Testing - Information on Short Cycle Assessment (DIBELS)

I put together this information for you to better understand the testing process and expectations for kindergartners. My goal is that we, as a team, can work together all year long so that the children feel at ease and capable when it comes to being successful in testing. Your part will be to please practice letter naming, sounding out words, reading short words with your child as part of their homework (you will be prompted with specific information in time). Testing happens three times a year in kindergarten (in 3 short cycles). 

Session 1: August, Session 2: January
Session 3: May 

I will be administering the test myself. Generally a session runs about 10 minutes per child. While I am testing, the children will be with Miss Wally, our kinder aide.

The name of the short cycle assessment TISA uses is DIBELS. The acronym stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. It is a reading assessment that can be used from kindergarten through 6th grade. TISA uses it in kinder, first and second grades.t is commonly used in schools with the goal of getting a snapshot measure of fluency. It was developed by the University of O

The DIBELS comprise a developmental sequence of one-minute measures:
KINDERGARTEN
recognizing initial sounds (phonemic awareness),
naming the letters of the alphabet (alphabetic principle),
segmenting words into phonemes (phonemic awareness),
reading nonsense words (alphabetic principle)
FIRST GRADE
oral reading of a passage (accuracy and fluency),
retelling (comprehension), and word use (vocabulary).
HHere is a detailed description of the components that pertain to kindergarten (compiled from the Internet). Each section takes 60 seconds. The test is administered 3 times a year (fall, winter and spring) by the class teacher (Miss Jutka in kinder). If you have any questions, please ask me.

Kindergarten DIBELS Section1:  
First Sound Fluency:  “Tell me the first sound of the word ____.”
Students listen to an adult say a list of words, and then they give the beginning sound of each word as it is said.  The children have 60 seconds to give as many first sounds as they can.  They must focus, cooperate, and follow directions.  There are no pictures to look at.  The hardest part is that the child must try to listen for ONLY the beginning sound, and so if the word starts with two consonants, as in the word “sleep,” the children often want to give the sounds of both the S and the L.  They need to give the sound of the S only.  If the tester says a word such as “sheep,” then the child would give the “sh” sound.  The children have to give the sounds, not the letter names.  These tests can be hard for children that have poor auditory discrimination skills.  That means that they can’t seem to listen to sounds and tell the difference between one and another very easily.  For example, some children have a hard time telling the difference between the P and the B sound.  They are made in the same way with the lips in the same position, but they sound slightly different.  For the P sound, the vocal cords do not vibrate, but when we make the B sound, they do! 

Kindergarten DIBELS Test 2:  
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency “Tell me all of the sounds you hear in the word ____.”
This is the name of the second section of the test that kindergarten children take.  This is again a listening only test.  The tester says a word, and the children must tell them all of the sounds that they hear in that word.  So if the tester says “mud,” then the child must try to say “/m/ /u/ /d/.”  (The slashes indicate the sounds of each letters are said, rather than the letter names.)  If the tester says “hush,” then the child must say “/h/ /u/ /sh/.”  (The child would give the sound of the “sh” not the letters S and H that make the /sh/ sound.)

The words on the list get pretty hard, such as “grabbed,” “clunk,” and “pretty,” so it can be quite a challenge to give all of the sounds in the word. 

The best thing to do is to practice with your child and make sure that telling the sounds that he or she hears in a word becomes commonplace.  The children are not penalized if they forget to name a sound in a word. They just need to keep going and tell as many sounds as they can in the sixty seconds that they have.  Start with beginning and ending sounds.  Once your child has mastered these, start trying to pick out any middle sounds that your child can hear.  If you practice doing this even for just four or five minutes every day, your child will surely improve.


Kindergarten DIBELS Section 3:  
Letter Sound Fluency/ Whole Words Read  “Read these words.  These are pretend words.  If you can’t read the words yet, just say the letter sounds.”
In this test, the children are given short nonsense words to sound out and read, such as “mip,” “sev,” “bis.”  They get a point for giving the letter sounds of each letter, but if they can read the whole word without sounding them out at all, then they are also given a point on a different test, called “Whole Words Read.” 
To get better at giving letter sounds fast, get a set of letter flash cards and a timer.  Have your child give the letter sounds as fast as he or she can.  Now try to beat your time.  Make a game out of it!  With daily practice, you should start to see your child’s time decrease.  Letter sound fluency is a vitally important part of learning to read, so it is well worth your investment of time.

If you have questions, please ask Miss Jutka.
If you'd like to explore more online, here is a site to look at: http://www.heidisongs.com/blog/2012/04/helping-kids-conquer-dibels.html