Short Answer and Completion Questions Section E: Classroom Application

A. Introduction to Short Answer & Completion Questions
B. Developing Short Answer & Completion Questions

C. Check Your Knowledge | D. Practice Activity | E. Classroom Application

E. Classroom Application

Examine the objectives and content you are currently teaching or will soon be teaching. Are there objectives that indicate the student will be able to supply information rather than select or recognize it? These objectives could include defining vocabulary words; solving math problems; knowing principles, methods or procedures; defining symbols on a map, naming parts of a flower, etc.

Select some appropriate content and develop either completion items or short answer questions to assess student accomplishment of objectives.

Review the questions you have written by answering the following questions:

	Do the questions measure accomplishment of the objective(s)?

	Have you provided places for students to write their answers and given the students directions about how to do so?

	Have you placed the answer blanks on the page to facilitate scoring?

	Is each question specific enough to produce only one unique answer that is correct?

	If the question requires measurement, have you specified the unit of measurement to be used and the precision expected in answering the question?

	Are there clues in the sentences?

	Are the answer blanks the same length?

	In completion items, is there only one blank per sentence unless a series of blanks are related?

	Is the language appropriate for the reading level of the students?

When appropriate, administer your questions to your students.

After you have graded the papers, perform an item analysis to examine the item difficulty (determine the percentage of students correctly answering each question).

Are there questions for which students gave answers that were not what you wanted but which were not incorrect? Try to rewrite the questions for which students gave such answers to make the questions more specific.

Are there questions that few students answered correctly? Does the content need to be targeted for reteaching or review, or do you see a problem in the way the statement or question was worded?

THIS CONCLUDES THE MODULE ON SHORT ANSWER AND COMPLETION QUESTIONS. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, PLEASE DIRECT THEM TO YOUR MENTOR TEACHER OR EVALUATOR. THAT PERSON CAN DIRECT YOU TO OTHER RESOURCES IF NECESSARY.

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