29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Outdated!, March 7, 2004
This review is from: Informal Reading Inventory: Preprimer to Twelfth Grade, Sixth Edition (Spiral-bound)
I have been using the Burns Roe inventories for the past seven years in my elementary classes and Reading Tutor program. I find that while some of the passages are good, others are very difficult to use. The vocabulary in some passages is very outdated (like the use of the terms "bookmobile," "fife," and "roof slates"). Also, there are many stories that present situations and topics very unknown to second language learners. I also do not like that the passages are excerpts from stories, with no apparent starting points or endings. In fact, I feel that I can only successfully use two or three of the passages for each level, since the others do not give me a true reflection of students' reading comprehension.
Another problem I have is with the word lists. There is a tremendous jump in word difficulty from Level 3 to Level 4. Most of my students can read Level 5 words more easily that those in level 4. To go from words like "yellow" and "welcome" to "ancient" and "government" is a bit much.
Overall, I think that the format of the inventory is good. I just think it is time to add new, up-to-date, and less confusing passages.
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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Informal Reading Inventory Review, October 29, 2000
I have been using the Burns and Roe Reading Inventory for 6 years. As a Primary Reading teacher, I find it a very useful tool for classroom teachers to use for providing instruction at a child's point of need. I also use the assessments as benchmarks, to show growth in reading skills at various points in the year. This inventory is easy to use, and is very accurate.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Out of context, lack of content, innaccurate test, April 7, 2005
This review is from: Informal Reading Inventory: Preprimer to Twelfth Grade, Sixth Edition (Spiral-bound)
The IRI takes segments of various outdated texts and provides a scoring system for educators to follow. When taken out of context, most of the passages do not make sense & are hard to follow/comprehend. The preprimer and primar level stories have no content & then expect children to recall information & "the main idea" when there is no "main idea". There is a huge jump in the vocabulary from third to fourth grade. The texts for the upper grades are hard to follow.
I administered this assessment on one of my students, as I was required to do so for a graduate course. I believe the results were NOT INDICATIVE of what this child is cabable of doing.
I administered this IRI to friends with graduate degrees who are highly educated and well read. Apparently, the 10th grade text is well beyond their frustration levels. When a friend quarried me about the section from Irene Hunt's Across Five Aprils, I apparently can't comprehend it because I didn't provide the right answers for the out of context passage. Nevermind that I read this book over 20 yrs ago and clearly remember the plot, the main character & the anti-war themes of the novel - a book that was easy for me as a child. I remember my book report & the diligent illustrations for the report. According to the test, eighth grade texts are well beyond my frustration level, even though I was reading college textbooks by the age of ten.
Besides, the anarchronistic aspect of the novel makes it difficult for most typical eighth grader to comprehend.
As a reader of sophisticated speculative fiction, magic realism and expository text, and as an educator and therapist for children with special needs, I found this folio of informal assessment a complete waste of time (and money on my $2000 graduate course).
I will stick to developing my own assessments.
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