The Reading – Writing Connection in Assessment of Reading Comprehension. Exploring the Role of a Communicative Aspect of Writing

In the wake of large reading-comprehension surveys, the role of writing in assessment of reading comprehension has attracted interest. The present explorative study adds to this discussion by investigating whether students’ ability to communicate their understanding in writing is associated with their reading comprehension scores. We activate the concept of positioning from socio-cultural literacy research, and operationalize it as a task in which the communicator sees him- or herself relative to others during the act of writing. We investigated whether performance on this task could explain unique variance in reading comprehension, as measured by two widely used item formats: constructed response items, where a written response is required, and multiple choice, where students select a response from a set of options. The sample consisted of 209 fifth-grade students (52% girls). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that, after controlling for variance associated with word reading and listening comprehension, scores on the writing task were significant positive predictors of reading comprehension irrespective of item format (i.e., constructed response and multiple choice). Results are discussed as indicative of communication as a core element in both reading and writing, and as a way of supporting the rationale for using constructed response items in reading assessment. This implies making underlying assumptions about communication as part of the reading-writing-connection explicit, and further explore how to include aspects of communication in reading assessment.