Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS)

Fountas & PinnellBenchmark AssessmentSystem (BAS)Educators’ Most Reliable Resource for:

• Determine students’ independent and instructional reading levels• Assessing and understanding students’ reading performance• Connecting assessment to instruction

www.pearson.com.au/primary/bas

Assess with accuracy and expertise, and help students achieve literacy growth throughout the year.

The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) accurately and reliably identifies the instructional and independent reading levels of students and documents their progress through one-on-one formative and summative assessments. The Fountas & Pinnell BAS provides teachers with precise tools and texts to observe and quantify specific reading behaviors, and then interprets and uses that data to plan meaningful instruction.

Specific features of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System enable you to:

• Determine students’ independent and instructional reading levels

• Group students for reading instruction

• Select texts that will be productive for instruction

• Plan efficient and effective instruction

• Assess the outcomes of teaching

• Identify students who need intervention and extra help

• Monitor and report student progress across a school year and across year levels

• Create class profiles

• Inform parent conferences

The F&P Text Level Gradient™ was updated in late 2012 with new year-level goals. To read the white paper regarding this change, please visit:

www.pearson.com.au/primary/bas

By keeping current with research reflecting student achievement, teachers will notice slight changes in regard to year-level goals over time.

A New Benchmark in Assessment— Assessment Linked to Instruction

www.pearson.com.au/primary/bas2

The grade level goals on the F&P Text Level Gradient™ are intended to provide general guidelines, which should be adjusted based on school/district requirements and professional teacher judgement.© 2012 Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell

Grade Six

Grades Seven–Twelve

Kindergarten

Grade One

Grade Two

Grade Three

Grade Four

Grade Five

BenchmarkSystem 1Levels A−N

BenchmarkSystem 2Levels L−Z

F&P TEXT LEVEL GRADIENT™

GRADE-LEVELGOALS

FOUNTAS & PINNELLLEVELS

The grade-level goals on the F&P Text Level Gradient™ are intended to provide general guidelines, which should be adjusted based onschool/district requirements and professional teacher judgement.

© 2012 Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell

Engaging and Informative Benchmark Books• 58 high-quality books have been written especially for

the purpose of literacy assessment along the F&P Text Level Gradient™

• Each book has been developed under the careful direction and supervision of Fountas and Pinnell according to their strict levelling protocols.

• To further ensure proper levelling, Fountas and Pinnell asked a team of experienced classroom teachers to vet each book, and a formal field study was conducted involving a broad spectrum of students across different socio-economic regions.

Complete Tools for a Comprehensive Assessment• Recording forms guide teachers through a reading

record that reveals a wealth of information about the reader, including the reader’s accuracy and self-corrections, comprehension and fluency.

• An innovative comprehension conversation is part of the assessment protocol at every level and provides details about a reader’s thinking within, beyond and about the text.

• Optional assessments allow teachers to gather further details when necessary to more precisely pinpoint a reader’s needs.

Linking Assessment to Instruction• The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment

System includes a copy of The Continuum of Literacy Learning: A Guide to Teaching. This tool helps teachers link the results of the assessment to their teaching to ensure students’ growth as learners.

Technology Resources and Professional Development• User-friendly CDs and the Fountas & Pinnell

Calculator/Stopwatch provide teachers with time-saving options for printing forms, managing student data and calculating scores.

• The Professional Development DVD presents video models of teachers implementing the assessment, opportunities for coding and scoring practice and data-analysis discussions.

• Assessment data can be managed systematically and effectively with the Data Management CD-ROM or Online Data Management System.

One-on-one, comprehensive assessment to determine students’ independent and instructional reading levels.

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System

www.pearson.com.au/primary/bas 3

The 58 Benchmark Books are the centrepiece of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. These books, written specifically for assessment, provide the material for a student’s oral and silent reading from which the teacher can observe many dimensions of reading behaviour.

The fiction and nonfiction books were all written and edited under the leadership of the authors to conform to the F&P Text Level Gradient™.

58 Benchmark Books Variety of fiction• Realistic fiction• Simple animal fantasy• Historical fiction

Variety of nonfiction• Simple factual texts• Biography• Informational texts

on science and social studies topics

Level Fiction Nonfiction

A Best Friends At the Park

B My Little Dog Playing

C Socks Shopping

D The Nice Little House Our Teacher, Mr Brown

E The Loose Tooth The Zoo

F Anna’s New Glasses From Nest to Bird

G Bedtime for Nick Bubbles

H The Sleepover Party Trucks

I The Best Cat All About Koalas

J Our New Neighbours More Than a Pet

K Edwin’s Haircut Surprising Animal Senses

L Dog Stories Giants of the Sea

M The Thing About Nathan The Life of a Monarch Butterfly

N The Big Snow Exploring Caves

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 1Levels A–N28 books (14 fiction and 14 nonfiction) Each 16 page book is written by the highest quality authors and illustrators.


58 Benchmark Books

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 2Levels L–Z30 books (15 fiction and 15 nonfiction) Each 4 page book is written by the highest quality authors and illustrators.

