What is primarily assessed through informal assessments in reading?

Informal assessments in reading primarily focus on evaluating reading behaviors. This includes observing how students engage with texts, their strategies for decoding and comprehension, and their overall attitudes towards reading. Through activities like running records, miscue analysis, and informal reading inventories, educators can gain insights into a student's reading fluency, comprehension skills, and ability to make connections with the material. This firsthand observation and assessment allow teachers to tailor their instruction to meet the individual needs of each student based on their unique reading behaviors.

The other options, while important in their own realms, are not the primary focus of informal assessments in reading. For example, mathematical skills pertain specifically to numeracy and calculation abilities, writing capabilities relate to producing written text, and speaking proficiency involves verbal communication skills. Each of these areas encompasses distinct assessments that address different competencies outside the scope of reading.