Indicators of Early Literacy Skills: Dibels Natalie Pileggi- Rupert Reading Specialist

What is the Dibels Assesment? Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills The Dibels assessments are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. The benchmarks assessments are given three times a year to Kindergarten through fifth grade students

Five Big Ideas In Reading Why do we use Dibels? Five Big Ideas In Reading Phonological Awareness Alphabetic Principal Vocabulary Fluency with the Text Comprehension Dibels Phonological Awareness Alphabetic Principal Fluency with the Text Comprehension

Dibels Measures Initial Sound Fluency Letter Naming Fluency Phoneme Segmentation Nonsense Word Fluency Oral Reading Fluency

Initial Sound Fluency By the middle of Kindergarten, the students should be able to identify and say beginnings sounds in words. Students are given a paper with four pictures. They are asked to identify a picture with a specific sound or say the beginning sound of a word.

Letter Naming Fluency Kindergarten and first grade students are given a paper with letters and asked to name each one. This is a one minute test.

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Given to Kindergarten and first grade students to assess their knowledge of sounds in the words we speak. Example: teacher says “hat” students says /h/ /a/ /t/

Nonsense Word Fluency This assessment is given to Kindergarten through second grade. Allows students to use knowledge of letters and sounds to read unfamiliar words. Example: mec

Oral Reading Fluency This is given to children in first to fifth grade. It measures how fluently students read passages at their grade level. The students are given three passages and asked to read each for a minute. After reading the selection, the students are asked to retell the story.

DAZE The students are assessed in grade three through six on this skill. It measures student’s comprehension skills. The students are given a passage with words missing. They must pick a word from three choices that fits best in the blank. The task must be complete in three minutes.