Introduction

Why should student reading be assessed in the secondary classroom? 

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     According to the 2019 KIDS COUNTⓇ Data Book, 69% of fourth graders in Arkansas were not proficient in reading in 2017 (Annie E. Casey Foundation). Taking this statistic into consideration, along with the tendency for the teaching of reading skills to decrease after fourth grade, it can be expected that there are students who arrive to high school reading below grade level. High school curriculum requires students to engage in deep textual analysis of both narrative and informational texts. Students are expected to express their analysis in both formal and informal discussions and in their writing. The question is, how can a student who is reading below grade level function in the analysis stage of Bloom’s taxonomy when they lack the vocabulary knowledge, decoding skills, and word recognition to comprehend what they are reading? 

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     The reality of teaching a secondary student who has gaps in their reading skills leads me to advocate for the assessment of student reading in high school. As a secondary ELA teacher, I believe there is value in assessing the reading level of each student at the beginning of the academic year because this professional practice allows me to plan intentional and informed instruction that is designed to meet the individual and whole-class needs of my students. In consideration of Domain 1 of TESS, assessing student reading aligns with 1b, “Demonstrating Knowledge of Students”, because it is part of a student’s learning process. Part of my job as an educator in planning and preparing instruction is understanding where students are at when they come to me so I can take students where they need to go. This practice also aligns with Domain 1c, “Setting Instructional Outcomes,” because knowing where my students are at based on the results of their initial reading assessments helps me to identify learning outcomes that suit their unique needs. Assessing student reading allows me to see what kind of foundation a student has in their reading knowledge, skills, and strategies. 

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     Additionally, this practice demonstrates knowledge of students by uncovering student skills, knowledge, and proficiency. Knowing what grade level my students’ reading levels, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension are on equips me to plan and execute specific interventions that have the potential to bring students up to their grade level. With this information, I can design coherent instruction (1e) that includes meaningful learning activities and incorporates instructional resources that address any deficits I find in my students’ reading knowledge through administering assessments. 

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Student Profile

     During my spring internship I had the opportunity to practice administering reading assessments to one of my students. I will use the pseudonym “Alex” to refer to my student. Alex is an 11th grade student in a regular 11th grade English Language Arts class. When I began my internship in Alex’s class, I asked the students to complete a Google form that would help me get to know them better. One of the questions asked, “At this point in the semester, how do you feel about reading?” and gave students the option of choosing a number from 1-5, with 1 meaning they strongly dislike reading and 5 meaning they strongly like reading. Alex indicated he strongly dislikes reading by rating it with a “1”. 

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     As I started working with Alex, I noticed that while he put forth strong effort in our class, he struggled to understand our reading material. For example, we read a short story of American Romantic literature as a class. Each student had their own copy of the story and was asked to follow along with an audio recording when we read the text in class. Later, when students worked with the text to find characteristics of American Romanticism, I spoke with Alex to help him develop an argument about how the main character displayed a specific characteristic. I listened to Alex re-read parts of the short story and noticed how he read each word slowly and struggled to recognize a majority of the words. When Alex read this text, he lacked automaticity. 

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The Assessments

     There were three different assessments I gave to Alex: the San Diego Quick Assessment, the CORE Vocabulary Screening, and the CORE Reading Maze Comprehension Test. These tests assessed Alex’s reading level, vocabulary, and comprehension, respectively. 

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     For the San Diego Quick Assessment, I gave Alex a word list that was on a 9th grade reading level, which is two grade levels below his current one. Alex read each word aloud while I recorded which words he pronounced correctly and incorrectly. I gave Alex more word lists until he reached three or more errors in a list, which meant he had reached his frustration level. Because Alex reached more than three errors on the 9th grade word list, I moved in reverse and gave him word lists beneath a 9th grade level until he had less than 3 errors. Alex tested at a 7th grade reading level, with no errors in pronunciation. This is Alex’s independent reading level, which means this is where he can read accurately and fluently. The results of this assessment helped to explain a bit about why Alex struggled to read the short story in class, which was on at least an 11th grade reading level, which is five levels above where he can read without help. 

