The Potency of ‘READS’ to Inform Students’ Reading Ability

Abstract

This paper shares an initiative conducted in Malaysia in terms of knowledge to gauge students’ Reading Age and to inform teachers of their students’ reading progress and learning. Ensuring teachers understand the needs of students’ reading ability and preparing students to read and comprehend texts are the two most fundamental parallel tasks in today’s classroom setting. Consequently, determining students’ Reading Age has become an important endeavour in recent years by many education authorities throughout the world. This study aims at incorporating the Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS), to ascertain students’ Reading Age and comprehension skills at macro and micro levels. This study employed a stratified sample of high school students who were in Secondary 1 through Secondary 5. Data was gathered through a generic standardized reading comprehension developed test. With a precise Reading Matrix, ESL teachers can appraise their students’ reading ability at any level by referring to the Performance Standards to distinguish whether their students are at Meet Reading Age, Below Reading Age or Above Reading Age status. Subsequently, teachers can refer to the Descriptors of Students’ Reading Abilities to find out what the students have achieved so far and what the struggling readers lacked. Accordingly, ESL teachers will be well informed of their students reading ability and accordingly can focus on reading skills development of their students. The ripple effects of READS may enhance students’ reading ability as teachers are now better informed of their students’ reading abilities and thus teachers will be able to prepare reading lessons appropriately according to their students’ reading needs.