Today we started DRA testing. DRA stands for Developmental Reading Assessment. DRA's assess three different things; Reading Engagement, Oral Reading Fluency. The student gets a score in each category. The goal is to have the students score on an independent level. We have students on all different ranges; from a 4 to a 30. This is what drives the need for differentiation.
The DRA began by asking the student reading engagement questions. Some of these include, who reads with you at home, do you prefer listening to a story being read or reading a story yourself, what is your favorite book and why, etc. Then my teacher handed the student their book and told them to look at the pictures and predict what the book was going to be about. After this she preformed a timed running record of them reading the book. The concluded with a retell of the story and some opinion based questions like, what was your favorite part of the book?
You may need to complete a few DRA's on a student until you find the correct level for them. For 2 students the first level we tried was the one that was right for them. Other students we had to re-assess a few times.
I found DRA's to be fairly subjective. One teacher could score a student pretty differently than another teacher. We saw this when comparing the DRA scores the reading specialist had of our students from the week prior. She tested 4 of our students to see if they qualified for reading support.
Lastly: I attached a picture of my fall bulletin board that I mentioned in an earlier post. Two of the students have been absent so their writing pieces are yet to be added. Overall, I was pleased with my first classroom bulletin
board and I have already been looking for some future ideas.
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