Assessments for reading, as you already know, are an essential part of structured literacy’s guiding principle of diagnostic and prescriptive teaching. Reading assessments drive our instruction, inform our teaching, help us communicate effectively, give us insight into our students’ reading brains and most importantly, bring them success. But with so many reading assessments out there, which will give us the data we need?
This is one of my many favorite parts of reading intervention. I am fascinated by the data to be mined from assessments in reading and all it implies for instruction and my students’ success. Each student brings new questions and learning and the data gives me insight and motivation. Find out more about me and my reading intervention journey HERE.
In this post, we will look in-depth at benchmark assessments for reading and progress monitoring assessments for reading. These are not the same as formal assessments for reading, so if you are wondering how to test for reading disabilities, this info is not for you. These ARE the two most important types of assessments for your reading intervention toolbox, however.
Are you wondering what to put inside your toolbox for assessments in reading intervention? Read on!
In this post you will:
- learn the difference between benchmark and progress monitoring assessments for reading
- see progress monitoring assessment for reading examples
- look at not only assessments for reading fluency and assessments for reading comprehension, but other skills like phonological awareness, phonics, sight words, writing, vocabulary, and spelling
- learn why & how we use these reading assessments for struggling readers
- find the answer to,” What are the types of assessments used in reading intervention?”
- receive helpful tips for administering assessments during reading intervention
- develop your own toolbox of assessments in reading with direct links to paid and FREE tools (Get your printer ready or bookmark this post now!)
If you are searching for specific assessments for reading and its many components, read on!
Benchmark vs. Progress Monitoring Assessments for Reading
Benchmark Assessments for Reading
What are they?
Benchmark assessments for reading are typically given 3 times per year: in the Fall, Winter and Spring. By their nature, they contain grade or age level comparisons. For example, if you are giving a reading comprehension assessment, it would tell you what the expectations are for a student of the same age and/or grade as the one you are assessing. Typically, benchmark assessments are used as a baseline from which to determine and continue progress monitoring, to compare performance to grade-level expectations and do so over time.
Some benchmark tools are also used as screeners to detect early indicators of risk for reading difficulty such as the Acadience assessments. Think of your benchmark assessments ONLY as a starting place.
Data from your benchmark assessments for reading will be used in several ways. First, they will show you what areas of strength and weakness in literacy skills your student(s) display. Was there difficulty with reading comprehension? How about oral reading fluency, or specific phonics skills? Did you find strength in comprehension and vocabulary, but weakness in decoding?
Next, the data should be shared with the team of educators and family members working with the student(s) in order to determine next steps and additional services if needed. Does the student need additional support beyond what you are able to provide?
Last, benchmark assessments for reading will help to inform a starting point for your reading intervention AND which progress monitoring assessments for reading you will need to administer as you continue with intervention. Give your benchmarks right off the bat and determine the areas of need your particular student(s) display.
Keep in mind that benchmarks are different than formal, diagnostic assessments for reading which are used to diagnose and determine signs of a neurological difference such as dyslexia. These include a battery of tests which may include (but are NOT limited to) CTOPP, WIAT and TOWRE. Theses diagnostic assessments for reading are administered by a highly qualified individual or team of individuals and will help to determine whether or not there is a learning difference and need for further support.
Benchmark assessments can and should be given to students identified with a reading disability, but they are not exclusively for those identified. They can be used in a general education classroom, response to intervention classroom, special education classroom and/or private specialist 1:1 setting.
Benchmarks can be given in all areas of concern. Below is a table of the benchmark assessments for reading that I use and recommend to my teachers of struggling readers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 instructional settings:
Reading Benchmark Assessment Examples
Do you need to give ALL of those benchmark assessments?
No, but I do recommend they be inside of your toolbox of assessments in reading. I know that teachers and practitioners have a LOT on their plates. Some, I’d say are musts and others, I’d recommend, if possible.
Musts:
ORF (Oral Reading Fluency) because listening to a child read can give you lots of insight as to areas of concern other than just a concern about reading rate.
PAST or CORE Multiple Measures for Phonological Awareness REGARDLESS OF AGE because reading is a language based skill, and difficulty in this area is hallmark of a reading disability. Targeted instruction that includes phonological awareness can greatly improve difficulties in reading.
PHONICS: You need to have an idea for an entry point for your instruction, as this is an important component of instruction for struggling readers, especially.
SPELLING: Some students’ difficulty shows up stronger in this area. Further, spelling analysis can greatly inform areas of difficulty such as speech and phonological awareness.
WRITING: We often overlook this as a benchmark in reading intervention. You will learn about organization of ideas, spelling, punctuation, vocabulary, background knowledge, etc. Reading and writing are inextricably linked.
If Possible:
Sight Words: Most assessments are organized by grade level sight words, yet we know that teaching them according to phonics patterns and irregularities is more effective. So, I’d say keep track of which you are teaching and progress monitor once you begin instruction. BUT if you are in an iep situation and need data for goals, you may want to administer a benchmark assessment for sight words to gather data.
Vocabulary: If you notice that there may be some concern with age/grade level vocabulary knowledge, then yes, go for it if you can.
