Post #2

So I have chosen to use the DRA kit to assess my student for my case study assignment. I was able to get my hands on a DRA kit that includes levels 60-80 which is appropriate for my work with middle school students. The school that I work at does not use the DRA, but instead consistently uses DIBELS to assess reading fluency (rate/accuracy/automaticity) and does not include the re-tell / comprehension piece.

As I was going through the DRA kit, the one thing that surprised me the most was the amount of writing the older students have to do. I had expected that students would answer comprehension questions post reading the text, but when I started looking through both the Teacher Observation Guide and the Student Booklet, I discovered that students will also be asked to complete "Before Reading: Predictions", "After Reading: Summary", "Literal Comprehension", "Interpretations", "Reflections" and "Metacongnitive Awareness". I couldn't imagine having to perform this lengthy of an assessment on an entire class of students in a GIVEN time frame. What do you do with the rest of your class at this time?

One aspect of the DRA that I did like was how organized and planned out it is. It has very simple instructions and has everything you need in each individual file.

One last thing: I will be testing a 7th grade student and therefore chose a level 70 text. As I was learning a little more about the assessment, it was brought to my attention that reading a Level 70 Fiction is not the same as reading a Level 70 Non-Fiction. Students will need to be able to read a leveled NF text in order to move on to the next DRA reading level.