PERFORMANCE AND PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT FOR LANGUAGE MINORITY STUDENTSLorraine Valdez Pierce; J Michael O'Malley |
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READING ASSESSMENT
Performance assessment of reading with students who are learning English should focus on reading comprehension rather than isolated reading skills, as is typical of many standardized achievement tests. We suggest four approaches for the assessment of reading that have been amply described in the literature: miscue analysis (Goodman & Burke, 1972); the individual reading inventory (Cunningham, et al., 1983); anecdotal records (Goodman, Goodman, & Hood, 1989; Rhodes & Nathenson-Mejia, 1992); and cloze tests (Cohen, 1980; Hamayan, et al., 1985; Madsen, 1983; Oller, 1979). One additional approach which has not been adequately described in relation to the reading behaviors of language minority students and which we describe below is the use of rating scales.
Purpose
Rating scales can be used to collect information on a range of student reading behaviors. Rating scales offer several advantages: they are systematic, require little teacher time, and do not disrupt instructional time. A rating scale is a checklist that contains predetermined performance tasks and a systematic procedure for indicating a student's level of performance relative to specific criteria. The number of levels in the criterion will be determined by the focus of the assessment, but each will be precisely defined.
Design
Four types of information teachers can maintain in using a rating scale for reading comprehension are reading skills, interest, applications, and reading strategies. Teachers can collect information as frequently as is considered appropriate to the purposes of assessment and instruction. For example, occasional checks on student progress could be conducted biweekly, monthly, or quarterly, although other options are also possible. The assessment of reading skills is designed to reflect the student's ability to perform functional reading tasks. Although teachers can select their own objectives depending on local curriculum frameworks in language arts, some possible objectives are reflected in Figure 2. Comprehension of stories read aloud can be expanded to include literal and inferential comprehension, if desired. Teachers can determine if students have fluent decoding skills by asking them to read aloud individually and by checking comprehension through probe questions, such as "What was the main idea?" and "What do you predict will occur next?" One of the major concerns in reading assessment should be a student's level of interest in reading materials. This interest can be shown in the variety of materials independently selected by students. The applications category reflects integration of speaking, reading, and writing skills. Applications may include a project, such as writing and presenting a skit, producing artwork, writing a paper, keeping a reading log on the kinds of materials read and how often they are read, or producing a self-report on reading ability. A teacher narrative or rating scale could be used to assess student progress in each of the categories listed in Figure 2. These categories show what students can actually do with reading materials and how they use them to achieve their own purposes. A fourth possible category for rating scales is the students' use of reading strategies. Substantial evidence indicates that students who use reading strategies comprehend text more effectively than students who do not (e.g., Dole, Duffy, Roehler, & Pearson, 1991; Pressley, 1990), and that students from language minority backgrounds also benefit from the use of these strategies (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Padron & Waxman, 1988). Used in conjunction with miscue analysis, reading strategies assessment can reveal what kinds of strategies, techniques, or approaches students use to understand and remember information they have read, what they do when they are given a reading assignment, and what they do to understand and remember what they have read upon completing a reading passage. Some sample questions for determining reading strategies (modified from Goodman,Watson, & Burke, 1987) are:
From these kinds of questions, and from probe questions asked during an individual reading inventory, teachers may be able to rate student performance relative to the strategies indicated in Figure 2.
Administration
Teachers can collect information on reading skills using a rating scale while observing students individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Ratings for specific skills such as literal and inferential comprehension could be based on probe questions asked of students following a silent reading exercise. Probe questions should reflect different levels of cognitive complexity, such as the following (Maryland State Department of Education, n.d.):
Scoring Scoring criteria should focus on the level of student performance relative to a standard. The teacher can indicate student performance as being effective, sometimes effective, or needs work, as in Figure 2. Another option is to indicate a student's ability to perform at three levels: independently, with assistance, or does not perform task (Vygotsky, 1978). Below is an excerpt taken from a rating scale on reading comprehension. In this rating scale, a teacher could rate student performance in literal and inferential comprehension at the three performance levels as follows: |
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FIGURE 2. Literacy Development
Checklist
Student: ________________________ Teacher: _________________________ School: _________________________ Academic Yr.: __________________
Mark: X = Effective / = Sometimes Effective - = Needs Work |
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Note: Adapted from materials developed by the National Council of Teachers of English and by The Writing Lab of the University of New Hampshire. |