ASSESSING READING

September 8^th, 2011 

 

 

By Shanny Glaston

Most of The agencies give recommendations about countries and interesting things to do on vacation, questions like:

Can I have a nonstop flight?

How long will the flight take?

Are all your documents in order?

Emulating the communication between the traveler and the agent, teachers face a dilemma to assess an invisible skill, which seems to be not important because it´s complicated to assess.

Nevertheless, as Coombe, Folse & Hubley said in their Practical Guide

”Assessing reading is a the backbone of most overall assessments. Reading is fundamental for academic success and is a major component of any type of assessment.”

At this point we consult t o our readers.

 What is reading?

Reading is the ability to translate symbols in words, sentences or furthermore; arguments and texts.

Since it is difficult to assess reading teachers have the possibility to use techniques or sub-skills that are divided in

Major: skills pertain to large segments of text that includes.

•  Reading quickly.
•  Reading carefully.
•  Reading transferring information.
•  Reading drawing inferences.

Minor: skills focus on local structure or lexical points such as:

•  Understanding components.
• Understanding different level.
•  Understanding vocabulary.

A traveler as we mention before, needs to put personal documents in order, for example passport, certification of vaccination and taxes are some of the requirements we  

should have, to go to foreign countries.

These documents travellers need to present to the agency, are comparable to the specification teachers handing to administrators:

Content: Material covered in class.

Conditions: Are the information, formats, access and time given for the test.

Grading Criteria: It base-up on how test should be graded.

 Note:

Create items that require students to think beyond information given.