Q: I am wondering which assessments you use in your classrooms? Our district is thinking about switching from the DRA to the DRA2. Do you use the DRA2?
A: We use the original DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) in our classrooms as well as other assessments. (See below) We conduct the assessments at least 3 times a year with every student. Our initial use of the assessments is to find student strengths and greatest areas of need. The results, along with our Literacy Café Menu, are used to guide our instruction. We use the assessments throughout the year for progress monitoring and to show growth. For our more at risk kids, we assess more frequently. We have found the regular DRA to be shorter and quicker to administer than the DRA 2. It is a wonderful assessment for initial screening, diagnostics, and for progress monitoring later in the year. The DRA 2 is excellent for teachers who are just beginning to use and understand how to make sense of a Running Record and the information you can gather to inform instruction for each child. We also like to use the Burns and Roe Individualized Reading Inventory with our students. Once our children begin reading at the 3rd grade level, we move from the DRA into the Burns and Roe IRI. The reason we do this is that the Burns and Roe is quicker to administer, delineates out the type of comprehension questions students are good at and those they struggle with (ex: summary, inference, etc.) so we can focus our comprehension instruction. The Burns and Roe was written up a few years ago in the IRA Reading Teacher as one of the best IRIs. We definately comply with our districts assessment requirements, but rely heavily on our Cafe' Menu and Conferring Notebook as well. We utilize those along with the data collected from our DRA, DRA 2, IRA, Spelling inventory and DWA assessments to inform our instruction on a daily basis.
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