Informal Reading Inventories (IRI) & Miscue Analysis

Using the the Fact, Question, Response (Havey & Goudvis, 2007) format after reading from Understanding, Assessing, and Teaching Reading: A Diagnostic Approach on Informal Reading Inventories and the Miscue Analysis:

Facts:

“An informal reading inventory is used to determine three reading levels and a listening capacity level” (Opitz, 59).

“It is done individually and usually consists of oral and silent reading passages from basal readers from PreK to eighth grade levels” (Opitz, 59).

“The questioning that is included in each passage are factual, inferential, and word meaning” (Opitz, 59).

“The purpose of an IRI is “to help the teacher determine the child’s functional reading levels: independent, instructional, and frustrational” (Opitz, 59). 

“It’s also to figure out a student’s strengths and needs as a reader so that the teacher can determine their instruction” (Opitz, 60).

“Another important quality of the IRI is to give the student feedback on how they did and where they need to improve” (Opitz, 60).

“The buffer zone of the IRI is the area that falls between the instructional and frustration levels. When a child’s score falls in the buffer zone, the teacher must decide whether to continue testing” (Opitz, 62).

Questions:

I've never done a miscue analysis, so my question would be how to implement it into my reading instruction, how to create an analysis grid, and plan my instruction accordingly. I guess I won't feel completely comfortable until I try it. I would want to make sure that I am analyzing the data correctly and assisting my students in the best way possible. 

Responses:

I really enjoyed reading about the miscue analysis and liked how Kenneth Goodman decided to use the term miscue instead of error “because he felt that nothing a reader does in reading is accidental and that the term error implied randomness” (Opitz, 65).  When we think of the word error, we automatically think that someone did something wrong. That’s not what reading is about.  We can gain so much from identifying a student’s miscues and acknowledge a meaning-making process. We are figuring out a student's thinking process and why they made the miscues they did. I never really thought to use the miscue analysis as an assessment tool, but now after reading this article I definitely will!