DIBELS:Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early

Literacy Skills 6th Edition

Kristie Higdon, Meriah Gorrie-Dotson,

Ashley Stykes, Jennifer Glanzer

3rd Grade Classroom

Kit and Manual

DIBELS- Third Grade Classroom Set Overview by Louisa C. Moats Edited by Roland H. Good III and Ruth A. Kaminski

Constructed at The Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and Development at the University of Oregon

Publisher: Sopris West (www.sopriswest.com)

Cost: $69.00 The set includes:

1 DIBELS Administration and Scoring Guide (with overview by Louisa Moats)

25 Benchmark Scoring Booklets 2 Benchmark Student Materials 6 Oral Reading Fluency Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklets 1 Set Oral Reading Fluency Progress Monitoring Student Materials 6 Word Use Fluency Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklets

What is DIBELS?

Measures critical skills that underlie early reading success.

Predict how well a child will do in reading comprehension by the end of the third grade and beyond.

There are 7 levels- Kindergarten through Sixth grade.

Each level contains 3 or 4 short tasks that identifies at-risk students.

All students are given the Benchmark Assessments (screenings) three times per year.

Progress monitoring assessments are given to the at-risk students ONLY.

Based on 2 types of research:1. Predictions of reading difficulty.2. The psychology of people who are learning to read.

• Foundational skills of reading comprehension are measured by each DIBELS indicator.

• Purposes of testing reading abilities are:

-Problems can be prevented in most students.

-Problems can be detected as early as kindergarten and first grade.

-Children need to be taught how to read because they won’t grow out of their reading problems.

“The word “test” is less appropriate for DIBELS than “measure,” “assessment,” or “indicator” because DIBELS is a tool for planning instruction. It is designed not so much for determining a final outcome of instruction but to help improve those outcomes.”- DIBELS manual pg. 2

DIBELS scores: Determine outcomes at the end of the year and on high-stakes

achievement tests. Identifies which children need instruction and groups them

together based on their needs.

Very quick to administer the “simple” skills section of the test and costs less than other tests. “Simple” skills include: naming letters and segmenting speech

sounds.

Standardization Data

Population: not specified in manual.

The administration manual states that “a series of studies have investigated the reliability, predictive validity, concurrent validity, construct validity, and item sensitivity of DIBELS. Coefficients of reliability and validity can be found in Good, Gruba, and Kaminski (2001) and in Good et al. (in press).”

Purposes of DIBELS

1. Screening Starts in Kindergarten Completed during Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters annually

through 6th grade

• 2. Progress-Monitoring

- At-risk children only

- Weekly

- Done often to measure progress made toward specific goals.

3. Teach at-risk children before they fail.

Start Assessment Early!

Experiences with language stimulation, books, and environment predict later reading ability.

Phonemic awareness, knowledge of letters, and being able to relate the two also predict early reading.

These skills can be measured before learning to read takes place.

Children who are tested early can avoid social, motivational, and behavioral problems.

Children in 4th – 6th grades can be tested for fluency and comprehension.

Advantages of DIBELS Scores are reliable. Economical and efficient administration. Computer-based scoring system. (University of Oregon-$1.00

per child, per year). Repeated assessment.

Benchmark- 3 times per year. Progress-Monitoring- 20 different tasks or probes

Measures foundational reading skills. Predicts success or failure. Subtest scores are measurable after a short interval. Goals are provided for each grade/skill. Decision making about individuals is supported Decision making about school systems is supported.

Disadvantages of DIBELS For individuals under the category of progress-monitoring, it is

recommended that they are retested weekly. This is time consuming.

No validity, reliability, or standardization data found in the administration manual.

Each Subtest Contains….

Target Age Range

Description

Materials

Directions for Administration and Scoring

Pronunciation Guide

Subtests 1. Initial Sound Fluency (Kindergarten)

Identify, isolate, and pronounce the first sound of an orally presented word.

Example: the examiner says: This is a sink, cat, gloves, and hat. Which picture begins with /s/? The child is also asked to produce the sound of a presented word.

Response time is measured. Scored by tallying the number of correct initial sounds given per minute. 3 minutes to administer

2. Letter Naming Fluency (Kindergarten to Grade 1) Indicator of risk for reading failure. The student is asked to name letters (uppercase and lowercase) within

one minute.

3. Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (Mid-Kindergarten to End Grade 1) Measure of phoneme awareness. Example: Examiner gives the child a word or syllable with three or four

phonemes and asks the child to say the individual sounds that make up the word. The examiner says SAT and the child says /s/, /a/, /t/.

Score: Number of correct phonemes in one minute 2 minutes to administer Contains 20 alternate forms for monitoring progress.

4. Nonsense Word Fluency (Mid-Kindergarten through Beginning Grade 2) Measures ability to link letters with sounds and use that knowledge to

decode three-letter syllables that are non-sense words (sis, sil, com). The child reads VC (vowel, consonant) and CVC words. Receiving credit: The child will get 3 points for reading “raj” as a syllable

or for saying /r/, /a/, /j/. Score: number of correct sounds in one minute. Reading whole syllables gets a higher score than those who produce the

sounds separately. 2 minutes to administer. 20 alternate forms for progress-monitoring.

5. Oral Reading Fluency (Mid-Grade 1 to Grade 6) Benchmark passages used at each grade level. Measures accuracy and speed in oral reading. Read three passages aloud for 1 minute. Score: the medial correct words per minute from the passages. Errors: words that are omitted or substituted, or hesitations of more then

3 seconds. Immediate self-corrections are scored as correct. 20 alternate forms available.

6. Retell Fluency (Mid-Grade 1 to Grade 6) Asks child to retell as much of the story previously read. Score: number of words the child uses to retell within 1 minute. Words must be those that illustrate the child’s understanding of the

passage. Ex: 60 words read per minute. Child retells 15 words which is less than

25%, then there may be comprehension or expressive language concerns.

7. Word Use Fluency (Fall of Kindergarten through Grade 3) Assess vocabulary knowledge and expressive language at each grade

level. Ex: examiner says a word and asks the student to use the word in a

sentence. Score: Number of words used correctly in a phrase, sentence, or

expression within 1 minute. General rule: score below 20th percentile are at risk for poor reading

score between 40th and 20th percentile are at some risk.

Getting Started The manual gives the teacher a checklist to follow for each

grade level. An example checklist for a 3rd grade teacher is as follows (same for 2nd through 6th grade): Read administration and scoring guide.

Have a stopwatch and clipboard.

Attend workshop on administration: role-play and give practice tests with a team to ensure that scores will be accurate.

Obtain Benchmark scoring booklet for each child in the class.

Obtain two copies of student response material.

Make an envelope or folder for each child in the class: children will be retested with the same Benchmark scoring booklet up to three times.

Determine whether fall, winder, or spring assessments will be given. This depends on the time of year, not whether you are doing the assessments for the first, second, or third time.

Arrange schedule to allow time to assess each child.

Arrange booklets in alphabetical order to facilitate data entry.

Check booklets against class roster.

Test any students remaining.

Enter data into the computer (http://dibels.uoregon.edu/)

Obtain reports; file and/or distribute reports to appropriate personnel.

Discuss results with grade-level team, coach, and/or administer.

Make instructional decisions.

Use progress-monitoring assessments to graph progress of children at risk toward an established goal.

Benchmark Expectations

“Benchmarks represent MINIMAL levels of satisfactory progress for the LOWEST ACHIEVING students”. DIBEL manual pg. 11

All students have to achieve the minimal expectations if they are all expected to read at grade level or above.

Benchmarks increase as a student progresses from grade to grade (they build off one another).

Time DIBELS Measure Minimal goal for reading success

Cut-off for needing intensive support

Winter, K Initial sound fluency 25-35 s.p.m. Below 10

Spring, K Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

35-45 s.p.m. Below 10

Winter, 1st grade Non-word reading fluency

50 w.p.m. Below 30

Spring, 1st grade Oral reading fluency 40 w.p.m. Below 10

Spring, 2nd grade Oral reading fluency 90 w.p.m. Below 50

Spring,3rd grade Oral reading fluency 110 w.p.m. Below 70

Spring, 4th grade Oral reading fluency 118 w.p.m. Below 92

Spring, 5th grade Oral reading fluency 128 w.p.m. Below 100

Spring, 6th grade Oral reading fluency 135 w.p.m. Below 110

When scoring (3rd grade oral reading fluency)…

Score immediately.

Discontinue rule. Used when the student doesn’t remember any words of the first passage. (score a zero and discontinue).

On the bottom of the scoring sheet, record the total number of correct words that were read.

