Chapter+15+Genre+of+Test+Reading

The Genre of Test Reading
Pages 239-252

Tests and test taking permeate our classrooms. Yet, students are ill prepared to understand and succeed on many tests. Why is this? They lack the genre knowledge of test reading. Just because a student knows how to read does not automatically equal good test taking skills. If you struggle with reading, there is an even better chance that you will struggle with reading tests. Tests are full of difficult vocabulary, complex wording, and unfamiliar structures that students don't meet on an everyday basis in their reading. It stands to reason that if we teach our students to be strategic readers with other genres, we need to do it with the genre of testing too. Harvey and Goudvis (2007) outline good strategies to use to build both better overall readers and better test-taking readers. The authors share examples of testing questions and strategies that are best paired up with those questions to yield better understanding, as well as general test taking strategies that will aid in successful test-taking overall.

__Professional References to Extend Your Learning__
Conrad, L. L., Mathews, M., Zimmerman, C., & Allen, P. A. (2008). //Put thinking to the test//. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Preview available at @http://www.amazon.com/Put-Thinking-Test-Lori-Conrad/dp/1571107312/ref=pd_sim_b_2
 * Written with the idea that this book can be a companion to //Strategies That Work//, it takes the ideas presented for good strategic reading and applies them to test taking skills. There are many ideas and activities designed to help students become better readers of tests through good reading strategies.

Hornof, M. (2008), Reading Tests as a Genre Study. The Reading Teacher, 62: 69–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204661
 * In this Teaching Tips article from //The Reading Teacher//, the author goes through her own experiences with testing and how she prepared a genre unit of test reading to help develop those skills and strategies her students needed to be successful test takers. The ideas and format are very readable and reproducible for your own classroom needs.

__**Technology Resources to Support Test Reading**__

[|testprep.com]
 * This website has standardized test examples from many of the states. Teachers could review the samples as a way to better understand the question structure and format found in testing materials for our students and apply many of the strategies suggested in chapter 15 to help build that genre knowledge of test questions.

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