Re: Dibels reading assess.

My concern regarding DIBELS is not in the assessment itself. I use DIBELS and
I like it. However, I use it in a manner for which it was intended. My
thoughts as a Reading Specialist: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics instruction
are very important for children learning to decode and encode. (By the way
Phonemic Awareness and Phonics instruction is different! Phonemic Awareness
instruction is done without letter representations and 10 minutes/daily is
sufficient. Phonics is associating the sounds to letters)Since it is so
important and many teachers of young children are still not convinced of that
fact, I believe the DIBLES helps to drive that point. Assessment always
drives instruction, which is one purpose for using it. The other is as a
predictor of which students may be needing early intervention. By no means
should any one category deficit determine anything but the student doesn't do
that particular skill well. By the same token, a student who fairs poorly on
all the categories, is probably in some trouble. If a student receives more
instruction and doesn't show progress, further in-depth instructional study is
warranted. The point that students never need to read "nonsense" words is only
partially true. Any word unknown to a student may be nonsense to him/her.
That's the point of decoding. It's impossible to learn every word in the
dictionary, but our brains can learn patterns, thereby helping us decode those
unknown or "nonsense" words. DIBELS isn't just encouraging kids to read mumbo-
jumbo, but nonsense words are the only true way to know if a word has been
decoded or become a part of the sight vocabulary. I also believe when students
start decoding multisyllabic words, these early DIBELS skills will serve them
well. By no means should this one assessment be used to determine rigid
unchanging reading groups, nor should it be used to determine grades or class
placement. I don't bother with the retell portion, I use other measures for
that particular skill, as I use other measures for comprehension. All
professionals need to use tests for their intended purposes. One test never
tells the entire story. I don't believe DIBLES is bad, maybe some people just
use it improperly.
To the mom concerned about her son being "bored" in his instructional group.
If he's in that group for ten minutes of instruction, don't worry about it.
He'll probably benefit in the long run, and it most likely won't hurt him. If
he's been placed in an inappropriate instructional group for large amounts of
time based only on the DIBELS information, you may need a conference with more
than just his teacher. A supervisor shouldn't be letting that happen. I will
caution you about he "bored" comment. Not everything in life has to be
interesting to be important. His computer games can entertain him..........let
his teacher instruct him without having to stand on her head or flash images at
him at light speed like his television does.
In response to the DAR questions............I like it also. But again, as a
basic indicator. I have also prepared my own nonsense word lists categorized
by specific phonic element. That's how I really know what the student needs to
learn. I do find the DAR lacking in the comprehension assessment. Again, it's
designed to be a quick check to help a teacher tailor a student's
instruction.