You are on page 1of 16

Informal Reading Inventory

IRI Report

Leah Burgmeier
CI 335
Dr. Lindsay
Fall 2003
Table of Contents
I. Opening Information Page 2
• Name (changed for confidentiality)
• Testing Date
• Student’s Age
• Grade
• School (changed for confidentiality)

II. General Observations Page 2

III. Graded Word List Results Pages 3—4


• Designation of Grade Level
• Phonic/Structural Analysis
• Description of Strengths, Weaknesses, and Global Plan
• Charts for Each Grade Level Testes

IV. Summary of Phonic/Structural Analysis Pages 5—6


• Designation of Grade Level
• Phonic/Structural Analysis
• Description of Strengths, Weaknesses, and Global Plan

V. Summary of Comprehension Performance Page 7


• Designation of Grade Level
• Comprehension
• Description of Strengths, Weaknesses, and Global Plan

VI. Recommendations Pages 8—14


• Listing of 20 Specific Recommendations
• Narrative and Descriptive Listing of Each Recommendation

VII. Test Forms Pages 9—41


• Performance Record 15
• Summary of Oral Reading Performance 16
• Miscue Tally Summary Chart 17
• Qualitative Summary of Miscues 18
• Summary of Comprehension Performance 19

• Graded Word Lists 20—


23
• Oral Reading Passages 24—
31
• Silent Reading Passages 32—
37

2
• Listening Passages 38—
41

3
Abbreviated Basic Reading Inventory

Name: Toby Keith


Testing Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Student’s Age: 8
Grade: 3
School: Jackson Elementary School

General Observations:

The day of the test, Toby walked in with a smile on his face. Still, his demeanor

seemed to be quite anxious. Trying to make his way into the corner of the room, Toby

immediately turned red in the face. Upon sitting down, he seemed to adjust a little to the

crowd of people, but was still uneasy. He was very aware of the many tape recorders that

were surrounding him. As anticipated, it seemed as though Toby was quite nervous in

front of the fifteen men and women holding clipboards.

Before the test began, the students giving the reading inventory asked Toby a

series of questions to make the environment a little more relaxed. Although Toby

answered, the answers were mostly one word responses followed by Toby looking down

at the table. This was something we had anticipated, but tried our best to alleviate.

During the test, Toby continued to be nervous. He seemed to be quite unsure

about the answers he was giving in certain sections, which only created more anxiety. We

responded to this anxiety and frustration by stopping the Graded Word Lists and

beginning at the pre-primer level for the comprehension tests. This seemed to help things

and Toby was a little more comfortable.

Following the test, Toby was ready to get out of the corner and be on his way. He

did not interact much with us at this time. A few nods to say good bye and he was on his

way.

4
Graded Word List Results

Toby did a great job with the graded word list. He finished the test at grade level

six. Although he was still at his instructional level, he grew very frustrated at this point.

Thus, we deemed it appropriate to end the test.

Toby had problems decoding the word endings. For example he said thought for

through. This also leads to another problem—sometimes Toby would pronounce a word

that was graphically similar to the beginning of the test word. He said invention for the

word invitation and shrunk for the word skunk. Another problem area was his short and

long vowel, focusing more on digraphs. He changed the short vowel sound of the word

been to a long sound, pronouncing bean. For the word pliers, he pronounced players. It

seemed he had difficulties when the first sound of the word was a vowel. He

mispronounced education and assemble and he passed on usually, anxious, economics,

and attractive.

Because Toby had difficulties with vowels, especially long sounding vowels, it

would be helpful to work on activities that allow him to focus on these sounds. Such

activities are found in Cunningham’s Phonics They Use. Examples of activities are:

Making Words Lesson (p. 104), What Looks Right (p122), and Changing a Hen to a Fox

(p.92). Tiedt, Tiedt, and Tiedt’s Language Arts Activities for the Classroom offers many

activities that are all-inclusive to work problem areas. One activity in particular is called

Word Analysis Skills (p. 63). This activity involves making word lists from any story. For

example, “list all the words from this story that have long vowel sounds. This would be a

wonderful activity for extra practice with virtually any word analysis.

