Teachers' Use of Informal Reading Inventory Data to Inform Comprehension Instruction

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Investigating Teachers' Understanding and Use of Assessment Data

Abstract

This study examined the practices of nine elementary teachers as they administered informal reading inventories (IRIs) and used the resulting data to inform their comprehension instruction with 23 children. Emergent coding was used to identify how teachers collect, score, identify comprehension objectives, and provide instruction based on IRI data as part of their regular classroom practices. Findings revealed that teachers had strengths which included administering suggested prompts, asking open-ended questions to gain additional information, completely scoring comprehension sections, and using completely accurate scoring for many sections. Teachers needs included building expertise in collecting, scoring, identifying objectives, and applying data from IRIs to inform comprehension instruction. Implications include the need for professional development to increase pedagogical content knowledge regarding IRIs.

Author

• Julie Baxa, Oakland University