How is reading assessed in your KS1 class?

[bearstrikesback]

I remember when (taught in the late 1970s/ early 1980s) being shown the lists of sentences that get progressively more difficult along with the long lists of words.

Are these still used in schools usually nowadays? I have shown one to DD - I was trying to check she was actually using her phonics to decode non-typical words (for her) rather than trying to work out a reading age (as I am not that confident that these sentences would actually accurately do that) and she apparently had a similar exercise about a month later in school. The version I used was dated 1971 and was freely available online.

I would have thought that there is some sort of computer based adaptive test now or something similar? Is this still how reading proficiency is assessed?

there is computer based tests but ds was generally assessed by reading his current book, then one in level above then one above last year. In Rwi they are assessed with what sounds they know and how well they read but not sure how.

The reading the next book up makes sense to me - I just can't understand why an assessment method that was popular in the 1970s/1980s is still being used.

as I am not that confident that these sentences would actually accurately do that

But you appear to be confident that such a concept exists? It's not something I can comprehend - age has nothing to do with reading ability.

What sort of reading assessment are you expecting, it seems to me that assessing reading is not something that is normally required other than on an interactive basis by the teacher to see how the child is progressing, or as part of an overall comprehension exercise such as the KS1 SAT.

Reading specifically is not something that ameans itself to a number.

My concern is that they are using this method to select appropriate books for my DD to read. I don't see how these sentences can do that - in fact I don't really see what the point of them is to be honest other than the way I used them (which I know is not how they are supposed to be used).

I would have thought that by 2017 we would have a better system of assessing how a child's reading was progressing. There has always been a significant disparity between what books she has been sent home from school with and what she is actually reading. This doesn't actually bother me, as she just reads the school book very quickly and then reads what ever she wants to. I can see now though why this has been happening.

The fact she did one reading exercise once that bore some similarity to your test does not mean that's the method for teacher assessment of reading ability and choice of home reading book.

It seems your real complaint is that the home reading book is too "easy" and therefore you think the teacher should be sending something "harder". How are you measuring difficulty of what is sent home? Even measuring the complexity of English test is not easy or agreed upon and of course familiarity with different styles makes it even harder to judge the difficulty between two books.

No, that is not my complaint - as I said she reads what ever she wants to at home, and has done for the past two years. When a child can actually read a book in under a minute though, I think we can assume that it is too easy. It is also not the first time she has done this type of assessment as apparently the Y1 teacher used them too.

My actual question was how other schools assess reading ability - or are they all using reading age tests from the 1970s?

My ds done some sort of reading age test at the start of reception.
But those test only test "decoding" age, not really true reading age aren't they? I thought it's a bit like PSC but little bit more harder.
What is the problem with school using them? Are the books she's given affected by the score?

Actual "reading" ability is assessed by teacher/ta personally, I assume.

There is a computer test but not every school uses it.

Interesting, but how can computer assess reading ability accurately?

I suppose my problem is that they don't actually tell you a great deal and I don't see the point of them.

Seeing how a child performs with a book in a higher book band seems sensible to me but we don't seem to do that - so if they don't do that and are using these very old reading age tests how do they ever find out what a child is actually capable of?

We also have guided reading, which as I understood it should involve asking the readers questions on what they have read - details, inference, what the characters might be feeling etc. Apparently not though - it is simply reading a page each or all of them reading in unison. No questions are asked (same last year as well). When DD reads to me we always talk about the story afterwards to check that she has actually understood what she has read.

At our school they use a complex assessment system where the child reads to the teacher from a particular ORT book, and the teacher checks off a large number of individual items - phonics, blending, fluency, sight words, (I think also how effectively the child applies 'searchlight' methods), comprehension of all sorts. I think if there are enough checks, the child can be moved up, or tried on the next level particular book (I think these are books that they only use for book level assessment).

This takes a lot of time - 30 minutes to one hour 1-1 teacher time per child. So they only do it once at the beginning of the year, to determine the child's home reading book level, then let them get on with it (child stays on same level until read all books). The more able readers aren't then heard reading 1-1 at all anymore.
We are told that the teacher still 'constantly' assesses every child's reading progress, because every day classroom activities incorporate plenty of opportunity to observe the children reading.

I absolutely dislike this part of a supposedly 'outstanding' school. IMO it is totally sub-par and that, in conjunction with the school's very lukewarm attitude towards phonics, would probably make OFSTED very unhappy. Except OFSTED won't appear as long as KS2 SATS remain good (and all school efforts go towards getting those KS2 SATS results).
So though this approach may in theory be better than a 1970s list of words, it is really a 1980s method and not much better.

But these things are very individual to schools. Sadly, a lot of schools seem to be stuck in the ways of the 70s/80s but some have moved on.

But just because it is new and on the computer, doesn't mean it is better... See all the debates about Accelerated Reader (where if I understand correctly, a child answers a quiz on every book they read and their reading level is automatically adjusted according to how well they do on their quiz).

