Assessing Reading Proficiency

The Wendover arm is now a conservation water area rather than a canal. UK

Assessing Reading Proficiency

Reading ability is very difficult to assess accurately. In the communicative competence model,

a student's reading level is the level at which that student

is able to use reading to accomplish communication goals.

This means that assessment of reading ability needs to be correlated with purposes for reading.

Reading Aloud

A student's performance when reading aloud is not a reliable indicator of that student's reading ability. A student who is perfectly capable of understanding a given text when reading it silently

may stumble when asked to combine comprehension with word recognition

and speaking ability in the way that reading aloud requires.

In addition, reading aloud is a task that students will rarely, if ever, need to do

outside of the classroom. As a method of assessment, therefore, it is not authentic:

It does not test a student's ability to use reading to accomplish a purpose or goal.

However, reading aloud can help a teacher assess whether a student is "seeing" word endings

and other grammatical features when reading. To use reading aloud for this purpose,

adopt the "read and look up" approach: Ask the student to read a sentence silently

one or more times, until comfortable with the content, then look up and tell you what it says.

This procedure allows the student to process the text, and lets you see the results

of that processing and know what elements, if any, the student is missing.

Comprehension Questions

Instructors often use comprehension questions to test whether students have understood

what they have read. In order to test comprehension appropriately, these questions need

to be coordinated with the purpose for reading. If the purpose is to find specific information, comprehension questions should focus on that information.

If the purpose is to understand an opinion and the arguments that support it,

comprehension questions should ask about those points.

In everyday reading situations, readers have a purpose for reading before they start.

That is, they know what comprehension questions they are going to need to answer

before they begin reading. To make reading assessment in the language classroom more like reading outside of the classroom, therefore, allow students to review the comprehension questions

before they begin to read the test passage.

Finally, when the purpose for reading is enjoyment,

comprehension questions are beside the point. As a more authentic form of assessment,

have students talk or write about why they found the text enjoyable and interesting (or not).

Authentic Assessment

In order to provide authentic assessment of students' reading proficiency,

a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information

they have gained through reading.

It must have a purpose other than assessment

It must require students to demonstrate their level of reading comprehension

by completing some task

To develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response

that reading a particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom situation.

For example, after reading a weather report, one might decide what to wear the next day;

after reading a set of instructions, one might repeat them to someone else;

after reading a short story, one might discuss the story line with friends.

Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-reading tasks.

You can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate each student's comprehension of specific parts of the text. 

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/assessread.htm

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Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

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To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Motivation and peer pressure.

A beautiful Welsh poppy.

One of my favourite flowers.

Motivation and peer pressure.

Odysseus faced the peril of the Sirens and their irresistible song.

He told his men to fill their ears with wax so they would not be tempted by the music,

and to tie him to the mast so he could hear it,

but be restrained from submitting to the temptation to steer closer to the fatal rocks…

A casual stroll through a students’ union bar on any week night will tell you peer pressure

is one of the most powerful influencers out there. Peer pressure is at its most visible and visceral when it comes to drinking alcohol. Just try ordering a glass of water when out with the rugby club.

In schools, peer pressure is just as visceral. Whether it is a force for good or ill depends.

Where it pressurises kids into bullying or by standing, disrupting lessons or disrespecting teachers,

it can be monstrously damaging. Where it creates a virtuous circle of friendly competition, encouragement, hard work and useful revision, it’s a big, friendly giant.

Where it tips over into unhealthy competition, sleepless nights and agonising stress over grades,

it’s just as dangerous a beast.

How do we harness the daunting power of peer pressure,

especially when it comes to motivation, willpower and self-control?

Thaler and Sunstein explain:

‘Problems arise when people must make decisions that test their capacity for self-control.

Self-control issues are most likely when choices and consequences are separated in time.

Costs are borne immediately, but benefits are delayed. On the other hand, for some things

we get the pleasure now and suffer the consequences later.’

This sounds to me exactly like the decision that pupils have: ‘do I make the costly effort to work hard now for some hazy, eventual, potential future? Or do I have fun, muck about and disrupt the lesson, earning street cred now from my peers, which pays off right away?’ 

The options of effort exertion and lesson disruption have opposite reward profiles: the first has immediate costs and delayed benefits; the second has instant benefits and delayed costs.

 https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/motivation-peer-pressure/

You can TCR software and engineering manuals for spontaneously recall – or pass that exam.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube  

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com        gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com             take advantage of business experience and expertise.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com       just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Main Idea Part 3 In longer reading material. Main idea in paragraphs and essays.

Mint. I like fresh mint tea.

Explanation of topic, main idea, and supporting details, part 1 of 3

Main Idea Part 2 Paragraphs

You can TCR music, poetry or self development material for internal knowing.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com        gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com              take advantage of business experience and expertise.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com       just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Should We Read to High School Students?

Should We Read to High School Students?

Should high school English teachers read aloud to their students or play audio recordings to them?

Over the past several years, this practice has insinuated itself, Justin Bieber-like,

into our consciousness. It seems to be showing up everywhere and it can be very annoying.

