Cloze Tests to Determine Reading Comprehension

When teachers wish to measure how well a student comprehends a reading passage, they often turn to Cloze tests. In a Cloze test, the teacher removes a certain number of words that the student then needs to fill in as they read through the passage. For example, a language arts teacher might have their students fill in the blanks for the following reading passage: _____ mother is upset with _____ because I got caught  _____ a rainstorm. Sadly, I ______ my umbrella at home. _____ clothes got soaked. I ______ I wont get sick. Students are then instructed to fill in the blanks for the passage. Teachers are able to use the student’s answers to determine the reading level of the passage. Why Readability Formulas Are Not Enough While readability formulas can tell teachers how complex a reading passage is based on vocabulary and grammar, it does not reveal how difficult a passage might be in terms of reading comprehension. For example: He waved his hands.He waived his rights. If you were to run these sentences through readability formulas, they would have similar scores. However, it is obvious that while students might easily understand the first sentence, they might not comprehend the legal implications of the second. Therefore, we need a method to help teachers measure how difficult a particular passage is for students to comprehend. History of the Cloze Test In 1953, Wilson L. Taylor researched closure tasks as a method to determine reading comprehension. What he found was that having students use context clues from the surrounding words to fill in the blanks as in the example above has a high correlation with how readable the passage is for the student. He called this procedure a Cloze Test. Over time, researchers  have tested the Cloze method and found that it does indeed indicate reading comprehension levels.   How to Create a Typical Cloze Test There are a number of methods that teachers use to create Cloze tests. Following is one of the most common methods used: Replace every fifth word with a blank. This is where the students are to fill in the missing word.Have students write only one word in each blank. They are to work through the test making sure to write a word for each missing word in the passage.Encourage students to guess as they go through the test.Tell students that they do not need to worry about spelling errors as these will not be counted against them. Once you have administered a Cloze test, you will need to ‘grade’ it. As you explained to your students, misspellings are to be ignored. You are only looking for how well students understood what words to use based on contextual clues. However, in most instances, you will only count an answer as correct if the student answers with the exact missing word. In the example above, the correct answers should be:   My mother is upset with me because I got caught  in a rainstorm. Sadly, I left my umbrella at home. My clothes got soaked. I hope I wont get sick. Teachers can count up the number of errors and assign a percentage score based on the number of words that the student guessed correctly. According to Nielsen, a score of 60% or more indicates reasonable comprehension on the part of the student. Using Cloze Tests There are a number of ways that teachers can use Cloze Tests. One of the most effective uses of these tests is to help them make decisions about reading passages that they will be assigning to their students. The Cloze procedure can help them determine what passages to assign students, how long to give them to read specific passages, and how much they can expect students to comprehend on their own without additional input from the teacher. Note, however, that Cloze tests are diagnostic. Since they are not standard assignments testing a student’s understanding of  the  material that has been taught, the student’s percentage score should not be used when figuring out their final grade for the course. Source Jakob Nielsen, Cloze Test for Reading Comprehension. Nielsen  Norman  Group, February 2011

The Global Consciousness Requires For Students Experience...

The article begins by introducing how students are growing up in a generation where changes in the environment, health, economy, and nuclear weapons are all happening at the same time. It questions the role of schools by how they are preparing the students to see themselves as being a part of the larger whole that includes the entire world, not just their neighborhood, community, or country. There is proven research that shows the global consciousness requiring that students experience a caring environment, have many opportunities to engage in, and develop skills like conflict resolution. The tools being offered can help schools teach academics on a larger content of serving the goals of global citizenship education. It implies that we are living and educating our children in an extraordinary time in history, our children are growing up in an interdependent world. The question this article bases itself around is â€Å"What does it take for young people to see themselves as part of a larger whole that includes not just their neighborhood, community or country, but the world?† The challenge faced is that there is a huge gap between rich and poor in the United States. For example, one out of five American children lives in poverty (Children’s Defense Fund 2002). In a society like ours, the stress of the families always falls onto the children, unfairly. James Garbino (1995) calls this a â€Å"socially toxic environment†. In the past, schools were more a place that would help studentsShow MoreRelatedDiveristy1030 Words   |  5 PagesCapellan PI: 2647577 Assignment 2 – Chapters 5 thru 9 Journal CHAPTER 5 1. If students sit in the same classroom, read the same assignments, and hear the same lectures, are they all receiving the same education? Might these students interpret the same lesson differently because of the social worlds in which they live? 