Reading comprehension theory and assessment--recommended reading

Although in education a practical distinction is typically made between intelligence and achievement (reading, math, writing), as per CHC theory, intelligence and achievement are all abilities.....they differ primarily along a continuum (not a dichotomy) based on the degree to which the abilities are learned as a result of indirect or direct formal learning experiences. Thus, theoretical and practical issues surrounding the construct of reading is very germane to this blog.

That being said, I must confess that as a trained school psychologist, my understanding of contemporary theories of reading are not what they should be. I've not kept up with the literature as I should have the past few years. I suspect that most other school/educational psychologists also suffer from a lack of sufficient knowledge of contemporary reading theory and assessment issues.

To rectify this situation I've been doing some reading of select chapters and special reports (recommended to me by others) that address the ultimate goal of reading.....comprehension of text read (reading comprehension). To date I've found two readings particularly informative....as they allowed me to integrate some disparate information I had accumulated into a more coherent reading comprehension knowledge schema. Although the chapter (Assesment of Reading Comprehension--A Review of Past, Present and Future Practices) by Pearson and Hamm (2005) and the special Rand report (2002) are written primarily from the perspective of large-scale group reading assessments, most of the information is relevant to clinical 1-1 reading assessment practices.

I would urge all practicing assessment professionals to take time to skim these two chapters.

Just my 2 cents.

Warning....the files are a bit large and may open/download slow if you are not on a high-speed connection.

Technorati Tags: psychology, education, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, reading, reading comprehension, Rand, special education, dyslexia, Grw, CHC theory, intelligence, achievement

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