Level Fiction Nonfiction

L Ernie Learns Hang On, Baby Monkey

M Saving Up City Hawks

N Vanessa’s Butterfly Dogs at Work

O The New Girl Snake Myths

P Plenty of Pets Animal Instincts

Q A Secret Home Not Too Cold for a Polar Bear

R The Election Smart Fishing

S Could Be Worse Amazing Animal Adaptations

T “Get a Horse!” Why Do Wolves Howl?

U Canyon Mystery Earthquakes

V A Call for Change Tsunamis: Mighty Ocean Waves

W How I Spent My Summer Holiday Obituary: Mother Teresa 1910–1997

X A Weighty Decision The Internet: Getting Connected

Y Saying Goodbye The International Space Station

Z Surviving the Blitz The Train at the Top of the World

Each book cover is clearly labelled with:1 Level

2 Book introduction3 Running words for the oral reading record4 Maximum number of errors to maintain

instructional level5 Total running words6 Genre

321

4 5

6


Recording Forms

To conduct a reading record, each book is accompanied by an easy-to-use recording form that captures the factors research shows contribute most to reading success for students: accuracy, fluency and comprehension.

Teachers use the recording form to record a student’s accuracy rate, self-correction ratio, fluency score, oral reading rate, comprehension score and writing about reading score (optional).

Following the reading of each book, students are invited to engage in a comprehension conversation about the text. Each recording form is provided with key understandings and prompts for all three kinds of thinking that students engage in as they process text.

• Thinking Within the Text: Getting the literal meaning by processing words and stated ideas

• Thinking Beyond the Text: Getting the implied meaning and synthesising information

• Thinking About the Text: Responding to the author’s craft

For further information on a student’s comprehension of the text, an optional writing about reading/drawing prompt appears with each recording form. Additional summary pages will assist teachers in documenting the progress of individual students and the entire class.


Recording Forms A Network of Processing Systems for Reading


The Systems of Strategic Actions, shown in the figure below, form a strong foundation for teaching and learning in both the Benchmark Assessment System (BAS) and Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Systems.

Th

ink

ing A

bout the Text

Thinking Beyond th

e Tex

t

Thinking Within the Text

Solv

e W

ords

M

onitor

Search for and Summarize Maintain Adjust

an

d Correct

Use Information Fluency

Critique Analyze Infer Synthesize

Pr

edic

t

M

ake Connections

Notice and use information sources

(meaning, language structure, visual

information).

Connect the text to personal and

world knowledge as well as to

other texts.

Remember important information and carry it forward.

Adjust present understandings to accommodate new knowledge.

Think about what the writer means but has not stated.

Take action in flexible ways to solve problems or fit purpose and genre.

Use a range of strategies to read and understand words.

Check on accuracy and understanding and work to self-correct errors.

Think about what may happen next.

Think critically about the text.

Read at a good rate, with phrasing, pausing,

intonation, and appropriate stress.

Notice aspects of the writer’s craft and text structure.

Systems of Strategic

Actions

Optional Assessments include:Getting Started

• Where-to-Start Word Test

• Reading Interview

Assessing Fluency and Phrasing

• Six Dimensions Fluency Rubric

Phonics/Word Analysis

• Letter Recognition

• Early Literacy Behaviours

• High-Frequency Words

• Phonological Awareness: Initial Sounds

• Phonological Awareness: Blending Words

• Phonological Awareness: Segmenting Words

• Phonological Awareness: Rhyming

• Word Writing

• Writing Picture Names

• Phonograms

• Consonant Blends

• Vowel Clusters

• Suffixes

• Compound Words

• One- and Two-Syllable Words

• Syllables in Longer Words

• Word Feature Tests

• Phonics/Word Structure: Years 1–8 Features Word Reading

Vocabulary Assessments

• Concept Words—Number

• Concept Words—Colour

• Concept Words in Isolation

• Concept Words in Sentences

• Synonyms

• Antonyms

• Homophones

Vocabulary in Context

• Level A–Z Fiction and Nonfiction

Optional Assessments

Fountas and Pinnell realise that individual school systems may choose to assess specific aspects of children’s reading in more detail so they’ve provided additional tools. All the optional assessments can be found in the Assessment Forms Book, the Optional Assessment Student Forms Book and the Assessment Forms CD-ROM.


The Continuum of Literacy LearningThe seven continua include:

• Interactive Read-Aloud and Literature Discussion

• Shared and Performance Reading

• Writing About Reading

• Writing

• Oral, Visual and Technological Communication

• Phonics and Word Analysis

• Guided Reading

Optional Assessments The Continuum:Teachers’ Link to InstructionWhere other assessment and benchmark systems leave you wondering ‘Now what?’ Fountas and Pinnell have provided a link from assessment to instruction via proven classroom practices, such as guided reading and read-aloud.

Included in each Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System is The Continuum of Literacy Learning: A Guide to Teaching.

This book contains seven continua to guide teacher planning. Each continuum focuses on an area of the language arts curriculum. Six continua are organised according to year level expectations and are designed for planning group instruction. The Guided Reading continuum is however organised according to the F&P Text Level Gradient™ goals and therefore correlates directly with the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System.

