Transcript Achievement Show 14-06-10

Assessing reading comprehension
skills in secondary school pupils
Dr Sue Stothard
Centre for Reading and Language, University of York
[email protected]
15 June 2010
Outline of Presentation
1. Assessing reading with YARC-Secondary
2. Illustrative Case Studies
York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension
Secondary Test (YARC-Secondary)
YARC-Secondary Reading Test
Contents
• Single Word Reading
• Passage Reading
– Reading Comprehension
– Reading Fluency
• Reading Fluency
YARC - Single Word Reading
70 item test
see look play
scream journey suppose
excitable dehydration persuade
lacerate bureaucracy endogenous
YARC - Passage Reading
Main test - Two Parallel Forms:
Form A
Form B
Supplementary Passages
Poor readers
YARC - Passage Reading
Form A
• Level 1 (Intermediate Difficulty)
• Level 2 (High Difficulty)
Form B
• Level 1 (Intermediate Difficulty)
• Level 2 (High Difficulty)
Supplementary Passages (Easy)
YARC - Passage Reading
Form A
• Level 1 (Intermediate Difficulty) - Fiction + Non-Fiction
• Level 2 (High Difficulty) - Fiction + Non-Fiction
Form B
• Level 1 (Intermediate Difficulty) - Fiction + Non-Fiction
• Level 2 (High Difficulty) - Fiction + Non-Fiction
Supplementary Passages (Easy)
• Fiction + Non-Fiction (YARC Primary)
• Form A & B Passages – Silent Reading
• Supplementary Passages – Oral Reading
• (classification of reading errors)
Extract from Level 1.2A (Non-Fiction)
Honey for You, Honey for Me
In Southern Africa there is a bird called the Honey Guide. It is a small bird with a
long pink beak. Its favourite food is honey. From a distance, the honey-guide
looks drab and brown, but up close you can see a splash of pale yellow on the
white chest feathers. It looks a little as if the bird has just enjoyed a meal of
golden honey, and been none too careful about its table manners! However, the
Honey Guide gets its name not just from the colour of its chest; it is very well
adapted to feeding on the contents of bee hives. It doesn’t just eat the honey, but
also bee eggs, larvae, pupae and even beeswax. In fact, they are one of only a
handful of birds that can digest wax. The Honey Guide is what you might call a
bee specialist....
471 words
Extract from Level 2.1A (Fiction)
On the Way to the New World
Travelogue of Second-in-Command William Carewall, aboard the vessel
‘Phoenix,’ 12th of May, 1615.
The crew were much surprised today, on approaching the vicinities of the New
World, at encountering an Indian at sea. Passing by a nearby island, shortly
before reaching the main continent, we crossed paths with an authentic American
Indian busy fishing on a small boat. Since we knew such practice to be extremely
unusual among natives, we questioned him further.
‘I have been exiled from my tribe,’ he replied, in a rather neutral tone. ‘Now I live
on this island, with fishing as my sole pursuit...’
395 words
Extract from Supplementary 1 (Fiction)
Missing Handbag
It was the first day of Ryan’s family holiday. They were staying in a cottage
which overlooked the harbour in Peele Bay. It was a glorious sunny day, so the
family had wandered down to the beach. Dad volunteered to look after their
bags. Mum explored the beach, then joined Ryan and his sister in the foaming
waves. Dad relaxed and read his magazine. When mum had had enough of
the water, she returned to sit with dad. He had fallen asleep and was scarlet.
She glanced around and realised her handbag was missing. It must have been
stolen....
157 words
Examples of different question types
1.2A Q6. Why are bee stings so dangerous to the Honey Guide? (Literal)
1.1A Q2. How do you think Norman feels about the summer holidays? (Evaluative Inference)
1.1A Q13. What do you think Norman will do next September? (Predictive Inference)
2.1 A Q6. Why did Mr. Levine offer the Indian gold? (Knowledge-Based Inference)
1.1B Q9. In the last paragraph, the author writes ‘soon the light began to fade’. What do you
think he means? (Figurative Language)
2.2A Q11. In Paragraph 4, what does ‘commission’ mean? (Vocabulary)
Q14. Can you give a short summary of this passage, making clear what the main events are?
