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QUESTION-ANSWER RELATIONSHIPS (QAR):
"Right There" and "Think and Search" With four types of questions showcasing the different sources of information one can use to comprehend a text while reading, QAR provides a question-making process that would test students' comprehension within text. Two types of questions are solely rooted in the text (as opposed to supplementing the text with one's own knowledge and thinking, which is addressed in the other two types of questions in QAR): "Right There" and "Think and Search." One-third to one-fourth of all questions that students encounter will be testing their comprehension within text through the "Right There" question format. In order to answer such questions, students can find the information directly in the text, and its usually confined to a sentence or a paragraph. Slightly elevating students' use of the text as a source, "Think and Search" requires students to locate information in a text that is spread over the course of the book, in multiple locations. Therefore, these types of questions on a worksheet or exit ticket would require that students demonstrate their understanding of the literal meaning of a text via their ability to use the information provided in it. Raphae, T. E. & Au, K. H. (2005). QAR: Enhancing comprehension and test taking across grades and content areas. The Reading Teacher, 59(3), 206-221. Retrieved from http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/rt/v59/i3/
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SUMMARY PEER ASSESSMENT
The teacher collects student summaries about a text and redistributes them randomly to students (this takes less time than assigning partners and allows anonymity if necessary). Students are given a coding sheet - like the one to the left - in order to critique their classmates' summaries. Students are given a series of seven (7) steps to complete their peer response:
1. Sign your name at the bottom of the summary you received. 2. Read the summary carefully. Write one positive comments about the summary. 3. I.E: Circle the character's names and specific text details. 4. I.E.: Put a star in the location that you think needs a character name. 5. Write one suggestion for the author. 6. Return the summary to it author (if done anonymously, give it back to the teacher to hand out). 7. Read the comments of your summary and make revisions. Steps 3 and 4 will vary depending on the minilesson that precedes students' peer assessments. If the teacher notices a specific aspect of summarizing that is lacking in students' work - like character names - the issue is addressed beforehand - labeled "target criteria" - and incorporated as specific steps in the response sheet. Kissner, E. (2006). 13: Summarizing for assessment. In Summarizing, paraphrasing, and retelling: Skills for better reading, writing, and test taking (p. 138-141). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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Above is an example of an unaided retelling of The Tell-Tale Heart. Carter is a fifth grade student who was a S.U.N.Y. Geneseo Curriculum 510 case study participant during the Fall 2013 semester.
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ORAL RETELLING
Geneseo students in the Reading and Literacy masters program are required to complete a miscue analysis case study during the first semester of their graduate studies. A necessary component of this assignment is an unaided and aided assessment directly following the student's reading of a text. According to Goodman, Watson, and Burke (2005), "Readers' responses to text provide insights into the depth and breadth of their comprehension...As a comprehending process, reading involves perceiving...and ideating on the perceptions of new information and relating it to what is already known" (p. 55). During the unaided retelling, students are asked to tell the teacher everything they remember about the text. Essentially, the unaided retelling is an assessment which the teacher uses to assess the student's comprehension within the text. The unaided retelling is a quick summary of what the student remembers about what the text was about on a "literal" level. The aided retelling assess the students ability to comprehend about or beyond the text. During the aided retelling, the teacher asks the students a variety of questions about the text's theme, the author's purpose, and the predictions/connections students can make about the text.
Burke, C.L., & Goodman, Y.M., & Watson, D.J. (2005). Reading Miscue Inventory: From Evaluation to Instruction. Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen Publishers Inc.
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READING CONFERENCES According to Fountas and Pinnel (2001), "Comprehension is best revealed in the conversations you have every day with student about what they read. Within the natural flow of a reading conference or a group conversation, you can ask questions, offer and elicit responses, and talk over the material" (p.492). During a reading conference is a great time for teachers to assess students comprehension and understanding of what they are reading. They are able to converse in a one-on-one setting which might make the students more comfortable to explain what they are comprehending. This is also a great opportunity for teachers to notice if their students are not grasping the content or are confused. Usually, students would be more likely to tell the teacher if they don't understand in an individual conference rather than a whole group lesson. After discussing the reading material, the teacher might select and model a couple strategies for the reader to better understand the text they are reading. Teachers should also use this time during the conferences to take anecdotal records of each of the students progress with comprehensions skills to assist them with planning their instruction.
Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell G. S. (2001). Guided Readers and Writers; teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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OBSERVING THINK ALOUDS Comprehension is the degree to which students understand the texts they can read with accuracy, ease, and fluency. One assessment tool a teacher could use for a resource to measure their students comprehension of reading is by observing think alouds. This is beneficial because it requires readers to stop and different points while reading a text and explain what they are doing and understanding as a reader (p. 493). This strategy is unique because it not only offers information on your students comprehension, but also their processing skills. When constructing a think aloud, this gives students an opportunity to make predictions, inferences, connections, personal thoughts and questions and visualizing. They also have the chance to discuss their feelings while reading throughout the text.
Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell G. S. (2001). Guided Readers and Writers; teaching comprehension, genre, and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
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STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENTS
1. GATES-MACGINITIE READING COMPREHENSION TEST Riverside Publishing, a division of textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, offers the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Test to teachers and schools seeking to evaluate student reading comprehension. The ten tests cover preschool through adult learners. All tests can be taken in traditional pencil-and-paper form, but online versions are available starting in first grade. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test is a multiple-choice test. The timed tests for younger readers are 75-100 minutes, while those in third grade and beyond receive 55 minutes. Readers between first and twelfth grade receive scores judging their vocabulary and comprehension to see if they need remedial help, are at grade level or cam proceed with advanced instruction.
2. WOODCOCK LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY BATTERY - REVISED, PASSAGE COMPREHENSION SUBTEST
The Revised Passage Comprehension subtest of the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery is another standardized assessment to evaluate students' reading comprehension. It is a cloze test in which students provide a word to complete a passage, demonstrating their understanding of the reading. Kieffer, M. J., & Lesauxm N. K. (2007). Breaking down words to build meaning: Morphology, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in the urban classroom. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), 134-144.
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CLASSROOM-BASED PROCESS: Rubric for Student Work Samples
Recognizing the inadequacy of standardized reading comprehension tests due to the delayed feedback and the snapshot of comprehension on a single text, a Wisconsin school district has implemented a classroom-based assessment process for student reading comprehension. It involves assessing overall, holistic student reading comprehension twice during the academic year - once in the fall and once in the spring - via a rubric grading system/checklist and a student work sample portfolio that spans a variety of texts. Student work samples included products of teacher questioning, during-reading sticky notes and, journal responses that originate from the sticky notes, making them elaborations of that during-reading activity. A classroom-based assessment process allows teachers to determine the specific comprehension skills that specific students need to work on because it does not just look at the end product (i.e. a research paper) but considers all the evidence of comprehension (and lack thereof) created in each stage of that writing process (i.e. note-taking, etc). In contrast, struggling readers would only receive a performance result of "below grade level" via a standardized test, providing nothing specific to the teacher to help that teacher cater to that individual student. The rubric that the teachers use to assess the student portfolios is located to the left. Fiene, J., & McMahon, S. (2007). Assessing comprehension: A classroom-based process. The Reading Teacher, 60(5), 406-417.
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