Informal Reading Inventory Report

October 11th, 2009

Amy Wheaton

Background Information
T is a second grader who is eight years of age. This is T’s second year of
Second Grade. I chose T because I worked with her last year in title one small
groups and have an insight into T’s background. T comes from a divorced family,
has one older brother who struggled with reading, and a mother who is in alcohol
rehabilitation. These assessments were done at the elementary school in a small
room with no interruptions during two half-hour segments.

Results from Graded Word Recognition Lists

Level Report only those levels tested # of errors made

PP 0
P 0
1 2
2 0
3 6
4
5
6
7
8
HS
Comments regarding results: T appears to have a strong background
in sight word knowledge when the word
is presented individually. She has
started to experience difficulty in the
third grade word levels.

Level at which Graded Passages were begun based on the Graded Word
Recognition Lists
I chose to begin T at graded passage one child Pat and The Kitten since
she missed two sight words in this grade level. She quickly read through this
passage with few errors and excellent comprehension, so I moved through the
passages until she read one at the frustrational level.

Results from Graded Passages

Miscue Analysis Chart

Miscue Error Types Error

Analysis Analysis
Correct Miscue S A/I O MP R WP Error SC M SY V
Text Totals
Saw Was X 1 X
The A X 1 X
Up ----- X 1
Saw Was X 1
Put Put X 1
The A X 1 X

Many Any X 1 X
Cook Look X 1 X
Again Only X 1
His The X 1 X
Sang Small X 1 X
Liked Looked X 1 X X
Hear Near X 1 X
Little The X 1
Ribbit Rabbit X 1 X

It I X 1 X
After Told X 1
He To X 1
And He X 1
Band- Bandage X 1 X X
Aid
We You X 1 X
We You X 1 X
James James X 1
Did Do X 1 X X X
It --------- X 1
Thought Threw X 1 X
Smith Told X 1
Acted ------------ X 1
Washed Shared X 1 X
Shiny ----------- X 1
Totals 24 4 2 30 5 5 10

Determining Instructional Level Chart

Level of Passage # of Errors # of Memories Is this the instructional

(PP, P, etc.) level? Yes/No
1 Unprepared 7 No, Independent
6
2 Unprepared 7 Instructional
8

3 Unprepared 5 Frustrational
14

Analysis of the Results

After analysing T’s miscues and comprehension from her reading passage
I was able to identify T’s strengths and weaknesses as an emerging reader.
T is able to do the following in reading…
 Has strong sight word knowledge.
 Able to use visual clues to help identify unknown words while reading.
 Able to use syntax clues to identify unknown words while reading.
 Able to use meaning clues some of the time to identify unknown words
while reading, such as Bandage for Band-Aid.
 Uses the consonant digraph th when identifying an unknown word, such
as threw for thought.
 Uses the inflectional suffix –ed when identifying an unknown word, such
as looked for liked.
 Uses beginning sounds most of the time in decoding an unknown word.
 Uses ending sounds most of the time in decoding an unknown word.
 Uses the vowel digraph oo when decoding an unknown word, such as
look for cook.
 Uses print-sound mapping to sound out unknown words.
 Uses letter-sound correspondence to sound out unknown words while
reading.

T’s weaknesses as a reader…

 Struggles with self-correcting miscues while reading.
 Struggles with using context clues in the sentence to determine an
unknown word. Such as in the sentence, “He only had a house to live in, a
bed to sleep in, and an old pot to look/cook in”.
 Struggles with reversals while reading, such as was for saw.
 Struggles with the -ough chunk while reading the word threw for thought.
 Struggles with the rime –ang while reading small for sang.

While reading passages T had a strong knowledge during her retellings and
comprehension questions of what events had occurred in the story. In the first
grade passage, “Pat and the Kitten”, T had six unprompted memories and seven
questions answered correctly. This was an independent read for her. As the
passages progressed in difficulty her comprehension remained strong. In the
second grade passage “The Song of Little Frog” T had seven unprompted
memories and nine comprehension questions answered correctly. She also
made several text-to-self connections while activating her background
knowledge.

T’s Next Steps for Reading Instruction…

 Practice in self-correcting while reading aloud.
 Further instruction in reading diphthongs and chunks.
 Practice in decoding of unknown words and strategies to use.
 Practice in onsets and rimes.

Skills Needed Teaching Strategies

Self-Correcting Explicit instruction, Provide one
sentence with one miscue and see if
the child can detect what the miscue
is and give the correct word.
Example: “The rabbit bumped up in
the air”.
Diphthongs and Chunks Explicit phonics instruction, Provide
structured practice, nonsense words,
making words
Make a “funky chunks” chart of words
that end with –ang. Make a
concentration game with these
words.
Onsets and Rimes Explicit phonics instruction, Phonics
Fish Game (Playing “Go Fish” with
word cards that focus on a word
pattern.) Nonsense words, making
words, word boxes.
Decoding unknown words and strategies Explicit instruction, Strategies
checklist, Teacher prompts while
reading “Look at the last letter, Get
your mouth ready to say the first
sound, Look for chunks that you
know”.

Reflections on Your Administration of the Inventory

While administering this assessment on T I found several things that

worked well for me while doing this assessment. This assessment was a quick
and easy way for me to find a lot of information in a short amount of time. The
retell and comprehension questions were right there for me to be able check off
in an easy format. This assessment overall was very user friendly. If I were to do
this assessment again I might spread out her graded passages over a couple
days to make sure the student wasn’t tired of reading. I would also use a tape
recorder so I could listen to the passage again for more information regarding
miscues and fluency.
This inventory would be useful in my classroom because it can provide a
lot of information in a short amount of time. It’s easy to take the miscues in the
passage, analyse, and reflect on where to go next for instruction. The passages
are nice because they are divided into grades and the graded word lists give a
quick assessment of where to begin the oral reading passages. This assessment
however did not give me enough specific information in overall word attack skills
that the child has. This oral reading record is only a brief window. After finishing
this assessment I would recommend completing a Reutzel/Word Attack survey to
get a thorough analysis of what phonics skills needed to be addressed.