Grouping for Instruction Group IRI (leveled materials) Cluster Analysis (curricular focus) Scattergram (multiple measures)

Group IRIs Group IRIs are commonly used to place students in leveled reading materials. Group IRIs usually consist of sets of leveled passages (blue) with multiple choice questions (red) to assess comprehension. In Group IRIs, students usually read silently and respond in wruiting. A group IRI usually takes several days since comprehension questions should be scored before continuing to a higher level.

Group IRIs Print out the Group IRI Exercise handout. Group IRIs are usually administered over several days because teachers need to assess levels in order to decide whether a student continues on to a higher level. Levels are usually based only on comprehension scores but can be supplemented with assessment of word recognition. STOP Assign each student to a level: 5 Complete the Group IRI exercise before continuingGroup IRI Exercise handout

Group IRIs Check your Group IRI level assignments against those in the chart at the right. Do you see why these levels have been assigned?

Cluster Analysis Cluster analysis is a technique for grouping students for instruction based on assessments of teachable domains. The example on the right presents stanine scores for students in 5 teachable areas. Stanines scores from 1- 3 are “below average”. This cluster analysis defines 2 special instructional groups. One group is for students who score 1 or 2 (red circles) and the other is for students who score a “3” (blue square). Do you see how these groups have been formed?

Cluster Analysis Print out the Cluster Analysis Exercise handout. Assign students to the four instructional groups addressing Structural Analysis, Literal Comprehension, Inferential Comprehension, and Vocabulary using the criteria described in the handout. STOP Complete the exercise before continuing.Cluster Analysis Exercise handout

Cluster Analysis Check your work against the Cluster Analysis Exercise Answer Sheet. Passing percentages specified by the teacher are highlighted in yellow at the bottom. Raw scores required to pass in numbers of items are highlighted in blue at the top. The class average score is highlighted in pink at the bottom. Students assigned to the four instructional groups indicated by columns are circled. What should we do about Literal Comprehension?

Grouping Students for Instruction Scattergram Approach The Scattergram Approach is most useful when you want to consider 2 different measures in making your grouping decision. Many standardized achievement tests include measures of both academic achievement and general ability. Achievement and ability are one widely used pair of scores for grouping students. Print out the Scattergram Exercise handout.Scattergram Exercise handout

overachieving underachieving normal achievement Student Reading Score Ability Score A5090 B5564 C9283 D6843 E5323 F2227 G4039 H5345 I6354 J7364 K8168 L1518 M1722 N1858 O9492 P3768 Q1512 R3337 S7782 T6474 U2572 V8388 W4754 X2822 Y6584 Z5352

Print out the Scattergram Exercise. Reading scores are plotted on the vertical axis. Ability scores are plotted on the horizontal axis. For example, Student “A” has a reading percentile score of 72 so we draw a horizontal blue line at 72. We draw a vertical blue line at 87 to represent the ability score. We plot a point where these two lines cross. This point represents student A. STOP - Plot the student data before continuing. A B

Scattergram Plotting Have you plotted the points correctly? If not, find out what you did wrong. For example, if you plotted student “J” in the upper left, you plotted reading scores on the ability axis, and vice versa. STOP Draw in the part of the chart that indicates “normal achievement.”

Scattergram NA Zone Check that you have correctly drawn the zone indicating normal achievement. If your zone is too wide or too narrow, you did not add the 2 SEM scores correctly. STOP Now label the areas of the chart that identify “normally achieving,” “under- achieving,” and “over-achieving” students.

overachieving underachieving normal achievement Scattergram Exercise Your finished chart should look like this. If it doesn’t, be sure to figure out what you did wrong. How will you group these students for reading instruction? STOP Draw lines on the chart to divide students into different reading groups.

overachieving underachieving normal achievement Scattergram Exercise Horizontal lines group students based solely only on their reading score. (press the spacebar) Vertical lines group students based solely only on their ability score. (press the spacebar) Oblique lines group students taking both scores into account. (press the spacebar) Print out and review the Scattergram Exercise Answer Sheet.

This Concludes the Module on Grouping for Instruction Group IRI (leveled materials) Cluster Analysis (curricular focus) Scattergram (multiple measures)