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.

TECHNIQUES FOR TESTING

September 1^st,2011

Most travellers around the world select the information for their vacation trips from the media. Nevertheless, there are various ways to gather information.

Teachers mastered the selection and classification of test items and tasks by scoring tests with two fundamental characteristics:

1.  Objective items: are short answered and reliable. 
2.  Subjective items: are centered on test takers judgments, opinions or impressions.

The most popular objectives items are:

• Multiple Choice Questions(MCQ): there are four choices when testing reading, vocabulary and grammar. But three options when it listening, it also has one correct option and three distractors.

Principal Advantages:

1. Reliable, just one answer.

2. Useful at several levels.

3. Very known by students.

   Principal Disadvantages:

1. Do not permit to test long skills. 
2. Encourage guessing.

3. Consume time.

• True/False statements (F/T): the common response categories are: yes/no, correct/incorrect, right/wrong, fact/opinion, true/false.

 Principal Advantages:

1. Test large amount of content.

2. Less time.

3. Quick to be score.

 Disadvantages:

1. 50% of guessing.

2. Need to include lot of information to be reliable.

•  Matching Format: it is extended and draws student ability to connect ideas.

Principal Advantages:

1. Easy for students and teachers.

 Disadvantages:

1. Need to explain instructions clearly.

2. Do items on the same sheet.

The most popular subjective items are:

•  Cloze/Gap- Fill Items

Gap fill refer to words that we choose to delete and cloze refer to words that were delete systematically.

• Short Answer/ Completion Test: Items that ask for a specific answer.

Advantages:

1. Good to check intensive understanding.

2. Less guessing.

3. Easy to build.

Disadvantages:

1. Take time to answer.

2. Have to assess lot of language

•  Essay Questions: this item permits students to express their own ideas, or conclusions.

Disadvantages:

1. Time consuming.

2. Limit testing amount of student knowledge.

 NOTE:

Avoid race, gender, and ethnic background. Make sure your test do not has unfair items, have colleagues checking biases.