Dibs on Not Using DIBELS!

As we learn more about how ineffectual many of the “pop” reading assessments based on the “National Reading Panel’s (NRP) five pillars (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension)” that seek to boil down “reading to a narrow set of skills that can be easily tested” (Wohlwend 2012, pg. 117) really are, what should we turn to instead?  We know that such assessments as DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) aren't cutting it, with their emphasis on constrained skills and lack of focus on comprehension.  So a turn to something more complex that measures comprehension and how it’s reached is necessary; something that incorporates not only an inquiry into how readers combine print and image information, but also how they navigate the interactive process of constructing meaning from what they read and how they navigate different cultural language patterns.  Simultaneously, there should be a restructuring of Reading First, based on more than the NRP’s five pillars, that would encourage teachers to teach not only fundamental skills, but also growth processes, such as reading comprehension and composition in writing (Baker & Pearson  2010).  Why are these changes so vital?  Because while being able to turn the text on the page into a mental or spoken stream of language is important, it doesn't do a student much good unless s/he is able to understand and manipulate what s/he’s reading.

Sources Cited:

Baker, E.A., & Pearson, PD.  (October 18, 2010).  “Reading first: Hard to live with—or without.”  Voice of literacy podcast.  Podcast retrieved from http://voiceofliteracy.org

Wohlwend, K. (2012).  “A new spin on miscue analysis:  Using spider charts to web reading processes.”  From Language Arts, 90(2), (pg. 110-117).