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Alexandria King
I really loved the part of the article that explained why we should use an IRI. The article explained that we as teachers should use an IRI because it is important to detect and diagnose children at an early age for reading difficulties they may lack. I agree with this part of the article because i believe the best time to get students where they need to be as far as reading is when they are young so that by time they get older they would have gotten the support needed to improve their reading skills. In addition, One statement this part of the article made was that “Too often early reading difficulties go undetected until grades 2 or 3. Our goal as teachers should always be to detect reading difficulties in our students as early as possible so that we are able to give them the support needed; the best way to do so is by using IRI.

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I really like how the article explained how important it is to really understand what and  how to use an IRI. The article stated, “Familiarity is important because it implies professional training to use and interpret the IRI, and teacher competence is crucial for effective IRI assessment”. I agree that familiarity and competence is crucial with the IRI you’re using, because how can you interpret the data and help your students if you don’t understand what you’re using. I hope to get thourouly acquainted with the IRI we’re using in class to be the best teacher I can be.

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The article explained the importance for teachers k-3 are to administer informal reading inventories because it basically focuses on decoding skills. We know that those skills are crucial for our young learners to obtain as early as possible. These IRI's can be administered through out the course of a day with multiple students. It also mentioned why it is important to assess students in the beginning of the year and the end. This is to see the growth of the students academic reading abilities. Performing these assessments throughout the school year, allows the teacher to plan according to their students individual needs. While assessing students can be tough to do, the article gives different strategies to use/try to get the necessary data to ensure all learners are successful!

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" When teachers can choose an IRI, they should select one that fits their assessment purposes and the skills of their students. If oral reading rate and accuracy are the main assessment goals, then IRIs with measures of comprehension and retelling are less important"
I found it interesting in the article here when the teachers are able to choose their own version of an IRI. You can question if that wouldn't be fair and there would be a lot of biases in the making of this pass or fail test in order for the student to actually do well on the test. I agree with the fact that the teacher is able to hand pick but basically my question is will it alter testing depending on how the teacher feels about the student. (i.e if the child knows how to read give them a book they familiar with and if a child cant read then give them a book below their reading level so that each child passes creating a sense of unfairness.)

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"Too often, early reading difficulties go undetected until grades 2 or 3." I found it interesting after reading this portion of the article because it discusses the importance of early detection and how help can be administered in a variety of ways to ensure the progress and success of each student in need. I feel as though in some of our internships, we can see reading skills that students have lacked in their early years and continue to struggle with as they enter a new grade.

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One part of the article that I found interesting was " As a consequence, researchers, publishers, and policymakers have created many new types of early reading assessments. This, in turn, has required teachers to learn more about reading assessment tools and how to use them. " I found this quote interesting because overall, I do not believe that the creation of new types of reading assessments is a consequence, but rather very beneficial to every student out there. With the help of these reading assessments, teachers are able to better prepare their lessons and help to appropriately meet the needs of every child in their classroom. Without the variety of reading assessments, teachers would not have a way to identify their students reading abilities.

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One important point the article talked about is that the primary grades are the most crucial time for reading assessments of young children to target individual needs. This connects to the "most important reason for IRIs: to diagnose children's strengths and weaknesses so that targeted instruction can be directed towards the skills the child may lack. I agree that all of these facts are so important, but the one fact that is so important talks about assessments being done in the most authentic way possible. For younger children, I have experienced firsthand how important is to implement assessments that are age appropriate.

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One portion of the article addresses how the data collected from an IRI can be useful. Being newly introduced to IRI assessments, this passage helped me understand how the information collected can be used to benefit students in more than one way. Some examples in the article included designing small groups, help students monitor their own performance, modify texts, etc. However, what mostly caught my attention was the example of how a teacher stated he/she used the IRI information to share at parent-teacher conferences. One component of education I have realized over these last two semesters is how important it is to communicate with student's families. Therefore, having these reports handy to share with parents at conferences is just one way parents can become more familiar with their child's literacy progress over the school year. One way this can be especially useful at conferences is if parents express concerns for their child's reading development. Providing this data to the parent can help them understand what supports their child is receiving at school and why and how they can further this support at home.

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"The most important reason for using an IRI with beginning readers is to diagnose children's difficulties so that extra instruction can be directed towards the skills they lack." In reading this part of the article I realized the importance of an IRI. I already knew they had a purpose but I was unsure of how to make the information useful and applicable in the classroom. When talking to my mentor teacher previously this week, we were discussing the cons of retention. As the article mentioned and so did she that by the time the difficulties are detected it is too late and the struggling students are already in the 2nd and 3rd grade.  Retention is great but some students are somewhere in between where they need K1 and not just kindergarten or 1st grade all over again. This part of the article made me realize that as a future educator IRI's can be extremely beneficial.

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Meghan Heaney
"Those data can provide summative information
about the relative growth and achievement of students—information useful to
administrators as well as parents, students, and future teachers." I agree that IRIs are a great summative assessment for students. The article talks about it being given in the beginning of the year and at the end to see the growth of the student. I think it would be a good thing to also give it mid-year to see where the students are standing as well. This is a progress growth of the student but can also be a great way to reflect on your own teaching to see if it is effective or not, or who it is effective with and how you can differentiate for those who you do not see much progression. 

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Meghan Heaney
"Those data can provide summative information
about the relative growth and achievement of students—information useful to
administrators as well as parents, students, and future teachers." I agree that IRIs are a great summative assessment for students. The article talks about it being given in the beginning of the year and at the end to see the growth of the student. I think it would be a good thing to also give it mid-year to see where the students are standing as well. This is a progress growth of the student but can also be a great way to reflect on your own teaching to see if it is effective or not, or who it is effective with and how you can differentiate for those who you do not see much progression. 

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I do agree with the article when it says that "students reading at a fourth grade level independently, can use an IRI to assess the silent reading and comprehension." The reason I agree with this is that teachers can determine what reading level the student is on and then plan instruction with it. I believe that checking the students' background knowledge is an effective way to determine what passage is developmentally appropriate for him or her because the running record can be more accurate with it.

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" The most important reason for using informal reading inventories with beginning readers is to diagnose children’s difficulties so that extra instruction can be directed toward the skills they lack. Too often, early reading difficulties go undetected until grades 2 or 3, " This quote relates back to my class now because my teacher still teaches and administers some IRI testing. This would be mostly be for her struggling readers. She has done check in's to show progress with her students.