The Median Sib

I came home from school a little cross-eyed, loopy and head-achey today.  I gave reading tests ALL DAY LONG!  We’re entering the last three weeks of school for this year, and since I’m the reading specialist, I’m administering the DRA almost nonstop for the next three weeks.  The DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) is a valuable assessment of reading ability.  It is given one-on-one.  The DRA kit includes books on varying levels.  There a K-3 kit, and a 4-8 kit.  I have given the tests in each of the kits so many times that I practically have every story memorized.  I have the directions memorized, and I could probably give an assessment in my sleep. 

Today I had 7 hours of testing with very brief respites for a 15 minute lunch break and later a 10 minute stroll to the bookroom to shelve some leveled book sets that had been returned.  Well - and several quick restroom trips between tests.  

I heard children read the same stories over and over: “You Don’t Look Beautiful to Me,”  “Storm Chasers,” “Green Freddie,” “One Brave Heart,” Lights! Camera! Action!”  At one point I told a fourth grader that I had to stand up and stretch a little bit before starting her testing. The past four children had chosen the same book (”Storm Chasers”) and so had she.  I wasn’t sure I could stand doing a running record on the same passage again. So I got up and went to my little refrigerator and took a couple swigs of a Diet Coke. The exercise and caffeine helped. Then it was back to “Storm Chasers.”

When I first started giving the DRA last year, I had the hardest time learning how to score it.  It seemed impossibly complicated.  Now that I’ve given it hundreds of times, I’m seeing more and more just how valuable it is.  It allows the teacher to identify exactly what a child does well in reading and what the child needs to work on to become a better reader. 

I can finish a K-3 test in about 30 - 45 minutes.  However, I always spread the upper grade test over at least two days because even though it is a reading test, it requires the children to complete four pages of writing.  Actually, if I include the student reading survey, there are six pages of writing for the upper grade children.  That’s my only complaint about it.  With that much writing, it becomes a formidable and time-consuming task to finish the test, and I believe it becomes more of a writing assessment instead of a reading assessment.  Despite that, it’s a good assessment, and I gain a tremendous amount of information from it.  With the time requirements, it would be very difficult for a classroom teacher to assess an entire class of children, though.  Since my schedule is more flexible, I can discontinue my reading groups and spend all day on it.  A classroom teacher doesn’t have that  luxury.  That’s why I offer to do the testing for them.

I don’t mind spending a few weeks testing the children because I know that the results will help the teachers determine the progress of the children over the course of the past school year, and it will help the teachers at the beginning of school in the fall decide how best to teach them.

At the end of three weeks I may be a zombie. . . .or perhaps bald from pulling my hair out . . . . or I may start screaming hysterically if someone mentions “Storm Chasers.”

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