The role of Oral Reading Assessments are important in ELL classrooms not only to inform instruction but to also document growth in the language acquisition domain of reading. ELL teachers can use several different resources to conduct reading assessments in their classrooms. They are as follows:
DRA
Reading A-Z Benchmark Assessments
Rigby Benchmark Assessments
Running Records
DRA is a commonly used assessment in our district. ELL teachers are not required to use this assessment but may find it to be a helpful tool to use to create consistency between general education classrooms and ELL classrooms. If DRA is not an option for your current teaching reality, then you can also choose from the above options. The point is that one of these assessments are used each quarter to influence level movement and help inform daily instruction.
When evaluating the results of any Oral Reading Assessment ELL teachers need to consider not only reading based errors but also language acquisition influences in the way students negotiate a text. Some guiding questions to facilitate this process are as follows:
What errors do I see in this assessment?
Are they skill based errors or language based errors or both?
Are the errors’ students making used in their oral language?
What does this tell me about this child as a reader?
How would this inform my guided reading instruction?
How can that be supported through both oral language and reading?
Teacher can use the following documents to record students progress and interpret results of reading: