DIBELS...

I wanted to give a quick overview of DIBELS and the assessments your child will take in the middle of May.  DIBELS allows us to pinpoint areas of concern with your child's reading.  This by no means indicates that your child will not be able to read; however, it allows us to look at weaknesses in certain areas.  DIBELS is a predictor of reading success.  In May your child will take 3 one-minute assessments.  I have described the assessments below and have provided a practice sheet for you to be able to practice at home.

1. Letter Naming Fluency - This is a sheet of mixed up upper and lowercase letters.  Your child then reads as many letters as they can for one-minute.  The goal is 40 LETTERS.  This may seem easy, especially since all the children know their letters; however, this is one of the assessments children do not do well.  It is important to continue to practice letter naming even if your child knows their letters.

2. Phoneme Segmentation - This is only a listening and speaking assessment.  Your child will hear a word and then they say the parts of the word.  For example, I may say the word "cat" and your child will break it apart and say all three sounds separately /c/ /a/ /t/.  Your child does not say the letter, but only the sound.  The goal for the end of the year is 40 PARTS OF A WORD.

3. Nonsense Word Fluency - This is where your child sees a sheet of real and make-believe words.  All the words are three letters (mig, bav, kid, wuz).  Your child has one-minute to read the sounds of the word.  Your child does not have to read the whole word, but they need to say the sounds.  At the end of the year your child needs to be able to read 28 SOUNDS.

Practice sheet of letters and sounds

http://goo.gl/Do1ge

I hope this helps and I have more information on the DIBELS page.  Just click on DIBELS on the left hand side of the page!