Assessing a Student's Level
Save valuable instructional time and assess every student's reading performance with running records. Each student completes a three-part assessment process that provides you with a more complete picture of your students' reading abilities and monitors their progress.
- Determine where to start each student.
- Determine students' readiness to advance to the next level after they complete assignments.
- Monitor student reading progress over time.
Part 1: Students read Benchmark Passages,
and you capture their reading behavior on Running Records.
Part 2: Students retell the text, and you use Retelling Rubrics to score their comprehension.
Part 3: Students take an oral or written Comprehension Quick Check Quiz, and each question's
answer tells what skill it assessed to help you identify comprehension skills for additional practice.
Part 1: Preview the Benchmark Passages & Running Records
or Spanish Benchmark Passages & Running Records collections before
assessing. Select a passage that best approximates a student's needs. Use the running records that accompany each
passage or book to score a student's reading behavior. (Initially, you may have to take more than one running
record to determine an appropriate start level.). To determine a student's level in Spanish, use printable
versions of the Spanish Benchmark Passages.
Review About Running Records to learn about the details of
scoring a running record.
Parts 2 & 3: Retelling rubrics provide details that identify strengths and weaknesses students might have in comprehending fiction or nonfiction texts, including analysis of text structures.
- Rubrics provide specific details expected from every student so teachers can judge each retelling with the same rigor.
- Multiple-choice quizzes provide students with feedback when completed on how well they scored.
- You can preview and review each quiz question and answer in addition to seeing a student's score and skills missed.
The three-part process establishes a baseline to support choosing books from Learning A-Z's extensive collection.
How Do I Monitor Students' Reading Progress?
Use Benchmark Passages and their associated resources for progress monitoring as students' reading improves.
Assessment Schedule
| Developmental Level | Learning A-Z Level | Schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning readers | Levels aa-C | every 2 to 4 weeks |
| Developing readers | Levels D-J | every 4 to 6 weeks |
| Effective readers | Levels K-P | every 6 to 8 weeks |
| Automatic readers | Levels Q-Z | every 8 to 10 weeks |
Students who are not progressing at the expected rate should be assessed even more frequently than the Assessment Schedule suggests.
The scores your students achieve on running records, retellings, and comprehension quizzes give you
valuable information about their reading behavior and comprehension. Use it to inform your instruction in
addition to placing students and monitoring their progress.
Use the chart below along with the information in Assessment Reports to determine if students are ready to move up a level.
See About Running Records to learn more about taking, marking, and scoring a running record.
Scores
| Running Record Accuracy Rate | Quick Check Comprehension Quiz | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 95% + | 100% | Advance Student a Level |
| 95% + | 80% | Instruct at this Level |
| 95% + | <80% | Lower a Level, Assess Again |
| 90-94% | 80-100% | Instruct at this Level |
| 90-94% | <80% | Lower a Level, Assess Again |
| <90% | N/A | Lower a Level, Assess Again |
Results from the printable running records can be entered to display in a student's Reading Rate report in your Kids A-Z management hub.