5
Graded Word List Charts: Toby Keith

List Grade Sight Total Analysis Total Level


Total
List C-C Pre-Primer 20 0 20 Independent
List C Primer 20 0 20 Independent
List C 7141 1 20 0 20 Independent
List C 8224 2 18 2 20 Instructional
List C 3183 3 18 0 18 Instructional
List C 5414 4 17 1 18 Instructional
List C 8595 5 17 0 17 Instructional
List C 6867 6 14 0 14 Instructional

List C 8224 Sight Analysis


been bean +
through thought +

List C 3183 Sight Analysis


pilot -pass- -pass-
usually -pass- -pass-

List C 5414 Sight Analysis


skunk shrunk +
medicine medication -pass-
anxious -pass- -pass-

List C 8595 Sight Analysis


education addition -pass-
petticoat -pass- -pass-
invitation invention -pass-

List C 6867 Sight Analysis


substitute -pass- -pass-
assemble azemble -pass-
economics -pass- -pass-
biscuit -pass- -pass-
attractive -pass- -pass-
pliers players -pass-

6
Summary of Toby Keith’s Phonic/Structural Analysis on the BRI

Grade Level

We found that Toby’s instructional level of reading was at Grade 3. Toby read

very well, however, he lacked comprehension of the passages he was reading to maintain

instructional performance in the questions asked following the stories. For that reason, we

never found Toby’s frustration level in his oral reading.

Phonic/Structural Analysis

Toby’s miscues in reading mainly fell into two categories: different endings and

omissions. He also had one miscue within repetitions, different in both the middle and

end of the word, and reversal. In general, Toby omitted periods at the end of sentences.

This could easily have been caused by his nervousness as he rushed through the readings.

His other omissions, substitutions, and reversals did not change the meaning and were

acceptable miscues. They were good indicators of Toby’s advanced eye-voice span as he

was reading. He maintained good fluency throughout his reading because of the skills he

possesses for eye-voice span.

Toby excelled in beginning sounds of words, getting 100% correct. He maintained

a high level of performance, getting 60% of his miscued words’ middle sounds correct.

His major struggle was with ending sounds. In each of his miscued words he substituted a

different ending. However, as stated above, all of these were acceptable miscues. The

endings that he changed were not in important words within the story but rather, for

example, changing that to the, or omitting an -s from a word. This is yet another

indication of his eye-voice span performance.

7
Strengths

Toby’s oral reading performance is strong as he reads quite fluently. In a less

stressful situation, I believe that he has the capability to read expressively as well. Toby is

confident in his oral reading abilities. He seemed most at ease while he was reading and

not concentrating on his observers.

Weaknesses

While we weren’t able to press Toby to his frustration level to discover his true

weaknesses, we did uncover some areas where he can concentrate his phonemic work

efforts. Toby excelled at reading beginnings of words, but when it came to the middle and

especially the endings, he needed to take a closer look and determine what the words

really were. The key is to teach Toby the importance of looking at the entire word and not

just getting his cues from the beginning letters. Toby’s reading also lacked expression. As

he read, he failed to pause for the appropriate punctuation.

Global Plan

Toby needs phonemic instruction in middle and ending sounds of words. He will

benefit from a variety of activities which help his look at each letter of the word. One

major activity that would be very good for Toby would be the RIVET activity. He also

would become more advanced in this skill after practicing Guess the Covered Word and

Making Words activities. (He will look at all the letters that create words.) Also, more

oral reading situations in which Toby is reading at his independent level would help him

to develop the expressive reading that he lacked overall. Because his reading is so fluent,

the practice with expressive reading and also paying attention to punctuation will take

him to the next level of becoming an oral reader who is entertaining to listen to.

8
Summary of Toby Keith’s Comprehension Performance on the BRI

Grade Level
Toby’s frustration level was at grade level three. His instructional level was found

to be at grade level two.

Strengths
Toby answered 79% of the topic questions correctly in which the title helped him.

For the fact questions, 71% of the oral reading questions and 73% of the silent reading

questions were answered correctly. This isn’t necessarily the highest level of thinking, but

it does require good comprehension and memory in order to recall. It was interesting that

he scored quite well in this area and lower on the higher-level thinking questions. It

seems as though since he could remember facts that he should be able to give some

thought to inference; however, he missed 57% of those questions. He also missed 100%

of the vocabulary questions in which case he would simply give up. Toby often self-

corrected during his oral-reading which is a sign of a good reader and in most cases

someone who has good comprehension. It was surprising to end up with the results that

we did.

Weaknesses
We were all surprised to see that Toby was not able to answer any of the

vocabulary questions. We wondered how he could answer some of the other questions,

but yet not understand important vocabulary. It is possible that he relies heavily on

context without other strategies.

Global Plan (see list of Recommendations for activities)


We would recommend working on vocabulary strategies with Toby. Also, overall

comprehension activities dealing with higher-level thinking such as evaluation and

inference questions would also be useful with Toby and build his comprehension skills.

