INTRODUCTION

Teachers of English language need to assess the students’ growth in reading. For this
purpose they will need to assess both process and product (reading skills and
comprehension level).

Planning Reading Assessments

1. Identify the basic competence to be achieved. Samples of reading sub basic

competence of Grade VII, first semester are:

• Memahami dan merespon: Teks Tulis kartu ucapan

• Memahami dan merespon: Teks Tulis instruksi
• Memahami dan merespon: Teks Tulis pengumuman
• Memahami dan merespon: Teks Tulis shopping list

2. Select a relevant assessment method and activity.

3. Decide how often to collect information on students’ reading progress. Take
into consideration the number of students you teach. You need to think how
you will make time during class for assessment. You can make time for
meeting with individual students or groups to assess the students’ reading
progress. It is suggested that at least twice or preferably several times during
each semester.
4. Provide students with feedback.
5. Develop rubrics or scoring procedures.

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 TYPES OF READING ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

1. Retellings
Students can be asked to retell a story or a text that they have read. Retelling gives
students an opportunity to speak at length, if they can, without teachers’ interruption.
Teachers can ask students to retell a story as if they were telling it to someone who is
not familiar with it. For English language learners, retelling helps develop reading
comprehension as well as oral proficiency. A sample of a retelling rubric is described
below.

Retelling Rubric

Retelling Summary
__ Retelling attempted Fully Partially Minimally
Narrative text:
• identified and recalled setting ______ ______ ______

• identified and talked about main characters ______ ______ ______

• identified the sequence of story events ______ ______ ______

• identified main idea/theme ______ ______ ______

• related characters and ideas to own experience ______ ______ ______

Non-narrative text:
• identified the key main ideas ______ ______ ______

• identified the important supporting details ______ ______ ______

• identified the organization of the ideas ______ ______ ______

• related the ideas to prior knowledge or experiences ______ ______ ______

__ Retelling was prompted ______ ______ ______

Comments and Follow-up Suggestions:

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 2. Texts with comprehension questions

Most teachers are familiar with asking questions to determine comprehension of

reading texts. The teachers can make a copy of the text that the students have been
asked to read. Then the students respond to several comprehension questions posed by
the teacher. Students can also create their own questions if teachers have prepared
them to do so. After checking students’ responses, the teacher has a record of each
student’s comprehension level with a text.

The questions may include “usage reference questions” and “use inference questions”.
The usage reference questions require students to refer to the words or sentences
written explicitly in the text to answer the questions. The use inference questions
require students to make inferences based on what is presented in the texts. Samples of
texts with comprehension questions are given below.

NOTICES

1.a.a. b
a PLEASE DO NOT QUEUE THIS
.
FEED THE ANIMALS
SIDE PLEASE

2.c d
please have the EXACT . NO CYCLING ON
fare ready
THE FOOTPATH

3.e f.
ENGAGED KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

4.g AFTERNOON TEA h ASEAN PASSPORT

SERVED . HOLDERS ONLY

i. j QUIET PLEASE
EXAMINATION
5. OUT OF ORDER IN PROGRESS

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A. Match each notice with a place below.
1. A bank __________
2. A bus __________
3. An airport __________
4. A park __________
5. A zoo __________
6. A hotel __________
7. A public toilet __________
8. A motorway __________
9. A classroom ___________
10. A drinks machine ___________

B. Explain the meaning of the notices above using your own words.

a. _____________________________________________________________

b. _____________________________________________________________

c. _____________________________________________________________

d. _____________________________________________________________

e. _____________________________________________________________

f. _____________________________________________________________

g. _____________________________________________________________

h. _____________________________________________________________

i. _____________________________________________________________

j. _____________________________________________________________

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 3. Reading Logs
One way to assess students’ progress in reading is to ask them to document the type
and the quantity of reading they do through reading logs. Students are given a chart for
entering the title of the text, author, the date completion, and a brief impression of the
text. Teachers can encourage the students to record materials read in or out of class in
a reading log. An example of a reading log is provided below.

Reading Log: Texts I Have Read

Name: ………….. Grade: …………….

Title& type Author Date I Date I What is the text about?

of genre Began Finished
Reading Reading

1. The Lloyd 5 May 06 5 May 06 Lloyd’s experience in the

swimming swimming competition.
competition/
Recount

Students can use their reading log to graph the quantity of their reading over a
semester. For example, students can create a bar graph with the number of texts. The
students can also the genre types. First, ask the students to classify their reading by
genre. Then students review their reading log to determine the number of texts read in
each genre. The bar graph is created by entering the number of text on the Y-axis and
the different genres on the X-axis. Students will enjoy the graphing because it shows
them how much they have accomplished and if they have neglected on or more genre in
their reading.

