PISA tests: competency-based teaching strategies to improve reading comprehension
The results of the international PISA tests are one of the hot topics right now. Students’ low performance in math and reading comprehension is a wake-up call for the entire education sector, but at tekman Education we believe it’s also an opportunity to reflect and improve.
We recently published the article PISA tests: how to teach and practice math to improve results, where we looked at how PISA tests are designed and how to prepare students for this kind of competency-based assessment in math. Competencies are at the heart of everything, because the main goal of this approach is to prepare students to become competent people who can apply their knowledge to solve everyday problems.
Today, we’re focusing on reading literacy to share competency-based teaching strategies, supporting students through every stage so that by Secondary they reach a good level and develop a love of reading.
PISA defines reading literacy as “understanding, using, evaluating, reflecting on and engaging with texts in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential and to participate in society.”
What do students need to master to do well on the PISA reading test?
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the body responsible for the PISA tests, designs them with competency-based questions, where students have to reflect and apply strategies and knowledge to solve the problems and questions posed. This approach, which may be easier to understand when applied to math, is also key in the reading literacy tests. In this case, PISA assesses student performance based on the cognitive processes used, the text formats and the situations or contexts presented in the questions.
According to PISA, to be competent readers, students need to master the following processes:
- Locating information: searching for, selecting and accessing relevant information.
- Understanding: identifying the meaning of texts, integrating information and making inferences.
- Evaluating and reflecting: evaluating the quality and credibility of information, reflecting on the content and form of the text, and detecting and handling conflicting information.
They also need to be able to apply these processes to both continuous texts, which present information in a linear way, and non-continuous texts, which require non-linear reading strategies, as with charts or tables.
PISA proficiency levels
The PISA 2022 tests applied the same criteria as PISA 2018, which set out 7 proficiency levels for reading literacy processes, from the most basic to the most complex:
- Level 1b. Locate a single piece of explicitly stated information in a short, syntactically simple text with a familiar context and text type; make simple connections.
- Level 1a. Locate one or more independent pieces of information; recognize the main theme or author’s purpose in a text about a familiar topic; make simple connections between information in the text and common, everyday knowledge. Little competing information.
- Level 2. Locate several pieces of information; recognize the main idea; understand relationships; construct meaning when the information is not prominent; compare, contrast and reflect in relation to outside knowledge and personal experience.
- Level 3. Locate and recognize relationships between several pieces of information; identify the main idea; understand a relationship or construct meaning; consider many features when comparing, contrasting or categorizing; deal with competing, non-prominent information. Make connections, comparisons and reflections for a detailed understanding related to familiar knowledge.
- Level 4. Locate and organize several pieces of embedded information; interpret the meaning of nuances of language; understand and apply categories in unfamiliar contexts. Use formal or public knowledge to form hypotheses or critically evaluate a text. Understand long or complex texts.
- Level 5. Locate and organize several pieces of deeply embedded information, inferring which information is relevant. Critically evaluate and form hypotheses based on specialized knowledge in unfamiliar contexts. Deal with concepts that are contrary to expectations.
- Level 6. Make multiple inferences, comparisons and precise contrasts. Demonstrate full, detailed understanding of several texts and integrate information. Deal with competing, relevant information in unfamiliar contexts. Form hypotheses and critically evaluate complex texts using multiple criteria and perspectives, with sophisticated, well-developed interpretations. Precise analysis and attention to inconspicuous details.
How to teach language arts to develop competent students
We know that the way we assess shapes the way we teach, and in this case we’ve made it very clear that the model is built on competencies. So teaching must be competency-based too.
PISA assesses reading fluency and efficiency, but also students’ motivation, reading practices and knowledge of reading strategies. So it’s not only about reading comprehension, but also about the processes students need to apply across a variety of texts, contexts and formats. We’re talking about competency-based teaching of language and literature from a communicative approach, not just a grammar-focused one.
To help our students reach a high level of reading literacy, we need to apply this approach from the earliest stages of education. Learning starts in Early Childhood Education, is built and consolidated in Primary, and develops further in Secondary.
Here are some guidelines to make sure your language arts activities meet these requirements:
- Teach through projects that enable authentic, contextualized learning, with real-world texts of different types and in-depth work on reading comprehension, encouraging reflection and reasoning through critical reading.
- Work with multimodal texts, which combine two or more semiotic systems to represent and create meaning: text with images, sound or video, such as comics.
- Foster a love of reading in your students by introducing them to books of different styles and topics and supporting them along the way. For more information, we recommend the article How to build a reading habit in Primary
- Design competency-based assessments that include a context and require students to apply a range of skills and strategies to answer a complex question or solve a problem they might encounter in real life.
How we develop reading literacy in Ludiletras and Superletras
At tekman Education, we have two language arts programs: Ludiletras, for Early Childhood and 1st–2nd grade, and Superletras for 3rd–6th grade. These two sister programs ensure methodological continuity between the two stages and make the move from Early Childhood to Primary a natural, comfortable transition for students at this crucial moment.
Both Ludiletras and Superletras take a holistic approach that integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening, fostering a deep, rich understanding of language. They also both use contextualized learning projects that prepare students for different everyday situations.
Developing a love of reading and improving reading comprehension
Reading comprehension and a love of reading are two of the strengths of our language arts programs. To build these two pillars, we integrate the reading plan into the programs and design specific tools for working on reading comprehension.
Here are some materials and guides to help you apply strategies that motivate your students and enrich your classes:
- In the guide The reading journal: a literary travel companion, we explain how to integrate the reading plan into project-based work, designing book-based projects and activities that motivate students to read: Download the guide.
- You’ll find more tips and strategies in this article: The integrated reading plan: the best tool for fostering a love of reading
- In the guide How to help your students understand what they read, we share reading comprehension strategies, talk about strategic reading and share graphic organizers you can use in your language arts classes: Download the guide
Want to learn more about how we develop reading literacy?
Would you like us to help you improve your students’ reading comprehension?
