What Elementary Teacher Made Tests Are Made Of

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What Elementary Teacher Made Tests Are Made Of

• Constructing Objective Test Items Simple Forms

Linn and Gronlund Chap. 7
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A quick setup

• Chapter 6 was thinking through our test ahead of
  time
• Now we must construct
• This is of utmost importance to validity. Bad
  questions that dont measure what you are after
  make for an invalid test.
• This is a skill that can be learned.
• Well look at Short Answer, True-False, and
  Matching

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Short Answer

• You give me some examples in the reading, math,
  science, and social studies
• Pluses
• Easy to construct
• Students supply the answer
• Minuses
• Cant measure complex learning
• What about spelling?

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Short Answer Suggestions

• Be specific
• Dont copy lingo from the textbook
• Ask a direct question, not an incomplete
  statement
• Keep answer blanks the same length (maybe)
• Dont overuse it (too many blanks)

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True-False

• The philosophy of dualism
• T-F, Y-N, F-O
• And my favorite, T-F w/ replacement
• Give me 4 examples

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The Good and the bad of T-F

• Advantages (really?)
• Ease of construction
• Covers lots of materials
• Disadvantages
• Low level of Bloom
• 50-50 chance
• Reliability is low, thus
• More questions
• Not good to diagnose the learning

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Suggestions from the book re T-F

• Dont use broad statements, be specific
• Dont ask trivia. I mean this.
• Dont never use double negatives
• Dont get too complex
• Keep ideas separate, one at a time
• Careful with opinion
• True statements are normally longer
• Equal emphasis

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And finally matching

• I like the imperfect match
• Our book likes the long-short
• What are our options?

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Pluses and Minuses

• Advantages
• Compact, covers lots of stuff with ease
• Easy to make, duh, no duh
• Disadvantages
• Rote learning
• Finding homogenous material

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Suggestions with Matching

• Make sure the material is homogenous
• Once, more than once, or not at all
• Shorter is to the right, so says the book
• Logical order of responses, dont give it away
• Give directions for the children
• Use only 1 page