WHICH READING ABILITIES DOES CELE

ASSESS?

May13th, 2015

READING NATURE
the
process
of simultaneously
the
way
we relate
the old with the
extracting
and constructing
new,
how we make
sense of the
meaning
through and
interaction
new information
how weand
involvement
withpiece
written
accommodate
that new
in our
language
(Snow,
2002)
previous
knowledge
(Smith,
2004)

READING
Purposef
ul activity

Construct
meaning

Scaffoldin
g process

TAXONOMY TO ASSESS READING

Blooms Taxonomy. Bloom et al. (1956)

Blooms Taxonomy
Three domains: Affective, Psychomotor,
Cognitive

Cognitive
Describes the skills involved in various
types of reading questions
Defines and measures reading
comprehension abilities.
Offers a wide range of elements to
identify what questions intend to measure
in reading.
Controls what needs to be assessed or
tested in reading.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reading abilities
in the CELE English exams

Analysis Scheme
A condensed table based on
Blooms first two levels:

Knowledge

and Comprehension.

Six CELE exams (nine reading passages,

fifty-five items)

RESULTING READING
ABILITIES

READING ABILITIES

Level 1
Knowledge

Ability to distinguish referents

for words from others.
Knowledge and mastery of
vocabulary and terms of fine
arts, science, accounting,
geometry and quantitative
thinking.
Recognition and Recall of
facts about cultures, biology
chemistry, and physics
processes, society, health,
natural resources, nutrition.

The pronoun it in line 12 refers to

The author of
atherosclerosis as:

the

passage

describes

According to the passage what was the effect

of the appearance of stoves in Cape Cod
Cottages?

READING ABILITIES

Level 2
Comprehension

-Ability to translate non-literal

statements (metaphor, symbolism,
irony, exaggeration) to ordinary
English.
-Ability to comprehend the
significance of words in their context.
-Ability to grasp the thought of a work
as a whole at any level of generality.
-Ability to deal with conclusions in
terms of inferences.

The phrase reigns supreme in line 7 is closest in

meaning to

The word dallied in line 14 is closest in meaning to

What does the passage mainly discuss?
We can infer from the passage that bees are well suited
to collecting pollen because of

CELE READING ABILITIES

Emerging Ability

1
2

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Spring
2012

Summer
Fall
Spring Summer
2012
2012
2013
2013
Abilities and Percentages

Ability to distinguish referents for words from others.

Knowledge and mastery of vocabulary and terms of fine arts,
science, accounting, geometry and quantitative thinking.
Recognition and Recall of facts about cultures, biology
chemistry, and physics processes, society, health, natural
resources, nutrition.
-Abstract into concrete or less abstract. in your own words
-Ability to translate non-literal statements (metaphor,
symbolism, irony, exaggeration) to ordinary English.
-Ability to comprehend the significance of words in their
context.
-Ability to grasp the thought of a work as a whole at any level
of generality.
-Ability to comprehend and interpret with depth and clarity.

10%
10%

10%

40%

20%

50%

10%

100%

20%

10%
10%

10%

10%

20%

20%

40%

10%

20%

-Ability to deal with conclusions in terms of inferences.

-Ability to draw and state conclusions.
-Interpolate where there are gaps in data.

Fall
2013

50%

10%

10%

10%

10%
50%

30%

RESULTS
CELEs

reading abilities

differ in
frequency
occurrence
extent.
The assessment is
inaccurate.

RECOMMENDATIONS
A

fixed format =
Adapt CELE format =
To
redo test procedures
policies.
Reading

and

sections to be recycled.
Test construction: friendlier, less
constrained, more reliable and
valid.

Thanks
!