Running head: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

Qualitative Reading Inventory and Informal Reading Inventory Cathryn Maloney and Jacqueline Garay-Cruz Molloy College

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

The Qualitative Reading inventory (QRI) is an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) administered individually to readers in order to provide information in two conditions. The first is the conditions under which students can identify words and comprehend text successfully. The second is the conditions that appear to result in unsuccessful word recognition and comprehension. QRI/IRI is party of many inventories used for over forty years as a tool to identify the reading levels of students. The levels used to provide diagnostic information are independent, instructional and frustration. As do all reading inventories the QRI/IRI provides graded word lists and many passages that asses the oral and silent reading as well as the listening ability of students from the pre-prime (Pre-K) through the high school level. It provides numerous assessment options. Instructors use the results of assessment to determine the reading levels of their students. Students can be grouped for guided reading sessions or choose appropriate books for literacy circles, reading workshops and independent reading. Additionally information attained form a QRI/IRI can be used to design and evaluate intervention instruction. The QRI/ IRI is also a great teaching tool used to document student strength (Leslie, 2001). The Reading Levels Independent: Student reads unaided with word recognition accuracy of 98% or higher. Instructional: Student reads with assistance and the teacher counts only miscues that change the meaning of the passage. Frustration: Student is unable to read passages with adequate word recognition and comprehension (Leslie, 2001).

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

The Table above shows 7 ways to find Instructional Levels (Leslie, 2001)

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

There are some differences in the QRI/IRI from other reading inventories as follows: The QRI/IRI provides narrative and expository text at every grade level Levels pre-primer to second grade levels divides passages that have pictures from nonpicture passages. Performance is compared at the pre- primer to second grade level by how much a student relies on external cues for word recognition and comprehension There is assessment of prior knowledge of the content passage. Based on the results of prior knowledge the examiner can label the passage as familiar or unfamiliar. Topics vary by grade level. Through middle school level the topics that are generally familiar. At high school level the topics are representative of typical secondary curricular content. At this level most passage topics are unfamiliar to students (Leslie, 2010). QRI/IRI assessment and scoring:
The IRI is scored and interpreted through worksheets. There are worksheets for word recognition and a miscue tally chart , and worksheet for qualitative analysis of uncorrected miscues in context . Teachers also use

Summary Forms: Teacher Summary Form for Quantitative Analysis Teacher Summary of Qualitative Analysis (Roe, 2002)

Performance Ranges and Scoring: To assess the informal

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

reading inventory, the teacher may use two worksheets that contain a word recognition miscue tally chart and a qualitative analysis of uncorrected miscues in the context. If the student falls below 90% on word recognition and achieves below 50% comprehension on either the oral or silent reading, the student should not continue to a higher reading level passage. The listening level of comprehension is 75%, so the reading level should continue to higher levels until the student no longer can answer 75% of the questions correctly (Roe, 2002, p. 20). There are two lists of twenty words from each reading level from preprimer twelfth grade that function as placement tools to help the teacher decide where to start administering the graded passages while reaching the highest level of 100% correct. An informal reading inventory contains graded passages for all reading levels (preprimer twelfth grade) which include four selections. The teacher would administer both oral and silent reading to measure each level, while asking comprehension questions. By administering both oral and silent reading, the combined results will display a better understanding of the students difficulties (Roe, 2002, p. 2).

Word Lists: 3 main functions 1. Help assess accuracy of word identification 2. Help assess speed and automaticity of word identification 3. Help determine a starting point for reading the initial passage The fifth edition of the QRI has new features. The word lists in grades pr-prime (pre-k) to 2nd grade have lists that contain phonetically regular vowel patterns. These words are high frequency words. Students will recognize them as sight words and not be aware of the sound

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

patterns they contain. An additional list of low frequency words is provided that contains same phonetically regular phonograms (Leslie, 2010). The feature allows an examiner to: 1. Determine if the students recognizes phonograms as phonetic units 2. Determine if the student knows the more common or frequent phonograms, thus a beginning point to phonics instruction (Leslie, 2010).