Progress Monitoring Reading Assessments for Struggling Readers
The progress monitoring assessments for reading that you choose will result from your benchmark data. They do not only include assessments for reading comprehension and assessments for reading fluency, but the many pieces of a structured literacy intervention, just as your benchmarks. They give you consistent data over time and allow you to adjust instruction as needed for your struggling readers.
These can be thought of as diagnostic assessments for reading, but you are only diagnosing your students’ progress and your teaching. Formal assessments for reading (mentioned above) help to test for reading disabilities and are not the same as progress monitoring assessments.
At least once per month, conduct progress monitoring assessments for reading, also referred to as formative assessments for reading. IF you are a reading intervention teacher or are doing reading intervention in your general ed classroom, make sure that if you have concerns about a particular child, you give these more frequently for that student. Providing sufficient data to your team is crucial, especially if you suspect a disability such as dyslexia. Find signs of dyslexia HERE.
If you are teaching 1:1 or small groups, you can manage to give progress monitoring assessments more frequently than once per month.
Analyze your data from these assessments for reading to gauge progress over time and inform your teaching practice. Is what you are doing working? Do you need to review any skills or regroup students? Are there any students for whom you have particularly concerning data and want to recommend for testing? Always ask first, “are your goals meeting the needs and next, is your instruction meeting the goals?” Collecting and analyzing this data allows you to make critical and informed instructional decisions.
There are many incredible programs out there to target instruction. Of course, Orton Gillingham can be used as a comprehensive methodology for reading intervention if you have the training. While some programs are comprehensive, there are others targeted for specific areas only. An example is Project Read Phonics which focuses primarily on phonics with minimal phonological awareness components. My comprehensive program, Everything You Need to Teach Phonological Awareness, focuses on phonological awareness. You may need to combine two programs or supplement one in order to give the best instruction.
Some of these progress monitoring assessments for reading will be the same tools that you used for benchmarking, some may contain the same probes and some MUST and will contain different probes.
Take a look at these progress monitoring assessments for reading examples below.
Progress Monitoring Assessments For Reading Examples
Links and Notes Regarding Specific Reading Assessments
Acadience’s ORF Retell & DAZE as Assessments for Reading Comprehension
ORF (Oral Reading Fluency) Retell: We tend to think of this ORF tool used exclusively among assessments for reading fluency. We don’t think of it among assessments for reading comprehension. However, the retell can give us some good insights on comprehension. You gather an overall sense of the memory for detail and ability to organize thoughts in order to summarize a text. Further, working memory has some indicators here. If a student is having trouble remembering details, there may be an issue with WM and/or visualization. Don’t skip this piece in Acadiences’ assessments for reading fluency while collecting data for reading comprehension.
Note your specific observations. There are SO many factors that contribute to reading comprehension and this is just a very small indicator of potential difficulties. This is why it is good to look at other measures as assessments for reading comprehension as well.
Acadience has LOTS of leveled reading passages (and other assessments) for both benchmarking and progress monitoring assessment. Assessments for reading fluency begin in first grade and go through their reading assessments for middle school. The passages are free for anyone to download, just create an account HERE.
MAZE: This is a 3 minute timed fill-in-the-blank sort of measure. Students must circle the word that best fits in the sentence. It is easy to administer whole group and once students become familiar with the routine it can easily be given in a 5 minute time frame.
PAST, CORE and Everything You Need for Phonological Awareness:
We tend to think that we only administer a phonological awareness test for younger students. But please remember we must administer these tests to our older struggling readers, too. This critical component to structured literacy instruction often gets overlooked.
PAST: A fantastic free tool for benchmarking; it has three forms available and is very thorough. It gives you very specific information on the exact phonological awareness skills (through advanced phoneme awareness) that a student struggles with. This allows you to target your intervention easily. It does not contain basic skills such as rhyming. Download the PAST Test HERE.
CORE: While not as thorough as the PAST, these ones are easy to administer. There are three different tests that target different phonological awareness skills. The three tests are: CORE Phonological Segmentation Test, CORE Phoneme Segmentation Test and the CORE Phoneme Deletion test. The good thing about these tests is that they include beginning skills such as rhyming AND advanced phoneme awareness such as deletion and substitution. Get the CORE Multiple Measures Book HERE. (Also referred to as CORE in this post.)
Everything You Need to Teach Phonological Awareness: This is a complete curriculum based on the scope and sequence of the PAST and David Kilpatrick’s book, Equipped for Reading Success. Along with the teacher administration directions and optional modeling videos for each sub-level, you receive word lists that have designated space for progress monitoring phonological awareness. These lists are fantastic to progress monitor specific levels, especially if you are working toward iep goals. Get Everything You Need HERE. Download my free phonological awareness assessment HERE (click the FREE ASSESSMENT button) to get started, especially if you don’t have the CORE Multiple Measures book; this is a solid starting place. My free assessment does contain basic skills such as words in sentences and rhyming and goes through advanced skills.
