[LIT] Informal Reading Inventories

[lbrazell at comcast.net]

Kim wrote:  I think to truly assess a student's reading abilities is by using a book of their choice, having them read aloud or silently read to themselves (depending on what you are assessing) and then ask them questions about what they are reading.


I would agree.  I am a reading specialist and work with middle school students.   I often take a photo copy of several pages of a student's independent reading book and do a running record on a portion of the text as the student reads aloud.  I use the back of the photo copy to make notes about the student's fluency and errors/corrections and jot down the answers to the questions I ask.  

I like to ask specific comprehension questions that align with what the classroom teacher is focusing on (connections, inference, determining importance...etc) but I always ask for a summary of what the student has read so far.  If it is a new selection I ask for predictions ( anchored in the text).  If it is a book I haven't read I ask the student to 'reread and find the part in the text that tells that'.  This lends an authenticity to our 'conversation' about the book.

Regie Routman has a similar interview form in her book Reading Essentials.

This works well for me and I can also assess if the student is reading a 'just right' book and give suggestions if they are not.  

Lee