How
to Use the DIBELS Assessment Tool
by Arlyne LeSchack
DIBELS stands
for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills and the test
is not without controversy. Many educators who believe in focusing
on meaning and having students construct their own knowledge frown
on this tool. However, you may be asked to administer it to your
students, particularly students who are struggling with early reading
skills. This article will not take a position on the efficacy of
the tool, but it will help you understand the various measures involved
in the assessment. You can decide if they are useful for your students.
The DIBELS has several subtests or measures: The first is
Initial Sound Fluency. It is a standardized, individually
administered measure of phonological awareness that assesses a child's
ability to recognize and produce the initial sound in an orally
presented word. The administration looks like this: The examiner
presents four pictures to the child, names each picture and then
asks the child to identify the picture that begins with a sound
produced orally by the examiner. For example, the examiner might
say, “Here are pictures of a sink, cat, gloves and hat, which
picture begins with s?” The child is also asked to orally
produce the beginning sound for an orally presented word that matches
one of the given pictures. The examiner calculates the time it takes
for the student to answer. The whole measure takes about 3 minutes
and there are many alternates to use for monitoring progress.
The next subtest is called Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
(PSF). This test measures the student's ability to segment
three or four phoneme words into their indidual phonemes fluently.
This measure is also standardized and administered individually.
According to research done by Kaminiski and Good in 1996 this measure
has been found to be a good indicator of later reading achievement.
In the this test, the examiner would say "sat" and the
student would say back the sounds s/a/t.
The next measure is Nonsense Word Fluency. Here
the student is given a sheet of consonant/vowel/consonant (cvc)
words that are not real. The student is required to provide the
sounds for each letter and for higher credit to roll them into a
word.
Another DIBELS measure is Letter Naming Fluency.
Again it is standardized and individually administered. Here the
child is presented with a page of upper and lower case letters that
are randomly ordered. Students are asked to name as many letters
as they can in one minute. Students are considered at-risk for difficulty
achieving early literacy benchmark goals if they perform in the
lowest 20% of students in their district.
After Kindergarten, the DIBELS also includes Reading Connected
Text. In the second grade students have to retell the story
within the connected text.
The DIBELS measures
were devised based on skills and strategies that are prerequisite
and fundamental to later reading success. Though somewhat controversial,
I do think DIBELS have merit. Try administering them as an assessment
tool and decide for yourself.
If you have any questions about DIBELS, please contact
me at aleschack@aol.com.
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