Assessing Comprehension Skills

The purpose for assessing reader's comprehension and asking them a range of questions is to find out what they need to be taught to support in-depth understanding of text.

Comprehension assessment should reveal whether readers...

• can make sense of any given information at their appropriate reading age;
  
• are able to infer, evaluate and justify responses to questions about the text;
  
• understand and are able to personally relate to the author's meaning;
  
• can consciously generate their own range of questions to monitor their understanding as they read.

Five out of seven National Strategy Assessment Focuses (AFs) refer to comprehension competencies and are directly linked to the criterion of National Curriculum levels.

The Think2Read Comprehension Assessment links to different types of comprehension question and answer to these AFs to help teachers more easily and accurately assess their pupil's reading progress.