The benefit of DIBELS, I found, was in its speed. For grades 3 and up, the test took 3 minutes, as the standard testing was only a few oral reading passages at 1 min each. Lower grades tested more basic skills, such as phonemic awareness and basic (CVC) phonics, and the time varied, but was rarely more than 5 minutes in total. Students who were clearly proficient could stop there, others who appeared to have deficient skills could be tested more thoroughly/diagnostically, with other measures, including more thorough phonic surveys, or F&P, as appropriate to their needs. Thus we would be spending more time on those we really needed to diagnose and prescribe for, rather than doing the same thing for everyone. In order to monitor progress, we administered DIBELS three times annually. That way we could adjust instruction mid-year, if progress was insufficient, rather than waiting until year-end to be sure what was happening. It would be very difficult to find the time to do that with DRA or F&P - it would certainly impact instructional time.
DRA and Fountas & Pinnell are both rather time consuming. We have used them too, and they really do a better job of measuring comprehension specifically, but as progress measurement tools they are cumbersome. One real benefit of F&P, I would say, is that it identifies a specific (F&P) reading level for each student, so that it can make it easier to choose a "just right" book. Carol Mc Reading Specialist, NY >________________________________ >From: Betsy Lafontant <[email protected]> >To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group ><[email protected]> >Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 6:05 AM >Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] I need suggestions about assessments > >Four years ago, each classroom teacher was expected to administer the DRA. >It took too long and severely disrupted instruction. Then three years ago, >... Our principal and curriculum coordinator suspended student services the >first 10 days of >school, recruited our learning support, ESOL and other specials teachers, >trained them and assigned certain classes or grades to each person. By the >second week of school, all students in the elementary school were tested by >this team using the Fountas and Pinnel testing system. They met daily to >discuss their results and to make sure their testing methods >were consistent among the team. ... The whole process is repeated in May to >judge the child's progress over the year. > >On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 2:55 AM, Saundra McDonald ><[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> Our school is struggling with deciding what kind of reading assessment to >> use for grades 3-5. In the past we have used DIBELS (mandated by the >> administration) and DRA2. Our principal has expressed her concern that the >> DRAs take up too much instructional time to administer and some of the >> teachers feel there is not consistency from grade to grade in how they are >> given and so the results are not that helpful. >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> 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
