Assessing Reading

What is Reading?
Being able to read is to: understand, use and reflect on written texts in order to: achieve ones goal develop ones knowledge and potential and to participate in society

John H.A.L. de Jong

What is Reading Assessment?

Teachers use assessments in reading to make sure students

are making measurable progress.

In elementary school, students must make sense of sounds,

letters and words in text to become fully independent readers.

Students should be able to read a wide variety of materials,

both

fiction

and

non-fiction,

with

comprehension.

Why Do We Assess the Reading Achievement?

The overall goal of reading assessment is to inform the teaching and

learning process.
It helps screen students who may have: deficits in reading identify and place students with reading disabilities, plan reading instruction and intervention programs, identify present levels of reading performance, develop goals and objectives in reading, assess student progress in reading, and monitor the effectiveness of reading programs.

Reading in real life

Text - Reader - Goal - Result
En d po in t

Assessing Reading:
Not chosen, but imposed by test

of

pr oc es

Text - Test taker - Task - Response - Scoring rules -Score

Confirm to the task
Must be observab le Reflects difference between task and observed response

Types of Informal Assessment

Observation

-Observation of students in different reading

situations.
Oral Reading -Observation and recording of students oral reading

behaviors.
Silent Reading -Observation and recording of students silent

reading behaviors.
Reading Comprehension

-Evaluation of students reading

comprehension.
All of these incorporate a diagnostic checklist that is used to record

students reading behaviors

Reading Assessment Techniques

Reading comprehension - comprises of the child being made to

read a small text passage, and then the child is asked a few detailed questions related to the text.
Language Comprehension - the child will not be asked to read any

text. From the instructions to the questions, everything will be verbally presented to the child.
Decoding - Typically, decoding skill is measured through the childs

ability to read words out of context. Isolated words are presented to the child one at a time, and the child is asked to say the word aloud. The words selected for a decoding test should be words that are within the childs spoken vocabulary