Activities for assessment of reading
CSWE 1 (2008) Module K LO 1 Demonstrate understanding of a written recount
Activity 1.1: Selecting and adapting the text
Materials needed:
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CSWE curriculum
A text –‘ Moving House’ is provided below, or you can use one of your own
Checklist for selecting authentic texts.
Text for Activity 1.1: Moving House
Last weekend my friend Maria and her husband, Nick moved house from a little apartment in
the city to a 3 bedroom brick house in the suburbs. The initial task was to pack their stuff.
Then they got a removalist and a truck to move the boxes and furniture. At the new house
Maria and Nick decided where to put the furniture and unpacked the boxes. They put the food
and plates in the kitchen cupboards and made sure the fridge and freezer were turned on.
After unpacking they were exhausted, so they boiled up the kettle and had a cup of tea. They
were both tired but they were happy. Nick was happy to have an extensive garden in which to
grow vegetables. Maria contemplated making new friends. Someone knocked on the door
while Maria and Nick were drinking tea. It was their neighbours. The neighbours gave them
flowers and a cake to welcome them to the neighbourhood. Maria invited the neighbours in
for a drink. Both Maria and Nick were happy with their first day in the new house.
Activity:
1. Check the criteria (see the CSWE curriculum);
2. Check the length (eg for CSWE I: “approximately 100 words or more”). This text is
181 words long, so it needs to be shortened;
3. Check the density of language;
4. Check the difficulty of the vocabulary (removalist? exhausted? extensive? boiled up?
contemplated? neighbourhood?);
5. Check the discourse structure eg The initial task = first;
6. Check the contextualisation.
Modify the text according to the criteria and the level of the students.
Something to think about:
Make it a good model for the corresponding learning outcome, ie C1 K2 Write a recount.
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Suggested final text for CSWE I:
Last weekend Maria and her husband Nick moved house. First they packed their things. Then
they got a truck to move the boxes. At the new house Maria and Nick unpacked the boxes. They
put the food and plates in the kitchen cupboards. After unpacking, they sat and had a cup of tea.
They were both tired but happy. They liked the house because it had a big garden. When Maria
and Nick were drinking tea their new neighbours knocked on the door. They gave Maria and Nick
some beautiful flowers and a chocolate cake. Both Maria and Nick were happy with their first day
in the new house.
(109 words)
Activity 1.2: Developing questions for the learning outcome
Materials needed:
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CSWE curriculum
A suitable text – ie the one you have just worked on
Question types overview handout (available on the ATB website page).
Activity:
1. Check the criteria: CSWE I K1 Demonstrate understanding of a written recount
1.1
1.2
1.3
Demonstrate understanding of topic/participant/s
Demonstrate understanding of sequence of events
Demonstrate understanding of details of events
2. Consider different types of question
Use Questions types overview handout
Relevant issues:
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Provide a variety of questions, but not so many as to be confusing – 3 is a good
number;
Ensure that the students are familiar with the type of question and understand what
they are supposed to do;
Ensure that students know what is expected of them (eg short answers rather than
complete sentences);
Start with some easy questions as a lead-in;
Ensure that questions follow the text ie the answer to Q1 comes before the answer
to Q2, and summary questions come at the end.
NB a reading task does not want questions that require a lot of writing.
Suggested question types:
 Multiple choice
 Gap fill
 Short answer questions/sentence completion
 Ordering/sequencing
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Activity 1.3: Develop a multiple choice question (MCQ) for criterion 1.1: Demonstrate
understanding of topic/participant/s
NB the issues associated with MCQs:
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Do not involve much writing
Can involve minimal reading, BUT
Not easy to write: should have 4 alternatives, including 3 distracters which should be
plausible but incorrect
Dichotomous items (True/False; Yes/No) should be avoided as guessing has a 50%
chance of being correct.
Suggested answer:
1. Tick (  ) the correct answer
The story is about:
last Monday
next weekend
moving house

drinking tea
Activity 1.4: Develop a sequencing question for criterion 1.2: Demonstrate
understanding of sequence of events
Issues relating to sequence of events (CSWE 1 and CSWE 2)
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If the criteria of the curriculum require a question on sequence (which CSWE 1 and
CSWE 2 do) it is essential that the recount or story includes sufficient events for the
development of an appropriate assessment. Events may have to be written in specifically.
Location of questions should be at, or towards the end. Questions generally follow the
text, ie the answer to Q1 should be in the text before the answer to Q2. A sequencing
question is a summary of all the events in the text, and therefore should come last (or
nearly last).
Number of events: tasks for a learning outcome should be comparable, so check how
many items other tasks have used (about 5 or six is a good number for these levels).