Reading aloud to older students definitely has a place, and yet it depends upon the purpose.

I know many teachers use it like a crutch, reading to kids rather than requiring them to do their own reading. It is easier that way, of course, but it doesn’t accomplish some major instructional purposes.

Thus, if the purpose is to ensure that students know Poe’s story, “The Cask of Amontillado,”

as a cultural touchstone (“ooh, that’s the one where the guy gets bricked up in the wall”),

then reading it to the kids should accomplish that.

Or, you could just show an old Vincent Price movie.

The problem, however, is that English teachers need to teach students to read

that kind of text themselves, and make sense of it.

The hope is that if students build the ability to read and interpret such texts

that they will be able to do so later in college and in the workplace (though it would be a pretty strange workplace that wants you to interpret dramatic irony in an account of a homicide).

The problem is that students won’t build that ability from being read to.

They need to engage the texts themselves.

But, just because I think the practice is misused by teachers, that don’t mean it should be banned. What are some good purposes for oral reading in secondary English?

Here are a few:

1.       Teacher reading (or the use of audio recordings) can provide a model of what a text

should sound like. Thus, if my students were still building oral fluency,

I might have them listen to a portion of the text, and then try to make it sound

the same way themselves. Such modeling can play a useful role in fluency practice,

even with older students.

2.       There are times when the point is simply to convey information.

Oral sharing of a text can be a practical way to accomplish that.

3.       We are responsible for building students’ oral language as well as written.

It can be very useful to listen to the sound of the language for a particular text.

Eudora Welty wrote about how important reading aloud was for her in learning to write

and in appreciating the texts of others. Occasionally demonstrating this power

to kids can be a great idea (though she engaged in it herself—and your kids should, too).

4.       Sometimes we have to balance efficiency with our instructional purposes.

Teachers sometimes use their oral reading to speed things along, to focus attention

or motivation, and to make a lesson fit the schedule. For example, a teacher may have

the students reading and discussing a text for the first 40 minutes of class,

but is not getting as far as she hoped. Consequently, she reads the next section of the text

to everyone to complete the chapter before the bell rings. Or, in another case,

the teacher reads the first 2-3 pages of a story to the students to set the stage,

and then turns the rest of the reading over to them.

Nothing wrong with those practices if they don’t displace too much student reading.

Unfortunately, in my experience, such reading tends to be used because the kids are finding

the text to be difficult or don’t want to read it.

Last week, I was teaching a high school English class myself. I had the students read an essay,

and was questioning them—and not getting very far, I must admit.

At some point, I asked one young man a question about what the author said,

and he gave a dopey answer. It was evident he hadn’t actually done the reading.

He either didn’t read it or he read it badly. It was tempting to just stop there

and read the essay to them to move things along, but instead I said, “You guys didn’t get it.

Read it again.” It was amazing how the tenor of the class changed at that point,

and in retrospect I’m sure glad I didn’t read it to them.

Oral sharing and video and audio presentations have their place

in the high school English curriculum. But it is a small place, so teachers need to be honest

with themselves as to why they are using it. I think one way to protect against the weak uses of it would be to simply set an arbitrary percentage of English class that will be devoted to student reading (perhaps 40% or 50%--the teacher might decide that if there are 250 minutes of class time per week, then students should spend 100 minutes per week reading—not discussing, not listening to others read, not writing, not waiting, just reading stories, poems, essays, literary nonfiction, etc.

Shanahan on Literacy http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/

You TCR can specialist and language dictionaries that are spontaneously accessed.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

 www.innermindworking.blogspot.com       gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com              take advantage of business experience and expertise.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com        just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”   

Motivation and mindset anchoring.

Ely. UK

Motivation and mindset anchoring.

When I was at University, a running joke was how little we’d all worked on our papers,

how late and last minute we’d left them, and how little effort we’d put into them.

A couple of things jolted me out of this mindset. International students I knew, from China,

India, Europe, Africa and South America, didn’t seem to share English students’ view

that slack effort was funny and clever. And my Dad told me that what actually happened

at his University was that people boasted publicly about not working, 

but then worked feverishly in private. The joke was on us.

Beliefs matter; mindset matters; work ethic matters.

Kids’ ideas about effort stem from their mindset. The research from Carol Dweck is much acclaimed, and rightly so. If you believe in effortless intelligence, it leads to fear of effort and failure.

If you believe in hard work and overcoming setbacks, this leads to success.

Mindsets change the meaning of embarrassing mistakes, tough challenges, hurtful setbacks, negative criticism and long slogs into opportunities. They internalise the questions:

‘What can I learn from this? What can I do to improve for next time?’ 

So a vital ingredient in the motivation mix is the belief kids bring to lessons in their minds.

Either they believe hard work leads to success, or they don’t.

If they don’t, they’ll avoid challenge and give up easily when failing. If they believe their intelligence grows with practice, effort and discipline, they’ll seek challenge and persist when failing.

The promise of the growth mindset is that kids no longer see tough, challenging work

as long or boring: they ‘not only seek challenge, they thrive on it’…

‘Students with the growth mindset completely took charge of their learning and motivation.’

