A study of reading assessment in the Grade 4 classrooms.
Loading...
Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The study is part of the first phase of a broader action research project that focuses on reading at
a foundational level among both adults (Levels 1 and Levels 2) and children (Grade R – 4) in
both IsiZulu and English, with the purpose of promoting a reading culture among educators,
learners and other stakeholders in the learning community of the school.
The study focused on the assessment of reading in English among Grade 4 learners at a rural
primary school in Kwazulu-Natal. This focus included the methods and techniques used to assess
learners reading at Grade 4 level. Also, it focused on the skills that are being assessed in reading.
The broad purpose of the study was to investigate, analyse and understand the assessment of
reading and the impact it had on Grade 4 learners’ development and growth in reading. The
study shared the same objective as the broader project, which was to promote a reading culture.
However, in order to create a reading culture, teachers need to use appropriate forms and tools of
assessment and need to understand the role of assessment in the development of reading skills
among young children. The purpose of reading assessment is to monitor the development of
reading skills, to observe each learner’s progression in reading, and to allow teachers to design
methods to assist learners in achieving desirable reading strategies. In the light of this, the
study’s purpose was to identify the methods and/or forms of assessment that a teacher used to
assess reading in her classroom as the basis for an intervention to improve the culture of reading
at the school.
The study attempted to answer the following questions:
· What forms of assessments do teachers use in their reading classroom?
· What reading skills are being assessed and developed?
· How does the teacher assess reading? What process is used?
· What types of texts are being used to assess reading in the reading classroom?
In order to answer these questions the researcher used case study as the methodology and
collected data using questionnaires, observations and interviews with the Grade 4 English
teacher and school principal as well as kept a personal reflective journal. The data was analysed
by means of content analysis and was coded according to the themes and patterns that emerged
during the transcription process.
To briefly sum up the findings that surfaced from the study, it was clear that the participants
were aware of the importance of teaching and assessing comprehension of reading however,
these were not practised in the classroom. In other words, the teacher focused on assessing
decoding, pronunciation, fluency, accuracy and book handling skills; there was no assessment of
comprehension. Furthermore, reading was only reading aloud and was repetitive in that learners
first listened while the teacher read the text aloud, then they read the same text together as a class
aloud, they read it again in groups aloud and finally were called individually to the front of the
class to read a few lines from the text aloud for assessment. This reading assessment was a
formative form of assessment, however reading was also assessed on a continuous weekly basis
but was informally conducted. Lastly, there was a recurrence in the way the participant assessed
reading in her classroom and the way in which her teacher assessed her reading while she was at
school. These findings were just a few of the many findings that have been discussed in detail in
Chapter Four of the dissertation.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.
Keywords
Reading--Ability testing--KwaZulu-Natal., Theses--Education.