THE PREDICTIVE ASSESSMENT OF READING (PAR)

February 11, 2013

Carrie Malloy & Julie Smith

Literacy

Long Term Goals

Engagement and Joy

Story Time at Summit

Story Time at Secca

History of the PAR

Developed out of 30 years of NIH-funded research designed to gain a better understanding of literacy development How it unfolds in typical readers How early intervention can ameliorate later

difficulties

The National Reading Panel’s 2000 report,

Put Reading First Commissioned out of concern for the

growing illiteracy rate in our country

A panel of research experts analyzed hundreds of literacy studies (a meta-analysis)

Their assessment of the research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction

Their Findings

Research Supports Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction: Phonemic Awareness Phonics Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension

Phonemic Awareness

A child’s ability to recognize that spoken words are made up of individual speech sounds (phonemes) and that child can hear, count, and manipulate those sounds.

Listening for Sounds

Phonics

Understanding that there is a predictable relationship between speech sounds in our spoken language (phonemes) and the letters which represent them (graphemes). Often referred to as the “alphabetic principle”

Phonics instruction must be taught Systematically (easiest concepts to harder) Explicitly (to mastery) Should begin no later than Kindergarten

Sounds and Symbols

Vocabulary

Development of stored information about the meaning and pronunciation of words

Developed indirectly through oral language and listening to enriched text read aloud

Developed directly through explicit and specific teaching of word meanings in context, dictionary skills, familiarity with word parts

Alfie and Annie Rose

Fluency

The ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with prosody. Studies demonstrate that practice and repetition leads to automaticity.

Activities for improving fluency include: Monitored, repeated oral reading practice Student-adult paired reading Choral reading Taped practice Timed drills

Repeated Stories and Singing

Comprehension

The ultimate goal of reading. The following strategies have a firm scientific basis for improving text comprehension: Teaching students to question, predict, self-

monitor as they read The use of graphic organizers Teaching story structure Summarizing and visualization strategies

Expressing What We Know

Understanding

Why the PAR?

Now that research can better shed light on how literacy develops, rather than waiting for children to fail, what can be done to: Predict a child’s future reading outcome Change the course of that outcome through

focused, preventative instruction

What is the PAR?

The PAR is not an academic achievement test, but rather an early screening tool developed to assess a child’s skill on basic underlying processing skills which support literacy. These include:

Phonological Awareness Letter Identification and High Frequency Single Word

Reading Rapid Naming (a measure of fluency/word retrieval) Vocabulary

It is able to predict a kindergartener’s eighth grade reading ability with 97% accuracy.

What Can the PAR Tell Us About a Child?

Its results can: Uncover patterns of uneven skill

development Identify early literacy and pre-literacy

strengths and weaknesses Provide insight regarding critical pre-

reading skills, which can be supported or bolstered to change the course of a child’s future literacy outcome

A Look At How it’s Administered

Understanding The Results

Begin with the End in Mind