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    Following this assessment, I administered the CORE Vocabulary Screening, which is shown in Figure 1, by giving Alex a list of 30 words, with each word having three words next to it. Alex had to choose the word that he thought was a synonym. After he completed the screening, I tallied up the number of correct and incorrect responses and found the percentage of words correctly identified. This percentage revealed Alex’s performance level. Based on Alex’s reading level, I started him off on the 6th grade screening test. Alex answered 63.3% words correctly, putting his performance level at strategic for a 6th grade level. This means he may struggle to understand grade-level reading content due to insufficient vocabulary knowledge. After I screened Alex on a 6th grade level for vocabulary, I gave him the screening test for 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. He tested on the strategic level for 7th grade and on the intensive level for 8th and 9th grade. The intensive level means he has significant difficulty with vocabulary for those grade levels. Based on Alex’s results from the 8th and 9th grade screenings, I did not test him further. I did not identify which grade level Alex’s benchmark performance level was at, but I did determine that Alex does not have adequate vocabulary knowledge for typical reading at the 11th grade level. 

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     The last assessment I gave Alex was the CORE Reading Maze Comprehension Test, shown in Figure 2, which required him to read a page-length reading passage. For every seventh word in the passage, the student has three words to choose from: the correct word and two distractor words. One distractor word is the same part of speech and the other is a random word that is like the ones from the passage. The student has 3 minutes to read the passage, and the score is calculated by the number of correct words they circle during that time. Since Alex tested on a 7th grade reading level on the San Diego Quick Assessment, I gave him a 7th grade reading passage. In the 3 minutes, Alex circled a total of 10 correct words. This indicates that Alex is on an intensive performance level for 7th grade reading comprehension, meaning that he is experiencing reading difficulties. Alex’s performance level on this passage suggests he would also be on an intensive performance level for 11th grade reading comprehension. 

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Intervention Plan

     In light of Alex’s performance on all three assessments, an intervention plan should be put in place to address his challenges with vocabulary and comprehension. Since Alex tested on the strategic and intensive levels on the vocabulary and comprehension assessments at the 7th grade level, I know that he is not only having difficulties reading at his grade level. Alex is also lacking vocabulary knowledge and struggling with comprehension at his 7th grade reading level. Therefore, an intervention plan for Alex should include instructional strategies that will support him in both his development of vocabulary and his improvement in reading comprehension. 

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     As I listened to Alex pronounce the words from the list in the San Diego Quick Assessment, I heard him apply the incorrect sound to some of the letters in the word. There were times when Alex pronounced the word correctly, but spoke it in segmented parts, as if he were sounding the word out. This indicates that Alex would benefit from working on his decoding skills, which will help him pronounce words correctly and support his vocabulary expansion. One instructional strategy I have in mind is Spelling in Parts (SIP) from Reutzel and Cooter’s Strategies for Reading Assessment and Instruction: Helping Every Child Succeed. This strategy would help Alex apply the correct sound to the letters and then pronounce the entire word correctly. SIP requires the student to take a word, underline the vowels, and divide the word into chunks around the vowels. Then, the student blends the letters in each chunk, says the chunk, and then blends and combines each chunk to the one before until they have successfully pronounced the entire word. With this strategy, Alex brushes up on the rules of letter sounds, practices applying the correct sound to each letter, and practices blending and combining those sounds in a single word. The long-term goal is for Alex to be able to pronounce words efficiently and effortlessly, without having to break down and sound out the words. However, he cannot do this unless he is well-practiced in letter-sound relationships in words. With SIP, Alex gets the exposure he needs to this skill so he can improve his automaticity. 

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     One instructional strategy that would support growth in Alex’s vocabulary knowledge is using word maps. With this strategy, Alex would start with a list of targeted words from a passage we’re using in class. Then, Alex would use a graphic organizer that has a place to define the word, a place to write what the word is like, and a place to identify examples of the word. Word maps are useful to students because they help them to connect a new or unfamiliar word to words or concepts they already understand. This practice supports both Alex’s vocabulary and comprehension development. The reason this strategy is also supportive of reading comprehension is because of how it connects new words to familiar words or concepts. According to ReadingRockets.org, “to comprehend a story or text, readers will need a threshold of knowledge about the topic” (Neuman et al.). When a student accesses background knowledge to make meaning, they strengthen their reading comprehension. One of the tactics Neuman et al. identifies to help build background knowledge when students are lacking is to make comparisons, such as an analogy. This is what is done in a word map exercise-students take a word from their targeted word list and write what the word is like, making a comparison between the two. Students simultaneously improve their vocabulary by learning new words and improve their reading comprehension by making a comparison that allows them to understand the meaning of the word as they come across it in the text that is being used in class. If the SIP and word map strategies are implemented regularly in class, Alex’s skills in decoding, automaticity, vocabulary, and reading comprehension can improve as he is challenged through his work in the classroom.