A sequence is a unit, and each item should not be marked individually, ie the learner
either gets it all correct, or not. For this reason, especially at this level, it is helpful to give
the starting item. If the learner does not get the first item correct it is impossible to
achieve the correct sequence, although this could become a question on its own eg what
was the first thing that Tom did?
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Text for activity
Last weekend Maria and her husband Nick moved house. First they packed their things. Then they
got a truck to move the boxes. At the new house Maria and Nick unpacked the boxes. They put the
food and plates in the kitchen cupboards. After unpacking, they sat and had a cup of tea. They were
both tired but happy. They liked the house because it had a big garden. When Maria and Nick were
drinking tea their new neighbours knocked on the door. They gave Maria and Nick some beautiful
flowers and a chocolate cake. Both Maria and Nick were happy with their first day in the new house.
Activity:
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List the events
Decide how many to include in the question
Decide which items to include (or which to
leave out)
Decide how much of each event to include eg
o Maria and Nick sat and had a cup
of tea,or
o They sat and had a cup of tea, or
o Maria and Nick had a cup of tea
Suggested answer:
1. First they packed their things.
2. Then they got a truck to move the
boxes.
3. Maria and Nick unpacked the boxes.
4. They put the food and plates in the
kitchen cupboards.
5. They sat and had a cup of tea.
6. Their new neighbours knocked on the
door.
7. They gave Maria and Nick some
beautiful flowers and a chocolate cake.
Number these sentences in the order they happen in the story.
The first one has been done for you.
The neighbours gave Maria and Nick some flowers
Someone knocked on the door.
They moved the boxes in a truck.
Maria and Nick packed their things.
1
They put the food in the kitchen cupboards.
Pages 8 & 9 of this document outline the question items and answers of this assessment
task.
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Activity 2: CSWE 3 K1 Demonstrate understanding of a biography/autobiography
‘Sister Emily’s Story’
SISTER EMILY’S STORY
by Clarissa Summers
Aunt Emily is over eighty now and very frail. Most people call my aunt ‘Sister Emily’, for she is a nun.
One day she told me how this had come about.
‘During World War II, I lived in Melbourne with my mother and two young sisters, my father having
died some years earlier. We did not have much money but we were happy. I was very close to my
mother, who always wanted me to be a nun. I had other ideas, however – I wanted marriage and
children!
‘Although my life was full and I had lots of friends, I was not really satisfied. I had started doing some
voluntary welfare work with the Church – visiting families in need of help – but I felt I should do
something more with my life.
‘For my twenty-fourth birthday, some friends arranged a party. It was here I met Peter, a handsome
Canadian air force officer on leave before returning to Canada. We liked each other immediately.
Peter met my family and they liked him too and during the next six weeks we saw each other a lot.
When Peter’s leave was coming to an end, he asked Mother’s permission to ask me to marry him –
that was the custom in those days.
‘Mother said, “Yes,” but after he’d gone she said to me, “If you go to live in Canada, Emily, you’ll
never see me again.” Her words were like a knife to my heart. My mother was the most important
person in the world to me. In those days people didn’t travel like they do now and we were quite poor,
so I knew what she’d said was true. Peter understood how upset I was, “Well, we’ll have a twelve
month’s break,” he said. “Take the twelve months and feel free.” The next day, he left for Canada.
‘Because this twelve month period was to be a complete break, we didn’t write to each other. Then
one day Mother told me she’d heard from someone that Peter had got married. When she said this, I
nearly fainted. For many weeks I didn’t feel like eating and or doing anything.
‘Eventually, I resumed my welfare work with the poor families. More strongly than ever, I felt I must
make something of my life and so I began to think about becoming a nun.
‘I didn’t say anything to Mother. Instead, I went to our local church and had a long talk with the priest.
He encouraged me to take the idea seriously and to think hard and pray about it. When I was sure, I
told Mother of my decision. She was delighted. Then I entered a convent for the six month
preparation time before becoming a nun.
‘At the end of the twelve months, Peter returned from Canada. He came straight to our house and
knocked on the door. Mother invited him in. “Where’s Emily?” He asked. Mother explained that I
had entered a convent and was now a nun. When Peter heard this he was very, very upset. In fact,
he hadn’t got married at all – what Mother had told me was not correct. She asked him if he wanted
to see me but he replied, “No. I’ll remember Emily as I knew her.”
A tear ran down Emily’s cheek. ‘When you go into a convent,’ she went on, ‘you are free to leave at
any time if that’s what you want. But I never knew Peter had come back. Mother didn’t tell me until
many, many years later.’
‘Aunt,’ I said slowly. ‘Did you even ask your mother who told her that Peter had got married?’