I agree that new does not always equal better but I just find it really surprising that given there must be a mix of age ranges among teaching staff, that schools are still using methods like this. I suppose what I am really looking for is an idea of what good practice looks like.

We have mixed methods too and a considerable proportion of the reading scheme stock is 15-20 years+ old.

“Interesting, but how can computer assess reading ability accurately?” It doesn’t. Notoriously unreliable.

The increasing more difficult sentence or single word reading tests provide a reading age /percentile rank and standardised scores and can be quite useful for measuring reading progress. They’ve been changed and adapted many times over the years and are one way schools assess reading.
Most schools will use a set of criteria based on National Curriculum expectations.

DD's teacher at the end of Y1 once referred in passing to 'reading age' among other internal assessments. Parents at DD's school are not given a reading age score. Is it common for schools to assess reading age but not communicate this with parents?

I get the impression that there is a whole detailed assessment system that parents know nothing about, which I find a bit weird (mainly because I'm nosy).

Ginmummy, Our school shares very little of their assessments with parents. I'm not sure if this is common.

bearstrikesback, Our school has a computer-based assessment that is basically only used for assessing teacher quality.

Reading assessments are done 1-on-1 with a teacher or TA. Once a year (or so), they use the PM benchmarking system where they tick off every word the child has read and confirm comprehension with questions.

For determining which level goes home, the teacher reads a book (or part of a book) one-on-one with a child.

Reading age is basically determined by the books that are being sent home. The levels have a reading age associated with them.

Anotheroneishere - that makes more sense to me as it is not just about reading the words. I have asked DD about this a few times but she is never asked questions about her comprehension of what she has read or asked questions whilst reading - what do you think will happen next etc? Reading with the TA and teacher is simply just reading the words - the same with guided reading with the added dimension of having to read in unison.

DD's reading has always been good but never really managed as such by school - so while on an ORT6 book at school she was reading ORT12 at home with ease and could answer questions on it. They insist on children doing all the levels and made a reduction by a few books per level as their acknowledgement of how good she was at reading. Hence why we just read the scheme book quickly now and I sign the diary. She then reads what she wants to at home.

It just all seems really odd to me and I would not say that ORT5 is a high level - yet that is what the most advanced guided reading group in Y2 is reading.

Bear – my DDs school is more flexible about what level they’re on: she skipped some levels and whizzed through a few others in Reception. However, she’s not challenged with her reading at school. In Y1 she ended up on Enid Blyton books as they worried that the next level books would not be suitable for a 6-y-o!

I’m not too interested in what the school does with reading any more (she’s in Y2). I can’t really see how they’re going to add value. She’ll continue to read whatever books they send home, and we’ll make sure she has access to a good range of other books at home, just like we’ve always done. I think they get to a certain point and the school don’t need to worry any more. I’m ok with the fact that they now prioritise the weaker readers, as long as they challenge DD in other directions (maths etc).

I think schools do a lot of 'internal' assessment - some formal, some less so - which serves many purposes such as tracking progress, planning next steps, setting ability groups or individual work difficulty levels, and perhaps also setting home reading book level.

I don't think it would be right to ask teachers to report all assessment to parents. It would make it very difficult for teachers to work and actually teach (not that it is easy even without such a requirement). Some effective assessment and feedback methods would become so cumbersome if they had to be recorded in a way that can be communicated to parents, that they could no longer be used effectively.

On the other hand, if all you ever get is a scorecard twice per year and some generalities at parents' evening, schools shouldn't be surprised to find parents comparing reading book levels and spelling test results and becoming anxious and/or competitive over such things. If you don't hear anything from school, then these things are the only way you can 'see' your child measurably making progress.

Given the situation that many parents do not simply 'trust' the school to know best, I think schools ought to find some sort of balance that allows the parents to be more informed about how their child is progressing, without school deteriorating to a place where the child is assessed and the results reported, but little actual teaching happens anymore.

At my school, we mostly just assess by hearing a child read - after a while, you can tell when a child is probably ready to move up a book band, at which point I would try them on a higher book band, and listen for fluency, using their phonics etc. I tended to ask the child what they thought of the level, too. I had one particular book I used to use as a test to move up from Yellow to Blue - it had a first page which was supposed to be read by an adult and was a lot more complex than the rest of the book, and one child picked it up and started reading the first page, and read it fine, so I tried her on a higher book band. After that, I used to get them to read the first page of that book as a rough test of whether they might be able to move up.

The RWI assessment mostly consists of asking the child to read sounds, real words, and alien (made up) words. Toward the beginning of the test there's an aural blending section too - the teacher says "b-i-n" and the child has to say bin. Later on, there are three longer sections of text which the child has to read, and you have to record the number of errors, and how many words they read in a minute. The idea is you stop if they can't read two or three words or sounds in a set, and that's their RWI level. The timed sections have a WPM that they have to reach to move to the next level.

“Is it common for schools to assess reading age but not communicate this with parents?” Yes because there are number of versions of these tests (Salford, Schonell, PERA, PIRA, GL, Burt to name but a few) and each version will give a different reading age so they are only useful as a progress measure for the teacher.