Crystal Hilts Sped 670 Week 9

1. Informal Reading Inventory Crystal Hilts Sped 670 Week 9

2. Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) • Can be used in a diagnostic-reading and improvement program. • Is a diagnostic reading test to help discover a student’s strengths and weaknesses. • Three questions should guide a teacher in choosing a test. • What do I want to know? • Why do I want to know? • Which test will help me discover this information?

3. What is an IRI? • The IRI can be a valuable aid in helping the teacher determine a student’s reading levels and his/her strengths and weaknesses. “It usually consists of oral and silent reading passages selected from basal readers from pre-primer to eighth grade levels.” (P 193 Opitz and Rubin, 2007)

4. The IRI can help the teacher discover…. • A Child’s functional reading levels • The specific strategies a child uses when reading • How well children comprehend • If children are able to identify words when reading connected text

5. How to administer the IRI.. First- Word Reading Inventory (WRI): Have the child start reading a word list that is two levels below their present level. The child begins oral reading at the highest grade level word list they received no errors in pronunciation. Third: Silent Reading Have the child begin silently reading at same level as the oral reading. The child continues through levels until they reach a frustrational level on comprehension questions. ( 50% or less correct) Second: Oral Reading Have the child read each passage aloud, while marking errors and answer comprehension questions. The child continues through grade leveled passages until they reach frustrational. ( Unable to pronounce 10% of words/ 50% or less correct on comprehension questions) Fourth: Listening Capacity Have the student listen as the teacher reads aloud the next unfamiliar grade level passage and answer questions to determine listening capacity.

6. What do the scores mean? - Independent level- the child can: pronounce at least 99% of words in the passage and get 90% of literal and interpretive questions correct. • Instructional level- the child can: pronounce at least 95% of words and get at least 75% of comprehension questions correct.

7. What happens when a child scores between independent and instructional? • 94-91% pronunciation, 74-51% correct on questions. • This is called the “buffer zone”, the teacher needs to determine based on specifics of the passage reading and comprehension questions where the student should go.

8. Findings • I administered the IRI to a student with a suspected reading delay. • I found out very quickly through direct observation that the student rushes on oral reading and skips important reading strategies due to rushing. • This test helped me to understand that the child was relatively good at literal questions but struggled with interpretative questions on all levels.

9. Findings • I may not have been able to easily understand that the student was rushing when reading which caused him to skip reading strategies if I had administered a traditional reading comprehension test. • The IRI enables the person administering it to directly understand the how and why students are delayed in specific reading areas.

10. Findings • The IRI is a very time consuming test, but I am sure that the benefits to child outweigh the cost.