Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Assessing at home/STAR literacy test

Is there anywhere or anything I can do at home to get a general idea of where DD is outside of the schools assessment? I want to see for myself how DD performs one on one without the distractions of school or feeling rushed.

I also received DD's STAR lit scores yesterday and am not sure how to read them. I'm not sure what level she should be at for 1st grade. The only thing I know is WPM at the end of 1st should be minimum 69 (I think that's what the teacher said, I feel overloaded right now) and DD was tested shortly after school started at a 74. It would've been helpful for the teacher to give more explanation.

The testing they do in K - 2 for literacy in most schools is pretty pointless if your child can read, IMO. The tests were designed to find kids who are having trouble reading and who are behind. They were NOT designed to accurately gauge the reading level of a child who is performing above grade level. Your best bet is to simply look at the books she enjoys reading (books she can answer questions about and discuss) and plug them into the lexile score website or the scholastic website.

I agree with amy - and if for some reason you have concerns that there is a reading issue, I'd probably first wait for the private eval you've got scheduled (is it a neuropsych eval or just IQ/ability testing?). If there are concerns raised there, I think you'll find it's more helpful to have an actual reading specialist eval where you have someone who knows what they are doing administer very skill-specific types of tests. This is sometimes called a "dyslexia screen". I *wouldn't* think you'd need to go that route unless you really have evidence or concern your dd is struggling with reading... is that the concern, or is the concern that you think she's not being given enough challenge compared to what she's capable of?

polarbear

Thank you. I will look at the scholastic site as we are going to order some books this weekend for her. She LOVES national geographic from them. I saw this morning when briefly looking through the papers they are an AR level 3rd-4th grade I believe. Is that what you mean by plug them in?
She comprehends them very well because she tells anyone who will listen all about what she read i.e the different types of frogs, where they live, what they eat and so on.


Testing is being done by a psychologist who works specifically with GT and 2e children. Basically like Amend Psych but closer. I believe its a full eval with disabilities, disorders and GT being evaluated. I expressed concern in all areas not just GT.

I'm not concerned on her reading. She has excellent reading skills IMO and taught herself to read at age 5 or earlier. She read me a book for the first time at 5 and I had no idea she knew how to read. My concern with reading would be more of that there are no books of interest to her in the classroom and library that she is allowed to choose from. Both teacher and librarian have said she can pick anything at tested reading level and below.
I think I'm going to bring her to the library this weekend, ask her what types of books she wants to look for and see where she goes and what she chooses without limitations.

You could get a reading eggs trial subscription and let her read and do the comprehension quizzes for different lexile levels. My twins used it briefly this summer, and it was immediately apparent when they chose books at too high of a level, especially when they took the quizzes.

Also, you can make a list of the books she likes and level them by using scholastic or a search engined. I did this yesterday for one of my sons, and found the books he chose to read were rated fairly consistently.