What's Up, Doc?: Setting Up in the Elementary School

Alright Elementary School. Unfortunately, analyzing your students' individual reading levels is way more tedious than any other instructional level. I know, it stinks, but never fear - I'm here to help and I think that the way we have it organized this year will be helpful to you.

Now first, our outliers:
K4 - you will be giving the GOLD assessment
K5 - you will be giving the KRA assessment

I have nothing to do with either of these. If you have questions about them, please contact Mrs. Campbell (Accountability and Testing Coordinator)

You can find the state department's information on K4/K5 assessments here:

For grades 1-5 (and Kindergarten in the 3rd and 4th nine weeks):

You will be giving the Fountas & Pinnell assessment. Our Summer Reading Camp tried this out for us, so you have some "experts" in your school building who can give you some insight as to how the assessment works and how it correlates to LLI (we'll get to that later).

The good news is that the F&P test looks a lot like the DRA at first glance. Many of the components are completed the same way.

The better news is that there is a website that holds instructional/tutorial videos and a whole other host of resources that you can access any time you need it (see the username/password emailed to you)

The website is:

resources.fountasandpinnell.com

Here is a screenshot of the pages of resources you will find on the website:

The best news is that our regional Literacy Specialist from the state department, Mrs. Fran Senn will be here to train us on August 14th. :)

Here's a breakdown of when these test should be completed. You will have a google form to turn in your results to me, your master teacher/reading coach, and your principal.

K5	1^st-5^th
January 12, 2018	September 25, 2017
May 25, 2018	May 25, 2018

**Tier 2 students: looking to test them using the optional writing component for more information January 12. More information to follow on this.

Where do I start?

If you have a transition sheet for your student, use the Correlation chart to find out what F&P level correlates to their last DRA. START THERE (DRA's usually score higher than F&P because of the comprehension component)

If you do not have a transition sheet, you can start here:

A little Running Record Review (found on F & P website):

Click on the picture to go to the file

Assessments At A Glance

Miscue/Coding Sheet

Your Running Record might look like this:

Practice from F & P (Also found under Videos: Tutorials):

Substitutions

Repetitions

Self-Corrections

Omissions and Insertions

Appeal and Told

Practice (Consolidation) 1

Practice (Consolidation) 2

Practice (Consolidation) 3

Scoring Comprehension A-K

Scoring Comprehension L-Z

Scoring and Analysis At a Glance

A Word about Analyzing the Miscues ("MSV" on your sheet):

We will be working on this together to help you understand what to do with this and why it's important to understand how the student is reading.

Here are some explanations to help you:

What is MSV?

Learn more about MSV here: (click the picture below)

Click on the example below for a thorough example:

M: Meaning - does the error make sense? EX: saying "screamed" for "cried"

S: Syntax - does the error sound right? (It is important to note here - does it sound right TO THE STUDENT? - think about the way they speak on a normal basis. EX: saying "to" for "for" in the example above.

V: Visual - does the error look right? EX: saying "glazed" for "gazed"

The other aspect we need to look at is self-corrections. Self-Corrections show that the student is monitoring their reading. We just need to find out how they are monitoring and how we can strengthen it further.

In the short example above, the student used meaning only for self-correcting, so structure and visual self-monitoring can be focused on during small group instruction.

A Word About the Writing Component of the F & P Assessment:

The Fountas and Pinnell Assessment Guide is going to tell you that you need to make sure you to assess writing for every student.

Ummm....

(Something we learned trying this in summer school) If I were you: I would have them complete the writing portion and turn it in so that you will have that writing sample for them. This will help when interventions are needed or more information is needed on the student. HOWEVER, you do NOT have time to assess the writing of every book for every student. You will be testing until Christmas.

A WORD OF CAUTION: F&P USUALLY SHOWS READING LEVEL RESULTS LOWER THAN DRA!!!

THIS IS NORMAL!

Why?

The comprehension component of the DRA has lower level questions and is very subjective in scoring. Therefore, we have "word callers" who can read beautifully, but do not understand a blasted thing they just read. Standardized tests do not ask the students to read. It asks them to COMPREHEND. We would rather their reading level be accurate in comprehension in order for us to know what they need from us instructionally instead of observe reading level scores 3 levels above where they are scoring on standardized tests. Remember, it's for the kids.

Here's the coolest part of using the F&P Assessments:

It correlates precisely with what we are doing for guided reading: LLI!!!

The Daily 5 and Cafe

You have a book you can use to help you with setting this up! It will be issued to you at the beginning of the year. Teachers at MES last year completed a book study on this strategy.

The easiest way to start out with this is from a document found online: Daily 5 for Dummies (click the picture below)

Along with this document, I have a Cafe book with the Literacy CAFE menu and pictures. There is also a website devoted to the system. We will hopefully be getting some more training on this system throughout the school year. Click the picture below to go to the website: