Which assessment would be most effective for a second-grade teacher to assess students' comprehension?

• A. using a rubric to assess students' prosody in oral reading
• B. asking students implicit and explicit questions after they read
• C. analyzing student writing samples to evaluate students' vocabulary use
• D. administering a spelling inventory to students

Answer: (B)

Assessing reading comprehension relies on asking questions after reading that require both recalling details and interpreting meaning. After a student reads a text, posing questions that cover explicit details ensures they can retrieve what happened, who was involved, and the sequence of events. Including implicit questions invites students to infer meaning, draw conclusions, and explain why events happened or why a character acted a certain way. This combination gives a clear picture of whether the student understood the text and can support their answers with evidence from what they read.

This approach directly targets comprehension. Other options focus on different skills: prosody in oral reading measures fluency and expression, not understanding; analyzing writing samples looks at vocabulary use and writing ability rather than comprehension of a read text; a spelling inventory assesses decoding and spelling, not how well students grasp the meaning of what they read.