From the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4byLeslie and Caldwell, 2006September 2016

Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI)Protocol

Assessment-in-Detail

Plymouth Public Schools

Preparation

DetermineWith Whom to Start

Start gathering information first on your students of most concern.

Determine the Level at Which to Start

If the student reached grade level expectations during the previous assessment period and (during the fall assessment period only) scored either instructional or independent on the word lists, go to your grade level “Reading Assessment Expectations” in the PPS Elementary Literacy Assessment document for the assigned grade level passage(see “Choosing Passages” at the end of this protocol for more information on selectingadditional passages). *

If the student did NOT reach both criteria outlined above, select a lower-level passage not previously read by the student.

Gather Materials

QRI passages (grade level plus additional passages below grade level)*

Assessment Forms

Administration

Who administers?

The classroom teacheradministers the QRI.

Protocol (Oral):

  1. Record student information on the Assessment Form.
  2. Begin the assessment with the Concept Questions located on the Assessment Form. Tell the student, “Before you read, I want to know what you already know about some ideas in the text. I will ask you a few questions to find out.”

After each student response, circle a number indicating the student’s familiarity with the topic. For more information, see pages 54 – 63 in the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4.

  1. Give the student the option to read the passage silently before asking him/her to read it aloud.
  2. Ask the student to start reading orally. You may want to say, “I have a passage for you to read. I will be making notes as you read. If you come to a word you do not know, just do the best you can and continue on. Afterwards I will ask you to tell me what you can remember about the passage just as if you were telling it to someone who had never heard it before. I will also ask you some questions about what you have read. Ready? The first passage is called (------).”
  3. Begin the timer.
  4. Record the student’s reading miscues on the assessment form. Use the Coding Conventions on pages 73-74.
  5. Stop the timer. Record the time on the Assessment Form.
  6. Remove the passage and ask the student to retell it as if it were being told to someone who had never read or heard it before.

After the student has retold as much as he or she can, the examiner should ask whether there is anything else the student would like to say.

  • If the student says that he or she can remember nothing, the examiner can draw the student’s attention to the title of the passage and ask whether he or she can remember what the author wrote about it.
  • The teacher should not offer more extensive hints or direct suggestions.
  • Record the number of ideas recalled.
  1. Askthe comprehension questions at the end of the passage.
  2. Score the questions according to the suggestions provided on the assessment form.

The answer to explicit questions must come from the passage. You cannot count as correct an answer that comes from prior knowledge (even if it is accurate).

The answer to implicit questions must be related to a clue in the passage. When the student’s answer to an implicit question obviously comes from background knowledge, the teacher can acknowledge its reasonableness and then ask, “But what do the clues in the passage tell you?”

Give credit only for answers that are provided on the Assessment Form.

  1. After scoring the questions and determining the comprehension level, give the student the text and ask whether she or he can look back to locate answers that were unknown and/or to correct erroneous answers.

To do this, reread each missed question, one at a time, asking the student to find the answer to the question in the text. Refer to pages 90 – 92 in the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4.

  1. Score the look-backs as correct or incorrect, and use this result to determine a level for comprehension with look-backs.

In order to receive credit for a look-back, the student should exhibit relatively independent performance. If the teacher has to point out where the information can be found or has to offer supportive hints, no credit should be given.

  1. Record all scores in the appropriate sections of the assessment form. If the student scores Instructional or Independent on BOTH the Total Acceptability AND the Comprehension with Look-Backs on the grade-level passage, enter the information on the student’s Individual Assessment Summary Sheet. Enter the Total Acceptability score and the Comprehension with Look-Backs score into TestWiz.
  2. If the student scores frustration on EITHER the Total Acceptability OR the Comprehension with Look-Backs, complete the assessment again with a lower level passage until the student scores Instructional or Independent on BOTH the Total Acceptability AND the Comprehension with Look-Backs. For grade four students, stop testing after administering the grade 2 passage, no matter what the score. For grade five students, stop testing after grade 3. Enter the appropriate information on the student’s Individual Assessment Summary Sheet.
  3. Complete either the QRI Class Summary Sheet or print out your QRI class summary information from TestWiz. Provide either summary document to your building CTL and building principal.
  4. While the instructions above are for the required use of QRI, teachers should feel free to gather more information by administering an oral QRI to students in January and/or May even though it is not required for all students. Additionally, teachers should feel free to administer the Silent-Written version of the QRI to gather additional information on students, even though it is also not required.

*Choosing Passages:

Your grade levelAssessment Expectationsidentifies the expository passage to use as a starting place for assessment in the fall. For example, the grade four passage for the fall is Early Railroads; the grade five passage is The Octopus. For students requiring a lower-level passage or for students tested in winter/spring, use the information below to guide you in choosing the passage to administer.

  • The passages in the book are organized within each grade by expository and narrative passages. Select and administerexpository passages, using the first passage at the beginning of the year, middle passage mid-year, and last passage at the end of the year. The passages are ordered from easiest to hardest in terms of text complexity. For more information on specific levels assigned to these passages, see QRI Passages and Text Levelsunder on the PPS Literacy Coach Website.
  • A common mid-year or end-of-year passage cannot be identified for all students across the district because the passage used is dependent upon the individual student’s earlier assessments and individual need.
  • Remember, what matters most is not the passage, but the information you gain from observing the reading behaviors of your student.