Literacy test

“ If the pupil is to gain the full benefit from his reading, certain definite helps must be provided. An efficient reader must score a high test not only on the fundamentals of quality, variety, organization and quantity of literature, but also on its fitness as a tool for classroom use. ”

“ What is the true motive of examinations? Real teaching leads to the systematic, all-sided up-building of a compact body of knowledge in the mind. In this up-building or instruction, every faculty of the mind is brought into action—perception, judgment, classification, reason, imagination, and memory. Examinations, then, should test the condition and progress of the mind in its development. Is the common standard of examinations a test of real teaching? If I am not mistaken, the examinations usually given simply test the pupil's power of memorizing disconnected facts. ”

“ The quantity set for each lesson allows of only a single reading; but the reading is tested by narration, or by writing on a test passage. When the terminal examination is at hand so much ground has been covered that revision is out of the question; what the children have read they know, and write on any part of it with ease and fluency, in vigorous English; they usually spell well.
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Much is said from time to time to show that ‘mere book-learning’ is rather contemptible, and that “Things are in the saddle and ride mankind.” ”

“ It requires the child, moreover, to bring his knowledge continually to the test. It cultivates at once accuracy of thought, and accuracy of language, which is the vehicle of thought. Train a child, therefore, to the habit of attention, first to the meaning of words as gathered from observation of their use, and secondly to the expression of that meaning in language appropriate and intelligible to others. ”

“ Critics of testing contend it distracts from learning. They talk about ‘‘teaching to the test.’’ But let us put that logic to the test. If you test a child on basic math and reading skills and you are ‘‘teaching to the test,’’ you are teaching math and reading, and that is the whole idea. ”

“ Even in primary schools such questioning is valuable, leading the children to realize that the words appear in the sentence, [97] not by chance, but in order to express something; that every word has its work, that not one can be omitted, that a change in a single word changes the thought. Such exercises, thoughtfully conducted, will lead the children to look for the thought in the sentence, and will make its mastery a test of their success. If the sentence does not yield them a thought which they understand, let them question every word until they get its meaning. ”

“ Not only are those words which most commonly give difficulty arranged for, but the method of testing insures that each pupil will eliminate his own peculiar errors. No pains have been spared to obtain this thoroughness without wasting the pupils' time in mere routine review.
During the week in which each lesson is taught for the first time, each pupil is tested three times on every word in the lesson. He spends his time in concentrated attack on the words which have given him difficulty. One month later this lesson is given as a test, and the words missed by each pupil re-learned by him. ”

“ What subjects are suited for written work is a matter which must be decided by each teacher according to the dispositions, the knowledge, the aptitude shown by the scholars in a particular class. It will inevitably be influenced largely by examination-papers; and in the face of the lists of subjects provided by these it is idle to offer any particular suggestions. In general the test of a subject, so far as real benefit is concerned, is whether it is one upon which the student may fairly be expected to be able to feel and to reason in terms of his own experience. ”

“ Every scholar is expected to tell when, where, and by whom his quotation was first spoken, and at the close of the exercise each scholar will be called upon to repeat all his quotations from memory. Then the teacher will gather the cards, mix them up, present the pile now to this scholar and now to that, and ask him to give the facts about whatever quotation he may draw. The success of this method of review, as of all others, will largely depend upon its previous announcement, the scholars having gone over the quarter's lessons at home with this coming test in mind. ”

“ Encourage the children to use this vocabulary to check up the words that they are positive they can spell correctly, and for reference to find any word they may wish to use in their written work. These lists of words may also be used for oral spelling matches or written reviews. Regularly and systematically test the pupils. Keep records, to which the children have ready access, showing their progress and efficiency. Have each child keep a list of the words he misspells, and keep on urging him and testing him, until he has mastered his particular “word demons.” ”

“ Look first to the thought material which is to engage children's minds, and then force the language into subservice to that end. The final test to determine the place of a selection in the school course must be the experiment of the class-room. ”

“ We go further, and maintain that the principle we have suggested furnishes a true test of the suitability of any given subject for elementary instruction, which, as we believe, should be confined in its earliest stages to those subjects in which the pupil can gain his knowledge at first hand from facts within his own cognizance. ”

“ Of course if students should devote their time to a special study of the dictionary, the test would become special and valueless, since size of vocabulary would not then be an accompaniment and indication of experiences and intellectual advances, but of special study of modes of defining words in terms of other word symbols.
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A study of the kind of definitions given by persons of different ages is an interesting indication of the sources of word knowledge and of the modes of thought at different ages. ”

“ Thus isolated questions on details of grammar would disappear from papers on the mother-tongue and on foreign languages, in which the test would consist mainly or entirely of composition and translation. Erudition would be tested by the power of writing, at leisure, a dissertation on some subject selected by the examiners or the candidate or, in the case of a teacher, by the delivery of a lecture on the subject. ”

“ As a stimulus to, or a test of, study, it may be well to omit the oral reading occasionally, substituting for it an exercise in silent reading, whose thoroughness is tested by questions. After the usual study of the lesson the books are closed and the teacher calls upon the pupils to tell her what they have read. Older pupils may respond by giving the substance of the lesson. Younger children may be tested by more frequent and detailed questions after the reading of short paragraphs. ”

