GS48364

Assessment of Reading

Assessment is an essential element of education used to inform instruction. It is applicable to

all the available skills, and the one in focus right now which is reading skill. The first step in
implementing a good reading instruction is to determine the student baseline performance.
Students in a particular classroom, especially here in Malaysia are from diverse backgrounds
and with different skill levels in literacy. Students who enter the classroom may have different
needs depending on their previous knowledge of the given skill. Some of the lower level
students who enter the class might require the teacher to review the basic skills in reading,
while other students may have even mastered the skills that the teacher intends to cover. Due
to these wide range of students’ level, it is necessary to design a system which can meet the
individual needs of each student. Individual needs can be determined by reading assessment,
be it an initial or on-going assessment. These assessments provides teachers with vital
information on how to develop appropriate lessons and improve instructions for all students.

One of the major purpose of assessment is to identify the skills that need to be reviewed. It is
a way for teachers to collect data on what skills do the students have or have not mastered
and helping the teacher to identify ways of catering those needs as well. It is much needed by
the teachers as the students have a varying degree of knowledge and experiences. Another
purpose of conducting assessment is to monitor the progress of students. Teachers need to
keep track of the students’ progress so that they know for certain which student needs
reviewing before going into a completely new topic in which they might just get lost in. This
will definitely be a helping hand in getting the students ready to move forward. A third purpose
can be defined as to demonstrate the effectiveness of instructions. The information gained
from assessment allows teachers to know if all students are mastering the content covered. It
is important for teachers to use instructional time effectively, as this can be done when the
teachers are good in observing their students to tell whether they are ready to learn. Therefore,
the information gained from assessment allows teacher to create appropriate instruction for
their students.

There are numerous ways of assessing a students’ reading mastery. Teachers can either
conduct a test, analyse some of the students’ products on reading, observations, or even
interviews. Teachers might as well use all of the above methods to gain a more meaningful
insight on how good the assessment was and whether it really measured what it claimed to
measure. The consensus is that it is essential to use more than one method when attempting
to measure a construct like reading comprehension (Alderson and Banarjee, 2001). The main
purpose should always be that at the end of the day, assessment should always give precise
data on how the students are performing regarding the skills that are being tested, in this case
reading.

Due to the diversity among children, single assessment will not be appropriate for all students.
Some measures for collecting data are more appropriate for a specific age level, skill level, or
culture, and teachers often find it beneficial to use multiple assessments when gathering
information on student performance. It is important for teachers to have training in the
strategies they use and feel comfortable with their implementation. Additionally, teachers
should use strategies that are supported by research evidence and that will give them useful
information about their students. A teacher can gain the most information from gathering
information through both formal and informal assessments.
Different measures provide distinct information. Therefore, teachers need to implement
assessments that will provide information about the skills their students have on the content
and strategies that they are teaching. Reviewing this information will help teachers determine
what assessments are needed to supplement the measures that have been administered.
Most importantly, assessment must be instructionally relevant and focused on essential skills.
Therefore, assessments should always be culturally and linguistically appropriate.

When taking Malaysian education system into context, there is no space for teachers to
undertake extensive and comprehensive assessment on the reading skills of the students.
There are too many limitations on using numerous assessment methods to just assess a
single skill such as reading comprehension. Normally, it will come down to one summative
examination where most of the major skills will be tested such as reading and even writing.
These two skills are considered inseparable and therefore leaves no space for teachers to
assess them on by one. Reading and writing are inseparable, and that their view of literacy
requires an alternative approach to the assessment of literacy, one which includes a social
dimension (Alderson and Banarjee, 2001). This begs the question of whether the testing and
evaluation methods used in our country is valid or is there a major flaw in it. In order to rectify
this, every skill needs to be assessed accordingly and it should never come down to a
comprehensive examination when it comes to evaluating the students.