(Summarisation)
Passage Reading - Assessing Reading Skills
1. Reading Rate
• Time taken to read the passage
2. Reading Comprehension
• 13 Comprehension Qs per passage
• Inferential (Elaborative, Knowledge-Based, Evaluative, Predictive),
Literal, Vocabulary & Figurative Language Qs
3. Summarisation Skills
4. Reading Accuracy (Supplementary Passages only)
YARC – Reading Fluency
Fluency
• Level 1
• Level 2
Oral Reading
Reading Rate – Number of words read correctly per second
Test Norms
Standard Scores, Percentile Scores Reading Ages for:
• Reading Comprehension
• Reading Fluency
• Reading Accuracy (single word reading)
• Reading Accuracy (prose reading – poor readers)
Summarisation – 5 performance bands:
Low, Below Average, Average, Above Average, High
Standard Scores
• Range: 70 to 130
• Average = 100 (85-115)
• Severe Difficulty – below 80
• Some observations about reading skills in
Secondary School students
Standardisation Sample (N=1230)
Year
N
CA
Single Word Reading
(max=70)
Yr 7 (S1/P8)
262
11:08 (10:00-12:08)
48.47 (18 - 67)
Yr 8 (S2/P9)
250
12:08 (11:10-13:07)
50.88 (18 - 69)
Yr 9 (S3/P10)
251
13:07 (11:07-14:09)
53.17 (24 - 67)
Yr 10 (S4/P11)
238
14:08 (14:00-15:08)
54.13 (20 - 70)
Yr 11 (S5/P12)
229
15:07 (14:04-17:05)
57.22 (21 - 70)
Standardisation Sample (N=1230)
Year
N
Single Word
Reading (max=70)
SWRT 6-16
Reading Age
Yr 7 (S1/P8)
262
48.47 (18 - 67)
6:05 – 16+
Yr 8 (S2/P9)
250
50.88 (18 - 69)
6:05 – 16+
Yr 9 (S3/P10)
251
53.17 (24 - 67)
7:00 – 16+
Yr 10 (S4/P11)
238
54.13 (20 - 70)
6:09 – 16+
Yr 11 (S5/P12)
229
57.22 (21 - 70)
6:09 – 16+
SWRT 6-16 = Single Word Reading Test
Rationale behind YARC
The Simple View of Reading (after Gough & Tunmer, 1986)
+
Listening comprehension
Poor decoding
(Dyslexia)
-
Decoding
Generally poor reading
-
Normal reading
+
Poor comprehension
• Using YARC-Secondary Passage Reading
to assess students with reading difficulties
• Case Studies
Case 1
Maya
•
•
•
•
•
11 years 1 month
Year 7
English - second language
No formal recognition of reading difficulties
YARC – Screening programme
Maya (11;01)
Standard Score
Single Word Reading
103
Average
Reading Rate
108
Average
Reading Comprehension
84
Below average
Below Average
Below average
Passage Reading (Level 1)
Summarisation
Reading Fluency (Level 1)
92
Average
Maya: ‘Poor Comprehender’ Profile
• Difficulties: Making inferences, vocabulary, identifying
main points
• Strengths: Decoding skills
Recommendations:
• Additional support with comprehension
• Further assessment of language skills
• Monitoring
Case 2
Lucy
• 14 years 5 months
• Year 10
• SEN Register (no statement)
Lucy (14:05)
Standard Score
Single Word Reading
73
Severe difficulty
79
Severe difficulty
Below 70
Severe difficulty
Passage Reading (Supplementary)
Reading Rate
Reading Accuracy
Reading Comprehension
Summarisation
Reading Fluency (Level 1)
97
Average
Average
Average
Below 70
Severe difficulty
Lucy – Analysis of Reading Errors
Supplementary 1
Mispronunciations
Substitutions
Refusals
Additions
0
5
1
0
Omissions
1
Reversals
Total
0
7
standing -> staying, glanced -> glazed, realised -> resized, had -> was
Supplementary 2
Mispronunciations
Substitutions
Refusals
Additions
2
17
2
1
Omissions
0
Reversals
Total
0
22
sometimes -> something, leaving -> laying, collect -> correct, form -> from,
purpose -> person
Lucy: ‘Dyslexic’ Profile
• Difficulties: Decoding
• Strengths: Reading comprehension
Recommendations:
• Specialist reading intervention
• Additional time in GCSE examinations
Summing up
Recommended uses for YARC:
• to assess and monitor pupil progress
• to identify reading problems
• to assess eligibility for access arrangements
• to provide diagnostic information in order to
plan educational management
Thanks to:
• Charles Hulme, Paula Clarke, Patrick Barmby & Maggie Snowling
• Kate Nation, Lynne Duncan, Marie Jones, Helen Whiteley, Becky
Larkin, Yvonne Griffiths, Sarah Logan, Emma Truelove & Geraldine
Collins
• The teachers and students who assisted with this project