Designing reading comprehension tests
Joyce West
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When designing reading comprehension tests, it is important that follow a systematic approach to ensure that your reading assessment is valid and reliable. In other words, can your assessment results be trusted? Did it test what it was suppose to test (i.e. learners' reading comprehension ability)?
When designing reading comprehension tests, it is important that follow a systematic approach to ensure that your reading assessment is valid and reliable. In other words, can your assessment results be trusted? Did it test what it was suppose to test (i.e. learners' reading comprehension ability)?
You can use previously designed tests or you can also use the Egra reading comprehension test. However, if you want to design your own reading comprehension test/assessment, you need to keep the following in mind:
You can use previously designed tests or you can also use the Egra reading comprehension test. However, if you want to design your own reading comprehension test/assessment, you need to keep the following in mind:
- Purpose of the test - What are the objectives? Criteria?
- Test/Assessment specifications - Details of test - When?Where?How?Content?Duration? Scoring procedures (memo/rubrics etc.)
- Authenticity - Does it account for learners' background knowledge? Can they relate to the test? Is the test meaningful/purposeful? Beneficial?
- Choosing the text - The readability of the text - Is the text graded? Variety of text used?
Evaluate difficulty level of the text by considering the following: Word count of text; amount of high/low frequency words in text; length of sentences; format of text; visual cues in text; punctuation use etc. See the article on readability - Click on the images below.
4. Setting the questions -
4. Setting the questions -
Use Bloom's or Barrett's taxonomy when setting questions to manage the difficulty level of your questions - Include high & low order questions
Use Bloom's or Barrett's taxonomy when setting questions to manage the difficulty level of your questions - Include high & low order questions
Set different types of questions (Multiple choice, sequencing, short answers, complete sentences, fill in the word, language structure/rules questions etc.)
Set different types of questions (Multiple choice, sequencing, short answers, complete sentences, fill in the word, language structure/rules questions etc.)
5. Pilot/moderate/evaluate your test first before use!
5. Pilot/moderate/evaluate your test first before use!
6. Determine the fairness, validity, reliability of the test
6. Determine the fairness, validity, reliability of the test
7. Consider the language used, the clarity of the questions/text/instructions and the possibility of unexpected answers.
7. Consider the language used, the clarity of the questions/text/instructions and the possibility of unexpected answers.
Here is a video lecture on the topic
Here is a video lecture on the topic
EDUCATION_JGL311&JGL313_Reading comprehension_W8_MrsWest_40min.mp4Page updated
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