9
Recommendations for Toby Keith

1. Nifty Thrifty Fifty-Cunningham pages 165-171


2. Story Analysis- Tiedt and Tiedt pages 71-72
3. Cloze Procedure -Tiedt and Tiedt pages 75-76
4. Table Talk- Yopp and Yopp page 82
5. RIVET- Cunningham pages 147-150
6. Literary Report Card- Yopp and Yopp page 75
7. Guess the Covered Word- Cunningham page 90
8. Word Analysis Skills (Cunningham page 63)
9. Big Words Topic Collection- Cunningham page 143
10.Rounding Up Rhymes- Cunningham pages 95-96
11.Making Words- Cunningham pages 97-107
12.Polar Opposites- Yopp and Yopp page 74
13.Word Sorts- Cunningham page 112
14.Paper Bag Book Report
www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Reading/RDG0011
15.Story Chains-www.teachersdesk.org/readchain.html
16.Prior-Knowledge Prediction Strategy- Gunning page 368
17.Story Elements Map- Gunning page 382
18.The Conversation Game- Gunning page 337
19.Simulations- Gunning page 345
20.Word Detectives- Cunningham page 152

10
1. Nifty Thrifty Fifty (Cunningham pgs 165-171)
Using this method, Toby can analyze big words for familiar patterns. Using a words list
will give Toby many examples of common patterns in reading and spelling big words.
The list also gives Toby word chunks to work with, and then breaks up the word into the
prefix and suffix so it is easier for students to spot the patterns. To use this method in the
classroom, the teacher can create a word wall of big words, adding words to the wall
every week. The students can chant the spelling of the new words as they are added.
Then the teacher can break up the words into their stem, prefix, and suffix, explaining
that sometimes small words are found within bigger words. These smaller words might
tell us the meaning of the whole word put together.

2. Story Analysis (Tiedt and Tiedt pgs 71-72)


This method of reading comprehension serves almost like a graphic organizer to help
Toby organize his thoughts and ideas into useful story mapping to help organize his
thoughts. To use a story analysis in the classroom, the teacher reads a short story aloud to
the class. Then write column headings on the board to help retell the story. Then the
students retell the story as the teacher fills in the missing information from the chart.
This method aids in comprehension by providing a story map that the students can use to
analyze and remember stories.

3. Cloze Procedure (Tiedt and Tiedt pgs 75-76)


This procedure helps the teacher diagnose the student’s reading level and also focuses on
reading comprehension. This method would help Toby’s comprehension of a selected
reading passage, improve his visual memory, and help him to focus on main points in the
story. To perform a cloze procedure, the teacher would choose a selection to read that is
about 250 words and is unfamiliar to the students. The teacher would then leave the first
and last sentences intact, but delete every fifth word. Then the teacher would ask the
student to fill in the blank. This procedure will help the student focus on the details of the
story and focus on cause and effect.

4. Table Talk (Yopp and Yopp pg 82)


This activity will help Toby to reflect on the characters and make connections to other
books he has read. After reading several books, the students are asked to arrange a dinner
party for “guests”, who turn out to be characters from the books they have read. Students
determine the seating chart for the guests, and then identify possible topics to be
discussed. The students then must provide rationales for their answers. Students can use
story maps that they have previously made to help them think of possible questions to ask
the characters.

5. RIVET (Cunningham pgs 147-150)


A RIVET is a great activity to encourage Toby’s use of new vocabulary and also as a
means of comprehension. To create a RIVET activity, write down the number of lines for
each letter in the word. Have the students write down the same number of lines on their
paper. Begin filling in the letters one by one, as the students watch and try to guess what
the word is. After the students have guessed a list of words that are from the story, have
the students predict some of the events from the story. Activating background knowledge

11
and using prediction strategies will help Toby become involved in the text and increase
reading comprehension.

6. Literary Report Card (Yopp and Yopp pg 75)


This strategy will help Toby to analyze characters and events from a story. In this
activity, students give grades to characters in a particular reading selection. The teacher
or the students can select the subjects on which the characters will be graded. For
example, the students may choose to grade the character on such traits as patience or
responsibility. The students must provide a rationale for each grade that they give to the
characters. The students must also cite specific examples of the graded area from the
text. This strategy will help Toby increase comprehension when reading. Toby can
reflect and analyze specific traits of characters and events from the story, increasing

7. Guess the Covered Word (Cunningham pg 90)


This strategy will help Toby segment words into their onset and rhyme, giving meaning
to each letters. Many students know the beginning letters and what sound they make, but
they are unable to use them when reading, so they simply guess the word. Guess the
Covered Word will help Toby to learn the beginning sounds systematically and teach
them in the context of reading. This strategy will also help Toby think simultaneously
about the letters and the sounds and what would make sense in the context. The teacher
would begin this activity by reading a sentence and asking the student to guess what the
covered word is. Next the teacher can uncover up the word to the vowel, then write
student guesses on the board. This would be an excellent review of beginning sounds for
Toby.