Aunt Emily shook her head. ‘I didn’t need to,’ she said sadly.
This is an alternative text to assess, modify and develop questions items for a CSWE III
learning outcome, cf Activity 1.1.
Activity 3: Spot the problems! (piloting)
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It is essential to pilot a test. Even the best and most experienced test designers cannot
anticipate everything, so it is vital to get feedback from other teachers/work colleagues who
are familiar with the students, the level of skill, and the issues involved in testing. It is also
essential to see how the test works with students. Note, the test should not be used to
assess students, rather, students at or above the level of the test (eg students who have
recently moved up a level) should first do the test and then be given the opportunity to
comment on it.
Example and activity: CSWE I G1 Beginner reading and writing skills for descriptions.
This test was designed, developed and piloted. Nevertheless, five problems were later
discovered.
Materials needed:
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CSWE curriculum
The Task Set “Jane” (available on the ATB website page).
Feedback is below.
Activity:
1. Workshop participants find the problems.
2. Get feedback, and discuss.
3. Show problems not identified.
Feedback from a service provider
“I would like to suggest that you raise some issues with a test that is in the task bank already.
It is Cert I G1 – read a description – and it is called Jane.
It starts by saying that Jane is 13 years old and has a sister and two brothers. Question 4 is
“How many children are there in Jane’s family? And the answer is supposed to be 4.
The difficulty is that Jane is counted as one of the children. However Jane is 13. Many of
them learn in their picture dictionaries that children are from age 4 to 12 and teenagers are
from 13 to 19. So they will not be sure if Jane should be counted as a child.
In addition it is a kind of trick question because it is easy to not notice that Jane is one of the
children as she is the centre of the story and you tend to count her brothers and sisters and not
her.
In addition, I would like to have permission to substitute a Canberra suburb for the place
name “Wulagi” which is familiar to very few students in Australia. Also I want to substitute
Belconnen Stadium instead of Marrara Stadium. Otherwise our students will be looking up
Wulagi and Marrara in their dictionaries and getting confused whereas the people for whom
this test was designed would find those place names very familiar.
One of my Muslim students assumed that Jane was a boy. I thought it was his poor reading.
However then I realised that the fact that Jane plays football would have confused him. It is
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probably unfair to use a test as an opportunity to break down gender stereotypes, especially as
some students would not have these stereotypes and for others they would be very entrenched
in their thinking.
For our adult students it would be better to have a version of this test in which Jane is an adult
– perhaps 36 years old- and she has four children. Then it is very clear who the children are
and also the family is being described in the terms that our students usually describe their
families i.e. with themselves as parent and the children as a result of their marriage”.
My friend Jane
My friend Jane is 13 years old. Her birthday is in
April. She lives in Wulagi with her mother, sister
and two brothers.
Jane is a small girl and is only about 150
centimetres tall. She has short, curly black hair,
big brown eyes, olive skin and glasses.
Jane plays football every Saturday morning at
Marrara Stadium. Jane also loves to ride her
bicycle.
She is a happy person with a big smile.
The problems
 Jane’s age
 Place names
 Including her in the number of children
 Girls play football?
 Learners are adults
 Vocabulary: olive?
Moving House – question items
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1. Tick (  ) the correct answer
The story is about:
last Monday
next weekend
moving house
drinking tea
2. Number these sentences in the order they happen in the story.
The first one has been done for you.
The neighbours came in for a drink.
Someone knocked on the door.
They packed their things.
Maria and Nick moved house.
1
They put the food in the kitchen cupboards.
Answer these questions in a few words.
3. When did they move house?
_________________________________________________
________
4. What is the name of Maria’s husband?
_________________________________________________
________
5. What did they put in the kitchen cupboards?
_____________________________________
_______
6. Why was Nick happy?
_____________________________________
_______
7. What did their neighbours give them?
_________________________________________________
________
Moving House – answers
Answer key
In order to achieve the learning outcome learners must:
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1.1
1.2
1.3
identify the topic/participants(s);
demonstrate understanding of sequence of events, and
demonstrate understanding of details of events.
Note that sentences need not be grammatically correct or in sentence form but errors must
not interfere with meaning.
1. Moving house (1.1)
2. (1.2)
The neighbours came in for a drink.
5
Someone knocked on the door.
4
They packed their things.
1
Maria and Nick moved house.
2
They put the food in the kitchen cupboards. 3
3. Last weekend (1.3)
4. Nick (1.1)
5. Food and plates (1.3) (either or both answers for a correct response)
6. To have a big garden and/or grow vegetables (1.3)
7. Flowers and a cake (1.3) (either or both answers for a correct response)
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