Professional Development Activities
1. Divide into groups according to content areas. After reviewing the guidelines for constructing the short-answer item, review the definitions of the cognitive levels. Now collectively construct a short-answer item in you content area for each of the following levels:
a. Knowledge
b. Comprehension
c. Application
d. Analysis
e. Synthesis
f. Evaluation
Compare your items with those in the chapter. Then have members from all the groups put their Knowledge-level items on the board for discussion. When you have completed the discussion, follow the same procedure for the remaining five levels.
2. In content-area groups, review the guidelines for constructing the essay item and review the definitions of the cognitive levels. Now collectively construct an essay item in your content area for each of the following levels:
a. Analysis
b. Synthesis
c. Evaluation
Be sure to construct task-specific rubrics for each item. Compare your items with those in the chapter. Have members from each group put their Analysis-level items on the board for discussion. When you have completed the discussion, follow the same procedure for the Synthesis and Evaluation levels.
Exercises
Write the letter of the paper and pencil tool that would best serve your measurement purpose.
A. True-False Item
B. Completion Item
C. Matching Exercises
D. Multiple Choice Item
E. Short Answer Item
F. Essay Item
______ 1. To determine your student’s understanding of the cause and effect events that occurred in the U.S. between 1865 and 1900.
______ 2. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the creative skills of two painters.
______ 3. To determine your student’s ability to associate eight states with their capital cities.
______ 4. To determine your student’s ability to write a declarative, an imperative, and an interrogative sentence.
______ 5. To determine, within a 20-minute time period, your student’s ability to recognize the capitals of 20 different states.
______ 6. To determine the student’s ability to write a haiku about spring.
______ 7. To determine the student’s ability to arrive at the moral of five different books.
______ 8. To determine the student’s ability to recognize the middle name of a given author.
______ 9. To determine the student’s ability to recall the middle name of a given author.
______ 10. To determine your student’s ability to arrive at the shortest distance between two given points, as shown on a photographed map on the test.
______ 11. To determine your student’s knowledge of 10 different authors and their respective novels.
______ 12. To determine your student’s knowledge of 30 pieces of factual information on a 40-minute exercise.
______ 13. To determine your student’s ability to discriminate among different food choices.
______ 14. To determine why your student has selected a particular occupation as her preference.
______ 15. To determine your student’s ability to define 20 vocabulary words.
______ 16. To determine your student’s ability to associate 10 tasks with the person most likely to perform them.
______17. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the writing styles of two authors.
______ 18. To determine your student’s ability to recognize the correct definition of a series of 30 words.
______ 19. To determine your student’s ability to select the primary instrument for a given task.
______ 20. To determine your student’s ability to determine the last one-to-three words of a famous quote.
