Effective reading instruction depends on accurate, ongoing assessment. Teachers must understand the purposes and characteristics of different assessment types, know how to select and administer assessments appropriately, interpret assessment data to identify student strengths and needs, and use that data to inform instructional decisions. This objective covers the full range of reading assessments, from universal screening to diagnostic tools to progress monitoring.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Running Record | A tool for recording a student's oral reading behaviors to analyze reading accuracy, errors, and self-corrections |
| Miscue Analysis | Examining a reader's deviations from the text to understand which cueing systems they are using |
| Progress Monitoring | Frequent, brief assessments used to track student growth and evaluate response to instruction over time |
| Universal Screening | Brief assessments given to all students to identify those who may be at risk for reading difficulties |
| Criterion-Referenced | An assessment that measures student performance against a fixed standard or set of learning objectives |
| Norm-Referenced | An assessment that compares a student's performance to that of a representative peer group |
| Informal Reading Inventory | An individually administered assessment that determines a student's independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels |
| MTSS | A multi-tiered system of supports that provides increasingly intensive instruction based on student assessment data |
A reading specialist administers a running record and notices that a second-grade student consistently substitutes words that make sense in the sentence but do not match the letters on the page. Which cueing system is the student primarily relying on?
Explanation
When a student substitutes words that make sense in the sentence, they are relying on the semantic (meaning) cueing system — they are using their understanding of the passage's meaning to predict words. If the substitutions matched the visual appearance of the printed word, that would indicate use of the graphophonic system. The syntactic system would be involved if substitutions maintained grammatical structure.
Study Tip
Running records and miscue analysis are heavily tested on the FORT. Practice identifying which cueing system (meaning, structure, visual) a student is using based on their reading errors. Also know the difference between screening, diagnostic, progress monitoring, and outcome assessments.
Our study guide covers all 11 objectives in depth, and our practice test lets you apply what you've learned.