What is the Purpose?

The DRA Assessment Cycle Assessing performance Analyzing and Reflecting Planning instruction Teaching and Learning

The DRA Assesses Knowledge – retelling and comprehension Skills – reading/accuracy, decoding, phrasing and fluency Dispositions – reading preferences, book choice, and motivation

Administering the DRA The assessment will be given two to three times per year. It may be used more frequently for struggling readers. May be administered by the classroom teacher or reading specialist. Will begin in grade 1, except in cases where a kindergartener is reading well above grade level.

What about the Text? Books are leveled from A-80 and are benchmark text. Text differs according to level by: size of print difficulty of words and concepts number of words predictability of language illustrations complexity of story

What do the numbers mean? Early Emergent K Upper Emergent 1 Early Fluency 2 Fluency 3-4 Proficiency 5-6 DRA Levels A-4 DRA Level 5-16 DRA Level DRA Level DRA Level Fountas & Pinnel Level A-C Fountas & Pinnel Level D-I Fountas & Pinnel Level J-M Fountas & Pinnel Level N-R Fountas & Pinnel Level R-Z

How do the numbers translate into just right books? DRA Level Comparable Text A Oops (Little Celebrations) 1 The Bath (Ready Readers), My Book (Maris/Viking) 2 Have You Seen My Cat?(Carle/Putnam) Have You Seen My Duckling?(Tafuri/Greenwillow) 3 An Elephants Trunk (Little Celebrations) 4 Brown Bear Brown Bear (Martin/Holt) 6 How Many Bugs in a Box (Carter/Simon & Schuster) 8 Go Dog Go (Eastman) 10 Just Like Daddy (Asch/Simon & Schuster) 12 Gone Fishing (Long/Houghton Mifflin) 14 Just Me and My Dad (Mayer/Donovan) 16 Are You My Mother? (Eastman/Random House)

How do the numbers translate into just right books? DRA Level Comparable Text 18 There’s Something In My Attic (Mayer/Penguin Group) 20 Frog and Toad (Lobel/Harper & Row) Henry and Mudge (Rylant/Aladdin) 24 Arthur books (Hoban/Harper Collins) Nate the Great (Weinman/Dell) 28 The Stories Julian Tells (Cameron/Random House) Undersea Gardens (iOpeners/Pearson) 30 Cam Jansen (Adler/Puffin Books) Peewee Scouts series (Delton/Dell) 34 The Hit Away Kid (Christopher/Dell) Little Critter Journal (Little Celebrations) 38 Box Car Children (Warner/Albert Whitman) Astronauts Take Flight (iOpeners/Pearson) 40 The Magic School Bus Series (Cole/Scholastic) Little House on the Prairie (Wilder/Harper Collins)

Level 50 comparable books: Poppy -by Avi (S) The Indian in the Cupboard –by Lynee Reid Banks (R) Hatchet –by Gary Paulsen (R) Sarah, Plain and Tall -by Patricia Maclachlan (R) The Whipping Boy by-Sid Fleischman (R) The Sign of the Beaver -by Elizabeth George Speare (T) The Islander -by Cynthia Rylant (T) Misty’s Twilight -by Marguerite Henry Level 60 comparable books: Ella Enchanted -by Gail Levine (U) Julie of the Wolves -by Jean Craighead George (U) The Watsons Go to Birmingham -by Christopher Curtis(U) The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle -by Avi (V)

The Secret Garden -by Frances Burnett (U) The Bad Beginning -by Lemony Snicket (V) Holes -by Louis Sacher (V) Walk Two Moons -by Sharon Creech (W) Slam! -by Walter Myers (W) The Cay -by Theodore Taylor V) Level 70 comparable books: The Phantom Tollbooth -by Norton Juster (W) The Witch of Blackbird –by Elizabeth Speare (W) The Ring Of Endless Light -by Madeleine L’Engle (W) The Cookcamp -by Gary Paulsen (V) The Girl Who Owned a City -by O.T. Nelson (X) Where the Red Fern Grows -by Wilson Rawls (X) The Dark End is Rising -by Susan Cooper (X) Level 60 comparable books:

What Can I Do? Read to your children daily, even when they can read the text. Be a good role model by reading when your child is reading. Let your children read to you. Have discussions about events in your lives. Create your own book group. Understand that when a child says a book is too easy it is usually just right. Enjoy!