Make Managing Dyslexia Screenings Easier

Our state has mandated that we begin screening students kindergarten through 3rd grades for dyslexia this year.  And it is important to remember that we are screening for indicators, but we are NOT diagnosing dyslexia.  We needed to make managing dyslexia screening as easy as we could.  Our state department required several areas of skills that needed to be included when we screen.  Thankfully for us, we were already doing most of what they were asking for.  All we needed to do was add in a few elements and then be sure we screened all students in those grades for this first year.  

I did a lot of research into this and attending meetings to be sure we were on the right track and included all of the required components.

One of the trainings I attended was a MARRE conference and I was able to attend a session by Linda Dorn.  It was a great session with a lot of information on dyslexia and what it is not.  

I knew I didn't want to use a program for this.  I am not a program kind of person.  But I did need to make this screening affordable and as easy to manage as possible.  I already use ESGI software for my RTI screenings and am familiar with how to use it.  So using ESGI for dyslexia screenings was of course what I knew I would need for this too.  

We chose to use free screenings for the most part and I just entered them into ESGI.  Our screenings include PAST for phonemic awareness, Quick Phonics for phonics, letter identification and letter sounds assessments, Dolch sight word lists, and nonsense word lists.  These are all free and all you would need to do is type them into ESGI.  I enter yes or no if the child knows the word/answer or does not.  

This has saved me HOURS, not kidding, of my time!  By using ESGI, I do not have to make paper copies of all my kids, test them, then go back and score them.  I can assess them quickly and as I push yes or no, ESGI is scoring the assessments for me!  Now, there are a few screenings that we still administered with paper- spelling and writing.  I also did not use ESGI for the rapid naming assessment.  But all the others, I did and it was smooth and easy!

All these screenings could have been a paperwork nightmare to score and try to create reports for each student.  But again, ESGI made it easy because they do that for you!  I can run reports for the least know letters for an entire class.  Or phonemic awareness for just one student.  If you look at the last report in the picture, a new feature of ESGI is plotting the progress of students.  We will be assessing students 3 times per year.  So by May each student will have 3 data plots of progress in their graphs!  So easy and I didn't have to be the one to do it!  I just pull it up and send to the printer.  

We have all of our screenings done now and I am using this data to help me reach students where they are at and who needs help in each area.  

Pre-Kindergarten - 1st Grade Classroom Tools
If you think ESGI might be what you are looking for to help save you time when assessing, click the picture above.  There are many more features to this software that I didn't even write about today.  Try it out  for 60 days and see!  I use it for dyslexia and RTI screenings.  Classroom teachers use it for grade level check off skills and so much more.  

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