Assessment for Reading Instruction

Now in a revised and updated fourth edition, this accessible text has given over 100,000 preservice and inservice teachers vital tools for systematic reading assessment in grades K-8.

The book explains how to use both formal and informal assessments to evaluate students' strengths and needs in all components of reading. Effective, engaging methods for targeted instruction in each area are outlined. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes 30 reproducible tools, plus an online-only appendix with additional resources. Purchasers get access to a companion website where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

New to This Edition:

• Expanded coverage of the middle grades (4–8), including a new chapter and case study, and explicit attention to this grade range throughout; new coauthor Kevin Flanigan adds expertise in this area.
• New and expanded topics: computer-based testing methods, assessing academic language, and how to use reading inventories more accurately.
• Additional reproducible tools: informal reading inventory summary form, comprehension retelling forms for narrative and informational text, computer-based comprehension test comparison worksheet, revised Informal Decoding Inventory, and more.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Reading Assessment
2. General Concepts of Assessment
3. Informal Reading Inventories and Other Measures of Oral Reading
4. Emergent Literacy
5. Word Recognition and Spelling sample
6. Fluency
7. Vocabulary
8. Comprehension
9. Strategic Knowledge
10. Affective Factors
11. Assessing Readers in Grades 4–8: Guiding Concepts
12. Preparing a Diagnostic Reading Report

Appendix. Case Studies

"This practical and comprehensive guide is an essential resource for every literacy educator. The volume not only offers an array of high-utility assessment tools, but also situates their use in evidence-based understandings about literacy development. The authors offer concrete guidance for interpreting assessment results and responding with instruction. The fourth edition includes many of the features that made earlier editions so powerful, and is made even better by its enhanced focus on the intermediate grades. This is an exceptional text for preservice literacy education and for practicing teachers who are looking to extend their skills in using assessment to support students' literacy development."
- Gina N. Cervetti, PhD, Literacy, Language, and Culture Program, School of Education, University of Michigan

"Assessment is critical for guiding and improving reading instruction. The fourth edition of this highly readable text carries on a remarkable legacy of making assessment doable, meaningful, and authentic for teachers and scholars. Stahl, Flanigan, and McKenna comprehensively cover what should be assessed in reading, including the all-important affective domain. New to this edition are a greater focus on Latin and Greek word roots, as well as new guidance and support for assessing student retellings. The authors have truly moved the goalposts when it comes to best assessment practices in reading."
- Timothy Rasinski, PhD, Professor of Literacy Education, and Rebecca Tolle and Burton W. Gorman Chair in Educational Leadership, Kent State University

"The fourth edition addresses the 'whats,' 'whys,' and 'how-tos' of assessing students' reading skills. It provides a comprehensive framework and set of tools for teachers and interventionists to identify students' needs and provide targeted instruction. The revisions and updates are clearly explicated in the introduction and first chapter. New content on assessments for middle school fills in the gaps from the third edition. This is the best reading assessment text available."
- Lori M. Strong, PhD, Department of Literacy and Special Education, College of Saint Rose