PERFORMANCE AND PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT FOR LANGUAGE MINORITY STUDENTS

Lorraine Valdez Pierce; J Michael O'Malley

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:

  1. When you are reading and come to something you don't know, what do you do?
  2. Who is a good reader you know? What makes that person a good reader?
  3. If you knew someone was having trouble reading how would you help that person? What would your teacher do to help that person?
  4. What would you like to do better as a reader?

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.):

  • Knowledge: Who was the main person in this text? Where did the event take place?
  • Comprehension: What was the main idea of the reading? Retell what you have read in your own words.
  • Analysis: What are the parts or features of ______? How does ______ compare with _______? Outline the components of ________. What evidence supports________?
  • Synthesis: What would you predict will occur next? What ideas can you add to ________? What would you suggest is a solution for ________?
  • Evaluation: Do you agree with the statement that ______? Prioritize ________ according to ________. What criteria would you use to assess ___________?
The questions at each level of cognitive complexity can vary in the demand they place on English language proficiency. For example, at the comprehension level students can name the main idea of the story either orally or in writing by selecting from among a number of alternatives or by generating the idea on their own. At the evaluation level, students can prioritize a list or provide criteria for the evaluation of an idea and write sentences indicating their assessment of a concept. Thus, students can be assessed for their ability to respond to higher order questions even though they may have minimal skills in English.

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:

 

READING TASK CRITERIA
Independently With Assistance Does not do task
Understands literal meaning: __________ __________ __________
Draws inferences from reading: __________ __________ __________

FIGURE 2. Literacy Development Checklist

Student: ________________________ Teacher: _________________________

School: _________________________ Academic Yr.: __________________

Mark:

X = Effective

/ = Sometimes Effective

- = Needs Work

READING PROCESSES Quarter
1 2 3 4
I. READING SKILLS
Comprehends oral stories ____ ____ ____ ____
Reading vocabulary ____ ____ ____ ____
Fluent decoding ____ ____ ____ ____
Literal comprehension in reading ____ ____ ____ ____
Inferential comprehension ____ ____ ____ ____
II. INTEREST
Initiates own reading ____ ____ ____ ____
Shows pleasure in reading ____ ____ ____ ____
Selects books independently ____ ____ ____ ____
Samples a variety of materials ____ ____ ____ ____
III. APPLICATIONS
Participates in language experience story development ____ ____ ____ ____
Participates in reading discussion groups ____ ____ ____ ____
Writes appropriate dialogue journal entries ____ ____ ____ ____
Chooses books of appropriate difficulty ____ ____ ____ ____
Uses reading in written communication ____ ____ ____ ____
IV. READING STRATEGIES
Monitors attention ____ ____ ____ ____
Notices miscues that interfere with meaning ____ ____ ____ ____
Infers meaning based on: ____ ____ ____ ____
* Word clues ____ ____ ____ ____
* Sentence structure ____ ____ ____ ____
* Story structure ____ ____ ____ ____
* Prior experience ____ ____ ____ ____
Summarizes main ideas or key events ____ ____ ____ ____
Links details to main ideas ____ ____ ____ ____
Remembers sequence of events ____ ____ ____ ____
Predicts conclusions ____ ____ ____ ____
Requests help if needed ____ ____ ____ ____

Note: Adapted from materials developed by the National Council of Teachers of English and by The Writing Lab of the University of New Hampshire.