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 4. Cloze Tests
Cloze tests are reading passages with blanks representing words that have been deleted
from the original text; the blanks are to be filled in by the reader. The cloze procedure
was originally developed over four decades ago to determine the readability of texts.
Since then the cloze has emerged in various forms to determine the readers’ ability to
use context to predict missing words from the texts.

The term cloze comes from closure, a term used in Gestalt psychology to explain the
tendency to see the whole picture. Readers rely upon syntactic, lexical and semantic
knowledge as well as cultural knowledge and prior background experiences or
schemata to predict the omitted words. Cloze tests “reflect overall comprehension of a
text” by requiring use of syntactic and discourse level constrains.

Different types of cloze tests are: fixed ratio, rational or purposive deletion, maze
techniques, and limited/multiple-choice cloze.
1. In a fixed ratio cloze, words are deleted systematically by counting off
regardless of the part of speech. Every fifth or seventh, or ninth word may be
deleted.
2. In rational or purposive deletion, words are deleted by part of speech or content
area vocabulary rather than in a set numbering pattern.
3. In maze techniques, three word choices are provided at each missing word
interval.
4. For limited cloze, words choices (one per blank) are provided all together in a
word bank at the top or at the bottom page.
An example of the cloze procedure is presented below.

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______________________________________________
Life in Britain
Homes and families
Many British people (a) …….. in houses, not flats.
Most houses (b) ………… gardens.

Daily Life
Most office workers (c) ……..work at about nine in the morning and (d)…….. at about
five or six in the evening. Most people don’t (e) …….. home for lunch. People
usually (f) ……. a big meal in the evening; they just (g)……. a snack at lunch time.

School life
Children (h) …… at school at about nine, and (i) ………. at about half past three.
Most children (j)…… lunch at school. All children (k) ………. school when they are
four or five years old, and (l) ……… when they are sixteen or eighteen.

Shops and restaurants

Most shops (m) ……… at about nine and (n) ……….. at about six. Usually, they
don’t (o) ……… for lunch.
Many supermarkets (p) …….. open twenty-four hours. Most restaurants (q) ………at
about eleven o’clock.

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 Reading response Journal
Research shows that responding to text helps students to become better readers. With
reading response journal, students respond in writing to what materials they have read.
Some guiding questions that may be asked for students to prepare their reading
response journal are as follows:

1. Who were the main characters of the story?

2. Why did you think so?
3. Draw main the events of the text.
4. Do you like the text?
5. Why do you like it?

The teacher and students can review the reading response journal on regular basis. If
the students only make summary on what they read without making any personal
response, teachers can respond with questions that call for students’ personal reflection.
In other cases teachers may have to talk to students directly to clarify the procedure.

The rubric for assessing the students’ reading response is presented below.

READING RESPONSE JOURNAL

Outstanding
Describes most story elements (characters, setting,

beginning, middle, and end of story) through oral or
written language or drawings

Responds personally to the story

Provides an accurate and retailed description of the story

Develops criteria for evaluating the story

Good
Describes most story elements through oral or written

language or drawings

Responds personally to the story

Provides an accurate description of the story

Analyzes something about the story ( plot, setting,
character, illustrations)
Satisfactory
Describes some story elements though oral or written
language or drawings

Makes a limited personal response to the story

Provides an accurate description of the story

Explains why he or she likes or does not like the story.
Needs improvement
Describes few story elements through oral or written
language or drawings

Make no response or a limited personal response to the
story

Provides a less than accurate description of the story

States that he or she likes or does not like the story

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 6. Strategies Checklist or Rating Scales
Checklists a are good for documenting reading skills as well as reading comprehension
strategies. Checklists are list of characteristics or behaviors that are scored as yes/ no
ratings or other ratings. Based on observation of students’ performance, teachers
indicate the presence of a behavior in a check mark. An example of a reading checklist
is presented below.

READING STRATEGIES CHECKLISTS

NAME: ………………
Check (V) the box that indicates how you read.
Reading strategies Fully Partially Minimally
a. The student thinks about what he/she already know on ______ ______ ______
the topic.

b. The student makes predictions and read to find out that ______ ______ ______
he/she is right.

c. The student rereads the sentences before and after a ______ ______ ______
word that he/she doesn’t know.

d. The student asks another student for help. ______ ______ ______

e. The student looks for the main idea. ______ ______ ______

f. The student takes notes. ______ ______ ______

g. The student discusses what he/she reads with others. ______ ______ ______

h. The student stops and summarizes. ______ ______ ______

i. The student makes an outline of what he/she reads. ______ ______ ______

Comments and Follow-up Suggestions:

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