Examples of Formal Reading Assessment Tools

Formal reading assessments allow a teacher to track a student's progress over a period of time in acquiring specific skills. These tests can be administered quickly, and the results are easily interpreted. The teacher can then use the test data to make informed decisions about teaching strategies and how to drive instruction.

Assessment of Skills

The Dibels (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) Assessment is an example of a formal assessment that tests the following skills: letter-naming, initial sounds, phoneme segmentation, nonsense words, and oral reading fluency. The tests range from one to five minutes in duration, and students are assigned scores that place them as being at-risk, some-risk, or low-risk. Dibels also includes a progress monitoring component, which teachers use to test at-risk students to determine if reading interventions have been successful. Dibels can be administered to students in kindergarten through 6th grade.

Comprehension Assessment

The Accelerated Reading Program measures a student's level of comprehension about books she has read. Schools that use this program have libraries that are supplied with books written at reading levels ranging from kindergarten to high school. Children are initially tested to determine their level; they then read books that have already been labeled for each level. After reading the book, the child takes a computerized test, which usually consists of five to 10 questions. Based on the score, a child earns a number of points. Teachers use this point system in a variety of ways, like awarding extra credit or points for prizes. The goal of Accelerated Reader is to encourage and motivate children to read for meaning and long-term comprehension.

The Average Salary of a CFL Player

Although the Canadian Football League's rules differ only slightly from those that guide the National Football League, an enormous gap separates the salaries of the two leagues. With a much smaller fan base and league size generating less ticket revenue, merchandising revenue and advertising income, the CFL simply can't afford to pay its players on the same level that the stars -- or even average players -- in the larger U.S. league to its south does.

Entry-Level Salary

Rookie-year stars drafted into the Canadian Football League earn salaries around $50,000 Canadian as of 2010, according to Monster.com, although league minimum for rookies is $30,000. League minimum for veteran players is $32,000, with average salaries in the league around $45,000, according to DarrenBarefoot.com. By contrast, NFL's minimum base salary is $295,000 American, roughly $292,357 Canadian as of February 2011 exchange rates, or approximately 10 times the CFL's league minimum for a similar salary.

High-End Salaries

Starters and CFL superstars may expect to usually earn between $60,000 and $120,000 Canadian, according to DarrenBarefoot.com. The highest paid player in the CFL, Winnipeg Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray, was slated to receive $500,000 Canadian for the 2011 season, although recent contract negotiations reduced that amount. Although figures weren't released, he reportedly cut around $125,000 from his compensation package, according to SportsNet.ca. By comparison, the NFL's highest paid player, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, earns about $18 million each year, according to Forbes.

CFL Salary Cap

Like the NFL, the CFL imposes a salary cap on its teams in order to keep teams relatively competitive with each other. Unlike the NFL, that salary cap is relatively small: In 2010, the league's team salary cap was $4.2 million Canadian, according to TSN.com. In comparison, the NFL team with the smallest player payroll, the Kansas City Chiefs, paid $81.8 million to its players, almost double the total payroll for all eight CFL teams.

Off-Season Employment

Many CFL players use the off season as an opportunity to bolster their annual earnings by taking on a second job, according to Monster.com. Although some serve as coaches for high school sports and as public speakers, others find employment in fields completely outside of the sports world, with other jobs as varied as positions in broadcasting to automotive repossession services.

No Way Out - And Other Scary Short Stories

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Punctuation in some reviews may be corrected.Intended for younger readers; however, some scenes may be too intense for readers under 8.

How to Use a Protractor

A protractor is a tool that allows you to measure an angle or construct an angle of a given measure.

Instructions

To Measure an Angle

1

Find the center hole on the straight edge of the protractor.

2

Place the hole over the vertex, or point, of the angle you wish to measure.

3

Line up the zero on the straight edge of the protractor with one of the sides of the angle.

4

Find the point where the second side of the angle intersects the curved edge of the protractor.

5

Read the number that is written on the protractor at the point of intersection. This is the measure of the angle in degrees.

To Construct an Angle

6

Use the straight edge of the protractor to draw a straight line. This line will form one side of your angle.

7

Find the center hole on the straight edge of the protractor.

8

Place the hole over one end point of the line you have drawn.

9

Line up the zero on the straight edge of the protractor with the line.

10

Make a mark at the number on the curved edge of the protractor that corresponds to the desired measure of your angle. For example, mark at 90 for a 90-degree angle.

11

Use the straight edge of the protractor to connect the mark to the end point of the first line, forming an angle.

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Connor Black, emotionally dead and damaged, that stemmed from a personal tragedy, made a vow to never love or fall in love with a woman, until Ellery Lane walked into his life by accident. After she opens up and shows him her world, Connor starts to feel emotions and feelings he never knew existed. Despite the rumors and warnings regarding Connor Black and his use and misuse of women, Ellery finds herself being drawn into his world.

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How to Read a Dial Indicator

A dial indicator is a device used for measuring very small increments. It is used in the machining process for quantifying precision metal parts. There are generally three types of incremental measurements used by the dial indicator. The largest increment is .005, pronounced five-thousandth of an inch. The next smallest is .001, pronounced one-thousandth of an inch. The most accurate measurement is .0001, called one ten-thousandth of an inch. Reading a dial indicator is only a matter of understanding the two dials on the large gauge. A small dial, located on the lower portion of the large faced gauge, indicates one revolution of the large dial in .100 movement. The large pointer is broken down into the indicators small measurements. The indicators precision measurement specification is always shown on the face of the gauge. For the example below, the indicator push arm has a full movement of one inch and is broken into .001" increments.

