You can use the Miller Word Identification Assessment (MWIA) to test for artificially induced whole-word dyslexia. It can be downloaded for free and used to test your students. It is a quick, powerful test to determine whether or not your student could benefit from phonics.
A student who has completed first grade should not have more than one error on the phonetic portion of the test. Also, a student who is reading the Phonetic portion more than 10% slower than the Holistic portion should benefit from remedial phonics work. Students scoring at 3rd grade level or above on the National Right to Read Foundation (NRRF) grade level test should be given the MWIA Level II. Students scoring at 2nd grade level or below on the NRRF test should take the MWIA Level I test.
Here is an article by Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld telling about the history and psychology behind the development of Edward Miller’s powerful assessment: Can Dyslexia Be Artificially Induced in School.
In the future, we will be posting actual test results and their interpretation in the light of proper reading psychology. The astonishing results we get from tutoring these sight-word victims with Blend Phonics and Webster’s Spelling Books is further confirmation of the origin of the problem.
MWIA Level 2: Don’s Student KW
Third Grader: Went through Blend Phonics between 12/7/12 and 1/25/12.
Pre-Test: Holistic List 53 wpm, Phonetic List 36 wpm. Slow-down 23%. Holistic errors 13, Phonetic Errors 41. Independent first semester 2nd grade.
Post-Test: Holistic List 59 wpm, Phonetic List 53 wpm. Slow-down 10%. Holistic errors 4, Phonetic errors 17. Spell/correct: 12 out of 17 word corrected.
Interpretation: This student has made dramatic, life changing progress in a very short period of time. This is typical of what teacher can expect from Blend Phonics. It is excellent for RTI (Response to Intervention) Tier 1 & 2 teaching. And quite frankly, if used for Tier 1, it would largely eliminate the need for any Tier 1 or 2 instruction.
I am fascinated by the MWIA. I look forward to your posting actual test results.
Best wishes for your blog.
Thanks!
We should have some up in a few days, we’ve figured out a new way to display them and now just need to standardize our MWIA results and transfer them to this new format to preserve our students’ anonymity.
It took months of Don’s sending me MWIA scores before I decided to try it. It seemed like an unnecessary test to me at first, after I tried it out, I found it to be an essential diagnostic tool, every student I tutor now gets a before and after MWIA and a before and after reading grade level test.