Customer Reviews

Reading Placement Tests; 4th-6th Grades: Easy Assessments to Determine Students' Levels I N Phonics, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension (Scholastic Teaching Strategies)

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This book is helpful as one of many ways to assess the reading ability of elementary school children. However, I found that the "Phonics" section of the tests contained questions that did not assess knowledge of phonics. For example, one question asks which word in the choices listed has three syllables. A second question where the answer was "pier" (as in dock) had as another choice the word "peer." Straight phonics would dictate that the word "pier" should be pronounced "pie-r" (as in one who makes pies) and that the answer, though incorrect, should be "peer." This question may address how much reading experience a child has but not knowledge of phonics. The second thing I found disturbing about this book is that the producers thought it necessary to include an entire page devoted to a table that converts raw scores into percentages and an entire paragraph to how to use the table! Now, I am not an elementary school teacher (just a homeschooler) but it seems to me that this is something that teachers should be able to do in their sleep, without the use of a table.