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Developing Great Social Studies Test Items

Developing Great Social Studies Test Items. Nancy Hester, RESC XIII nancy.hester@esc13.txed.net. You should attempt to write these types of items to include on every test:. Lower Level Easy (LLE) Lower Level Difficult (LLD) Higher Level Easy (HLE) Higher Level Difficult (HLD).

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Developing Great Social Studies Test Items

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  1. Developing Great Social Studies Test Items Nancy Hester, RESC XIII nancy.hester@esc13.txed.net

  2. You should attempt to write these types of items to include on every test: • Lower Level Easy (LLE) • Lower Level Difficult (LLD) • Higher Level Easy (HLE) • Higher Level Difficult (HLD)

  3. United States History - LLE • The policy of acquiring colonies and building empires is known as: • A. Isolationism • B. Industrialism • C. Anti-colonialism • D. Imperialism

  4. United States History - LLD • Which of the following would describe the foreign policy of the U.S. immediately after the Spanish-American War? • A. Imperialism • B. Isolationism • C. Militarism • D. Socialism

  5. United States History - HLE • Which of the following actions by the U.S. Government would have been endorsed by imperialists? • A. Building the Panama Canal • B. Granting independence to the Philippine Islands • C. Passing low protective tariffs • D. Reducing military forces

  6. United States History - HLD • Imperialism : ________ :: Isolationism : ________ • A. Spanish-American War Period – 1920’s • B. Gilded Age – WWI Period • C. Spanish-American War – WWI Period • D. Gilded Age – 1920’s

  7. Plan Your Test • 70 % Easy to Medium • 30% Difficult • 50% Lower-Level Content • 50% Higher-Level Content

  8. Test Specification Chart

  9. Examples of Higher Level Stems • Which is an example of….. • Who would most likely have written (asked, said…) followed by a quote • Analogies • Fill in the missing part of this graphic organizer • Sequencing by Roman numeral • Who would have been helped by (law, invention, organization, reform)

  10. Test Item Development • Direct word associations in the stem and distracter • Indirect word associations in the stem and distracter • True, but doesn’t fit the time period or specified geographic area • True, but not true in this case – doesn’t answer this particular question • Am I teaching and assessing in my classroom at the same level that is expected in the TEKS?

  11. Distracters • Never make a distracter a throw-away • If you use ALL, none, or except, do not capitalize, italicize or use bold face. • Make all distracters parallel (verb phrases, nouns, proper nouns, etc.) • Do not let one distracter stick out farther than others • Do not repeat the same verbiage at the beginning of distracters. (They all had….They all had….)

  12. Distracters • Be sure if you are asking for a generalization all of the distracters are, in fact, generalizations and not simple inferences or main ideas. This is true of all of the skills to be tested. • Be sure there is not more than one plausible answer. • Avoid “Best Answer”

  13. Distracters

  14. Distracters

  15. Skills Prompts • Cause/Effect • Why did/would….? • If you removed…..? • Infer/Conclude • The manufacturers must have….. • Summarize • Which best describes…..?

  16. Skills Prompts • What do you see? What does it mean? See Mean

  17. Skills Prompts • Low-Level Map Skills • Direction • Key • Location • Identification of Physical Feature • High-Level Map Skills • Cause/Effect - Impact of above on lifestyle, work, climate, war, commerce, culture

  18. Skills Prompts • High-Level Map Skills, cont’d. • Develop general conclusions supported by details from the map (You can tell by looking at this map that it must be [place] because…… • Main Ideas/Summaries – break maps into parts; Describe and infer about each part…

  19. Skills Prompts • Graphs, Charts and Data • Simple to complex • Comparisons (more, less, most, least) • Conclusions/Generalizations (based on the data, you can tell that) • Predict from trends (line graphs) • Main Idea/Inference – What do you think this graph is about?

  20. Skill Prompts • Graphs, Charts, and Data, continued…. • Make justified decisions based on data (I would prefer to open a business in [place] because….) • Connect cause/effect to trends or phenomena shown • Transfer information from one form to another (chart to graph)

  21. Study Item Types • Study samples of items to get ideas. Include • Prompts • Graphic Organizers • Readings • Direct Content Questions • Do not try to use one type of item over and over. Vary the stems.

  22. Sources: • Jan Moberly, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Region 10 ESC • Kosovo War Crimes – http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest.html • National Archives and Records Administration – http://www.nara.gov • Library of Congress American Memories – http://www.loc.gov/ammem • Texas A & M University Department of Education Empowerment Zone – http://empowermentzone.tamu.edu/MA/viewinfo.html?id=16

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