Reading Competence versus Performance

1. Reading Competence versus Performance Reading is vital... Talking, listening, writing, learning subject matter in all disciplines

2. Thus, it is important that teachers help individuals become competent readers, in order to become competent in other content areas. However… How does a teacher determine if a student is a competent reader? How does a teacher determine if a student needs help with certain aspects of reading? Can a teacher use a student’s performance on a reading test to determine whether or not he/she is a competent reader?

3. Competence: What a person is capable of doing. Performance: What we observe people do. Tiger Woods… Louis Armstrong… William Shakespeare…. Pablo Picasso… We’ve observed amazing ‘performances’ from these individuals to assess their competence.

4. We can’t just observe someone reading and judge their competence. Tania Lonin (2007) believes that, Competence is defined as what someone knows Performance is what someone is capable of doing with their knowledge. So, to determine if a student is a competent reader a teacher will have to test/measure/observe a student’s ‘knowledge’ with respect to reading.

5. For decades, researchers have tried to create individual tests/measures to assess reading competence. However, researchers often err seriously in equating what a reader does on one measure with what they are capable of doing. In addition, schools (and staff) have made the same mistake of using one of these measures to quickly assess reading competence. 1) Wechsler Individual Achievement Test 2) Gate-MacGinitie Reading Test-Revised 3) Gray Oral Reading Test-3rd Edition Each considered reliable and valid tests of reading comprehension. Yet, word recognition/decoding skills vary across the three measures; 11.9%, 6.1% and 7.5%, respectively.

6. Research shows Oral Retelling is one of the best ways to determine if a student understands/comprehends what he/she has read. This method allows a teacher to add prompts which adds to the effectiveness of this method. Research has shown that students can perform well on a reading comprehension test if strong in vocabulary skills and oral comprehension but weak in word decoding (processing). Yet another student may perform just as well if he/she has good word decoding skills but an imporverished vocabulary. Thus, a teacher cannot assess a student’s reading competence from one measure/observation/performance of their reading ability. In other words, collect more ‘performances’ to better judge an individuals competence.

7. Regrettably, a teacher can collect a hundred observations/measures of a student’s reading ability and still not have enough to determine with 100% certainty that a student is a “competent reader”. 1) Motivation for learning and/or school 2) Negativity (be 3 times more positive than negative) 3) Self-efficacy 4) Enthusiasm 5) Ability to vary instruction and testing 6) Use of technologies 7) Anxiety 8) much, much more…

8. Thus, Performance can give insight into competency, but not completely determine competency. Multiple performances regarding one skill like reading better allows us to determine competency, but not with 100% certainty. An individuals performance is affected by so many other factors, besides competency.