McIntyre,

M. 3-20-16

Formal and Informal Reading Assessment Report

I. Identifying Data

Student Name: Ashley Teacher: K. Pobuk
Date of Birth: 8-12-2003 Dates of Testing: 3-3-2016, 3-8-2016.
th
Grade: 6 grade Date of Report: 3-20-2016
School: K Academy Examiner: M. McIntyre
Chronological Age at time of testing: 12-6

II. Reason for Referral

Ashley was referred by her mother, due to concerns about her grades in school.
Ashleys mother believes that there may be an underlying reading problem, causing Ashley to
have low academic performance.

III. Background History

A. Family History
Ashleys mother and father are both high school graduates. Her father works
full-time, and her mother stays at home. Ashley is the oldest of four children,
and is often responsible for helping with the care of her younger siblings.

B. Developmental History
Ashley was born prematurely, at 36 weeks, and had a low birth weight.
According to her parents she has no known side-effects from this. She wears
very thick glasses, and has astigmatism in one eye. She met all developmental
milestones in the normal range.

C. Academic History
Ashley is in the 6th grade, and has never been retained. She has consistently
been at least one grade level behind in reading and math. Her mother says her
grades are normally Cs. She has sometimes received extra after-school tutoring
from her teachers, but they have never sought private tutoring for her. Her
teacher does not believe there are major issues. Ashley does not read for fun.

D. Social History
Ashley is a very quiet child, and self-conscious. She stated that she does not like
to raise her hand in school to ask or answer questions. Other children have
bullied her because of her thick glasses. She has a few friends, all girls.
According to her parents, she is extremely well-behaved and almost never gets
in trouble.


McIntyre, M. 3-20-16

IV. Behavioral Observations

During testing Ashley was very attentive, yet quiet. She did not ask any questions. She
appears eager to please, and often asked if she got the correct answers. Ashley was
easily distracted by sounds outside the house. She reads with her head down, held in
her right hand, which could be to help her focus her eyes on the paper.

V. Test and Procedures Administered
Administered 3-3-2016:
Gray Oral Reading Tests- 5th Edition (GORT-5)
Administered 3-8-2016:
Informal Reading Inventory from Opitz, M. & Erekson, J. (2015). Understanding,
assessing, and teaching reading: A diagnostic approach. Boston, MA:
Pearson.
Part 1- Word Recognition Inventory
Part 2- Oral and Silent Reading

VI. Test Results

Gray Oral Reading Tests-5th Edition

Ashley is in 6th grade, therefore her entry level was story #4.

Story Miscues Rate Accuracy Fluency Comprehension
4 2 5 4 9 3
5 4 5 4 9 4
6 4 5 4 9 4
7 7 3 2 5 0
8 9 0 0 0 1
9 14 2 0 2 2

The ceiling was reached on Story 9, after scoring a 2 or less (Fluency score) on two consecutive
stories.

Age Equivalent Grade Equivalent %ile Descriptive
Rate 11-0 5.2 25 Average
Accuracy 9-3 4.0 25 Average
Fluency 10-0 4.7 25 Average
Comprehension 9-3 4.0 16 Below Average

The Oral Reading Index (ORI) is found by combining the Fluency and Comprehension Scores.
Ashelys ORI score was 15, with an 18% rank, and a descriptive term of Below Average.

On stories 4-6, Ashley read extremely quickly and confidently. Ashleys most frequent
miscue was omission, either by skipping an entire word, or removing part of a word. Her
McIntyre, M. 3-20-16

second most frequent miscue is substitution, replacing a word with another one. Of these
substitutions, the most common one was a/the. As the stories increased in difficulty, Ashleys
rate slowed, but she still omitted and substituted words. As seen in the table above, her rate,
accuracy, and fluency scores are in the Average Range, but she consistently scored below her
Age and Grade equivalents.
Ashleys comprehension scores never reached above Average, even the first and least
difficult story. Her most frequent incorrect answer was I dont know. She would not guess
answers. Ashleys comprehension scores place her in the Below Average level. With an Age
equivalent of 9-3, and a Grade equivalent of 4.0, she is at least two years behind in reading
comprehension.

