Informal Reading Inventory

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Informal Reading Inventory

• June 2007
• University of St. Thomas
• EDUC 5370
• Gary Trow
• Robert Escalante

2
IRI Defined

• An Informal Reading Inventory is defined as an
  informal test that is given to students
  individually and consists of
• Graded word lists.
• Graded reading passages.
• Comprehension questions.

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Steps to an IRI

• Give students graded word lists.
• Locate a passage at the students instructional
  level. (Length of passages depend on the grade
  level.)
• Explain to the student what is expected during
  the assessment.
• Ask the student to read the passage out loud.
• Mark all miscues on a miscue analysis chart or a
  running record.
• Remove the passage and ask the comprehension
  questions. (These questions should be a balance
  of literal and inferential questions and they
  should be passage dependent.)
• Add incorrect responses to the miscue analysis
  chart or a running record.
• Give the student another passage of a different
  type at the same grade level.

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Steps to an IRI (cont.)

• This time the student reads silently.
• Remove passage, ask comprehension questions then
  record the errors.
• If the student met the goals on word recognition
  and comprehension, then they advance to next
  grade level and read oral and silent passages of
  the same types.
• Keep advancing until the frustration level is met
• If student did not meet independent level, they
  drop down to the next lower grade passage and
  read both types at that level.
• Keep dropping down until the independent level is
  found.
• For listening capacity level read passages above
  the frustration level out loud.
• Again comprehension questions are asked.
• Stop when the student falls below 75
  comprehension.

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Whats it used for?

• This nonstandard, direct measure, consists of a
  series of graded passages that students can read
  and answer questions about so teachers can
• Observe the students reading tactics.
• Choose appropriate reading material for the
  students.
• Identify the students three reading levels.
• Learn more about a students strengths and needs.

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Assessing the Three Reading Levels

• There are many commercially available books with
  IRI reading lists included in them. The
  Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI) (4th ed.) is
  one popular book used for such assessments.
• It includes preprinted lists for various grade
  levels.
• A child reads these lists starting with the least
  difficult and proceeding to the most difficult.
• A teacher assesses whether enough of the words
  were pronounced correctly. Speed of out-loud
  reading is used and self correcting is allowed.

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The Three Reading Levels

• Independent The reader can read and comprehend
  without any outside assistance. This is too easy
  to generate learning.
• Instructional At this level the child is
  challenged. This level is best for this child in
  the classroom.
• Frustration Even with a teachers help this
  material is too difficult for the student to
  carry on reading. This is too hard to generate
  learning.

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What does it emphasize?

• YES
• Learn about individual skills, needs, and
  abilities.
• Compare against established standards for grade
  levels which must be met.
• Fluency and comprehension at the instructional
  level in order to progress as a reader.

• NO
• Comparing performance between students.
• Limit the amount of time to read passages.
• Comparing against standardized or normalized
  scores.

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Who benefits from an IRI?

• Since comprehension is assessed on oral reading
  of passages.
• The IRI is of extra importance to emerging
  readers and struggling readers.
• These are the readers who are spending extra
  time, effort, and cognitive ability to decode and
  perform well while reading out loud. This diverts
  their attention from constructing meaning.

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IRI Example by Cathy Van Herwaarden

• Informal Reading Inventory
• Student Name_____________________
  Date______________
• Title____________________________________________
  _______
• Author __________________________________________
  _______
• Pre-Reading
• Why did you choose this book?_____________________
  _____________________________________
• __________________________________________________
  _________________________________
• How did you know that you could read
  it?_______________________________________________
  ___
• Knows Five Finger Rule? YES NO
  _________________________________________
• Oral Reading
• Fluency?__________________________________________
  __________________________________
• Expression? ______________________________________
  ___________________________________
• Word Attack? Phonics? Self Corrects?______________
  _______________________________________
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________
• Unknown Word?_____________________________________
  _________________________________
• Post Reading
• Literal Comprehension? (Who? What? Where?
  When?)_____________________________________
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________
• Inferential Comprehension? (How?
  Why?)_____________________________________________
  __

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IRI Rubric Example by Joan P. Gipe
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What are the goals of IRI assessment?

• There are two important goals for IRI assessment.
• Learn a students capabilities with regards to
  reading fluency and reading comprehension.
• Guide instructional planning so the student is
  challenged but not frustrated by the reading
  lessons.

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Listening Capacity

• Also called listening comprehension This is the
  highest level at which the student understands
  75 of material read aloud by a teacher.
• This shows the students skill at following oral
  instructions.
• There is still some disagreement whether
  listening capacity is indicates reading ability
  especially for emerging readers.

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Conclusions

• Besides establishing the three main reading
  levels, IRIs can also allow a chance to observe
  reading behaviors and comprehension ability.
• Miscues may be analyzed since not all miscues
  will change the meaning of the text being read.
• Not everyone agrees on how IRIs should be
  interpreted. This is because some amount of
  estimating and interpolation is needed to make
  these interpretations.

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Thank you for viewing our presentation on
informal reading inventories

• Gary Robert