How to Assess Reading Skills

A running record accurately assesses a student's reading level.

Determining how well a child reads requires taking a comprehensive look at the child's reading level. A running record is one way this can be done with a great degree of accuracy. The Qualitative Reading Inventory-3 (QRI-3) provides reading materials and detailed instruction on how to assess a student's reading skills accurately. If this resource is not available, a simple running record can provide much of the information necessary to determine how well a child is reading.

Things You'll Need

• Book or other reading text
• Timer

Instructions

1. Determine what level text the student should read for the assessment. The QRI-3 has a collection of word lists that the student reads to determine the appropriate reading text to start with. This is simply an unbiased method of determining a starting point for the reading assessment. If you do not have the QRI-3, you can simply pick a book or other text at the level that the child seems to be reading. You need to pick a passage that the child has not previously read in order to get an accurate running record. Keep in mind that the text needs to be long enough to provide an accurate assessment of the student's reading ability. The texts in the QRI-3 are between 200-400 words long.

2. Take a running record of the child reading. The child reads aloud while you take notes and time the child. The notes for a running record can be taken on a copy of the text the child is reading or on a blank piece of paper. For words read correctly, place a check mark over that word in your notes. If you are taking notes on a blank piece of paper, you do not need to write the words down, a check mark will simply stand in for the word.

   For mistakes, or miscues as the QRI-3 calls them, write down the phonetic word the child said in place of the correct word. So for example, if the child said "hose" instead of "house," you would write down "hose." If the child then corrects the word, you write a slash next to hose and the letters "sc," which stand for "self-corrected."

3. Ask comprehension questions with the purpose of determining if the child understands what he read.

4. Determine reading speed. Timing the student while she reads will provide the information necessary to determine her reading fluency or speed. LD OnLine.org provides a chart that determines the number of words read per minute based on grade level. You will need to know how many words the child has read and divide by the number of minutes it took for her to read the entire passage.

5. Determine the child's reading level. The QRI-3 places a child's reading results into instructional, independent and frustration reading levels. The child's independent reading level is that which requires no instruction for understanding; the child can read the text comfortably and encounters few if any words that he is unable to read. The instructional reading level is the optimal level for a child to read during language arts lessons; this is the level at which you have opportunities to teach decoding strategies to help the child read unfamiliar words and to provide instruction for comprehension. The frustration level is when the child becomes frustrated by reading the text; he encounters too many difficult words and loses comprehension in the struggle to decode the words.

   The reading level is put together from three pictures taken during the assessment. The speed at which the student read should be within the average for his grade level. Score comprehension questions like you would any test--a passing grade indicates instructional level whereas a failing grade indicates a text that is at the frustration level. The instructional reading level for reading accuracy, according to the QRI-3, averages at 25 correct words for every mistake.

   The level a which the child accurately reads at an instructional level, can receive a passing grade on comprehension questions and reads about the average speed for his grade level, is considered the child's reading level.

Tips & Warnings

• If the student quickly becomes frustrated with the chosen text, stop and choose an easier text for the child to read for the assessment.

References

• "Qualitative Reading Inventory-3"; L. Leslie and J. Caldwell; 2001
• LD OnLine: Reading Fluency
• 321 Learn!: How to Do a Running Record