[senco-forum] Reading Comprehension Assessment

so u will not know if comprehension errors

For individual testing why not use either SNAP or Wrat 3?
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Maggie Downie
Sent: 07 May 2008 16:59
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk; Jean Hutchins 1
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Reading Comprehension Assessment

Jean,

Very wise words from you, I think!

--- On Wed, 7/5/08, Jean Hutchins 1 <jeanhutchins1 at ntlworld.com> wrote:

 In that case u do not hear the individuals read the text,
> so u will not know if comprehension errors
> are due to inaccurate reading or to lack of understanding.
> 
>Snip
> 
> It would be interesting if someone could use
> NFER group and Neale with the same pupils
> and compare the scores.
> 
> Jean
>-------

If it is indeed the NFER Group Reading (Sentence Completion) test which
Barbara referred to I wold have the same reservations.  It is impossible to
tell from the result whether the child's score is influenced by their
inability to read what the words actually 'say', or that they don't know
what the words 'mean'.  Or, by some lucky guesses.

Out of interest I gave the test orally to a Y8 child who is having big
problems learning to read.  He has failed to reach the base score on the 2
occasions that he has been tested since entry in Y7.  When I read the
sentences to him (not, I hasten to add on the test that he usually takes,
but on the other test) he scored a reading age of 14y 4m, without any
recourse to guessing what the words might mean.  His oral comprehension
skills are excellent; word reading skills, rock bottom (though we're working
on that!)

As we test children with this test 4 times over KS3 it is easy to see that
some children are very shaky on either word attack or vocabulary skills when
they answer questions wrongly that they have answered 'correctly'
previously.  If they were secure with both there wouldn't be such a
variation.  I wouldn't trust this test to give a true picture of where they
are 'at' if they fall into a 'bottom middle' to 'lower' band of scores.

Maggie

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