LITE Home

A. Conceptual-Questions Task

What You Need:
Questions are found on examiner’s copy of each oral reading passage, directly under the title of the passage.

Purpose:

1. to assess student’s familiarity with the topic of the selection
2. to activate student’s background knowledge


Procedures:
Before the student reads the passage, the examiner should ask all questions for that passage.

Examiner says “Before you read, I want to know what you already know about some ideas that will be in the passage.  I will ask you a few questions to find out.”

• “What do you think of when you hear the word(s) ______?”
• “What do the words ______ mean to you?”


How to score results:
Each question is scored according to the 3-2-1-0 system, where 3 is the best score.  Use the following guidelines for assigning scores. (more specifics on p. 39)

3 points: A precise definition, or a definitional response to a phrase, or an answer to a question specifically related to passage content; a synonym for the word asked.
2 points: an example of the concept; an attribute or defining characteristic; a function
1 point: a general association; isolation of prefix, suffix or root word; firsthand, personal associations
0 points: sound alikes; unconnected responses, no response or “I don’t know”

What does this test tell us?
 

• Helps us predict student’s comprehension level on the related passage (Generally, student who score at least 55% of the points possible on the concept task score above 70% on comprehension questions on the related passage)
• Gives examiner idea of how familiar or unfamiliar the concepts in this passage are to the student. (A student’s lack of knowledge of the concepts or different knowledge may explain difficulty in comprehension) ( If a student is totally unfamiliar with concepts, be prepared to try another passage at the same grade level to get a valid picture of grade level comprehension skills)

B. Prediction Task

What You Need:
Space to note student’s prediction can be found on examiner’s copy of each oral reading passage, directly under the Concept Questions.

Purpose:

1. to assess student’s familiarity with the topic of the selection
2. to prompt student to connect background knowledge to new text; to “get ready for reading”.

Procedures:
After administration of the concept-question task, the examiner may choose to administer the prediction task.

Examiner says “Given that the title of the passage is ______, and it includes the ideas ______, _______, and _______ (naming all the concepts within the questions), what do you think the passage will be about? I want you to guess or make a prediction about what you think the passage will be about.
 If the student simply restates the title, the examiner should provide a general probe for more information, like “What about _______ (whatever the student says)?”

 How to score results:
The student’s prediction is scored by counting the number of different idea statements the student predicts that are contained in the passage, either explicitly or implicitly.  Most students give only one or two statements in their predictions, so their score would typically be 2, 1 or 0.

What does this test tell us?

• Often, the more ideas predicted about a passage prior to reading correlates to the level of familiarity and knowledge about the main ideas contained in the selection.  This score may also help the examiner to predict student’s comprehension level on the related passage (or provide explanation for difficulty in comprehension).
• The skill of making predictions is learned and is subject to instruction.  This item could be used after instructional intervention has been provided in this area to further assess a student’s ability to activate background knowledge and make inferences about a passage.

Return to QRI Menu