The Passages: read by a student orally or silently assess their ability to read and understand what they are reading. Passages can also be used to asses a students listening level (Leslie, 2001). Usually do oral, silent, and then listening. Start with a passage at the students placement level from the word lists. Tell the student what will be expected during the assessment process. Present the students copy of the first passage and read the introductory statement to him. Ask the student to read the passage orally. Mark all miscues on the teacher copy as the child reads. Quickly count up the miscues and circle the percentage of word recognition correct on the teacher copy. Dont count self corrections, repetitions, and mispronunciations of proper nouns. Oral Reading According to Roe (2002), oral reading sequence should begin on the highest level at which the student achieved a perfect score on the graded word list. The examiner cannot

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

indicate correctness or incorrectness while the student reads the passage. The administrator will mark any of the following reading miscues (p. 16): Mispronunciation: the student attempts to pronounce but produces a nonsense word, rather than a real one Substitution: the student substitutes a real word that is Refusal to pronounce: the student neither pronounces nor attempts to do so. The teacher pronounces the that testing can continue Insertion: the student inserts a word or a series of does not appear in the text Omission: the student omits a word or a continuous of words in the text, but continues to read Repetition: the student repeats one or more words that read. Reversal: the student reverses the order of the words or letters. have been sequence words that incorrect the word word so the word

Silent Reading During a silent reading, the teacher gives the student a reading passage of the same level. The student reads the passage silently, while the teacher cannot help with any parts of the passage. Following the completion of the reading passage, the teacher removes the passage from the student and asks comprehension questions about the passage. The comprehension questions contain the following: Main idea

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

Detail Vocabulary Cause and Effect/ Inference Sequence Inference Vocabulary

Measures of Comprehension: After the initial reading of a passage the student is asked to retell and recall the passage. The teacher also conducts a series of questioning about the passage. At higher grade levels more measures of comprehension are taken. It is designed to assess the quality of the readers unaided recall. It checks to see how well the reader understands the text when asked questions about the text. It also examines the quality of a students comprehension during reading.

Four Measures: Retelling: The student retells the passage after reading in his/her own words. Questions: The teacher will ask text- implicit and text-explicit questions. Look Back: (Grades 3-12) The teacher will ask the student to look back to correct any erroneous answers from the questioning or locate missing information. Think Aloud: (Grades 6-12) The teacher will ask students to think aloud while reading and prompt them to share their thoughts at certain points in the passage (Leslie, 2001).

READING METHOD: QUALITATIVE READING INVENTORY AND INFORMAL READING INVENTORY

How to Administer an Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) 1. Locate a passage at the students placement level. 2. Tell the student what will be expected during the assessment process. 3. Present the students copy of the first passage to the student, and read the introduction statement to the student. 4. Ask the student to read the passage orally. 5. Remove the passage from the students view and ask comprehension questions. 6. Present the student with a different form of inventory at the same grade level. 7. Ask the student to read the passage silently and look up at you when he or she is finished. 8. Remove the passage from the students view and ask comprehension questions. 9. If the student met both the criteria (word recognition and comprehension) for the independent level, move on to the next higher level and administer oral and silent reading. 10. When the student reaches frustration level on the oral passage, stop having the student read to you. Instead read aloud the next passage to the student. 11. Ask the student comprehension questions to the previous passage. 12. Continue to read higher passages until the student falls below 75% comprehension on a passage (Roe, 2002, p. 17). This inventory is a valuable resource for teachers. It serves as a looking glass into the abilities contained within each student. Through the reading method teachers can most accurately place student within appropriate reading levels. All inventories require a lot of preparation and usually take an hour to administer. It can be time consuming for a teacher.

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For best reliable results teacher training is necessary to ensure consistent scoring and administration. It is certainly worthwhile to spend the time and energy as it is a literacy looking glass with the amount of information that can be gathered.

