PIRLS 2016 Framework

Definition

Reading literacy is the ability to understand and use those written language forms required by society and/or valued by the individual. Readers can construct meaning from texts in a variety of forms. They read to learn, to participate in communities of readers in school and everyday life, and for enjoyment.

Purposes for reading

• The two overarching purposes for reading that account for most of the reading done by young students both in and out of school:
  • Literary experience – accomplished through reading fiction; readers engage with the text to become involved in events, settings, actions, consequences, characters, atmosphere, feelings, and ideas, and to enjoy language itself.
  • Acquire and use information – associated with informative articles and instructional texts; the informational texts used reflect students’ authentic experiences with reading informational text in and out of school.
• Both PIRLS and PIRLS Literacy devote half of the assessment passages to each of the purposes for reading, while the ePIRLS online assessment focuses solely on reading to acquire and use information.

Processes of comprehension (PIRLS and PIRLS Literacy)

The following four broad-based processes of comprehension are assessed for each reading purpose in PIRLS and PIRLS Literacy:

• Focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Identifying information that is relevant to the specific goal of reading
  • Looking for specific ideas
  • Searching for definitions of words or phrases
  • Identifying the setting of a story (e.g., time and place)
  • Finding the topic sentence or main idea (when explicitly stated)
• Make straightforward inferences – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Inferring that one event caused another event
  • Concluding what is the main point made by a series of arguments
  • Identifying generalizations made in the text
  • Describing the relationship between two characters
• Interpret and integrate ideas and information – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Discerning the overall message or theme of a text
  • Considering an alternative to actions of characters
  • Comparing and contrasting text information
  • Inferring a story’s mood or tone
  • Interpreting a real-world application of text information
• Evaluate and critique content and textual elements – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Judging the completeness or clarity of information in the text
  • Evaluating the likelihood that the events described could really happen
  • Evaluating the likelihood that an author’s argument might change what people think and do
  • Judging how well the title of a text reflects its main theme
  • Describing the effect of language features, such as metaphors or tone
  • Determining an author’s perspective on the central topic

Processes of comprehension (ePIRLS)

The reading comprehension skills and strategies assessed in ePIRLS parallel those assessed in PIRLS, with the distinction that the ePIRLS reading tasks are situated in a simulated Internet environment. In ePIRLS, the following four broad-based processes of comprehension are assessed for each reading purpose:

• Focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Identifying the part of a web page that contains the information
  • Identifying the explicitly stated information related to a specific reading goal
  • Identifying specific information in a graphic (e.g., graph, table, or map)
• Make straightforward inferences – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Choosing among possible websites to identify the most appropriate, applicable, or useful one
  • Filtering the content of a web page for relevance to the topic
  • Summarizing the main intent of a web page
  • Describing the relationship between text and graphics
  • Inferring the potential usefulness of links
• Interpret and integrate ideas and information – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Comparing and contrasting information presented within and across websites
  • Relating the information in one web page or site to information in another web page or site
  • Generalizing from information presented within and across web pages or sites
  • Relating details from different web pages to an overall theme
  • Drawing conclusions from information presented in multiple websites
• Evaluate and critique content and textual elements – Reading tasks may include the following:
  • Critiquing the ease of finding information on a website
  • Evaluating how likely the information would be to change what people think
  • Describing the effect of the graphic elements on the website
  • Determining the point of view or bias of the website
  • Judging the credibility of the information on the website.