I administered the Basic Reading Inventory to Elizabeth, a student in the fourth grad at Virginia on 2nd March 2018. She is 9 years and in the level of reading to learn. I administered the word list BRI part at a level below her instructional reading level because I did not have any previous information about the student’s reading level. The student score findings reflected that she is at the student is independent. I also administered a word list at the fourth grade and a grade above her instructional level and it also reflected that she is at the instructional level. This means that Elizabeth is a smart student and in a position to be successful academically.
The graded passage and comprehension questions BRI part was also administered. I started with one passage at the instructional level of Liz. This was followed by a passage at a higher instructional level. I had a previous information of the reading level from the word list BRI and thus used only two passages. Both passages she scored the instructional or the independent reading level. She made a few miscues, the correction and substitution ones. After this, I gave her a passage for a higher level grade student and she scored the independent level too. The miscue she experienced was majorly the substitution one.
The comprehension questions also proved that the student is a smart one, academically. This is because she missed only one question. Depending on her score level, she was at the 90th percentile group norm which averages 128 words per minute. The scores of Elizabeth are encouraging. She has been the best student at the fourth grade and since she joined school she has been performing well a factor which challenged me to motivate the students at the frustration level when I come across them to help them improve academically.
Part II
Administering and scoring BRI was the best experience I have had. This is because I did it practically interacting with the student and understanding the level she is. Although it is quite a challenging task, I had to try to give the best by having a lot of research in grading the student. When administering and scoring the BRI I learned that there is no 100% correct student. Students even the genius and sharp ones make some mistakes and miscues. Understanding the grade level of the student challenges a teacher to develop teaching strategies which can improve the grade level of each student. This means that the teacher should balance the strategies so that they may be helpful to students at both the independent and frustration levels. I also learned a student can improve from the frustration level to the instruction level depending on how he/she makes practice in mastering words and understanding how to read and comprehend a passage.
The process contributed a lot to my teaching practice. Doing it practically gave me the best experience and foundation. This is because I had not done it before and now that I did it although not perfectly, doing it next time will be a bit easier and more perfect than the previous one. It has also improved my knowledge on why we always have different students in a class. Administering and scoring the BRI was generally a good experience and I would like to do it again in the future.
