This article asserts that a carefully administered informal reading inventory (IRI) provides important information on low-achieving readers that is "not" provided by an end-of-grade standardized reading test. Using case studies of students' IRI performance, we address the concept of instructional level and the necessity of teaching low…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among summer reading camp participants' initial prosocial efficacy, reading motivation, and their reading skill changes. Despite the theoretical explanation of social and emotional learning (SEL), there is a lack of empirical studies demonstrating the complex relationships and processes…

This study investigated the complexity of leveled passages used in four classroom reading assessments. A total of 167 passages leveled for Grades 1-6 from these assessments were analyzed using four analytical tools of text complexity. More traditional, two-factor measures of text complexity found a general trend of fairly consistent across-grade…

Standardized testing is widely utilized to determine the levels of children's learning achievement. There has been a constant debate on how accurately standardized tests reflect children's achievement. Many practice teachers struggle with teaching to the test to meet the national criteria. An elementary teacher questioned the accuracy of the…

This study explored the use of animal-assisted therapy with students identified with a learning disability and limited reading success. Initially, reading progress was defined as the participants' comprehension rate obtained from an oral Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) passage. The nature of the Informal Reading Inventory requires the…

Reading Success is an individualized teacher-guided literacy program proven for 663 students who experienced difficulty with reading. The students had learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and behavior challenges; were at risk for school failure; or were transitioning from speaking Spanish to English and experiencing literacy problems.…

This study models improving classroom reading instruction through valid assessment and individualized metacomprehension. Individualized cognitive profiles of Woodcock-Johnson III cognitive abilities correlated with reading comprehension were used during classroom independent reading for judgments of learning, feedback, self-reflection, and…

For this content analysis study, the author examined and cross-compared the various ways in which eight informal reading inventories (IRIs) published from 2004 to 2008 address key issues relevant to new U.S. federal guidelines and the National Reading Panel's five critical components of reading instruction. Results suggest the IRIs range in…

This book contains a collection of formal and informal reading assessments for use with students in Grades K-12. These assessments assist the teacher in targeting areas of strength and weakness, in monitoring student reading development, and in planning appropriate instruction. Unlike large-scale achievement tests, the majority of these…

Reviews the literature in the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) on diagnosing reading difficulties through the use of informal reading inventories. (RB)

Suggests that informal word analysis inventories be used to determine a pupil's skill mastery level and, because of the flexibility of informal tests, that they are perhaps superior to standardized measures. (TO)

This paper discusses several evaluative methods that are available for use in a reading program that is aimed at English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The contents include: "Evaluation," which discusses the role of evaluation in reading; "Teacher Observation," which looks at how the teacher can evaluate the reading progress of students…

This booklet was designed to acquaint social studies teachers with the meanings of some of the terms used in reading which are related to social studies, to acquaint these teachers with the reading skills that can be taught and/or reinforced through social studies activities, and to provide a source of a model of such activities. Activities are…

Describes a series of reading tests devised especially for students in a vocational school. (RB)

Agrues that the Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI) concepts are useful for analyzing oral reading errors made within the boundary set by Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) concepts.