A Quick Brief about Fountas and Pinnell reading level
Fountas and Pinellas reading is a system for reading levels that was developed by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell to support their series of student readers and teacher resource products.
In 1996, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell revolutionized early literacy education by applying their A-thought-Z leveling system to small group guided reading.
Guided reading majorly focuses on reading, It’s not about phonics but teachers in this method use information gathered from different assessments done for individual or group assessment to group students regarding reading instructions.
The kids are analyzed on various parameters.
The reading text is classified into various categories, such as a number of different words, word count, high-frequency numbers, sentence complexity, word repetitions, illustrations, etc.
Leveling system does not consider the beginning reading process.
Each education level is provided by small books combined with small words and illustrations.
Young children have a very distinct way of reading skills and there are different tentative scheduled for each level.
Teachers are more reliable to this resource as it proves to be reliable in determining the independent reading level of kids. Everything is documented informative and summarized.
Fountas and Pinnell are one way how districts identify the level of the student in reading skills. An assessment is done in order to gather information regarding reading accuracy, fluency, and more.
An effective way to determine a child's strengths and weaknesses and work on them accordingly.
A combination of 2 books is provided to the kids - fiction and non-fiction, their progress Is recorded such as mistakes made, and questions are asked to get an understanding.
Each year has a different growth level and every student has to pass these levels in order to meet the grade-level expectations.
The time period of Assessment
Beginning of the year ( August - September)
Mid-year (November- December)
End of year (April- May)
The Assessment -
Determines child’s “Independent and instructional” reading level
Independent - Reading with 95%+ accuracy with satisfactory comprehension
Instructional- read with 90%+ accuracy with satisfactory comprehension
Determining placement levels of reading and group students for instruction teaching strategy assessment
It can document whole years progress and also over several years
Parents can stay updated on the progress of the child over a period of time
Below the grade level, it is not common to score lower in-class assessments. They cannot catch up to grade level in a short span of time.
Determining Wrong things
While assessing, students reading records are analyzed to determine three sources of information- Meaning, Syntax, Visual- tools that a child uses for word identification.
An error simply means a child couldn’t apply accurately to read the word.
Assessing students doesn’t take a long time, 20 mins per student but oral reading fluency assessments take just 1 minute.
Comprehension Portion
It includes 3 types of questions, wherein students can score, between 1-3 in any area.
Within the text- Summarize the story and identify the problems.
a. Beyond the text- This would indicate the child’s ability to connect to their own experiences with the story and draw conclusions about the same event or any character
b. About the text- Indicates your child’s ability to think about the author’s purpose, style of writing, or how the text is organized.
Self Correction
A self-correction rate of 1:4 means that the kid is able to rectify 1 out of 4 errors made during reading.
If the rate is less than this, it indicates that the kid needs to be monitored for correcting their reading.
If they do not improve it shows they are totally not aware of reading abilities and need to work on them.
Fluency
It depicts how smoothly your child can read with expressions and meaning.
Accuracy Rate
The accuracy rate shows the percentage of words read correctly or accurately. Instructional accuracy level rate may be between 90%-100%
How Much Reading Levels Matter?
The student will read beyond their level when they are motivated by a topic. If that happens, it is one of the best methods to grow as a reader.
Second graders can be excited about any text with pictures, while sixth graders can be encouraged to read non-fiction books to develop interest.
Fountas and Pinnell state that a leaving system is simply a tool for a teacher to use to match students with books.
The data procured during the process of assessment is more helpful as it is easy to understand and is actionable.
How is it implemented?
The assessments are conducted one by one.
Part 1- Students read aloud and talk about the system’s original leveled fiction and non-fiction books, while the teacher has to observe and make pointers on the reader’s behaviors on carefully constructed form, ensuring that it doesn’t put a negative effect on the reader and is motivated to be better.
Part 2- The teacher will be conducting a comprehensive form of conversation.
Part 3 - This is optional, it uses writing about reading prompts to observe the responses to the text.
This method of Reading Level will ensure a level of guidance to students on an individual level to every student and would focus on building their interest in reading more often.
Fiction or non-fiction books are more enjoyed by kids hence using this is a reliable and efficient way for their practice.
