Melissa Rosanio

SERP 407A
Sammons
16 November 2015
Qualitative Reading Inventory
Abbi is a fifth grade student with a difficulty with recalling information and
comprehension. I had the opportunity to look at some of her reading assignments and I noticed
that her teacher had given her some materials that were marked at the fourth grade reading level.
I agree with her instructors determination that Abbi does perform at a fourth grade reading level
rather than a fifth grade reading level, which may be expected. Throughout our testing I learned
that despite starting at a slightly lower reading level she progressed through multiple passages
with easeup until we went over questions and answers.
Starting with the student word lists, Abbi began with the 4th grade list and was able to
read up to the 6th grade list where she hit her frustration point. The fourth grade list went well for
Abbi, she was able to identify 18 out of the 20 words on this list and the majority of the words
came automatically to her. This reassured me that she was starting out at the independent level.
The fifth grade list was slightly more difficult for Abbi. She read 17 out of the 20 words correctly
but the automaticity that we saw with the previous list dwindled. The fifth grade list put her in
the instructional level. Once we got to the final word list for sixth grade students Abbi had hit her
frustration point. She correctly identified only 12 out of 20 words and the majority did not come
automatically for her.
After completing the word lists we began with the reading passages. The first passage
Johnny Appleseed is a Level 4; Abbi was able to read through it but made a few substitutions
for words. She also skipped any punctuation that was not a period. By not including the commas
into the passage it felt as though the student was rushing. The student made 15 total miscues
while reading placing her into the instructional level for reading. At the end of the story she was
able to recall 17 out of 47 ideas and answered 6 of the questions either implicitly or explicitly
placing her in the instructional level for comprehension.
The second completed passage was Amelia Earhart, an individual that Abbi was
already familiar with. She only made five miscues while reading, which was an improvement
from the first passage. Her reading level for this passage was independent. She recalled 18 out of
47 ideas and answered 7 of the 8 passage questions placing her in the instructional level for
comprehension.
Finally, the last passage Tomie dePaola proved to be a challenge for the student.
Although she only made 11 total miscues placing her in the instructional reading level, the story
itself was very confusing. She was entirely unfamiliar with the person before we began the
reading and after we completed the questions she was only able to answer three out of the eight.
The remaining 5 questions were answered with phrases like I dont know or I dont
remember. Abbi hit the frustration level in comprehension. This is the point where we
concluded our testing.
 Once I reviewed all of the materials it was very clear that Abbi had the skills required to
read passages that were presented to her although she had a very difficult time recalling
formation on the various passages. Despite completing the pre-reading activities (Concept
Questions and Prediction), she still had trouble remembering the bulk of each story including
some minor details that could have been seen as necessary information. When it came down to
calculating her reading rate I was not shocked to see that her accuracy lessened as we worked
through the three passages. Prosody is negatively affected and I noticed that with her timing as
well as her lack of punctuation and emphasis on words. After completing all of the testing Abbi
mentioned that she skips through punctuation because she feels anxious to complete all readings
that are assigned to her in class. She also mentioned that she does not read unless reading is
given as a homework assignment.