8. Word Analysis Skills (Tiedt and Tiedt pg 63)


This activity would help Toby work through the process of decoding words. One specific
component of word analysis that would benefit Toby is the decoding of words with long
vowel sounds. This would involve Toby creating a list of words from a story that have
long vowel sounds. Then, he would write the pronunciation symbol of the sound after
each word. Tiedt suggests that students consult a dictionary to be sure that pronunciation
symbols are correct after adding them to the list. This would be a great thing for Toby to
do.

9. Big Words Topic Collection (Cunningham pg 143)


Using a big words topic collection will help to increase Toby’s sight words, make
interconnections and build relationships between topics, thus promoting comprehension,
and also to create a collection of larger words that he is not familiar with. This strategy
focuses on starting a collection of words that are relevant to both the students and the
topic. To implement this strategy, reserve a bulletin board in your classroom and display
pictures related to the unit/topic that you are currently using. Tell the students that they
need to help find big words about the topic. Add the students’ suggestions to the board,
having them give a rationale or explanation as to why the word is relevant to the topic.
This strategy will help students explore a topic or unit, to familiarize them with larger,
more complex words that they might not otherwise know or even attempt, and also to

12
increase comprehension on the topic, build background knowledge, and to encourage
spelling.

10. Rounding up Rhymes (Cunningham pgs 95-96)


This technique will help Toby identify spelling patterns in rhyming words and to help
him with vowel blends. This technique also will help Toby read and spell other words
once he is able to establish patterns in words. To implement this technique in the
classroom, first read a book to the students with a variety of rhyming words. Then re-
read each page and have the students pick out the rhyming words. Write the words down
on the board or on index cards to be used in a pocket chart. Continue having the students
find six or seven sets of rhyming words. Next, re-read the book again, pointing to each
word in the pocket chart as you get to it. Have the students identify the spelling pattern
in each word and underline it. The next step, the transfer of information, the students will
use rhyming words to read and spell other words. Write new rhyming words and have
students find the spelling pattern. Students can then help organize the new words in the
pocket chart under the appropriate pattern.

11. Making Words (Cunningham pgs 97-107)


Using the making words strategy will help Toby in manipulating letters to form words,
which will give him a concrete forum to create and use words and patterns. This strategy
will also help him to increase sight words and his knowledge of word blends and patterns.
In addition, this strategy will help Toby in decoding new words as he is able to break
words into smaller segments, and it will aid in spelling. To help him segment the onset
from the rime of words, the children can sort the words according to their beginning or
ending sounds. To use a making words lesson in the classroom, give children
manipulative letters to make words. The children first make their letters into smaller
words, then bigger words until the final word is made. The final word, or secret word,
includes all of the letters they are using. After making the words, the children sort the
words into patterns, then students use the rhyming patterns to decode and spell new
words.

12. Polar Opposites (Yopp and Yopp pg 74)


This strategy will help Toby to encourage reflection on characters, to facilitate analysis
and structure of a story, to promote personal responses and connections to ideas and
themes from the book, and to extend his comprehension of the selected reading. To use
this particular strategy, the teacher first selects characters from the story and develops a
list of qualities to describe him/her. Then the teacher thinks of opposites for each of the
qualities. Each set of opposites makes its own continuum. The student then rates the
characters by placing a mark on the continuum of how they see the character. Students
must examine the characters to decide upon their characteristics. Students then provide a
rationale for their rating. This can lead to great discussions in the classroom.

13. Word Sorts (Cunningham pg 12)


This particular strategy will aid Toby in analyzing words to find patterns, and in turn help
him in decoding words and discovering how words work. This strategy will also aid

13
Toby in segmenting the beginning sounds, C-V blends, as well as V-V blends. To begin a
word sort lesson, children need to look at words and sort them into categories based on
their spelling pattern and sounds. The children then hunt for other words in books,
magazines, and other print material. Then the children would sort these words into
categories according to their pattern. The teacher guides the student in identifying the
word patterns, and directs the children to locate the patterns. Children can use word sorts
throughout the year by keeping a word notebook and adding word patterns that fit into
the categories as they occur.

