| DIBELS Reading Assessment
Just what is DIBELS and how will it help improve instruction to your child?
DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills. Using DIBELS
helps teachers assess students to identify students who may be at risk for
reading difficulty. This assessment also is used to monitor student
progress and to determine when changes in instruction or support are needed.
What is Reading Fluency and Why Is It Important?
Successful reading requires readers to process the text and comprehend it.
Reading fluency is the reader's ability to appropriately read text in order
to understand textual meaning. There are three parts of Reading Fluency:
1. Accuracy in Word Decoding - Readers must be able to sound out the
words in a text with minimal errors.
2. Automatic Processing - Readers need to spend as little time on
decoding as possible to assist in comprehension. Students need to increase
the bank of words or word chunks they are able to recognize by sight.
Reading word by word and hesitating on challenging words will impede
comprehension.
3. Expressive Reading - Readers need to pay attention to punctuation
(periods, pauses, exclamations) to fully comprehend the text. If a student
reads quickly and accurately, but places equal emphasis on each word and
ignores punctuation, it is unlikely the student will fully understand the
text.
What Can Parents do to Assist in Reading Fluency?
Research indicates that readers become more fluent when they are given lots
of opportunities to practice their reading. Techniques that
parents/guardians can use to promote reading fluency include:
READ DAILY: It is important that your child read daily.
Assisted Reading Practice: The child reads aloud while an adult follows
along silently. If the child makes an error, the adult corrects him/her.
Encourage your child to "do your best reading." If the child misreads or
hesitates on a word for longer than 5 seconds, tell him/her the word. Have
the child repeat the word correctly and then continue reading.
Listening Passage Preview: The child follows along silently as the parent
reads a passage aloud. Then the student reads the same passage aloud,
receiving correction(s)as listed above as needed. Passages previewed should
be no longer than 2 minutes in length for the adult readers. With younger
students, parents should use their finger to track words to assist the child
in keeping up with your reading rate.
Paired Reading: The child and parent take turns reading pages in the book.
Parents assist children with word corrections as needed.
Repeated Reading: The child reads a passage silently at first, then aloud
to a parent and receives help with reading errors. Passages should be no
more than 100 words in length (children's magazine article). The child
should read the passage twice silently and then twice aloud or until there
are no errors or reading is approximately 85 to 100 words per minute.
Remember that fluency rates are based on the number of correct words read
per minute. If your child begins making numerous errors while reading aloud,
or appears to be reading fast but without understanding, please stop and
begin again. The activities above are motivation for students because they
can see how with just a little practice, they can improve their fluency.
DIBELS READING LEVELS
At Risk - A child is having extreme difficulty with fluency and is below
grade level. Consistent daily practice is needed for growth.
Some Risk - A child is having some problems with fluency and is slightly
below grade level. It is important to consistently practice weekly for
needed growth.
Low/No Risk - A child is at or above grade level and reads fluently.
Continue to listen to your child periodically to see if your child maintains
their reading level.
THE GOAL FOR THE END OF 3RD GRADE IS 110 OR HIGHER WORDS PER MINUTE!
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