DIBELS Benchmark Assessment

Assessment of Big Ideas in Beginning Reading DIBELS Benchmark Assessment Roland H. Good IIIRuth KaminskiAmbre ReMillardCarrie EbmeyerDavid VanLoo University of Oregon College of Education dibels.uoregon.edu

What are DIBELS? Dynamic Indicators Basic Early Literacy Skills Early Childhood Research Institute

The dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills are: • a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. • They are designed to be short (oneminute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. Early Childhood Research Institute

Remember, DIBELS are indicators • DIBELS is a toothpick. • DIBELS are not designed to provide an exhaustive assessment. • DIBELS provides an efficient indicator of essential literacy skills acquisition like a toothpick provides an efficient way to tell if the cake is baked. • If the toothpick has dough on it, what should we do? Early Childhood Research Institute

Four Kinds of Reading Assessments An effective, comprehensive, reading program includes reading assessments to accomplish four purposes: • Outcome- Assessments that provide a bottom-line evaluation of the effectiveness of the reading program. • Screening - Assessments that are administered to determine which children are at risk for reading difficulty and who will need additional intervention. • Diagnosis - Assessments that help teachers plan instruction by providing in-depth information about students’ skills and instructional needs. • Progress Monitoring- Assessments that determine if students are making adequate progress or need more intervention to achieve grade level reading outcomes. Early Childhood Research Institute

The Five Big Ideas • Phonemic Awareness • Alphabetic Principle • Accuracy and Fluency with Connected Text • Comprehension • Vocabulary/Language Early Childhood Research Institute

Phonemic Awareness • The awareness and understanding of the sound structure of our language. • Understanding that spoken words are made up of sequences of individual speech sounds: “cat” is composed of the sounds /k/ /a/ /t/ . Early Childhood Research Institute

Phonological Awareness What is it? • Phonological Awareness is Explicit awareness of the sound structure of language. The awareness of and ability to manipulate the sound units smaller than words. What is it not? • Note: Phonological Awareness is not the same as phonics - no letter-sound correspondence is involved. It may be an essential skill for phonics instruction to make sense, however. Early Childhood Research Institute

Examples of Phonological Awareness • Rhyming -- What word rhymes with 'cat'? 'bat' • Syllable splitting -- The onset of 'cat' is /k/, the rime is /at/ • Oddity -- What word doesn't belong with the others: 'cat' 'mat' 'bat' 'ran'? 'ran' • Phoneme Blending -- What word is /k/ /a/ /t/? 'cat' • Phoneme segmentation -- What are the sounds in cat? /k/ /a/ /t/ • Phoneme deletion -- What is 'cat' without the /k/? 'at' • Phoneme manipulation -- What would 'cat' be if you changed the /t/ to /n/? 'can' Early Childhood Research Institute

Alphabetic Principle Teaching the alphabetic principle skill builds better readers. • Teach letter-sounds. • Teach a decoding strategy: left to right, say it slowly sound by sound, say it fast, say the word. Early Childhood Research Institute

Alphabetic Principle What is it? • Alphabetic Principle is explicit awareness of the letter-sound structure of written language. • Alphabetic Understanding. Words are composed of letters that represent sounds, and • Phonological Recoding. Using systematic relationships between letters and phonemes (letter-sound correspondence) to retrieve the pronunciation of an unknown printed string or to spell. What is it not? • Knowing letter names. • Drilling endless phonics rules with low utility. (in isolation) • Signing ABC song Early Childhood Research Institute

Accuracy and Fluency with Connected Text • Automaticity with fundamental skills so that reading occurs quickly and effortlessly (driving a car, playing a musical instrument, playing a sport) Early Childhood Research Institute

Automaticity with the Code • What is it? • The ability to quickly and accurately apply letter-sound correspondence to reading connected text. Automaticity provides an overall indicator of student growth and development in early reading skills. • What it is not? • Oral reading fluency will not tell you everything you need to know about student reading performance. However, there is a strong relationship between oral reading fluency and comprehension. Early Childhood Research Institute

Comprehension • The process of getting meaning from spoken language and/or print. • The complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to convey meaning. Early Childhood Research Institute

Vocabulary/Language • Understanding and use of words • Ability to say a specific word for a particular meaning • Ability to understand spoken/written words Early Childhood Research Institute

Big Ideas Drive the Train • Big ideas of early literacy should drive the curriculum and instruction. And, • Big ideas should drive the measures we use. Early Childhood Research Institute

What Makes a Big Idea a Big Idea? • An Big Idea is: • Predictive of reading acquisition and later reading achievement. • Something we can do something about, i.e., something we can teach. • Something that improves outcomes for children if/when we teach it. Early Childhood Research Institute

DIBELS Assessments • Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) • Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) • Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) • Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) • Word Use Fluency (WUF) • Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) • Retell Fluency (RTF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Initial Sound Fluency This is a mouse, flowers, pillow, letters (point to each picture while saying its name). Mouse begins with the sound /m/ (point to the mouse). Listen: /m/, mouse. Which one begins with the sounds /fl/? • ISF Target Age Range • Initial Sound Fluency works well for most 4-year-old children through the middle of kindergarten. It may beappropriate for monitoring the progress of older children with low phonological awareness skills. The benchmark goal is 25 to 35 in the middle of kindergarten. Below 10 in the middle of kindergarten is indicates need for intensive instructional support. Early Childhood Research Institute

Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Scoring 60x13 38 seconds=20.5 Early Childhood Research Institute

Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) • Big Idea: -Phonemic Awareness • Benchmark -25 middle of K Goal: 8 beginning of K • Assessment -Preschool Times: - Kindergarten fall, winter Early Childhood Research Institute

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency I am going to say a word. After I say it, you tell me all the sounds in the word. So, if I say, “Sam,” you would say /s/ /a/ /m/. Let’s try one. (one second pause). Tell me the sounds in “mop” Ok. Here is your first word. Early Childhood Research Institute

Phoneme Segmentation FluencyPSF Early Childhood Research Institute

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) • Big Idea: -Phonemic Awareness • Benchmark -35 end of K Goal: • Assessment -Kindergarten: Times: winter, spring -First Grade: fall, winter, spring Early Childhood Research Institute

Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) When I say 'start' begin here (point to first letter in upper left hand corner), go across the page (point), and tell me as many letters as you can. Try to name each letter. If you come to a letter you don't know I'll tell it to you. Put your finger on the first letter. Ready, begin. Early Childhood Research Institute

Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) • Big Idea: -NONE • Benchmark -No Benchmark Goal: Use local norms • Assessment -Kindergarten: Times: fall, winter, spring -First Grade: fall Early Childhood Research Institute

LNF Letter names are closely related to the letter-sound relationships, and knowing the letter names helps children associate sound with many of the letters. It seems obvious that children who can easily recall letter names instantly on sight, to an extent that we might say is “automatic”, can easily form an association between a symbol and its name. Letter naming knowledge has long been recognized as a potent predictor of later reading ability. Some studies suggests that although letter naming predicts, the ability to read later on, it does not cause a child to learn more readily. There is a “bi-directional” relationship between letter-name and phoneme awareness, where knowledge of one enhances knowledge of the other Early Childhood Research Institute

DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency Here are some make-believe words(point to the student probe).Start here(point to the first word)and go across the page(point across the page).When I say, “begin”, read the words the best you can. Point to each letter and tell me the sound or read the whole word. Read the words the best you can. Put your finger on the first word. Ready, begin. Early Childhood Research Institute

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) • Big Idea: -Alphabetic Principle • Benchmark -50 by middle 1st grade Goal: 13 by middle K 25 by end of K/begin of 1st • Assessment -Kindergarten: Times: winter, spring -First Grade: fall, winter, spring -Second Grade fall Early Childhood Research Institute

Word Use Fluency (WUF) is intended for most children from fall of kindergarten through third grade. A benchmark goal is not provided for WUF because additional research is needed to establish its linkage to other big ideas of early literacy (phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and accuracy and fluency with connected text). DIBELSTM Word Use Fluency (WUF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Word Use Fluency Early Childhood Research Institute

Word Use Fluency(WUF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Word Use Fluency (WUF) • Big Idea: -Oral Language/Vocabulary • Benchmark -No Goal Goal: Use local norms • Assessment -Kindergarten-Third Grade Times: fall, winter, spring Early Childhood Research Institute

DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency Please read this (point) out loud. If you get stuck, I will tell you the word so you can keep reading. When I say, “stop” I may ask you to tell me about what you read, so do your best reading. Start here (point to the first word of the passage). Begin. Early Childhood Research Institute

Oral Reading Fluency(ORF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) • Big Idea: -Accuracy and Fluency Connected text • Benchmark -40 end of 1st Grade Goal: -90 end of 2nd Grade -110 end of 3rd Grade -118 end of 4th Grade -124 end of 5th Grade -125 end of 6th Grade • Assessment -First Grade: Times: winter, spring -Second-Sixth Grade: fall, winter, spring Early Childhood Research Institute

DIBELS Retell Fluency Please tell me all about what you just read. Try to tell me everything you can. Begin. Start your stopwatch after you say“begin”. Early Childhood Research Institute

Retell Fluency(RTF) Early Childhood Research Institute

Retell Fluency (RTF) • Big Idea: -Comprehension • Benchmark -25% or greater of number of Goal: words read • Assessment -First Grade: Times: winter, spring -Second-Third Grade: fall, winter, spring Early Childhood Research Institute

Reading Difficulty and Failure Reading and Literacy DIBELS Steppingstones to Literacy Oral Reading Fluency Alphabetic Principle Phonological Awareness InitialSounds In words Early Childhood Research Institute

Progress Monitoring Early Childhood Research Institute

Exploring Support - What Aimline? The aimline connects where you are to where you want to get to, and shows the course to follow to get there. Aimline Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Early Childhood Research Institute

Evaluating Support – Modify Instruction? Whoops! Time to make a change! Aimline Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Early Childhood Research Institute

Evaluating Support - Is Instructional Support Sufficient Now? Aimline Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Early Childhood Research Institute

Poor readers at the end of first grade are at very significant risk for long term academic difficulty. “The probability of remaining a poor reader at the end of fourth grade, given a child was a poor reader at the end of first grade, was .88 .... the probability of remaining an average reader in fourth grade, given an average reading ability in first grade, was .87.” (Juel, 1988) • Poor readers at the end of first grade are likely to require intensive instructional support to reach third grade reading outcomes. Early Childhood Research Institute

Three Levels (Tiers) of Support Core Curriculum 80% of students All Students __________________ Supplemental Support 15% of students _______________________ Intensive Support 5% Early Childhood Research Institute

Core Program • Daily instruction focused on 5 Big Ideas with whole class/small groups • Meets the needs of 80% of the students • Support all benchmark students to make adequate progress and achieve the benchmark goal Purpose: To provide additional instruction in one or more areas of reading Early Childhood Research Institute

DIBELS Benchmark Assessment