Designing

assessment tasks:

EXTENSIVE
READING
What is extensive
reading?

Extensive reading involves learners reading texts for
pleasure, enjoyment and to develop general reading
skills.
In language learning, extensive reading is contrasted
with intensive reading which learners read in detail
with specific learning aims and tasks.
EXTENSIVE
READING
Skimming
Note-
taking and
outlining
Summarizing
and
responding
SKIMMING
Process of rapid coverage of reading matter to
determine its gist or main idea.
Running the eyes over quickly, to get the gist.

IMPORTANCE
motivate learners
to read
facilitates the
development of
prediction skills
increases the
students'
exposure to the
language
Assessment of skimming strategies is usually
straightforward: test taker skims a text and
answer questions such as :
What is the main idea of this text?
What is the authors purpose in writing the text?
What kind of writing is this (newspaper article, manual,
novel)?
What type of writing is this (expository, narrative)?
How easy or difficult do you think this text will be?
What do you think you will learn from the text?
How useful will the text be for your (profession,
academic needs, interests)?
SUMMARIZING AND RESPONDING

Summarizing - require a synopsis or overview of the text
Responding - asks reader to provide his or her own opinion
on the text as a whole / on some statement /
issue within it
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING A SUMMARY
Expresses accurately the main idea and supporting
ideas
Is written in the students own words; occasionally
vocabulary from the original text is acceptable
Is logically organized
DIRECTIONS FOR SUMMARIZING

In the article Poisoning The Air We Breath, the author suggests
that a global dependence on fossil fuels will eventually make air
in large cities toxic. Write an essay in which you agree or
disagree with the authors thesis. Support your opinion with
information from the article and from your own experience.
DIRECTIONS FOR RESPONDING
Write a summary of the text. Your summary should be about one
paragraph in length (100-150 words) and should include your
understanding of the main idea and supporting ideas.
Holistic scoring scale for summarizing
and responding to reading

3 demonstrates clear, unambiguous
comprehension of the main and
supporting ideas
2 demonstrates comprehension of the
main idea but lacks comprehension of
some supporting ideas
1 demonstrates only a partial
comprehension of the main and
supporting ideas
0 demonstrates no comprehension of the
main and supporting ideas

NOTE-TAKING AND OUTLINING

Informal assessment
One-to-one conference
notes / outlines as indicators of the
presence or absence of effective reading
strategies