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Nurse Retention and Productivity Report †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Nurse Retention and Productivity Report. Answer: Introduction A motivated, skilled and knowledgeable workforce is the critical aspects of the providing the healthcare to the population of any country. Health workforce is the personnel that provide the healthcare services like the nurses, doctors, and the ones that work to provide support to the health services like the ambulance drivers, hospitals managers and the skilled health workers. The major hindrances in the smooth flow of the healthcare delivery are lack of the proper workforce along with the inadequate facilities, medicines, consumables, equipment (Leach, 2013). The health system budget includes the 3 main vital demands like the consumables, physical capital and human resources (WHO, 2018). This study is based on the completion of the nursing workforce data of 2015 with respect to the data of 2012 and 2009; the other tasks involve the environmental scan of the Australian nursing workforce; the geographic distribution of the workforce and the comment on the recommendations of the nursin g workforce sustainability report. The updated workforce of the profile of the nursing workforce in Australia with respect to the year 2009, 2012, 2015 are as follows: Note: FTE means full-time equivalent for 38-hour week Table 1a: characteristics of the workforce with respect to the registered nurses [source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018] Workforce characteristic 2009 2012 2015 Headcount 225,040 238,520 256,034 FTE nurses 198,924 212,659 225,344 FTE per 100,000 population 905.9 936.4 947.6 Male population 9.8 10.4 10.9 Average age (years) 44.2 44.3 43.4 Proportion aged 50+ (%) - 37.7 39.0 Table 1b: characteristic of the workforce of the enrolled nurses [source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018] Workforce characteristic 2009 2012 2015 Headcount 51,711 51,624 51,070 FTE nurses 43,614 42,467 46,753 FTE per 100,000 population 198.2 187.0 196.6 Male population 8.9 9.2 9.4 Average age (years) 44.9 46.0 45.9 Proportion aged 50+ (%) - 45.5 39.0 Table 1c: characteristic of the workforce of the employed nurses [source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018] Workforce characteristic 2009 2012 2015 Headcount 276,751 290,144 307,104 FTE nurses 242,521 255,174 270,548 FTE per 100,000 population 1,104 1,123 1,137 Male population 9.6 10.2 10.7 Average age (years) 44.3 44.6 44.4 Proportion aged 50+ (%) 36.3 39.1 39.0 Through the addition of the more recent material, it has been found that the headcount of the registered nurses for the year 2015 has increased considerably with respect to the year 2009 and 2012. The headcount for the year 2015 is found to be 256,034 which is a big jump from the headcount of the nurses for the year 2012 (238,520). This is an increase of 7.34 percent with respect to 2012. The full-time equivalent nurses for the year 2015 has increased with respect to the year 2009 and 2012. The data presents that the number of the FTE nurses has increased by 5.9 percent with respect to the year 2012. The FTE nurses for the year 2015 has shown an increase with respect to the year 2009 and 2012. The increase has been 1.19 percentage over data mentioned for the year 2012. The percentage of the male population has increased by only a mere 10.89 percent. The average years of the of the nurses have reduced from 44.3 to 43.3 from the year 2012 to 2015. The reduction in the average age is 2. 03 percent in comparison to the year 2012. The proportion of the nurse above the age of 50 years is 39% it has shown an increase with respect to the data of 2012. This implicates nursing population is ageing with respect to the Australian nursing workforce. The characteristics of the workforce with respect to the enrolled nurses. The headcount has reduced when the data of 2015 is compared with that of 2012. The data for the year 2015 is 51,070 and the headcount data for the year 2012 is 51,624. The FTE nurses for the year 2015 is showing a positive increase with respect to the data of the year 2012. The number of the FTE nurse for the year shows 196.6 while that of 2012 is 187. The male population for the year 2015 shows a slight increase of 9.4 with respect to the year 2012 which shows 9.2 percent. The average age of the nurses has again reduced for the year 2015, from 46 to 45.9 years. The proportion of the nurses that are aged above the 50 years is 39 percent in 2015 and this has reduced in comparison to the year 2012. The reduction in the age shows that the proportion of the aged nurses is reducing in the enrolled nurse's section. The characteristic of the workforce of the total employed nurses has shown an increase in the total number of the nurses for the year 2015 in comparison to the year 2012. The headcount number show 307,104 nurses. The FTE nurses have also increased from 255,174 for the year 2012 to 270,548 for the year 2015. The FTE nurse per 100,000 populations has also shown an increase for the year 2015 (1137) with respect to the year 2012 (1123). The percentage of the male population has increased for the year 2015 which is 10.7 percent in comparison to the male population for the year 2012 (10.2). the average age has shown a decrease for the year 2015 (44.4) with respect to the year 2012 (44.6). the proportion of the 50 years and above aged nurse is 39 percent and the percentage has slightly reduced with respect to the 39.1 percent for the year 2012. The workforce supplies according to the workforce characteristics shown a positive increase both in terms of the registered and the enrolled nurses. The female-dominated nursing workforce also shows an increase. Especially the FTE nurses in both the enrolled and the registered nurse for the year 2015 is 46,753 and 225,344 respectively. The workforce of the nurse has revealed