Reading Assessments
Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Systems (BAS)
This assessment is conducted one-on-one. In Part 1 of the assessment, the student reads aloud and talks about the system’s original, precisely leveled fiction and nonfiction books, while the teacher observes and notes the reader’s behaviors on carefully constructed forms. In Part 2, the teacher conducts a revealing Comprehension Conversation.
NWEA or MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Reading test.
This assessment is used 2-3 times per year to measure students' overall growth in reading. Below is a link to a website of activities intended to help students improve their skills in reading by playing fun games and completing activities. It is helpful to know your child's score range to choose activities at the appropriate level, but students can access all levels for fun!
Click on this link for online reading practice to improve skills based on NWEA test scores:
http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/ro/pages/studentlinks/map/reading.htm
MAZE Comprehension Assessment
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) Maze passages are timed measures that measure reading comprehension. They are better predictors of future reading performance than CBM oral reading fluency probes for students in grades 4 and higher (Hosp, Hosp & Howell, 2007). Passages used for Maze are at least 300 words in length. The first sentence of the Maze passage is left intact. In the text following the first sentence, every seventh word from the passage is selected to be incorporated into a response item that consists of the original word plus two foils (words that would not make sense if substituted in the passage in place of the original, correct word). These three choices are randomly arranged and inserted back into the text. During a timed Maze administration, the reader silently reads the Maze passage; whenever he or she encounters a response item, the reader circles the word from the three choices that best restores the meaning of that segment of the passage. The reader continues until time expires.
Grade Level Fluency Checks
Fluency is the way a reader sounds when reading out loud. It includes phrasing, intonation, pausing, stress, rate, and integration of the first five factors (Note that rate is one of six areas here). Reading rate is a measure of how many words per minute a student reads. Rate is important because it is one indicator of the reader's ability to process text with ease. When the reader processes the print at a satisfactory pace, he is more likely to be able to attend to the meaning of the text. He is also more likely to group words as they are naturally spoken instead of reading one word at a time.
This assessment is conducted one-on-one. In Part 1 of the assessment, the student reads aloud and talks about the system’s original, precisely leveled fiction and nonfiction books, while the teacher observes and notes the reader’s behaviors on carefully constructed forms. In Part 2, the teacher conducts a revealing Comprehension Conversation.
NWEA or MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Reading test.
This assessment is used 2-3 times per year to measure students' overall growth in reading. Below is a link to a website of activities intended to help students improve their skills in reading by playing fun games and completing activities. It is helpful to know your child's score range to choose activities at the appropriate level, but students can access all levels for fun!
Click on this link for online reading practice to improve skills based on NWEA test scores:
http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/ro/pages/studentlinks/map/reading.htm
MAZE Comprehension Assessment
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) Maze passages are timed measures that measure reading comprehension. They are better predictors of future reading performance than CBM oral reading fluency probes for students in grades 4 and higher (Hosp, Hosp & Howell, 2007). Passages used for Maze are at least 300 words in length. The first sentence of the Maze passage is left intact. In the text following the first sentence, every seventh word from the passage is selected to be incorporated into a response item that consists of the original word plus two foils (words that would not make sense if substituted in the passage in place of the original, correct word). These three choices are randomly arranged and inserted back into the text. During a timed Maze administration, the reader silently reads the Maze passage; whenever he or she encounters a response item, the reader circles the word from the three choices that best restores the meaning of that segment of the passage. The reader continues until time expires.
Grade Level Fluency Checks
Fluency is the way a reader sounds when reading out loud. It includes phrasing, intonation, pausing, stress, rate, and integration of the first five factors (Note that rate is one of six areas here). Reading rate is a measure of how many words per minute a student reads. Rate is important because it is one indicator of the reader's ability to process text with ease. When the reader processes the print at a satisfactory pace, he is more likely to be able to attend to the meaning of the text. He is also more likely to group words as they are naturally spoken instead of reading one word at a time.