. It seems to be very clear and easy to use. It also seems simple to analyze the results and use them to determine the next step. I hope to use QRI5 as a literacy teacher.

DIBELS

DIBELS is a set of short tests that help teachers assess their students knowledge of literacy skills. It is a great indicator of future student performance. It is also a great way for teachers to identify students who may need extra intervention to help them reach the benchmark and keep up with the class. The testing is done one on one with each student and takes about 5-10 minutes. Depending on previous scores each student should be assessed at specific intervals. DIBELS is a great research based way to assess students on their literacy skills.

The assessment covers reading and phonemic awareness and comprehension. Students are asked to read no none sense words as well as stories. The non none sense words are great to test students ability to sound out because they cannot recognize words by sight. The story is a great way to test how many words the student can read in a minute. The last part of retelling is a great way to assess comprehension. All the sections are timed to help with the scoring and this way the test is quicker as well.

Compare:

Both assessments are clear and easy for teachers to administer. The tests are also both great tools to assess students strengths and weaknesses, pinpoint a need for intervention and place students in the proper level reading group. The tests can also help teachers keep track if their instruction is being effective or not. 

Contrast:

The first difference between the two test is the age level they target. The QRI5 is used by teachers of pre-prime 1 through high school, while the DIBELS test is used only kindergarten through 6th grade. Additionally QRI5 is individual based and does not compare to other children. DIBELS however, uses benchmarks to see if students are up to age level in comparison to other children their age.

Use In Classroom:

I think that I would use QRI5 as an original assessment in the beginning of the year to place the students in group and decide which areas of study need to be covered and how much. I would  use DIBELS to track students progress as the year continues and determine the success of instruction and needs for intervention.