Determine the Purpose
ON YOUR OWN:
Match the assessment with its purpose.
Summative
To gauge students’ knowledge and
skills before a unit of instruction
Interim
To monitor student learning and adjust
ongoing instruction
Diagnostic
To measure student mastery of
standards at the end of a unit of
instruction
Formative
To measure student progress relative
to an academic goal
Determine the Relative Importance of the Standards Being Taught During an
Instructional Period
•
•
Instructions*
Rank the standards in order of importance (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. - ties not allowed)
Provide a justification for your decisions.
Criteria
1.
How much time is spent teaching the standard?
2.
Does the standard have value beyond the current course in:
i.
the next level of the subject,
ii. other academic disciplines, or
iii. life/college/career?
Standard
Rank (1st, 2nd etc)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are
described.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.9
Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories)
on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2
Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how
characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem
reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
Rationale for Rank
*There will be differences in opinion in this activity and variation will be based on the type of course you
consider when teaching these standards, the starting points of students, priorities of the district etc. The point
here is to have the conversation and work towards a shared understanding of teaching priorities that can then
be reflected appropriately in the assessment.
Investigate Possible Student Misconceptions
Social Studies: 6.1.8D.5.b Analyze critical events and
battles of the Civil War and determine how they
contributed to the final outcome of the war.
World Language: 7.1.NH.C.5 Tell or write about
cultural products associated with the target culture(s)
and identify how the products and practices are derived
from the cultural perspectives.
Visual and Performing Arts: 1.3.5.A.2 Use
improvisation as a tool to create and perform movement
sequences incorporating various spatial levels (i.e., low,
middle, and high), tempos, and spatial pathways.
Math: 4.NF.B.3.B Decompose a fraction into a sum of
fractions with the same denominator in more than one
way, recording each decomposition by an equation.
Justify decompositions, e.g., by using a visual fraction
model.
English Language Arts: RI.6.8 Trace and evaluate the
argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing
claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from
claims that are not.
Science: 5.4.6.F.2 Create climatographs for various
locations around Earth and categorize the climate based
on the yearly patterns of temperature and precipitation.
Directions: Pre-cut and place in envelope for group of 6
Unpacking the Standards
Content Standard:
Knowledge/ Concepts (What do students need to know/ understand):
1. Underline the nouns
2.
List the nouns and verbs
Focus Nouns
Verbs:
Student Learning Goals:
Supporting Nouns
Depth of Knowledge Wheel, DOK
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Identify the Level of Rigor
Identify the Level of Rigor
and
Identify Possible Item Types
2. Standard(s) (one per row)
3. Skill(s) (one
per row)
4.
Level(s)
of Rigor
5. Possible
Type(s) of
Items
Reading Informational Text 1: Quote
Quote accurately
accurately from a text when explaining
from the text
what the text says explicitly and when (explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
making inferences).
Reading Informational Text 2:
Identify main
Determine two or more main
ideas and how
ideas of a text, and explain how
key details
they are supported by key
support them.
details; summarize the text.
Reading Informational Text 4:
Determine the meaning of
Determine the
general academic and domain- meaning of new
specific words and phrases in a
vocabulary
text relevant to a grade 5 topic or
words.
subject area.
Reading Informational Text 8:
Explain how the
Explain how an author uses
author uses
reasons and evidence to support
evidence to
particular points in a text,
support his or
identifying which reasons and
her claims.
evidence support which point(s).
Write an opinion
Writing 1: Write opinion pieces on piece on texts.
topics or texts, supporting a point
Support your
of view with reasons and
point of view with
information.
evidence.
Refer to “Depth of Knowledge Wheel and Bloom’s Taxonomy”
handout as well as “Benefits and Challenge of Item Types”.
Note: This Practice Item is used for two Activities.
Item Design – Multiple Choice
Summary
Planning 1. Align to critical standards
2. Organize and format the item
Stem
3. Frame stems positively
Choices 5. Always use the same number of choices – four or
give choices for most grades
6. Make distractors plausible and free of tricks
7. Create choices that are consistent in form, content
and length
8. Order choices logically
9. Avoid using ‘all of the above’ or ‘none of the above’
Scoring 10. Provide scoring information and time estimates for
sections of multiple choice items
The shapes shown are part of a design
Stimulus
1. What do all of these shapes appear to
have in common?
A. All have four right angles.
B. All have at least one set of parallel lines.
Numbered stem
Distractor
Correct Answer
C. All have four equal angles.
Distractor
D. All have at least one set of perpendicular
lines.
