The purpose of this brochure is to provide parents with examples of the types of questions that may appear on
the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination (IREAD-3) Assessment. The IREAD-3
Assessment is comprised of three test sections: Vocabulary Skills, Nonfiction Comprehension, and Literary Text Comprehension.
Please use these tips to help prepare your child for the IREAD-3 Assessment.
Vocabulary Skills
The Vocabulary Skills section is divided into five separate categories:
1. Word Analysis
2. Synonyms & Antonyms
3. Homographs
1.
4. Suffixes
5. Context Clues
Word Analysis: These items assess the student’s ability to determine the beginning, ending, and middle sounds.
Examples: Find a word with the same beginning sounds as brass.
grass
might
break
Find a word with the same ending sound as brain.
bright
done
blame
Find the word with the same middle sound as made.
pain
glad
might

Practice this skill using other words with your child. Name a word. Write three words on a sheet of paper. One of the
three words should have the same beginning sound. Ask your child to find the word with the same beginning sound. Repeat this same procedure with ending sounds and middle sounds.
2.
Synonyms & Antonyms: Synonym items assess the student’s ability to find a word with the same meaning as the underlined word. Antonym items assess the student’s ability to find the opposite meaning of the underlined word.
Synonym Example: will jump away
bounce
walk
run
Antonym Example: was happy
glad
sad
small

Practice Synonyms: Write a word like pretty at the top of the page. Ask your child to think of other words that have the same meaning
and write the words on the page.

Practice Antonyms: Write a word like sad on a notecard or small piece of paper. Have your child write a word that means the opposite.
3. Homographs: This section requires students to find a word that has different meanings, but is spelled the same. Students
will need to find the word that correctly completes two sentences.
Example: The girl did not feel _______ after eating too much cake.
hungry

well
Be careful not to fall in the _________.
lake
Write a homograph on a piece of paper. Ask your child to use the word in two different sentences with two different meanings.
Here are a few homographs to get your started: row, fair, rose, train, dove, bat, wave, light, trip, rock
4.
Suffixes: A suffix is a group of letters you add to the end of a word to change the word’s meaning. Students will be asked
to identify the suffix, or word ending.
Example: Find the word that has the suffix, and only the suffix, underlined:
slowly
hopeful
happily
beautiful

As you read stories with your child, notice the words that have a suffix. At the end of the page, go back to those words.
Ask your child to identify the suffix of each word.
5.
Context Clues: Students will be asked to select the word that best completes the meaning of the story.
The dog looked for his ____ (1) ____ because he wanted to go outside. His owner put on her coat and took the dog for a
____(2) ____.
1)

bowl
leash
treat
2)
swim
meeting
walk
Before reading a story, cover a few important words on each page with a small piece of masking tape or post-it note. Read the story
together. When you come to a covered word, ask your child to use the story clues to guess the covered word.
Nonfiction Comprehension
During this portion of the test, students will compare and respond to grade-level informational text (non-fiction) by
identifying the main idea, making connections, and/or predictions while reading.
Ideas for Working with Your Child

Choose a topic your child is interested in and then read a variety of non-fiction text with your child (newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, direction manuals, books about animals, planets, insects, etc.).

Before reading, preview the title and/or pages of the book, and ask your child to make predictions. As you read, continue to ask your
child about the text.

While reading non-fiction text, it is extremely important to make sure your child pays close attention to captions, graphs, headings,
subheadings, sidebars, charts, maps, and bulleted points.

As you are reading, ask your child questions about the text. What is the main idea? How do you know that this is the main idea?
What does the text remind you of? Does the text connect to something in your life, another story you have read, or something in the
world around you?

Ask your child to mark interesting facts and/or information with a post-it note. Open a discussion with your child by asking them
questions about the sections they marked.
Literary Text Comprehension
In this section, students will compare and respond to grade-level literary text (fiction stories) by recalling and/or
describing story elements (plot, character traits, character development, problem and solution). Students will also
be asked to identify the theme and narrator of different fiction genres.
Ideas for Working with Your Child
Select a story from your child’s reading textbook or a book on their reading level and then discuss the following items:

Read with your child. As you are reading, pause throughout the story to ask questions. Who is the main character? How would you
describe the main character’s actions? Is there a problem in the story? If so, how does the character resolve the problem?

What did you learn from this story? What was the main idea? What was the theme (friendship, compassion, good versus bad, etc.)?

What fiction genre was the story (realistic fiction, science fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, mystery, etc.)? What evidence from the
story helped you figure out which fiction genre it was?

After reading, ask your child to retell the story. Strong readers are able to tell about what they have read in their own words. They
can clearly and accurately retell the story they have read to someone who has not read the story. If your child struggles, prompt
them with questions about the story.

Model good reading. As you read, stop and think out loud about what you have just read and ask yourself clarifying questions about
the story.