“ What evils usually accompany them? Outline a plan by which these purposes may be achieved unaccompanied by the usual evils. 302Is memory of facts the best test of knowledge? Suggest other tests by which the value of a pupil’s knowledge may be judged. Experts sometimes vary more than 70 per cent in grading the same manuscript. The same person often varies 20 per cent or more in grading the same manuscript at different times. An experiment with your own grading might prove interesting. Do you and your pupils in actual practice regard examinations as an end or as a means to an end? ”

“ There is need for a new exercise and method in the teaching of reading; an exercise for teaching pure mental reading; a means of instruction in which things more reliable than words shall be taken as proof that the idea is grasped; a test of the accuracy of mental perception in which such unreliable evidence shall not be heard. ”

“ We approach the subject by the avenue of the child’s senses rather than by that of the objects to be studied, because just now we have in view the occasional test exercises, the purpose of which is to give thorough culture to the several senses. ”

“ The judgment of the race has been right; this is the period for the teaching of reading and writing. The oral language which the pupil acquires in the pre-school period is the basis on which the primary work must be erected. The first reading lessons are lessons in the association of known oral symbols with those complicated social devices, the printed symbols. The ability to live in society which the pupil brings to the first grade must be extended through the mastery of language in its written and printed forms. ”

“ All examinations, as projected by the Ratio Studiorum, are conducted by word of mouth. Writing enters the examinations, only when the written word itself is the subject of investigation. Thus, in the grades of the literary course, the composition of the student, from its elementary qualities of spelling, punctuation, grammar, up to the most varied forms and species of style, comes under examination for advancing to the next grade. ”

“ Care must be taken, of course, that the test is not a mere appeal to the memory; it is only when the examination makes demands upon the student's intelligence that it can be considered a fair measure of the value of philosophical instruction. ”

“ Our statistics show that in a large majority of cases the vocabulary test alone will give us an intelligence quotient within 10 per cent of that secured by the entire scale. Out of hundreds of English-speaking children we have not found one testing significantly above age who had a significantly low vocabulary; and correspondingly, those who test much below age never have a high vocabulary. ”

“ Our old test question, ‘Why should we judge a person by what he does rather than by what he says?’ applies to the test itself.”
Because of the fact that there is a percentage of persons who, either through unfamiliarity with the English language or lack of skill in expressing themselves through word and number symbols, do not respond to tests based on the use of words, any comprehensive scheme of mental tests must contain a proportion of tests the response to which may be made without the use of written, printed, or spoken words. ”

“ The test is little affected by schooling, and apart from differences in intelligence it is little influenced by age. Other advantages of the test are the keen interest it always arouses and its independence of language ability. ”

“ The relationship between the score in this test and the general efficiency of an employee is unusually high.
Teachers will find the Reading Vocabulary a splendid index of the advancement attained by new pupils coming into their rooms for the first time or of the pupils who have been with them for some time. It is useless to try to have pupils explain the meaning of magazine articles or of selections from their geographies when they do not even understand the words used in these discussions. ”

“ Examinations have another function which we as teachers should not overlook. Any adequate test of children’s abilities is also a test of our teaching. It will probably not be best for us to try to defend ourselves by pleading the inadequacy of the test, nor the backwardness of the pupils when they come to us, nor their parentage, nor any other less common reason. ”

“ When the pupils, after studying a lesson, are enabled to point to the exact words which are obstacles to their thought-getting, the teacher’s labors are minimized and her teaching is at once made definite. Such study, too, leads the pupils to more thoughtful reading. Since they must weigh every word in the sentence to discover its meaning, they become accustomed to dig for the thought, and to estimate their own difficulties. By this means they help themselves to the mastery of the thought, as far as the words in which it is expressed belong to their vocabulary. ”

“ This is a fruitful exercise. The child [119] desires to learn the meaning of the word which has blocked his way, and his need of it makes him its master forever after. It is only in this way that words are mastered. It is idle to explain a list of words for which children have no use in the expression of their thought. But after the study has revealed to the child his need of new knowledge, the word fits at once into his vocabulary and answers the new need. The teacher’s explanation not only suffices to make the reading plain, but it increases the child’s vocabulary for future use. ”

“ The object was to find out whether or not the material that the children of the upper grades were being taught was of the sort actually used by able men of affairs in the conduct of their daily business. For carrying out the test the most prominent and successful citizens were purposely chosen and in making up the examinations the most difficult material was purposely selected. ”

“ In mere conversation we are apt to skip over difficulties by permitting ourselves vaguenesses and inaccuracies of expression which would sternly demand correction—and correction, too, easily kept in mind—when the written word looked us in the face. To quicken the efficacy of this exercise requires, of course, a teacher able not only to pound grammatical rules into the head of the pupil, but also to stir up, through study of the language, a mentally active interest in the subjects spoke or written about. ”

“ The commencement of the instruction in reading, writing, ciphering, drawing, and in spelling, would take place as part of the object lesson which should be adopted as the first step to knowledge, and should be retained in the most advanced classes as the most perfect method of applying the knowledge which has been acquired. It would soon be understood by the pupils that the power of reading, of writing, of designing and of calculating is essential to the acquirement of knowledge, and to any thing like extent and variety of information on subjects relating to individual and social well-being. ”

“ More suitable to begin with are those which test knowledge or judgment about objective things, such as the pictures, weights, stamps, bow-knot, colors, coins, counting pennies, number of fingers, right and left, time orientation, ball and field, paper-folding, etc. Tests like naming sixty words, finding rhymes, giving differences or similarities, making sentences, repeating sentences, and drawing are especially unsuitable because they tend to provoke self-consciousness. ”