First, what are you referring to with PALS? Second, in my opinion, trying to do what you're thinking of with DIBELS and guided reading levels would be like attempting to classify broccoli or carrots into types of fruit. DIBELS doesn't test reading.
On Wed, Sep 17, 2008 at 9:59 AM, Marcia Carrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > I went to a CORE RTI Institute training the last two days and I am > excited about the opportunities we have a chance to make happen with > our students that are falling through the cracks now. This is our > school's first year using RTI, so we are now using DIDELS in all the > grades. We previously used DRA (and CBMs) with every child to chart > progress and to get information for placement in the flexible guided > reading groups. Over the summer the Literacy committee, which I am > on, decided that K-2 grade need to be assessed using the PALS because > it assesses the 5 big components of the National Reading Panel more > throughly and would give us more useful results to see what our > intervention tiers (groups) should work on. Over the years, our > district has really struggled with the areas of phonemic awareness and > phonics. Our district has many other assessments, too (as do many > districts), so we decided to only administer the DRA to those students > that reached benchmark in PALS and not require the DRA to be given to > the ones that are below benchmark. Our thinking was that the PALs can > give us more information on what those "struggling" students are > struggling with instead of only realizing that a student is not at > grade level or needs more comprehension lessons which are pretty > subjective when scored, anyway. > However now since we are finally beginning to see the end of the > tunnel with the assessing, we are now wanting to create our reading > groups with all the students in our class including the students below > benchmark and do not have a the nice chart that tells us what guided > reading level to begin with like we did when we used DRAs for > everyone. Does anyone have something that converts scores or a chart > that compares the scores from PALS and/or DIBELS to the appropriate/ > approximate guided reading level? We had planned to incorporate more > mini-lessons in the areas PALs show are the weakest with the students > that will be in TIERS 2 and 3 during the guided reading group time > (regular instruction). I think our intentions are good. Yet, we need > to make the best use of our students time and not just guess. We > really don't want to test everyone using the DRA, either. Some > teachers are trying the " just guess method" with the students' > personal book baskets already while we are testing and finding it very > hard to do. If anyone knows of a school district or an individual > teacher that has any ideas or charts that they are willing to share > with us, it would be very much appreciated. > > Marcia > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
