I would love to forward your incredibly accurate email to the Intermediate Unit assigned to our school! They are not providing services to many students due to the DIBELS assessment. We teachers are pulling our collective heads of hair out trying to fight for services for these students who need remediation.
According to the DIBELS, they are instructional. However, the students are falling further behind in the classroom. We are a small private school and we have been denied reading services because not enough students "qualified." The Intermediate Unit is denying services based solely on the DIBELS. No wonder it is getting a bad press. It is being misused! I gave each of my students an IRI and found that while some have good fluency, they are not applying comprehension strategies, specifically main idea and inferences. The director of our school has moved things around so I can work with some of these students one on one to help them. This is so unfortunate. Thank you for stating the purpose of the DIBELS so clearly. Nancy Ehrlich, M.Ed. Third Grade Teacher/Reading Specialist Ambler, PA On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 7:02 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > DIBELS is meant to be a progress monitoring tool to assess the > effectiveness of a specific intervention being used with a certain student. > It is not meant to be a diagnostic assessment for all students. When used > with Tier II and III students regularly to simply monitor fluency gains or > lack thereof, it can be very useful to make decisions about the > effectiveness of the intervention used with the student. > It has gotten a lot of bad press because of its misuse by teachers who were > told to use it without the proper training. It fits all of the components > for a progress monitoring tool according to the RTI guidelines. > Since comprehension is indirectly related to fluency it can be a general > indicator of general comprehension for most children. However, just > counting the words in a retell does not give you the in depth comprehension > information you need to inform instruction, it is just an indicator of a > possible problem. I have always used some form of IRI to really get to the > meat of what is going on with a child's comprehension after noting that the > DIBELS fluency score was below the benchmark guidelines. If you have a > child that can read fluently with no comprehension (word caller), the DIBELS > fluency assessment will not be a good measure of comprehension progress. > I would suggest you investigate the Vanderbilt website (Doug and Lynn > Fuchs) to review all of the background information so you can use the DIBELS > tools for which they were intended. n Think of the DIBELS assessment as a > thermometer to just measure reading health, not a diagnostic assessment used > to plan instruction. > Good Luck, > Marianne > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kendra Carroll <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 2:15 pm > Subject: [MOSAIC] DIBEL > Our system has just chosen to assess using DIBELS. For those of you who > use it, which students are you assessing? Do you use a different method > to assess comprehension, if so, what? Thanks for your input!! > > > > Kendra Carroll > > Elementary Teacher Coach > > Sandy Ridge Elementary School: Amostown Rd; Sandy Ridge, NC 27046 > > Phone: 336 871-2400 Fax 336 871-2025 > > Pine Hall Elementary School: 1400 Pine Hall Road; Pine Hall, North > Carolina 27042 > > Phone: 336 427-3689 Fax: 336 427-4944 > > Germanton Elementary School: 6085 NC 8 Hwy S; Germanton, NC 27019 > > Phone: 336 591-4021, Fax: 336 591-7013 > > > > Email Disclaimer: Please be advised that the contents of this message > and any reply may be subject to disclosure under North Carolina law. > This communication is for use by the intended recipient and contains > information that may be privileged, confidential, or copyrighted under > applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby > formally notified that any use, copying, or distribution of this > communication, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. Please > advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete this message > and any attachments without retaining a copy. This communication does > not constitute consent to the use of sender's contact information for > direct marketing purposes or for transfers of data to third parties. > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > -- Nancy _______________________________________________ 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.
