pp. 217 - 230 Summary and Analysis

Students are given traditional reading inventory tests that rate them on the basic skills they have learned. People who are barely literate can still exist in society, performing the basic skills. But there are not tests for this competence. All the tests are school oriented. Rose became interested in how students approached these tests. He found that some of the sections of the test were completely foreign to the student. Many did not understand what the test was asking them to do, even if the directions were read verbally. They don't perform these tasks in everyday reading, and they interpret the questions in a different way than intended. Mike found that if he spent time showing the students how to take the test, on a question by question basis, they did better. Just reading the directions was not enough...