Why are Cold Reads Important?
Hello! Do you use cold reads in your classroom? According to Fountas and Pinnell, “A cold read of a text is the most accurate, efficient, and conservative way to assess a student’s current reading ability. That is, you learn what the student can do without teaching.”
How I Use Cold Read Tests in the Classroom
We use cold reads at my school in most grade levels. I administer a cold read about every 2-3 weeks. I try to match the standards we have been learning as close as possible. My grade level currently uses the curriculum CKLA. While the curriculum does assess reading comprehension, it does not assess them on any cold reads. My team and I found a solution: we created our own cold reads!
What will cold read comprehension tests identify?
Cold reads will identify students’ strengths and weaknesses when they are interacting with unseen text. It will give the teacher insight by showing where students are struggling and succeeding. This can provide the teacher a baseline on the student’s ability to read fluently. In this product you will find 22 cold read passages. Although, I made them to correlate with my curriculum they actually can be used ANYTIME. We tried to make the passages as close as possible on a reading level of 2nd-3rd grade and possibly fourth grade level if a student is reading below grade level. Don’t confuse cold reads with decodable readers. Although many of the words are decodable that is not the goal with a cold read. We are wanting to put an unseen text in front of the student and assess them on what they can read and answer.
This product has 22 different cold reads touching on those important standards. Each cold read assessment also provides discussion questions to help students practice their written responses. Each test has comprehension questions, vocabulary questions, and Part A and Part B questions (which they will see this type of questioning on state testing). So, not only are you getting a baseline for their fluency and comprehension, you are allowing your students an opportunity to practice writing, using context clues, and getting them ready for state testing.
The image below shows the topics the cold read tests cover. Again, these can be used as STAND ALONE COLD READS or correlate with CKLA.
Below is a quick video that shows the different comprehension test included and the types of questioning included.
Help your students become independent fluent readers by getting them reading and thinking independently. I would love to hear how you use cold reads in your classroom. Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!
