Creating Questions for Informal Reading InventoriesAuthor(s): William J. ValmontSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 25, No. 6 (Mar., 1972), pp. 509-512Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20193028 .

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Creating questions for

informal reading inventories

WILLIAM J. VALMONT

William J. Valmont is assistant

professor of reading and director of the clinic at the

University of Arizona. Three

years' experience directing construction of IRIs led him to

the typewriter to offer this article to those among the

readership who are familiar with the benefits of an IRI.

npEACHERS have been utilizing A the Informal Reading Inven

tory (IRI) to diagnose their pupils' reading skills for a good many years. Today more individuals are

creating their own inventories be

cause of a growing awareness that

the planning and production of an

IRI increases its value to the user.

Johnson and Kress (1965) have

presented guidelines for construct

ing IRI's that may be followed

profitably. In the past, following the teaching of Betts (1946), com

prehension questions constructed for an IRI were designed to meas

ure three areas: facts, inferences,

and vocabulary. Recently, however,

teachers are testing more areas of

comprehension: main ideas, de

tails, drawing conclusions, infer

ences, organization (sequence),

cause and effect, and vocabulary.

Creating questions for the IRI is a demanding task, and the quali ty of the questions determines the usefulness of the instrument. The

following suggestions are designed to help the novice create an IRI.

They may also aid teachers or

supervisors in reviewing instru ments already in use.

Kinds of questions

Main idea questions. Two cate

gories of questions may be con structed to uncover the main idea of an IRI passage: open-ended questions which do not reveal any facts, and questions that tend to aid the child in reporting the main idea. Either type may be used, but the open-ended questions appear to

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be more revealing of the student's

ability to formulate main ideas.

Type 1 examples:

What would be a good title for this story?

What seems to be the main idea of the story so

far?

Type 2 examples:

Why does Betty call Susan?

What does Mary want Tom and Janet to do?

Detail questions. Detail ques tions, which call for facts stated in the passage, generally start with

who, what, when, where. They

should be stated simply and direct

ly. Whenever possible, detail ques tions should relate to and support the main idea of the passage. In

significant questions or those that are irrelevant to the main idea are

perhaps less useful.

Examples :

Who turned off the televi sion?

What did Freddy take to the mill?

Inferences. In some IRI pas sages there are statements through

which the author intentionally tries to convey an idea without

directly stating it, and the reader's task is to infer a judgment or de

duction which corresponds to the

author's implication. It is some

times necessary, however, to ask

the student to make an inference when no implication was intended

by the author. In this case the in

ference made is a judgment or a

deduction which grows logically from the facts stated in the IRI

passage.

Examples :

Why do you believe the shop keeper was either rich or

poor?

What makes you think Mr.

Beard was or was not a baby when his father became a

citizen?

Drawing conclusions. In order

to answer these questions, the pu

pil must draw his conclusion from two or more facts stated in the

passage. Conclusions may also be

drawn from inferences at times, if two separate inferences are made

from two statements and a conclu

sion is drawn based upon the two

inferences. Drawing conclusions must be distinguished from mak

ing inferences, since the two ques tion types measure slightly differ ent abilities. An inference, as

defined here, is made from one source of information presented in the passage, but a conclusion is

drawn from two or more sources

of information in the passage.

Example :

Why do you or don't you think Mike would like truck drivers? (Stated: Mike liked far away places. Stated: Truck drivers talked about far

away places.)

Organization questions. Two

types of questions may occur here :

questions dealing with the author's

organization of information, and

questions dealing with an impor tant sequence of events in the pas sage. The first of these types is

510 The Reading Teacher March 1972

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fairly uncommon because of the short passages typically used.

Type 1 example:

Into how many parts could this section of the

story be divided? Why?

Type 2 example:

Name, in order, three

things Mike did when the burro arrived?

Cause and effect questions. These questions are constructed so

the examiner provides either the cause or the effect, and the pupil supplies the missing part.

Examples :

What will happen now that

the old man found a one

hundred dollar bill? (cause stated)

Why did Billy's mother make him sit in a chair? (effect stated)

Vocabulary questions. Here the examiner is looking for one of two

things : Does the pupil know a defi nition of a word or phrase as it is used most commonly? Does the

pupil know the "special" meaning of a word or phrase in the passage being considered?

Type 1 examples:

What is a cactus? What does "put a damper

on" mean?

Type 2 examples:

What did the word "trips" mean in the story? (effect of drugs)

What does "green" mean

in the story? (immature)

Some guidelines

Even with the above examples to guide in the preparation of ques tions for an IRI, there are many

pitfalls to avoid. The following hints?if examined closely?may aid in avoiding many of the com

mon difficulties typically encoun

tered.

1. Questions should be in the ap proximate order in which the information upon which they are based is presented in the

passage.

2. It is generally preferable to

place a main idea question first.

3. Ask the most important ques tions possible.

4. Check the sequence of ques tions to insure that a later ques tion is not answered by an

earlier one.

5. Check questions to insure that two or more questions do

not call for the same response, fact, or inference.

6. A question that is so broad that any answer is acceptable is a poor question. If special ques tions to test divergent thinking are created, insure that reason

able, logical responses may be made.

7. A question that can be an

swered by someone who has not read the passage (except for some vocabulary questions) is a

poor question.

8. Avoid formulating questions whose answers call for knowl

VALM0NT: Creating questions 511

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edge based on experience had

by the pupil rather than from

reading or application of infor mation given in the story.

9. IRI questions are generally constructed to measure the stu

dent's comprehension of written matter. Therefore, insure that

accompanying pictures do not

aid the student in answering

questions.

10. Keep your questions short and as simple as possible. Do not include irrelevant state ments.

11. Generally, state questions so

that they start with who, what,

when, where, how, and why.

12. Do not let "correct" gram

mar or syntax unnecessarily

complicate the questions.

13. Avoid stating questions in a

negative manner.

14. Avoid overusing questions which require pupils to recon struct lists, such as "List five

ingredients," or "Name four

characters," or "Tell six places,"

and the like. Anxiety or memory instead of comprehension may influence the pupil's perform ance.

15. Avoid writing questions with

multiple answers which fail to

establish specifications for the

response.

Poor: What happened after

Susan heard the telephone? Better: What was the first

thing that happened after

Susan heard the telephone?

16. Do not mistake a question that calls for the reporting of several facts or details as an or

ganization or sequence question.

17. To learn about a pupil's grasp of the vocabulary, ask the

pupil to define the word, not to recall a word from the story.

Poor: What word told you about the age of the man? Better: What does old mean?

18. Avoid stating a question as

if to call for an opinion when

asking the pupil to relate a fact.

Poor : How do you think Skip got to the store?

Better: How did Skip get to

the store?

19. If a question is asking for a judgment, phrase it as "Why do you or don't you believe . . .".

Do not give away the informa tion called for.

20. Avoid asking questions on which the child has a fifty-fifty chance of being correct?"yes no" questions, or "either-or".

These suggestions may aid in

constructing or reviewing IRI ques tions. It is wise to write many

questions, select the best for inclu sion in the IRI, try out your inven

tory with children, and make final revisions. Be certain that the dif ferent types of question are bal anced at each level and throughout the grade level spread of the IRI.

You should then have a useful

diagnostic instrument if you have

avoided the very common error of

misclassifying questions.

References

Johnson, Marjorie Seddon, and Roy A. Kress. Informal Reading Inventories. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association, 1965.

Betts, Emmett A. Foundations of Reading Instruction. New York: American Book

Company, 1946.

512 The Reading Teacher March 1972

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