Assessing

Reading
Ability
Why assess reading ability:
The overall goal of reading assessment is to
inform the teaching and learning process
Reading assessment 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
IEP goals and objectives in reading, assess student
progress in reading, and monitor the effectiveness
of reading programs.

Purpose of reading
assessments:
Reading ability is very difficult to assess
accurately
In the communicative competence model, a
student's reading level is the level at which
that student is able to use reading to
accomplish communication goals.
This means that assessment of reading ability
needs to be correlated with purposes for
reading.

Criteria for good
assessment:
a. Reliability
Stability
Internal Consistency
Inter-rater
Alternate Forms

b. Validity
Construct
Content
Predictive
Concurrent
Consequential

Formal reading
assessments:
Placement tests
Diagnostic tests
Progress tests
Achievement tests
Learner self-assessment

Teacher Observation
Conversation
Reading Interviews
Reading Journals
Reading logs
Annotated Work Samples
Student Self Assessment & Peer Assessment
Observation Survey
Running Records; Letter Identification; CAP;Word Recognition
(Clay & BURT); Hearing & recording sounds in words; Writing
Vocabulary
Neale Analysis
TORCH
DART
Assessment Procedures
Teacher judgements based on
observations in the classroom
environment are a valid and reliable
method of assessing students.
Teacher Observations

Teachers gain valuable information
about a students attitudes,
understandings, and knowledge
through conversations during small
group or individual work.
Conversations

Reading Interviews
An interview can provide
information about themselves as
a reader and the strategies they
use when they read



Reading Journals
Reading Journals provide students with the
opportunity to record
Responses to text
Opinions formed
Successful strategies learned
New understandings Written and drawn
reflections.
Reading Logs can provide the following:-
- An overview of the number of text being
read
- The type of texts being read
- The amount of reading taking place
- The texts being taken home
- Any Preferences. Eg same author etc
Reading Logs
- Teacher notes on dated samples of reading
responses are evidence of the knowledge,
skills and understandings the student has.
-The teachers conversation with the student
can provide information about the level of
understanding of descriptive words, phrases
or ideas in the text.
Annotated Work Samples
Types of Informal Curriculum-Based
Assessment
Observation 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.
More Informal Assessment

~Miscue Analysis/Error Analysis - A technique
using oral reading and recording a students
errors when reading.
~Running Records - Running records highlights
the meaning, structural and visual cues that
students use when reading.
~Cloze Procedures - An informal assessment of
word prediction abilities and for measuring
comprehension skills and the ways students use
cues to identify words.
Constucting an informal
Reading Assessment

1. With primary children - passages of
about 50 words for each grade level of
difficulty to be assessed. With
secondary students - passage should be
150-200 words in length.

2. Most teachers limit the selection of
passages to a specific range

3. To determine a students independent
reading level, assessment should begin
below the students grade level. The
teacher needs two copies of each passage.
One for student and one for him/her.

4. Teachers should record the percentage
of words read accurately in each passage
and the percentage of comprehension
questions answered correctly.


5. After establishing the students
independent level, the assessment
continues with the student reading
increasingly difficult graded passages to
determine an instructional level and a
frustration level.

6. Teachers may modify these procedures to
assess specific skills.