Test Language

My book is:  Benjamin, A. (2007).  But I’m Not a Reading Teacher:  Strategies for Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Black font indicates my blogging on what the author says

Red font indicates my comments.

Benjamin talks about standardized reading comprehension tests (you know, the ‘read this paragraph and answer the questions’ type of tests) and how to prepare for them.  She also describes how to prepare for multiple choice tests and how to best interpret test-taking language.  One technique she described was to have students create test questions themselves.  Then they see firsthand how to phrase both the questions and the multiple choice answers. 

The only thing I’ve ever thought about test-taking language is that multiple choice questions are tricky.  I’d never given any thought to tests actually having their own language – their own phrases, conventions, jargon, etc.  Understanding this language more would be valuable not only for taking tests but for interpreting questions in texts.  It might help address the challenge of increasing reading comprehension in the textbook by getting the kids thinking about phrasing as they read.  It might also get them to recognize and be aware of the basic organization of information in the textbook, helping them when they need to look something up.  I also like her idea of having students create test questions and answers.  I think the exercise of writing them will make them think about how to read them. 

She has some detailed examples of standardized test questions and answers, and how to lead kids through which answer is correct and why.  Helpful.  It demonstrates how to take a passage of text apart into pieces that help the reader understand intent by sentence placement and word usage.  In this section, she also describes a reading process, to help kids evaluate passages based on prior knowledge.  She emphasizes that taking a test in science is also testing their reading comprehension skills, not just the science knowledge they’ve acquired.

Familiarizing the students with skills for taking multiple choice tests and reading comprehension in general will help me evaluate my success of teaching science content by removing (at least in part) any failure of reading comprehension from the test taking process.

Benjamin points out 5 practical things to do to prepare kids for tests:

1.  Use the kind of language, including vocabulary and sentence styles that the test uses.
2.  Have kids write their own test questions, using vocabulary and sentence styles the teacher has used. 
3. Give abundant test question samples and have kids find high frequency phrases. 
4. Model complex sentence styles, like: if/then, toward which, with which, in the direction of, etc. 
5. Give kids the start of a question and have them predict how it will end.

By these 5 strategies, she says the teacher will be teaching the test language itself as content. 

I like all the suggestions she has about teaching the test language as content and having kids write test questions as practice.  I think it will help the kids learn the science jargon more quickly, and it can be couched as a game, making it more fun.  Isn’t that a goal for a teacher?  To cultivate a love of learning?