Progress Monitoring Phonics:
This is one area that my teachers have needed extra support when it comes to progress monitoring assessments for reading. So often, we are teaching for very specific phonics skills, such as r controlled vowels or specific vowel teams or words with open and closed syllables combined. BUT we don’t have the progress monitoring lists to accompany them, or to monitor progress toward iep goals.
I created these phonics word lists and included them in an “Assessments in Reading Care Package” for my teachers in order to alleviate this need and save them the time they were taking to create their own lists!
You can find the phonics word lists for progress monitoring HERE. Each skill (for example, ir r-controlled vowels) contains three different lists to rotate through your progress monitoring efforts so students do not become too familiar with specific words. Progress Monitoring Record Sheets and Notetaking Sheets make organizing and tracking data easy.
The CORE Phonics Survey is best for benchmarking. The lists do not target specific skills well enough nor give sufficient numbers of lists targeted at the same skill in order to progress monitor effectively. You want your progress monitoring data to target the instruction, the need and the goal(s). Though I highly recommend having this among your toolbox of assessments in reading, use it for benchmarking.
Vocabulary with CORE
CORE has vocabulary screening tests by grade. If a student struggles with decoding, read them aloud to the student(s). This test is not focused on knowledge of morphological units, rather just grade-level words. Get the CORE Multiple Measures Book HERE.
A good area to focus your progress monitoring for vocabulary, especially if you need progress monitoring for an iep, is on your instruction in morphology. Include words with the affixes you have taught and determine the students’ knowledge of the word based on their morphological awareness. Ask them to identify and tell the meaning of the affixes. Unfortunately, this is an area I have NOT been able to find a progress monitoring tool to match. Perhaps this will be my next project!
High Frequency Words with CORE
Core is a good place to get a baseline of sorts an an idea of how your student(s) is/are reading these HFW, it is best to progress monitor using the scope and sequence of the program or methodology you are using.
It’s BEST to teach high frequency words (also referred to by some as sight words) according to the phonics patterns or exceptions you are teaching. Fry and Dolch lists are not optimally organized for best teaching practices. Progress monitor with lists that you are teaching, this will allow you to see if your students are retaining those particular words and give you valuable data to drive instruction. Grab my multisensory sight word freebie HERE and add some fun into your sight word teaching!
Words Their Way Spelling Inventories
WTW is a good starting place to develop a baseline of where your student may struggle with which patterns and rules. These assessments for spelling should certainly be in your toolbox of assessments in reading. There are 3 versions: Primary, Elementary and Upper Elementary. Download the Words Their Way Spelling Inventories HERE.
As with your HFWs, it is best to progress monitor using CBMS based on your structured literacy scope and sequence. Keep track of the spelling rules you are teaching and use lists to monitor student progress based on those.
Notes on Writing Assessment
The Intervention Central website has many free probes, administration and scoring directions and a probe generator if you want to tailor probes to your specific students. The data you will gather with these quick 3 minute assessments will give you data on: writing fluency, words spelled correctly, and correct writing sequence, which is a measure of correct grammar usage and syntax. Check out Intervention Central’s writing probe generator and instructions HERE. Instructions for administration and scoring are HERE.
Tip: allow your students who struggle with attention to wear noise canceling headphones during writing assessment and practice. I have seen this make a big difference for some of my students!
Consider These Specifics for Your Assessments in Reading
These valuable tips and examples come from my years of small-group intensive reading intervention, my 1:1 work as well as my work as a Literacy Coach with special education teachers.
Develop a Schedule of Reading Assessments for Struggling Readers
Developing a regular schedule and routine for administering your progress monitoring and benchmark assessments for reading is key.
- Benchmark 3 times per year
- Progress monitor at least 1x/mo. in targeted areas of need.
- Make a calendar, consider holidays and vacations as you plan.
- If you have a whole group, take a couple of days, set up centers and conduct your assessments. Call in teacher assistants and administrators.
- No need to set aside whole days with 1:1; incorporate progress monitoring into your instructional time more frequently.
Take Specific Notes on Observations
- Trust your observations, even if you don’t know WHY, they matter!
- Note specifics such as behavior, attendance to task, energy level, as well as observations specific to reading.
- Sticky notes are your friends! I keep a small clipboard with 2×3 post its nearby at all times to jot down anecdotal observations. Later, I put them in students’ file on a designated page. These help me to see patterns over time, to talk with teachers and parents and, write up progress notes, etc.
Color Coding Does Wonders
- Use different color pens each time you assess. This is such a great visual and helps you to keep data separated if you use the same assessments from one period to the next.
Thank You!
I sure hope I didn’t overwhelm you with so much info on these assessments for reading. Assessment is truly the key to your successful reading intervention. Using these will only help you become more familiar and comfortable with them and see their benefits more and more over time.
These links may be helpful:
Reading Rockets on Informal Classroom-Based Assessment
Florida Center For Reading Research: Information on DIBELS measures (now Acadience)
If you haven’t already, grab my free phonological awareness assessment HERE
Classroom Printable Decorations and Creative DIY Tips for Reading Intervention
7 Captivating Ways to Increase Student Motivation During Reading Intervention
What Are the Benefits of Audiobooks for Struggling Readers? Top 5 Answers
