Question

Does Read Forward indicate which specific skills each question is targeting?

Answer

No

Explanation

Read Forward is divided into six levels called segments. Each segment concentrates on a different skill set that includes from 4 – 8 specific reading skills. These are clearly stated in the Reading Skills chart, available in the User Guide and as a PDF on the Training page.

What this means is that all the questions in that segment require that learners use those specific skills to complete the answer. For example, the specific skills being targeted in Segment B include:

  1. Understand common words in text
  2. Relate common words to other words in nearby text
  3. Know where to write personal information in a form
  4. Interpret a short text
  5. Select from choices
  6. Make choices that are based on understanding meaning rather than on relying only on structure

The resource does not indicate which of these six skills learners needs to demonstrate to answer each of the 30 questions in each of the five tests at Segment B.

We understand how useful this would be to practitioners, as it would provide two useful pieces of information about the learners:

  • Which specific skills they have mastered (based on which questions were answered correctly)
  • Which specific skills they still need to work on (based on which questions were answered incorrectly)

In addition, it would allow instructors to pull out questions from the resource that would provide the most useful practice for learners. For example, if a learner wrote the Segment B – Circle test and the questions he answered incorrectly indicated that he needs more practice with the skill “Know where to write personal information in a form,” the instructor could look through the remaining Segment B tests for questions that target that skill and use those specific texts with that learner.

At this point, instructors will need to spend time with the tests of the segment they are working with to determine which questions target which skills. Keep in mind that a single question may, and often does, target more than one skill. This, of course, becomes a lot more work for those instructors who will be working with a variety of segments.

Why wasn’t this done as part of the resource? It was not a part of the original proposal, as the aim of the project was to work with creating a resource that was referenced to IALS yet applicable to a classroom/teaching setting. This was a large task in and of itself, as it required determining sub-segments of IALS, creating and testing texts and questions, and determining whether or not questions were placed in the appropriate segment. (For more details about the development of the resource please refer to the User Guide or the Development page of the website).

We agree with the instructors who say this would make a great companion piece for the Read Forward resource and would be an interesting follow-up project. Currently we do not have plans for another project.