Informal Reading Assessment

Part 1- Word Recognition Inventory

Word List # Incorrect # Correct Percentage Correct
3-1 (E) 1 24 96%
3-2 (F) 2 23 92%
4 (G) 5 20 80%

The ceiling was reached when Ashley got four or more words incorrect on one test. The entry
point for the Oral Reading Passages was determined by the last test that the student scored
between 90-100% Correct. Therefore, Ashleys entry point was reading passage 3-2 (F).

Reading Passage #Correct/#Possible Word Accuracy Level Comprehension Level
3-2 (F) Oral 162/171 Instruction 8/10 Instruction
3-2 (F) Silent 5/10 Instruction
4 (G) Oral 169/187 Frustration 4/10 Frustration
4 (G) Silent 3/10 Frustration

On both Oral Reading Passages, Ashleys most common miscues were from omissions and
substitutions, often of commonly known words, such as In or the. In the Silent Reading
Passages, she scores lower on the Comprehension questions, than on the passages where she
read out loud. She quickly reached the ceiling, which is scoring the Frustration level on Word
Accuracy or Comprehension. This assessment could be given again in 6-8 weeks to monitor
progress.

VII. Conclusions

Ashley is in 6th grade, and has a Chronological Age of 12-6. She is a very friendly child,
who works hard in the classroom, and is eager to please. However, she has consistently
performed behind her peers in reading and comprehension ability. Ashley reads quickly when
the text is not difficult, but often omits words or substitutes words. She also does not perform
well on comprehension questions when the text gets progressively more difficult.
McIntyre, M. 3-20-16

VIII. Recommendations

Based on Ashleys vision problems, I encourage the parents to frequently have her eyes
checked, to eliminate any reading issues that may arise from her struggling to see the words. It
also may benefit her to have texts provided in larger print, if it makes her more comfortable.
The first recommendation for Ashley addresses her tendency to omit, or skip words.
Often the words that Ashley omits are small, high-frequency words, such as the, or a.
These are function words that can alter the meaning of the text when skipped. If the problem
is not a vision or decoding problem, it could be from a number of different causes. First, Ashley
may be trying to read too fast, and in the process her eyes are drawn to the larger words. Have
Ashley practice reading slowly and deliberately. Also, encourage her to track underneath the
words with her finger as she reads, making sure that she does not say a word until her finger is
under it. One way to draw her attention to the skipped words is for you to repeat the sentence
back to her, making sure to skip the same words. Ask her if the sentence makes sense without
the missing words. Soon she should be able to catch herself as she skips over words.
Another form of omission that was common for Ashley was to omit part of a word, such
as the ending. Beyond reading slower, and finger-tracking, a short exercise in chunking words
will draw Ashleys attention to each part of a word as she reads it. Have Ashley go through a
paragraph and underline each ending of a word, such as er or ing. Next, have her underline
all the prefixes and suffixes. Finally, have her read the entire paragraph out loud, making sure
to pronounce each underlined part of the words.
The substitution errors that were made are also a type of visual miscue, similar to
omission. In addition to the exercises above, there are a few different exercises that can help
Ashley with her visual discrimination. One such exercise involves using Word Accuracy Pairs.
Make a list of pairs of words that are visually similar, such as pan/fan, pill/pull, who/how, etc.
As Ashley reads her way down the list, take note of which words she struggles with. By drawing
attention to the similarities in words, and how to differentiate between them, she will learn the
strategies to help her slow down and accurately say each word, rather than saying the first one
that pops into her mind based on what she sees.
Perhaps most important are Ashleys comprehension problems. In many activities she
could not identify the storys main idea, nor could she answer who/what/where/when
questions. She could be focusing so much on decoding the words that she is not keeping the
information in her short-term memory. As her reading gets more accurate, her comprehension
may as well- however there are a few strategies that are specifically meant to help students
with comprehension difficulties.
First, Ashley needs to be aware of her comprehension while she is reading. She needs
to recognize when she is not understanding what she reads, and take steps to fix it. She can go
back and read the passage again. She can underline the words that she does not understand,
and ask for help or clarification. One good way to help draw Ashleys attention to specific parts
of the story is to teach her to immediately take a mental note of the answers to
who/what/when/where details that appear in the story. She can use a graphic organizer to
help her organize those details, and determine what is the important information, and what is
McIntyre, M. 3-20-16

not. Although she cannot use a graphic organizer on a test like the GORT-5, the process of
practicing, finding, and recording those details is extremely helpful to her during future reading.