that the workforce planning is necessary to meet the ling and the short-term demands of the of the Australian nurses. The analysis has shown that the demand for the nurses will significantly rise and the supply will be insufficient. The projections have shown that there will be a shortfall of the around 85 thousand nurses by the year 2025, and by 2030 as more as 123,000 nurses will be required. These predictions are based on the current settings. The projections of the shortfall for the year 2025 is actually lower in comparison to the report published in the Health Workforce (HW) 2025 (Health Workforce 2025, 2018; McCarty Fenech, 2013). The Heath Workforce 2025 projects that there will be a shortcoming of 109,000 nurses in the year 2025 which is considered under the current scenario. Australias Future Health Workforce (AFHW)-Nurses reveal that the nurses that were used for the prediction of the Health Workforce 2025 are more willing to stay in the workforce than it is expected. There exists a lower demand for the nurses in the acute care in the AFHW (2.6 percentage) and in the HW 2025 (2.2 percent) (AFHW, 2018). This reveals a lower demand in the workforce in this particular sector. The lower retention rates in the rural hospitals in comparison to the metropolitan areas have resulted in the reduction of the nurses due to the resignation (Bragg Bonner, 2015; Huntington et al., 2012). The highest percentage of the registered nurse is 46% and enrolled nurse is 38% in the acute sector. Accordingly, the second highest percentage of the nursing workforce is seen in the other nursing sectors and the percentage is 22 percent. The second highest number of the enrolled nurses is seen in the aged care sector (appendix 1). The nursing workforce and its geographic distribution show data which varies spatially across the states and the territories. The FTE nurses per 100,000 for the Northern Territory is 1534 and for the New South Wales, it is 1036. If the data are compared to that of 2011, then the FTE per 100,000 populations for Northern Territory and New South Wales is 1504 and 993 respectively (Appendix 2). The FTE per 100,000 populations with respect to the remote areas is 1219 and is 1083 for the outer regions. The percentage of the nurse in the regional and the inner areas is more than 20% and the enrolled nurse's proportion in Australia is 15.8%. Comparatively, the enrolled nurse's percentage in the remote areas is very low and is only 12.1% (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2018). The highlights of the Nursing Workforce Sustainability Report cite the major recommendations which are as follows: Leadership- leadership in the field of nursing is important for bringing improvement in the performance, retention of the workforce and increasing the productivity. In order to promote effective leadership, the nurse managers need to be equipped for the purpose of empowerment and encouragement. Retention- The new graduates must be helped to meet the standards and the goals along with the necessary skill sets so that the workforce retention can be increased. Productivity- the environment of the workplace needs to be improved so that the existing skills and the roles of the nurses meet the local needs (Nursing Workforce Sustainability, 2018). Considering the year 2018, the recommendation is still valid because nursing values and work are all based on the nursing leadership, productivity that promotes better health outcomes and the retention of the nurse so that the workforce stays intact. The recommendations are the bedrock and foundation of the nursing field and this is the reason their validity not reduce (Duckett Willcox, 2015). Conclusion From the study, it can be concluded that currently, Australia is facing challenges in the field of nursing due to the lack of the nursing workforce. The healthcare demand has increased considerably due to the ageing population of the workforce and this can be done by increasing the workforce of the nursing. Reference Bragg, S., Bonner, A. (2015). Losing the rural nursing workforce: Lessons learnt from resigning nurses. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 23(6), 366-370. Health Workforce 2025. (2018). Department of Health | Appendix ii: Health Workforce 2025 - summary. Health.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/work-review-australian-government-health-workforce-programs-toc~appendices~appendix-ii-health-workforce-2025-summary Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2018). Nursing and midwifery workforce 2015, Who are nurses and midwives? - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/workforce/nursing-and-midwifery-workforce-2015/contents/who-are-nurses-and-midwives Nursing Workforce Sustainability. (2018). Department of Health | Nursing Workforce Sustainability - Improving Nurse Retention and Productivity report. Health.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/nursing-workforce-sustainability-improving-nurse-retention-and-productivity Huntington, A., Gilmour, J., Neville, S., Kellett, S., Turner, C. (2012). A glimpse of the future nursing workforce: the graduate e-cohort study. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 29(3), 22. McCarty, M. V., Fenech, B. J. (2013). Towards best practice in national health workforce planning. The Medical journal of Australia, 199(5), 10-13. Leach, M. J. (2013). Profile of the complementary and alternative medicine workforce across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States and United Kingdom. Complementary therapies in medicine, 21(4), 364-378. Duckett, S., Willcox, S. (2015). The Australian health care system (No. Ed. 5). Oxford University Press. WHO. (2018). WHO | Health workforce. Who.int. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/workforce/en/ AFHW. (2018). Health.gov.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/34AA7E6FDB8C16AACA257D9500112F25/$File/AFHW%20-%20Nurses%20overview%20report.pdf