Conducting Periodic Assessment of Fluency timings for a student

Read Live's Periodic Assessment of Fluency (PAF) feature measures a student's oral reading fluency growth during the school year using a consistent set of passages at the same reading level. PAF passages are independent from the Read Naturally Live curriculum. Assessments consisting of 2 to 3 one-minute timings become available every 10 weeks during the year.

By default, the Periodic Assessment of Fluency feature is on for all students. It can be turned off in the Read Naturally Live Story Options.

To conduct Periodic Assessment of Fluency timings for a student: 

1. When the alert symbol appears in the Read Naturally Live student module's header indicating that Periodic Assessment of Fluency timings are available, open the Teacher menu using your login credentials.
2. Choose Periodic Assessment of Fluency on the left. 
3. If this will be the student's first fluency assessment of the year, it is important to review the student's current Read Naturally Live assignment. Fluency assessments for the entire school year will remain at a level based on their Read Naturally Live assignment when the first assessment is performed.
   1. Review the student's Read Naturally Live assignment, and: 
      1. If the student's assignment is appropriate, choose Start Periodic Assessment of Fluency to begin fluency assessments.
      2. If the students current assignment is not appropriate, either use the Read Naturally Live placement tool, or choose Change Series/Level/Goal to adjust the assignment.
         Once the student's assignment has been updated, return to the Periodic Assessment of Fluency page and choose Start Periodic Assessment of Fluency.
   2. The application asks that you confirm the student's current assignment before their first timings. Choose Confirm Assignment to establish the student's fluency assessment level for the entire school year.
4. Conduct a timing for one passage:  
   1. On the Periodic Assessment of Fluency timing page, ask the student to choose Start Timing. 
   2. As the student reads, listen, and count the number of errors.
   3. The timing ends in one of these ways:
      • If the bell sounds, choose the last word the student read before the timer expired.
      • If the student finishes the story before the bell sounds, choose Finished.
   4. Enter the number of words the student missed. 
      The timing score in words correct per minute updates as you enter the number of missed words.
5. If you do not think the student's timing was valid, choose Mark as Invalid.
   A dialog will ask you to confirm this decision. Note that to avoid the practice effect, passages marked invalid will not be shown to the student again until the next Periodic Assessment of Fluency assessment window.
6. Choose Next at the bottom of the page. 
   Each assessment window consists of one to two valid one-minute timings. In rare circumstances with more than one invalid timing, a student may take up to three timings in an assessment window.
   1. If this assessment window is not yet complete, another passage opens in the timing page. Return to step 4 above.
   2. If this assessment window is complete, a dialog describing the results opens. Choose OK to finish the Periodic Assessment of Fluency assessment window.
7. After the timings are complete, the Periodic Assessment of Fluency page of the Teacher menu is opened again.
   The page now includes the date on which the next fluency assessment window will open.
   Because the next assessment window will open in 10 weeks, the Start Periodic Assessment of Fluency button is disabled. 
8. Choose Periodic Assessment of Fluency Report to review the student's performance over all the assessment windows in this school year. 

See also

• Enabling or disabling the Periodic Assessment of Fluency feature
• Placing Students in Read Naturally Live
• Changing a Student Series, Level, or Goal