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Sample Informal Reading Inventory: Taken from: http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/2688/2753469/Richek_AppD.pdf

Word List: Level 3 miserable chosen parents study harbor discovered unusual seaweed dusk underwater camera capture film accident maple excitement dangerous underneath screeched rescue arrived bandage reporters information passengers

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Level 3, Oral Passage 187 Words Background Question: What is an island? What would it be like to live on an island? Prompt: In this story, Kay lives on an island. Read to find out what it is like for Kay.

Kays Island Home Kay lives on an island far out in the ocean. You may think that it would be fun to live on an island. But Kay is miserable. Kay hasnt seen her friends in a year. There is no one to play with or talk to. There isnt even a school! Why has Kays family chosen such a lonely life? Kays parents study animals that only live in the harbor of this island. But Kays dad knows how unhappy Kay is. He wants to do something to make her happy. Kays dad discovered a new kind of fish. It has bright orange fins and a blue tail. Dad named this unusual fish after Kay. He calls it the Kayfish. It hides in the seaweed. It only comes out in the morning and at dusk. Kays dad takes his underwater camera to the harbor every day. He hopes to capture the Kayfish on film. Maybe someday her dad will learn enough about the Kayfish. Then Kay can go back to her old school. Then she can see all her old friends again. Kay hopes that day will come soon.

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Comprehension Questions: Literal, Applied and Implied Literal 1. Where does Kay live? On an island 2. Why is Kay unhappy? Accept either: she doesnt have any friends or she is lonely 3. Why do Kays parents want to live on the island? Accept any of the following: they are studying the animals, they are discovering new animals, or they are photographing animals

Applied 1. Do you think islands are lonely places? Why do you think this is true or not true? 2. What kinds of hobbies are you into? 3. Where else can Kays dad go to study animals? Implied 1. Why do you think Kays father plans to name his discovery after her? Accept either: he knows she is unhappy or he wants to make her feel better 2. Why is it so hard for Kays father to take a picture of the Kayfish? Accept either: it only comes out in the morning and just before night or it hides in the seaweed 3. Why does Kay want to go back to her old home? Accept either: to go to her old school or to see her friends

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Scoring

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Developmental Procedure for Sample QRI/IRI: Kays Island Home 1. The student will be asked to read a level three word list in order for the teacher to assess word recognition prior to reading a passage during an Informal Reading Inventory. (Look at the words on the list; do you know any of these words? Have you seen any of these words in any books youve read? Do you think the words are hard to pronounce? Have you ever used any of these words in your writing? If yes, which ones?). 2. The student will be asked to read Kays Island Home orally. (What are your thoughts on this passage? Is Kay happy? Why or why not? Who lives with Kay on the island? What is Kay doing on the island?) 3. The student will answer applied and implied questions that relate to the passage. (Do you think islands are lonely places? Why do you think this is true or not true? What kinds of hobbies are you into? How would you feel if you havent seen your friends in a year? Where else can Kays dad go to study animals? Why do you think Kays father plans to name his discovery after her?) 4. The student will be asked to read the passage silently and assess by comprehension questions to determine if criteria for independent reading level have been met. (Why do you think it would be fun to live on an island? Do you think Kay learns from her dad about the Kayfish? Why or why not? What are Kays parents occupations?) 5. The student will move on to a higher level and given another passage if independent reading level is reached. (What kinds of stories interest you? Did you know anything about the subject in this passage before you read it? Can you retell what you just read? ).

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References
http://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/2688/2753469/Richek_AppD.pdf retrieved: November 18, 2013

Burns, Paul C., and Betty D. Roe. Informal Reading Inventory: Preprimer to Twelfth Grade. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print. Leslie, Lauren, and JoAnne Caldwell. Qualitative Reading Inventory-5. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2010. Print Leslie, Lauren, JoAnne Caldwell, and Lauren Leslie. Qualitative Reading Inventory, 3. New York: Longman, 2001. Print.