Betsy Baldwin
RE 5715
IRI
Donald F.
4th Grade
Cook Elementary
Administered: March, 07
INSTRUCTIONAL LEVEL:
This IRI was administered to a fourth grader at the end of the third quarter. Donald’s word recognition tasks revealed that he is independent at level two with a flash score of 90, untimed score of 100. Although his flash score of 85 at level three signifies that he is instructional at that level, he exhibits strong pick-up with his untimed score of 100. Because his flash score indicates that he is instructional at level three, I began his oral reading tasks at level three. Donald’s oral accuracy score, 91, is in the grey area for instructional but his comprehension score, 93, falls in the independent range for level three. Because he read slowly and haltingly, I worried that he would not remember what he was reading yet he seemed to comprehend better than I anticipated. Because this was his first experience with being taped I noted some nervousness which may have contributed to his frequent hesitations and self corrections. Out of 13 errors, 3 were meaning change. He mistakenly identified “recognize” as “realize.” His “fiernce” for “fierce” may have been an inability to pronounce and not a true misunderstanding of the word. His oral reading rate, 69, is very low, more typical of a first grade reader but it did not seem to hamper his comprehension of this text. His silent reading rate of 74 was equally low but his comprehension score for silent reading was 86,within the range for instruction. Because of his lack of fluency, I anticipated that the next level, level four, would be frustrating for this student; however, his oral accuracy improved to 98, an independent score, and his oral comprehension score, 86, falls in the instructional range for level four.
I failed to probe for a more accurate answer on the first comprehension question so I gave him partial credit for his answer which reflected his understanding that the animals had to swim but did not include the fact that they had to cross a river. For question 5, he seemed to grasp the idea that “wailing with fear” meant to be scared but he failed to define “wailing” so I awarded him partial credit for question 5. I did probe for a clear answer to the final question and gave him full credit because he seemed to grasp the significance of the rushing water but he did hesitate before he recalled that the beaver dam broke. I felt that he understood the basic idea inherent in this question so I gave him full credit resulting in a comprehension score of 86 (within instructional range) but even if I’d given him half credit for question 7, he would have had a score of 79 which would also fall in the instructional range. Donald had significantly fewer errors, only three, with this text and only two were meaning change errors. He clearly wasn’t able to identify “plunged” or “struggle” but he seemed to read with more ease than he had at level three.
His flash score at level four, 70, is at the lower level of the instructional range but he, once again, compensated with a score of 90 in the untimed word recognition. The “red flags” at level four are his terribly low reading rates of 81, oral, and 94, silent reading, and his low silent reading comprehension score of 44 which falls in the range for frustration. The discrepancy between his oral comprehension score of 86, instructional level, and his silent comprehension score of 44, frustration level, can not be explained unless he merely attempted to read more quickly than he normally does and lost meaning in doing so. Because Donald did exhibit improvement in reading accuracy at level four, supported by his flash score (70) which falls in the instructional range, I determined that this student could be instructed at an early level 4th grade with much emphasis on fluency work to improve his automaticity and speed.
FRUSTRATION LEVEL
Because of Donald’s very low reading rates, described above, and because his flash score (45) at level five fell to the level of frustration, I determined that level five was Donald’s level of frustration. Although Donald’s oral reading accuracy score of 93 falls in the grey area just below instruction and his oral comprehension score,86, falls within the instructional range, his struggles with fluency and his obvious struggle with the level five text reveal that level five is frustration level for him. He had 12 total errors, with 2 meaning change errors, which was not significantly worse than level three; however, his behavior began to reveal frustration. He began to exhibit physical tension both in his face and in his posture. Interestingly, his spelling tasks fell off dramatically at level five as did his silent reading comprehension score (72, grey area).
SPELLING
Although Donald struggles with fluency, he exhibited a consistent grasp of word recognition and spelling up through level four. He missed one word on each of the first two spelling lists. At level three, he missed two words; he didn’t know the “aught” spelling in caught and he didn’t know the silent k in knock. At level four he was still instructional with a score of 50. His mistakes were more numerous at this level but made “sense” and usually involved only one feature. He missed doubling consonants in popped, scurry and slammed. He doubled the r in preparing when he did not need to, he added an extra e to cozy and he substituted an a for e in gravel. At level five, his mistakes were numerous and his score of 42 fell into the grey area just above frustration level. His spelling began to suffer from mistakes involving more than one feature such as lunar where he doubled the n and substituted e for a and honorable where he omitted the h and substituted e for o. Donald could benefit from word work at level four to support his reading and allow him to work on automaticity and improve fluency before he tackles level five spelling.