personalized literacy support
Working collaboratively with the University of Wyoming Literacy Research Center and
Clinic faculty, tutors will administer evidence-based assessments in areas such as
word study, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and fluency to develop a comprehensive
understanding of each child's literacy strengths and needs. Assessment selection will
be based on the individual learning profile of each student, and results will be shared
with parents/guardians through the end-of-semester report. Assessment data will also
be maintained in the Clinic as part of each child's ongoing learning portfolio.
Using assessment results and ongoing observations, tutors will plan individualized
tutoring sessions that are responsive to each child's needs and interests. Tutors
will maintain a tutoring log documenting the reading and writing activities completed
during each session, as well as observations that inform future instruction. Every
tutoring session will include instruction across the essential literacy domains, including
word study (phonemic awareness and phonics), fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and
writing (composition and spelling). Students will also receive instruction designed
to strengthen their ability to critically evaluate web-based materials and other multimodal
texts, such as visual media. Tutors will use formative observations from each session
to adjust instruction and plan subsequent lessons, ensuring that teaching evolves
alongside student progress. Tutoring logs will be maintained in the Clinic as part
of each child's ongoing learning and assessment portfolio.
Assessments used in the clinic
Every student who participates in tutoring completes a core set of literacy assessments, including the Qualitative Reading Inventory–7 (QRI-7), the Developmental Spelling Inventory, and an Informal Writing Assessment. Additional assessments are administered as needed to better understand a student's literacy strengths and areas for growth, ensuring that instruction is tailored to each learner's individual needs.
The Qualitative Reading Inventory–7 (QRI-7) is an informal reading assessment that provides a comprehensive picture of a student's reading abilities. It evaluates word recognition, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and reading strategies across a range of text levels, helping tutors identify a student's instructional reading level and guide targeted instruction.
The Developmental Spelling Inventory examines a student's spelling knowledge to identify the developmental stage of their orthographic understanding. Results provide valuable insight into students' knowledge of letter-sound relationships, spelling patterns, syllable patterns, and morphological features, allowing instruction to be tailored to their specific word study needs.
The Informal Writing Assessment provides information about a student's written language abilities, including organization, sentence structure, spelling, conventions, and written expression. It helps tutors understand how students communicate their ideas in writing and informs instruction that supports both foundational writing skills and composition.
The Tests of Phonological Awareness are informal assessments that measure a student's awareness of the sound structure of spoken language. These assessments help identify strengths and needs in skills such as rhyming, syllable awareness, phoneme blending, segmenting, and manipulation, which are foundational for successful reading and spelling development.
The Informal Phonics Inventory evaluates a student's knowledge of sound-symbol relationships and their ability to apply phonics skills while reading words. The assessment helps tutors determine which phonics concepts have been mastered and which require additional instruction to support accurate and efficient word reading.
The Informal Decoding Inventory assesses a student's ability to apply phonics knowledge to decode unfamiliar words. By examining patterns of errors and successful decoding strategies, tutors can identify areas of strength and need and design instruction that builds increasingly accurate and automatic word recognition.
The University of Wyoming has earned its Research Level 1 (R1) status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing Wyoming's only four-year university with the top research universities in the United States.