Enhancing Assessment in English Reading - Comprehension for Singapore Schools
1.Lexile : Definition - Theory and Concept
The Lexile FrameworkTM for Reading is a scientific approach to measuring readers' competence and reading materials.
- It is now possible to place readers and text on the same scale.
- It allows Reading Comprehension proficiency to be measured consistently on the same scale across time.
The Lexile Framework™ for Reading systematizes two common intuitions:
(i) that text can be ordered as to comprehensibility (texts can be ordered according to the difficulty each presents for a reader)
(ii) that readers can be ordered as to reading ability (readers can be assessed according to the success each will have with any particular text)
The difference between a reader's Lexile measure and a text's Lexile measure is used to forecast the comprehension the reader is expected to have with the text. This provides more meaningful and effective measurement of student performance, allowing for the design of better teaching and intervention programmes leading to the attainment of higher levels of reading proficiency in the long- run.
Meaningful Measures
- A reader with the same Lexile measure as a text, is defined as "targeted".
- With a match between the reader and text measures the reader is expected to read that text with 75% comprehension.
- Targeted readers report competence, confidence and control over the text.
- With a text measure that is 250L greater than a reader's measure, comprehension drops to 50% and the experience is one of frustration, inadequacy and lack of control over the reading experience.
- When a reader measure exceeds a text measure by 250L, comprehension goes up to 90% and the reader experiences total control and automaticity.
Lexile Measures
The Lexile Framework consists of two main components :
Lexile measure
- The Lexile measure is a numeric representation followed by an "L" (for Lexile) which functions as an indicator of a reader's ability and of a text's difficulty.
Lexile scale
- The Lexile Scale is a developmental scale for reading ranging from 200L for beginning readers to above 1700L for advanced texts.
Lexile measures are based on 2 key factors which affect reading comprehension : word frequency which is formally called semantic difficulty and sentence length know as syntactic complexity.
These 2 linguistic components have been shown by research to be excellent predictors of how difficult a text is to comprehend. Longer sentence lengths and words of lower frequency lead to higher Lexile measures, while shorter sentences with words of higher frequency lead to lower Lexile measures.
Semantic Difficulty
- For readers new words are difficult when first encountered in print
- Difficulty with vocabulary is a continuum based on exposure, with familiarity of understanding developing with increased exposure.
- Frequently encountered words become the easiest to understand and rare words the most difficult.
Syntactic Complexity
- The best predictor of sentence difficulty is its length.
- Long sentences are likely to contain more clauses, and therefore communicate more information, ideas and also an interrelationship between them.
- Longer sentences require the reader to retain more information in short-term memory to enable them to make meaning and connections between ideas presented.
2. Lexiles in the Singapore Education System
Lexile measures will enable Singapore schools and teachers to develop more effective instructional programmes to ensure students reach desired levels of reading proficiency.
- It provides teachers with assessment data that is aligned to the skills demand presented by a text to students.
- It provides educators with a consistent and standardized benchmark of reading comprehension proficiency.
- It matches student assessment data and reading texts complexity using the same scale.
- Lexile measures as assessment data are more accurate indicator of student ability levels leading to better target- setting and design of instructional programmes.
To aide Singapore schools in the adoption and integration of Lexile into their instructional programme, the following are the Lexile measures for benchmark texts in the PSLE, GCE O Level and GCE A Level Examinations.
3. Lexile for Assessment in Singapore (PDF)
4. Other interesting measures
a. Lee Kuan Yew's Separation Speech (PDF)
b. Singapore Times & International Newspapers (PDF)
Other Scholastic News:
03.12.2009 : Scholastic Classroom Magazines Now Available in Singapore!
|