Distractor
Rules for Item Design – Multiple Choice
Details
1. Base the
item on a
vision for
student
mastery
2. Organize
and format
the item
•
Write a proposition (a statement you would expect students to
make if they had mastered the content)
• Number your items and letter your choices
• Put the stem at the top (as opposed to on the side, for example)
• Put any images associated with the stem above the text of the
stem
• Align the choices vertically underneath the stem
• Note: Aligning choices horizontally may save some space,
but bunching up choices increases the density of text on the
page, which is bad for student concentration. On top of this
arranging choices horizontally makes it harder to see
differences among choices.
3. Frame
• Most of the time, stems should be positive
stems
• In cases where you must use negative framing, be sure to make
positively
this stand out to students with your text style
• For example: “Which of the following was NOT a main goal of
the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s?”
4. Include just • Be sure there’s enough information in the stem to allow students to
the right
answer correctly
amount of • Don’t assume students know information unrelated to the content
information • Avoid using words in the stem that might give away the answer
in the
• Check item stems for grammatical cues that might give an answer
stems
away, and remove them
• Keep the item easy to read by including words in the stem that
would otherwise be repeated choices
• Include only relevant information in the stem
5. Always use • Use four or five choices for most grades
the same
• Typically, younger students get fewer choices and older
number of
students get more
choices
• There should not be fewer than three or more than five
choices
6. Include
only ONE
correct
answer
• Choices should be unambiguously worded
• There should be one clear best response
Rules for Item Design – Multiple Choice
Details (Continued)
7. Make
• Don’t make distractors so obvious that any student, whether or not
distractors
they have mastered the content, can guess correctly
plausible
• Strong distractors should have a basis in common student
and free of
misconceptions and errors
tricks
• This way, if students answer items incorrectly, you can get
information about where and how their understanding is
breaking down
8. Create
• Choices that are inconsistent with others on the list stand out
choices
• For example, if a choice is significantly longer or shorter than
that are
the others, it draws attention to itself
consistent
in form,
content
and length
9. Order
• Always try to order choices in some logical way
choices
• For example, if the choices are numbers, order them from
logically
least to greatest or form greatest to least.
• Or, if the choices are single words, order them alphabetically
• Or, if choices vary a little in length (but not so much that one
answer really stands out), arrange them in order of length
• Logical order enhances the perception of randomness.
10. Avoid using • It is difficult to make valid inferences about student understanding
‘all of the
based on multiple choice items that use “all of the above” or “none
above’ or
of the above” for a number of reasons (e.g., these inconsistent
‘none of
choices stand out and some students will be drawn to choosing
the above’
them, students can answer an item with four choices correctly if
they know two of the choices are right (though they may not have
known that the third choice is right))
11. Provide
• Make expectations clear by providing scoring information and a
scoring
time estimate
information
and time
estimates
for sections
of multiple
choice
items
Source: Relay Graduate School of Education, “Designing and Evaluating Assessments”
Rules for Item Design – Constructed Response
Summary
Planning 1.
2.
Prompt
3.
4.
Base the item on a vision for student mastery
Keep item length to one page or shorter
Ensure the prompt makes the task clear to students
Ensure the prompt strikes a balance between concise
an complete
Scoring
Make rubric aligned to what you’re measuring, clear
and concrete
Organize and format the item with scoring information
and time estimates
5.
6.
RI.6.1 – Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
1. Directions: Take about 5 minutes to answer the
following question:
Bill’s best friend describes him as “sharp” in the story.
What is another word that could be used to describe bill
as a character?
Item # and Directions
Prompt
Provide evidence from the story to explain your answer.
_________________________________
_________________________________
Response space
_________________________________
2 Points
1 Point
0 Points
Word accurately
describes Bill as a
character.
Evidence from the
story directly
related to the
chosen word is
provided.
Word accurately
describes Bill as
a character, but
evidence from
the story is not
included or does
not relate.
Word does not
accurately
describe Bill as a
character.
Rubric
Types of Portfolios
ON YOUR OWN:
Match the portfolio types with the content that can be included.
Portfolio Type
Content
samples of best work
Instructional or
“Working” Portfolio
rough drafts and final drafts
reflections on growth
final tests or scores
match work with standards
accomplished
Showcase Portfolio
samples of earlier and later work
to document mastery
goal setting sheets
early and later pieces of work
that demonstrate improvement