DRA Test scores
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Anonymous
| According to our score sheet, 61 is the Fall benchmark for Kindergarten students. |
Anonymous
| pearson has a link if you google it. 183 means they know how to read most of the words on the test I believe. The first half is letter sounds and then the second half is words. |
Anonymous
| Would someone help me? I have an older kid that is "twice exceptional" (love the euphemism for gifted and disabled) so I was very relieved when the youngest started reading well, with no problems unlike the first one. She is in first grade and loves to read, she just finished the hobbit (reading haltingly) and the lion, the witch and the wardrobe (reading fluently). She can verbally summarize the stories. Now her DRA come from school, she scored a 10, low for her grade. Did her teacher uncover the tip of a disability iceberg or is someone tripping here? What does the dra test besides reading and understanding the story? |
Anonymous
| Why don't you ask your teacher? She/he might be helpful to let you know what part of the DRA your child can improve on. I *think*, sometimes, a child might "max" out on the DRA for a particular level at a particular time of year bc they aren't testing higher. But the DRA is more than just reading fluenty. The child needs to be able to read the book, close it, and then retell the story in order from beginning to end with details. Then the child also needs to make predictions (maybe higher level DRA?), and make connections from the book into his or her own life. The children are even tested on use of expression while reading. It's a lot of 'comprehension' rather than just reading the book straight through. |
Anonymous
| 00:18 I'd schedule a conference to talk about the score and her in class work. Did your child's school not do a fall assessment? I'm surprised you are just now finding out about her DRA score. |
Anonymous
I am going to guess it will have to do with much more than reading the words. That is just the decoding part of it. I suspect the child had difficulty retelling what was read. Or that the child could retell part of the test (fiction) but not the other part (non fiction). Perhaps she could not make connections (to self and the world), etc. I am betting that the concern is not that she can't read the words, but that she can't read to pass the required testing which is so much more than simple decoding. |
Anonymous
The testing is also very rigid -- the teachers have a script and can't depart from that to prompt your kid. So your kid just has to learn how to "do" the DRA. |
Anonymous
Are there any concerns with language (is he fluent in English, and do you guys read to him in English every night?)? I found that the growth from 16 to 28 kinda happened on its own, much like the growth from 6 to 14 did before. Don;t battle with him -- just make sure you read *with* him rather than *to* him. Our house rules are that kids stay close by and follow along as I read. Snuggling at bedtime works best, and we view it as a right the kids have, rather than a chore or even a privilege they need to earn. I do try to read at least one book that is on-level with their ability. I start by reading it, then we each read one page, then kid reads it. My older is in 3rd grade, and can pick her own interesting books to read by herself, but even with her (she reads at 6th grade level now) -- I still will read a fairy tale once in a while to her. Moving into the more independent reading levels also has to do with the kid's ability to self-correct (sound out a word, figure out if it makes sense, scan the page for clues, come up with a better word, check the printed word to see if that could be it) and the ability to re-tell a story. When retelling, pay attention to character names, settings, sequence words (first he..., then she...., and finally .... happened. I liked .... best). These are skills that the DRA will test, and even a great decoder will not pass DRA levels without demonstrating those skills. To develop the above skills, again, read together and 1st ask questions, then ask him to tell you / other parent/ aunt/ friend the story. Again, and again and again, even with super familiar books. Make sure there are many books around him to chose from, take trips to the library, get books at a level below and ahead, as well as a great chapter book for him to also just enjoy listening to. Eventually, you will start sharing pages you both read from that chapter book as well, until he spreads his wings to independent reading. |
Anonymous
| PP here -- For a foreign language speaker, you can introduce some English book in the routine, but it does not mean that all reading should be in English. Savor some sppecial books in the native language as well -- especially since spelling is so different in English from anything else... |
Anonymous
Do you know if this is one of the tests that gets stopped at the first sign of trouble? If child had trouble with some letter names, do they continue on to reading words? If a kid knows how to read most K sight words but blunders on the names of the letters, does he even get to the word part of the test? My kid "failed" to achieve the Fall benchmark, and it was explained to me that this is because he did not know the names for most of the letters. That makes sense, he was in a Montessori preK where they learn to sound the words. He reads and decodes with relative ease, and with only marginal support when he gets stuck on a letter like (q vs g). So I am a bit surprised. I just went in for a reading program at school, and frankly, I don;t see much of a difference between where my child is and where his peers are -- but he's stuck learning letters again when his peers are reading "real" books. He's pretty bummed, and I'm trying to understand. teacher explained that research shows that not knowing the names of the letters in K is usually an indicator of trouble with learning ahead and a high drop-out rate. I'm appropriately freaked out, but come on! the kid *reads*! And he's rebelling against having to re-learn his letters when everyone else is doing interesting stuff. *That* can also lead to trouble later on! We've been reading simple books with lots of sight words, and he's pretty comfortable reading that. Clifford, Complete Dick and Jane are bid favorites. Yes, we still have a lot of work ahead, but I'm struggling to understand the urgency in dropping any progress from where he's at and re-starting from scratch. Better understanding the test would definitely help ME better help my child. Any insight? |