In many of my English classes (since Middle School and all the way to College) I have taken reading comprehension quizzes after reading assignments. At the same time, I have constantly struggled with them, because I felt like it was impossible to remember every detail of the 8-10 chapters that I had to read, on top of other homework and out of school activities. There were reading quizzes that I failed strictly because I didn't really read the chapters, but there were others that I had prepared for and still got low grades.
After reading Chapter 2, I realized that most of the problem lies with the questions on the quiz. In college I had a professor that would quiz us on minor details that he felt we should know after reading every piece. For example, how old is the main character and what was the narrator holding in his hands?. Seriously? I would literally read the entire work but I would still get answers wrong. None of the questions asked about major plot points or required a summary, so it became a game called "guess what the teacher will want to know". That is not reading for me. This quiz designed to prove who was doing the homework simply showed that reading doesn't matter, as long as you can guess the answers correctly.
The example on pg. 22 really stood out to me, because it served as a wake-up call. Why do teachers ask these ridiculous questions that don't prove anything? Even the quiz by our authors had the answer to question 1 hidden in question 5. Students should never get a throw-away question. Its not about students passing or getting an A, its about students learning to read, comprehend, analyze and repeat. These reading quizzes should have short answer questions that are based on the plot, or it could take the form of a short essay, blog post, or free write about what happened so far in the book. As Chapter 2 explained, we need to teach our students how to comprehend, and our assessments must match our goal.
Have you had any experiences with reading quizzes?
What method could we us to see whether or not students have read their assignment?
Jessica I really liked your blog about the chapters. You bring up very good points that do lie at the heart of literacy quizzes. I am a big reader and I agree that when the questions are not truly relevant but rather just to see if it was read the quiz is lacking any assessment should be relevant and not just as a homework check..
ReplyDeleteNice move throwing in some prompts at the end of your post! I am trying to come up with any great reading quizzes I've taken but nothing in particular comes to mind... I would suggest that Daniels is arguing that even the answers our students give to questions about main ideas or plot points might be misleading unless we have properly activated background knowledge.
ReplyDeleteYour frustrations with previous reading quizzes calls to mind when Daniels explains that "making sure kids remember and think about what they read in school" (p. 12) is ultimately one of the biggest goals for teachers. The notion of a healthy 'reading diet' was a strategy that really struck a cord with me. Examining a variety of texts in a variety of ways will help students with comprehension. Exposing students to different texts also opens up options for different types of assessment.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI like your questions! I can't remember the last time I had to do a reading quiz, but I know from discussing books in classes or even just casually with friends that I often miss important details, or sometimes notice things that other people overlook. I think that small group discussions are far more effective for reviewing the basic content of text in the initial reading phase. It's less intimidating, and students are learning from each other's observations. It might even encourage them to go back and re-read parts of the text to see what they've missed. As for assessment, these hypothetical students could always write a blog post on what they've learned from the assigned text.