It was pleasure meeting Sebastian today. He was very open and shared his interests with me readily. He talked about his interests in film making and about the movies he has made. When questioned about his favorite subjects in school he remarked that he enjoyed PE but did not like reading. He shared some titles of humorous books that he enjoyed reading. He told me that he liked reading “real books” and not “passages”. He also shared that he did not like reading tests and felt that he didn’t understand the questions he was being asked on comprehension passages. After our discussion, I administered the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI) to determine his reading levels.


The Qualitative Reading Inventory is an individually administered informal reading inventory. It is used to provide diagnostic information about a student’s ability to identify words and comprehend text successfully. Sebastian scored at the 6th grade instructional level on the words in isolation lists. This demonstrates good word identification skills and a solid vocabulary. In the passage reading, which assesses comprehension, Sebastian scored at the instructional level for both 3th grade reading passages. He read the narrative and the expository passages with ease. He read at an appropriate rate with expression. He had very few miscues placing him at the independent level for word recognition on both passages. Sebastian’s miscues did not interfere with comprehension. He was reluctant to respond to the comprehension questions and had to be prodded to give answers. When directed to look back at the text, he could find the answers he was looking for, but seemed uninterested in rereading to find evidence for his responses. From my discussion with Sebastian and the testing results, I can see that Sebastian is a young man who is very capable. His reluctance to invest his energy in the “testing process” could be problematic in today’s high stakes testing environment. It will be important for him to be in an environment that allows him to have choices and multiple venues to demonstrate learning. Sebastian is a talented young man and I wish him future success.