3-Minute Reading Assessments Gr. 5-8

These assessment books provide short passages and step-by-step directions to help teachers evaluate student reading in a short amount of time (my educated guess would be three minutes or so). Each book contains four passages for four grade levels. Each grade has a passage about food, a passage about family outings, a passage about extreme weather, and a passage about unique individuals. A teacher's page accompanies each student passage page, where teachers can follow along, score student reading, and write additional comments. Basically, students read the passage aloud and teachers determine the level of performance in word recognition, reading fluency, and comprehension. The book recommends you use it to assess students three to four times a year at regular intervals to measure progress within the year. To record the data generated from these assessments, the book provides both a class record sheet for 20 students and an individual student sheet to measure scores. Included is the procedure for calculating word recognition accuracy and fluency through reading rate, a scale for figuring fluency through expression, and a rubric for determining comprehension. To help address targeted areas of concern, the book includes a brief section of instructional ideas for each of the three major areas assessed. Though these useful assessment guides where created for classroom teachers who don't have a lot of extra time to spend assessing students, they would also work well for homeschooling parents, who don't have much time to spare either! Reproducible, 64 pgs, pb.