14. Paper Bag Book Report


(www.askeric.org/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Reading/RDG0011.html)
This idea will increase Toby’s understanding of a selected reading by promoting
reflection and analysis of the characters and important events in the story. To implement
a paper bag book report in the classroom, each student chooses a book to read independently.
Students will analyze the plot, main characters, and theme by writing summary sentences
on post it notes and sticking them to the corresponding page of the book. The teacher
should model how to make a paper bag book report by showing an example. The
students should put items into their paper bag that represent an aspect from the story (it
can be a character, an event or any item). The students will then decorate the outside of
their bag to represent a significant aspect from their book. The teacher can display the
paper bags in the reading corner to draw interest from the other students.

15. What Looks Right (Cunningham pg 122)


This self-monitoring strategy will help to promote Toby’s visual memorization of words
to determine how a word is spelled. Understanding how the word is spelled then
promotes C-V-C and V-V blends. This strategy will also help Toby in differentiating
between common spelling patterns with the same pronunciation. To use this strategy in
the classroom, the teacher writes two words that rhyme but have different spelling
patterns, such as vote and coat. Then the teacher explains that the words sound the same,
even though they are spelled differently. Then generate other words that rhyme with both
coat and vote. The teacher then writes both ways of spelling the word under the
appropriate column. Next, ask the students what they think looks right. After the
children decide, they would look up the spelling in the dictionary to find the correct
spelling. This strategy also promotes using the dictionary to find the correct spelling and
meaning of words.

16. Prior Knowledge-Prediction Strategy (Gunning pg 368)


This strategy will increase Toby’s reading comprehension by activating background
knowledge, as well as to develop appropriate schema and encourage predicting. To use
this strategy in the classroom, the teacher should first activate student’s background
knowledge by analyzing the selection for two or three central ideas. Then the teacher can
create questions for each idea to activate the child’s schema. Next, ask the students to
make predictions about the story. This will help to reveal the student’s thought process.
Then the student reads the passage silently to assess their own predictions. Lastly, ask

14
the student inference questions relating the text to their prior knowledge. The students
should provide rationales from the selection to verify their answers.

17. Story Elements Map (Gunning pg 382)


Using this method, Toby will increase his reading comprehension by activating
background knowledge and schema, and aid in organizing his thoughts to find the central
ideas from the text. To begin using this method, the teacher should activate the student’s
background knowledge by asking inference and evaluation questions. The student would
then read the selected text. The teacher would create a guide to asking questions about
the reading passage. This guide would ask questions related to the theme or moral, the
plot, and major ideas or concepts. The teacher would then ask the students the questions
from the guide. These questions should involve all of the student’s cognitive levels. The
teacher and the student engage in a post-reading discussion related to the evaluation of
the material and the application of the information.

18. The Conversation Game (Cunning pg 337)


Using this game in the classroom will help reinforce Toby’s use of new words and give
him a forum to use the words in context. It will also help to expand his comprehension of
new words and to use them appropriately in conversation, thus increasing his sight words
when reading. To use this game in the classroom, form two teams of three students. Each
of the students is given three vocabulary words. The teacher starts the game by
beginning a conversation using one of the vocabulary words. Students then raise their
hands to add on to the conversation with a new vocabulary word. The team to use all of
their vocabulary cards wins the game.

19. Simulations (Gunning pg 345)


Using simulations in the classroom will help Toby to engage in higher-level thinking,
evaluation and application of a topic, and aid in comprehension of material. To use a
simulation in the classroom, form cooperative learning groups. Simulations are used to
convey an abstract concept, such as freedom or the Constitution. To use one of these
ideas, have the students pretend they have just landed on a planet far away with no hope
of returning to Earth. Tell them that they have to set up rules and a means of governing
the people that inhabit their new planet. The students then need to discuss the rules and
supply evidence as to why they chose the rules. This can lead into what really happened
in the United States in 1789 when we our leaders were trying to establish a government
for the people.

20. Word Detectives (Cunningham pg 152-154)


This strategy will help Toby with pronunciation and spelling of new words. This method
will also help Toby discover the relationships that exist between words, as well as
building his vocabulary and analyzing words for patterns and meaning. To use a word
detective strategy, the teacher would supply examples and help build meaning for a new
word, such as equation. The teacher would help the student to pronounce the word and to
see if they know any words that look and sound like the new word. The teacher would
then list words the students think of. The students would then pronounce the new words,

15
emphasizing on the part of the word that remains the same. The students and the teacher
would then discuss the meaning of the new words and to determine if the words are
related. This method will help the students to associate words by how they look and
sound and their meaning. This method will also show students how morphologically
related the English language is and to promote connections between the words.

16

You might also like