The continua provide specific descriptions of the texts that students read, listen to, write and perform. In addition, each continuum lists specific behaviours and understandings that are required at each level for students to demonstrate thinking within, beyond and about the text. These behaviours and understandings describe what students will be expected to do in order to effectively read and understand the text.


“I began the year working with individuals and teaching pairs using the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. The depth of information teachers discovered about each individual student amazed them! We were able to address specific needs to programming using The Continuum of Literacy Learning and place these within a Reading Workshop framework.”

Michele Duthy, Deputy Principal, Morphett Vale Primary School, South Australia

Data Management CD-ROMWith this valuable tool, included in this system as part of the initial purchase, you can manage students’ scores, analyse progress over time, and compare data among individual students and whole classrooms. All reports can be customised and printed in both tabular and graphical formats.

Online Data Management SystemA complimentary 12 month subscription is available to all new system users. This web-based, password protected version enables you to share data and customise reports with other teachers and school administrators. An informative setup guide to the Online Data Management System is available online.

Professional Development DVDThe Professional Development DVD provides a strong foundational understanding of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System as well as professional development for teachers implementing the system.

The DVD features:

• A walk through the components of the system

• Step-by-step guidance on administration procedures

• Multiple models, at a variety of year levels, of teachers and students engaged in the assessment

• In-depth discussion, along with opportunities to observe and practise scoring, analysing and interpreting an assessment

Technology Support

Assessment Forms CD-ROMThe Assessment Forms CD-ROM enables teachers to print the assessment forms and summary sheets contained in the Benchmark Assessment Forms Book. Teachers can select forms by book level, title and genre.

Fountas & Pinnell Calculator/StopwatchThis specially designed tool helps execute the specific functions related to the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, including prompts for accuracy score, reading rate and self-correction ratio.


INTERVENTIONLeveled Literacy Intervention (LLI)Complementing the Benchmark Assessment System, LLI is a small-group, intensive, supplementary intervention system designed and proven to bring struggling readers and writers to year-level competency.

www.pearson.com.au/primary/lli

Technology Support Looking for Help Implementing Your Literacy Assessment?

Pearson Linked Learning Learn how to improve your students’ comprehension and fluency skills using the world-leading Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. We provide a variety of workshops throughout the year and also develop and deliver on-site personalised professional learning programs adapted to suit your school’s professional learning needs.

Starting out…If your school has recently purchased the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System and needs initial support with familiarisation and organisation of the components, planning and implementation, then the introductory workshop would be most valuable for you.

Working together…School Group Workshops bring together several schools within one region to participate in a shared professional development experience. Within this model, one school hosts four other schools. The professional development includes a 3-hour face-to-face, after school session, followed by an online 90-minute webinar. This is an excellent opportunity to network with other educators in the region who are also using the resource.

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment SystemAccuracy, fluency and comprehension are the key components of an effective reading assessment. Participants will explore ways the comprehension conversation and other optional assessments guide the design of literacy instruction to meet the individual needs of all students.

Participants will:

• Examine the importance and breadth of benchmarking student reading

• Explore the steps for completing a full BAS assessment

• Review available optional assessments

• Gain an understanding of how The Continuum of Literacy Learning can be used to drive instruction

To search and register for Fountas & Pinnell workshops in your state visit: www.pearsonacademy.com.au/linkedlearning


Implementing the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System in your classroomAt Pearson, we are proud distributors of the revolutionary Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System for Years F–8. Adapted specifically for Australian students, this system is the ultimate literacy classroom resource. Benefit from this innovative system which directly links assessment to instruction; enabling clear measurable student evaluation and focused teaching.

The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System is a proven, effective literacy assessment system for Years F–8, that is specifically linked to classroom instruction.

Through testing reading performance for accuracy and self correction, comprehension and fluency, rather than simply gauging a reading level, the system can monitor and support a student’s true progress across a school year.

The system has been comprehensively adapted for Australian students. Fountas & Pinnell levels are matched to colour bands and can be used in conjunction with levelled texts, with the help of this equivalency table.

The system allows you to:

assess writing, reading and comprehension using one system

specifically link assessment to classroom instruction

identify students who require intervention

measure reading comprehension in a detailed, quantifiable way

determine students’ instructional and independent reading level

Learn more by visiting www.pearson.com.au/primary/bas

Fountas & Pinnell Reading Level Equivalency Table

Colour Band Reading LevelFountas &

Pinnell Levels

Level 1 A

Level 2 B

Level 3 C

Level 4 C

Level 5 D

Level 6 D

Level 7 E

Level 8 E

Level 9 F

Level 10 F

Level 11 G

Level 12 G

Level 13 H

Level 14 H

Level 15 I

Level 16 I

Level 17 J

Level 18 J

Level 19 K

Level 20 K

Level 21 L

Level 22 M

Level 23 N

Level 24 O

Level 25 P

Level 26 Q

Level 27 R

Level 28 S

Level 29 T

Level 30 U

The Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System assesses Reading Levels up to Year 8, making it ideal for use through middle school.

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Y

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Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS)