Content Reading Indicator--Formative Assessment

This is a content reading indicator (CRI) designed to be used in a 10th grade history course.

This tool is used as a formative assessment at the start of a course, or new unit to identify where students' current reading levels are at. This can better inform decision-making about which reading texts are appropriate for the general class.

It also allows for more differentiated instruction, as it indicates which individual students require modified reading passages aligned to their current ability, as well those who would benefit from alternative or supplementary texts.

The CRI includes a selected reading passage that is at a 10th grade reading level, according to a Lexile measurement, and is typical of a content area text that would be assigned in a U.S. history course. After reading the passage, students answer a range of 15 modified, multiple-choice questions designed to test their literal recall ability, inferential skills, and vocabulary comprehension.

Answers are weighted to generate scores that indicate if the student read the passage at a frustration, instructional, or independent level. Students identified as reading at a frustration level would then receive texts that are modified to be more comprehensible. Those reading at an instructional level would be assigned texts at this level that would fall within their zone of proximal development and thereby be both understandable, yet challenging. Individuals currently reading at an independent level would be given supplemental texts of a higher reading level to challenge them further and advance their current reading ability.