Instructions

1

Note the large dial face on the indicator. The large dial has numbers graduated by 10. It is listed 0 through 90. Between each number, there are 9 small lines that indicate a measurement of .001".

2




Observe the smaller dial below the large hand of the .001" movement. It has numbers on the face, and they are also broken into 10 separate numbers. The range is .0 to .9, where .9 is equal to .900" or nine-hundreds of an inch. One inch on this dial indicator is equal to the reading 1.000".

3

Adjust the indicator to zero by loosening the outer indicator ring. A small thumbscrew can be loosened and tightened to adjust the .001" measurement ring. By moving the zero ring, you can calibrate the indicator for any position.

4

Push on the indicators push arm. Set the dials to the following position. The small dial is on .4". The large dial is at 10. The inch reading would be .410".

5

Relieve some pressure on the movement arm. Have the large dial come down to five lines below the 10. The reading in inches is now .405".

6

Allow the dial indicator to come back to a full zero by letting go of the push arm. Double check the outer ring to register that the 0 is behind the large dial on the indicator face.

7

Move the indicator to the following position. Place the small dial on .1 and the large dial on five lines past the number 20. The reading in inches is .125" or 1/8 of an inch.

8

Depress the rod even further until the small dial is at .2 and the larger dial is at 50. The reading is now .250" or inch.

9

Push the rod a little further until the small dial is on .5 and the large dial is on 0. This indicates that the push arm has now moved .500" or a inch.

10

You can practice some more by moving the arm to the following positions.
Small dial on .3 and the large dial 5 lines past 70 is equal .375" or 3/8 inch.
Small dial on .6 and the large dial 5 lines past 20 is equal to .625" or 5/8 inch.
Small dial on .7 and the large dial on 50 is equal to .750" of inch.

Short Stories for Spanish Beginners

Reading is a good way to improve your vocabulary and comprehension in another language. Reading helps you identify word roots and new usages and learn new words from context and allows you to see how grammar and punctuation are used in the target language. Short stories are especially good for this.

Level of Reading Material

It's important to select stories that are appropriate for beginners. A study by Etsuo Taguchi of Daito Bunka University, Greta J. Gorsuch of Texas Tech University and Evelyn Sasamoto of Daito Bunka University found that readers of a second language who are given materials too difficult for them quickly become frustrated and lose interest. Readers who are given reading material that uses vocabulary they already know along with a small percentage of new words and usages, however, are able to read quickly and pick up on the new material rather than struggle with a lot of difficult concepts.

Foreign language teacher Megan B. Wyatt suggests starting with short nonfiction stories, such as journalism articles. In most countries, print journalism is written for a sixth-grade education level, with fairly common vocabulary and basic grammar structures. She advises that when you are comfortable with news and magazine articles, it's time to move on to children's literature, poems and websites.

Tips

Foreign language teacher Ignatius Graham suggests several tips for reading in a foreign language, applicable for reading short stories in Spanish. He recommends taking your time, reading in a quiet atmosphere away from distractions, breaking up the text into chunks and working on one chunk at a time, such as a single paragraph, using a dictionary, and rereading the same material at least twice.

He also writes that you shouldn't translate from Spanish to English in your head as you go, but practice reading and comprehending in Spanish. Continuously trying to translate will slow you down and prevent you from gaining real fluency in a language, which includes thinking in the language. Finally, he notes that you won't understand every word or grammatical construction every time. In cases like this, try to pick up the meaning from context and by parsing the sentence.

Readings Online

There is a wealth of Spanish material online perfect for beginning readers of the language. ClubCultura offers short journal articles on Spanish and other literature and writers. The Bibliotheca Cervantes is a virtual library of Spanish literature ranging from the simple to the complex.

Spanish News Bites states that "our motto is "Spanish Language News for Spanish Language Learners"; it is an online resource offering regularly updated, up-to-the-minute news stories from Spain and Latin America, specially adapted for language learners at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. It features selected mouse rollover glossary and grammar, audio, exercises and useful links. Finally, English-Spanish Link offers short stories for beginning Spanish learners with bilingual side-by-side translations and Spanish-only readings.

Readings in Print

Several published series offer short stories in Spanish, often with a side-by-side English translation, which allows readers to check on the meanings of new words or constructions. These series include the Side-By-Side series and the English and Spanish Foundations Series. Suggested works include "Stories from Spain / Historias de Espaa," by Genevieve Barlow and William Stivers, "Historias De Latinoamerica/Stories from Latin America," by Genevieve Barlow, and "Jorge el curioso" ("Curious George") and "Spiritual Sonnets," by Gabrielle de Coignard and Melanie E. Gregg. You also can subscribe to many popular magazines in Spanish to practice reading short stories.

Authors

The short story is a traditional form among many South American writers writing in Spanish. In her collection "Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real," editor and author Isabelle Allende recommends short stories by Luisa Valenzuela, Elena Poniatowska, Clarice Lispector, Ana Lydia Vega and Dora Alonso. English-Spanish Link suggests readings by Hermanos Quintero, Cervantes, Jesus Ferrer and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.