If 10 words or less are read correctly during the 1st passage, then record the scores and DO NOT give the 2nd and 3rd passages.

If the student read all three passages, and his scores were 27, 25, and 36, record the MIDDLE score on the front cover. (27)

Hesitation or struggle. After 3 seconds, if the student doesn’t know the word, then the examiner should tell the student the correct word and mark the word as incorrect. Example:

Passage Student Says Scoring Correct/TotalI have a goldfish. I have a …(3 seconds) I have a goldfish. 3/4

Hyphenated words. Can count as 2 words if the word can stand alone. Total # Example: I gave Ben a red yo-yo. 6

We did push-us, pull-ups, and sit-ups. 9

Numerals. Must be read correctly. Example: Student says:

My father is 36. My father is thirty-six. CORRECT My father is 36. My father is three six. INCORRECT

Mispronounced Words. If mispronounced, then it is an error.

Self-correction. If the student mispronounces a word and self corrects within 3 seconds, then it is scored as correct.

Repeated words. If the word is repeated, it is not scored as incorrect; it is ignored.

Articulation and Dialect. Pronunciation due to dialect, articulation, or ESL is not scored as incorrect. Example: Rest Retht.

Inserted Words. Words added are not incorrect. Example: Passage Student says Scoring Total

I ate too much. I ate way too much. I ate too much. 4/4

Omitted words. Scored as incorrect.

Word order. Though the word is read correctly, it is scored as incorrect when read in the wrong order.

Abbreviations. Example: Passage Student says Scoring

Total

May I watch TV? May I watch teevee? May I watch TV? 4/4

May I watch television? May I watch television? May I watch TV? 4/4

My teacher is Mr. Smith? My teacher is Mister Smith? My teacher is Mr. Smith?5/5

My teacher is Mr. Smith? My teacher is “m” “r” Smith? My teacher is Mr. Smith?4/5

3rd grade scoring for Retell Fluency Score while the child is responding.

Circle the number of correct words that are retold that illustrate understanding.

Exclamations are not counted. Only actual words. Example: I love going to the library downtown.

I uhh they are going to the uhhh library.

Count contractions as one word. Example: She’s or We’ll

Songs or recitations are not included. Example: ABC’s

Minor repetitions, redundancies, irrelevances, and inaccuracies are not counted.

Rote repetitions of words or phrases are not counted.

Repeating their retell is not counted.

Stories or irrelevancies that are off track are not counted.

Interpreting Results

If the child is in 20th-40th percentile then they have emerging skills of letter recognition, phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondence, phonic decoding, and reading fluency.

If the child scores in the deficit range, then the student will probably need one-on-one or one-on-two instruction.

Instruction should include multisensory, systematic, and a structured language approach to build a strong foundation.

Specifying Instructional Goals

Should include steps to become a better reader.

Goals need to focus on: Essential skills

Process: phonological skills, letter knowledge, sound-symbol association, word decoding

Content: passage reading fluency, retell fluency

Amount and type of instruction

Logistics of program implementation

How to evaluate progress.

Sample Goals Goal 1.0 Client will increase knowledge of letters.

Objective 1.1 Client will increase his knowledge of letters by naming 7 out of 10 letters given verbal and visual cues with

70% accuracy.

Objective 1.2 Client will accurately produce the sound of the letter 7/10 opportunities given verbal and visual cues with

70% accuracy.

Goal 2.0 Client will increase narration skills. Objective 2.1 Client will read a story and retell a minimum of 5

statements out of 10 that illustrate comprehension of the story given verbal cues with 50% accuracy.

Objective 2.2 Client will read a story and retell a minimum of 5 statements out of 10 that illustrate comprehension

of the story spontaneously with 50% accuracy.

Diagnostic Testing Student with reading disabilities have several different strengths

and weaknesses. This may include processing of words, sentences, discourse and

pragmatics.

Written expression is more difficult than reading.

Surveys that focus on specific language concepts need to be used to supplement the DIBELS. Example: phonics survey will inform teacher of sound-symbol

associations that the student has already learned and will identify those the student needs to be taught or practiced.

School-Wide Collaboration Collaboration with literacy teacher.

Curriculum-based. Phonological awareness. Letters, rhyming

Content: comprehension, retelling, answering questions, and improving vocabulary from curriculum.

THE END!!!!