Perhaps the best way to understand this is through a scenario. What would you do in this scenario? 

You’ve coached a student debating team all year through practice debates.

Your team is strong and aim to win the annual competition against other schools.

They’ve even imagined taking the trophy home. In the event, your team starts strong

but is defeated on points. They are devastated. How would you react as their coach?

Tell them you thought they were best

Tell them they were robbed of the trophy

Tell them debating isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things

Tell them they have the ability and will surely win next time

Tell them they didn’t deserve to win

Now, which did you choose?

Dwek argues that choices 1-4 don’t help them improve. Instead, she recommends 5:

‘I know how you feel. It’s disappointing to do your best but not win.

But you haven’t earned it yet. The other teams have practiced harder.

If you really want this, it’s something you’ll have to really work for.’ 

This reveals that you choose your mindset; it’s a choice within everyone’s sphere of control.

And that brings me on to choice architecture.

 In their book Nudge,

Thaler and Sunstein make the case for us to think about ourselves as choice architects:

‘Choice architects have responsibility for organising the context in which people make decisions. People’s decisions are pervasively, unavoidably and greatly influenced by the design elements selected by choice architects.’

One of the most important choices we are responsible for as teachers and school leaders,

is organising the context around the decision every pupil makes on every task in every lesson:

‘do I make the effort on this, or not bother?’

One of the greatest design tools a choice architect is understanding cognitive biases.

A comprehensive list of fifty is available in the book, The Art of Thinking Clearly:

I’ve summarised the key biases that teachers seem to fall into on posts here and here.

One of the greatest cognitive biases in pupils’ minds is status quo bias, or the default effect.

Inertia is sticky: we tend to go with the status quo. Here’s how Thaler and Sunstein explain it:

‘Status quo bias is the preference for inertia.

Research shows that whatever the default choice is, many people stick with it.

Teachers know students tend to sit in the same seats in class, even without a seating plan.

‘The default option is perceived as the normal choice; deviating from the normal choice

requires more effortful deliberation and take on more responsibility.

These powerful forces guide the decisions of those otherwise unsure of what to do.

‘Never underestimate the power of inertia. That power can be harnessed’.

An excellent example is organ donations. There’s a shortage of organ donors:

only about 40% of people opt for it. But when asked whether people wanted to actively opt-out

of organ donation, the take-up increased to 80%. Opt-outs as default options are powerful.

Because we have such a strong tendency to stick with the way things are,

by changing the default setting, you can change a lot.

Behavioural economists and cognitive psychologists are finding how much anchoring matters. Anchoring guides and constrains our thinking. Once your mind is hooked onto the anchor,

it’s much harder to stray away from it.

Kahnemann in Thinking Fast and Slowgives this demonstration:

‘What if I said Gandhi was 144 when he died, then asked you, how old was Gandhi

when he died?’ People’s average answer was over 100; in reality, Gandhi died at 79.

The unreasonably high anchor hooked them in to a higher number than was probable.

Combined, the promise of the growth mindset with the effect of anchoring, the default option

and status quo bias could be powerful for increasing pupil motivation in schools.

So how do we anchor the growth mindset on challenge, effort and setbacks as the default option?

Senior leaders

Teach the message that all our teachers and pupils choose a growth mindset,

from the moment kids enter school onwards; that’s ‘just the way things are done around here’

Share mindset stories of how setbacks, failures and practice led to eventual success

Practise scenarios in teacher training on challenges, praise, criticism and setbacks

Teachers

Teach the science: challenges, practice, effort, self-discipline, mistakes,

setbacks and feedback are the keys to improving intelligence and successful learning

Model the mindset: share anecdotes of persistence, share frustrations and acknowledge mistakes, keep asking ‘what can we do to improve for next time?’

Contrast and correct fixed mindset mentalities and expressions with ways to think more productively about things when they get tough: ‘You’re in charge of your mind.

You can help it grow strong by using it in the right way’

How would you know when a school has succeeded in growth mindset?

I’d argue that when it’s become the default option for every pupil,

the school is on autopilot to achievement.

You’d go in to any classroom at any time and every kid would be on task on every task.

Motivation isn’t just up to school leaders and teachers, though.

Over the next two weeks I’ll consider the crucial roles peer pressure

and parental priming play in anchoring the growth mindset as the default option.

https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/motivation-and-mindset-anchoring/

You can TCR software and engineering manuals for spontaneously recall – or pass that exam.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube  

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com        gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com              take advantage of business experience and expertise.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com        just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Main Idea of a sentence Part 2 How do you understand an implied main idea?

Thistle.

Explanation of topic, main idea, and supporting details, part 1 of 3

You can TCR music, poetry or self development material for internal knowing.

I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.

Introduction to Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube 

How to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Emotions when Turbo Charged Reading YouTube

Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?

www.facebook.com/mreenhunt

www.pinterest.com/mreenhunt

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.innermindworking.blogspot.com        gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life

www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com             take advantage of business experience and expertise.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com      just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”