What aspects of reading literacy are assessed in PIRLS?
• PIRLS focuses on three aspects of reading literacy: • purposes for reading; • processes of comprehension; and • reading behaviors and attitudes. The first two purposes and processes form the basis of the written test of reading comprehension. The student background questionnaire addresses the third aspect. In PIRLS, “purposes for reading” refers to the two types of reading that account for most of the reading young students do, both in and out of school: (1) reading for literary experience, and (2) reading to acquire and use information. In the assessment, narrative fiction is used to assess students’ ability to read for literary experience, while a variety of informational texts are used to assess students’ ability to acquire and use information while reading. The PIRLS assessment contains an equal proportion of texts assessing each purpose. “Processes of comprehension” refers to ways in which readers construct meaning from the text. Readers focus on and retrieve specific ideas, mak