Reading and Responding with Understanding, Part I : An Analysis of GCSE Exemplar Materials (1986-1987) for Understanding and Response / John Dixon and Leslie Stratta.

As a response to the artificiality of the traditional reading comprehension test, this booklet provides alternative means of testing that are within the guidelines of the British National Criteria. Ideas for testing informative, persuasive, autobiographical, and literary materials are presented in the booklet--carefully chosen to provide material in a meaningful context, to consider reading processes, and to offer students an important role and purpose. For example, the booklet contains some tests that require students to read and write responses to advertisements and editorials that are of particular interest to teenagers, and thus calls into question the value of timed examinations as measures of reading with understanding. Recommended for the future is a coursework folder that will provide a more valid representation of students' achievements as readers--assuming teachers do not model themselves on nation-wide exams. (ARH)

Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.