Assessment of extensive reading

Ouraiminextensivereadingistodevelopreadingskillsandgoodreadinghabits.
Therefore,ourassessmentshouldfocusonreadingbehaviouranduseofreading
strategiesratherthanthecontentofbookswhichhavebeenread.
Readingbehaviourcanbeassessedonafivepointscale,suchasthescalebelow.Thisis
quickandeasy.
Learnersshouldseethescale(inEnglishorL1)sotheycanlearnhowtogetahigherscore.
5 Studentreadscomfortablyinfullparagraphs.Canusuallyguessnextwordintext.Copeswith
unknownwords,usinggrammaticalcontext,textcontextandvariationsofknownwordsin
Englishandotherlanguages.Quicklycompletesmostbooksandiseagertoreadmore.
4 Studentreadscomfortablyinfullsentences.Canreadsentencesaloudwithfluencyand
expression.Usesstrategiestodeducemeaningofunknownwordsfromwidertext
context.Usuallycompletesallbookswithasatisfyinglevelofcomprehension.Studentenjoys
readingeventhoughs/heknowscomprehensionisnotcomplete.
3 Studentreadsinfullsentencesandusespicturestoestablishgist.Atunknownwords,uses
sentencecontexttoguessgrammaticalfunction.Usespicturesandwidertextcontextto
guessmeaning.Usuallycompletesallbooksstarted,butonlyreadswhenprompted.
2 Studentusuallyreadsphrasesbutnotfullsentences.Usestitleandpicturestoestablishgist
beforereading.Sometimesstopsreadingatunknownwords.Triestoguessmeaningsusing
phonicsandpictures.Sometimesfailstocompletebooks.Enjoyslisteningtobooks,butis
reluctanttoreadwithoutaudiosupport.
1 Readsonewordatatime.Doesnotprepareforreadingbystudyingpictures.Panicsand
stopsreadingatunknownwords.Doesnotusephonics,textorpicturecontexttoguessthe
word.Frequentlyabandonsreadingbeforecompletion,unlesshelpisgiven.Dislikesreading
lessons.

Theseassessmentcardsareclearlydesignedforstudentsintheearlystagesoflearningtoread.
Showingtheassessmentcardstostudents,eitherinEnglishortranslatedintoL1,allowsstudentsto
seethetypeofbehaviourrequiredtoachieveahighergrade.
Wecanusethisdesigntoprepareassessmentcardsformoreadvancedreadinglevelsinwhich
studentsbegintointerpretthetext,andtocopewithnonlinearnarrativetextswhichuseflashbacks
andsimilardevices.Thesamestyleofassessmentcardscanbeproducedforreadingnonfiction
scientifictextsinwhichstudentsshouldusetheirbackgroundknowledgeindeveloping
comprehension.
Everytwomonths,theteachermayusethisfivepointscaletogradeeachstudentsreading
behaviour.

The English Language Dossier

TheDossier,whichispartoftheEnglishLanguagePortfolio,isakindofscrapbookinwhicheach
studentrecordshis/herachievementsinlearningEnglishisagoodplaceforstudentstostoretheir
readingdiary,abookreview,personalresponse,summaryorothermaterialsdevelopedfrom
gradedreadingmaterials.Thestudentmayalsocommentontherecordingofthebook.Ifthebook

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hasbeenpresentedasafilm,atelevisionprogramme,musical,orinsomeothermedium,the
studentmightcommentonthese,mentioningdifferencesbetweentheoriginalbookandthe
adaptation.Theseshouldberecordedwiththetitleofthebook,thegradinglevel,thedatestarted
andthedatecompleted.
Inthisway,thereadingofeachbook(eventhosestartedandabandoned)isrecordedasa
learningachievement.Gradedreadingisaveryimportantlearningactivitywhichreinforces
structuralfluency,developsvocabulary,buildsconfidenceandaddstobackgroundknowledge.

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