This is a complete list of skills tested in the CAEL Reading Assessment. They have been divided into four categories according to the four main skill areas. These skills will be explained in the next units.
Skills
Predicting
- Skim the article, specifically looking at the title, subtitles and headings, captions, and graphics for the main idea and any important information.
- Use the point value of each question to help you estimate how much information you'll need to answer the question
- See if you can guess any of the answers before you listen to the lecture.
- Notice the order of the questions so you can predict where in the article you will find the information
- Predict that the main idea of the text will be expressed after the introduction
Identifying
- Recognize the topic
- Recognize the main ideas in the reading.
- Recognize background information
- Identify repetition of the main idea through details and examples.
- Recognize supporting ideas and details
- Identify aspects of a thing (parts, location, etc.), often using keywords
- Recognizing print features (bold, italics), and graphics used to convey meaning
Understanding
- Understanding connection between information and the entire reading
- Follow the sequence of events
- Understand and follow instructions
- Identifying paraphrased information
- Select correct answers to information questions
- Understanding the vocabulary used in the article
- Identify synonyms
Summarizing / Synthesizing
- Summarize the main points of the reading
- Connect details, examples and reasons to the related idea in order to answer questions or transfer information
- Making your own opinions based on your reading
- Use graphics and/or charts to aid overall meaning of article
- Classify important information in charts to complete some questions, where this information may be important for other aspects of the CAEL Assessment