DRA does take a lot of time. I'd say about 15-20 minutes per child. First, you give a student a vocabulary list to pronounce. That helps you determine which level to begin with. Then, students need to read both orally and then silently. You then ask questions about comprehension. It gives great information, but it is time consuming. Here is what I recommended to teachers.
If you have an assessment that is given to all students that you think is fairly accurate, use that to "sort" your students. For those who are in the middle range, use classroom observations, classroom assessments including responses to reading, and conferences to determine if all the assessments seem to indicate the student is reading at an appropriate level. For those who are sorted lower, try some initial whole group assessments. Perhaps guided reading where you can ask them to share the strategies they are using. Conferencing with them about their reading, asking them to read aloud should help you identify problems. I'd only use the DRA for those who you are really perplexed about. I have always found that conferencing, talking or asking students to write about their reading is helpful. It's difficult to find a comprehension test that will diagnose specific problems with middle school students. You need to know whether it's fluency, motivation, reading strategies, vocabulary or other issues. Carol ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kelly Alexander" <[email protected]> To: [email protected], "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, May 2, 2010 7:36:12 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] DRA Yes it takes a long time.....look at Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment. ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, May 2, 2010 7:19:09 PM Subject: [MOSAIC] DRA My middle school will start RTI next year. The plan is that all students will get DIBELS as a screener, but only 6th graders (and maybe 7th graders) will get DRA as a diagnostic after the initial screening. I teach 8th grade, and asked about the DRA as a diagnostic in 8th grade. The response was the DRA takes too much time to give to everyone who might need it, and since we're just starting RTI, we're going to start small. I would like to give my students the DRA, which I trust more than DIBELS. Do you know if there's a fee per student for DRA? Does it really take a long time to give the DRA? Is it possible for students to take the DRA on line? If that's possible, my school might have a pot of money available for that. If you'd like, you can e-mail me off list. <[email protected]> Jan _______________________________________________ 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. _______________________________________________ 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.
