UNPACKING CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE ITEMS
Constructed Response Items
- Include short-answer, open response, extended response, and essays
- Are more likely to reveal whether or not students understand and can apply what they are learning
- Utilize performance criteria (rubrics) to evaluate degree of student proficiency
Key Points for Writing Constructed Response Items
- Questions should be open-ended.
- Items must match the level of rigor of the standard being assessed.
- Answers reflect a command of higher-order skills and concepts.
Bill is going to order new jerseys for his baseball team with the team logo printed on the front. Bill asks 2 local companies to give him a price.
- ‘Print It’ will charge $21.50 each for the jerseys. Using n for the number of jerseys ordered and c for the total cost in dollars, write an equation to show the total cost of jerseys from ‘Print It’.
- ‘Top Print’ has an initial set-up cost of $70 and then charges $18 for each jersey. Using n to stand for the number of jerseys ordered and c for the total cost in dollars, write an equation to show the total cost of jerseys from ‘Top Print’.
- Use the two equations from questions 1 and 2 to figure out how many jerseys Bill would need to order for the price from ‘Top Print’ to be less than from ‘Print It’.
Source: Letter from Joseph F. Green, a soldier in the Union Army, to his friend Julia Reynolds on January 2, 1863.
Source text: “Well we are trying to get a long the best we can and I tell you that is poor a nough. The troops all Seem to be discouraged Since the last battle at Fredericksburgh. I tell you that they hadent better ever take this army back to Alexandria or they will all [desert] and go home. I dont see what our government is doing.”
Question 1: Explain why a historian might not think that Joseph F. Green’s letter reflects the morale of the entire Union Army.
Question 2: Read the 3 documents below. Explain whether each document could be used to support Joseph F. Green’s claims about the morale of the Union army.
The 3 documents that students need to read for Question 2 are not included in this presentation but what kind of thinking is question 2 asking them to do? What standard(s) are being assessed by Question 2? (Thinking skills and standards: comparing, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, finding text evidence, supporting arguments with text evidence, reading non-fiction text, reading original source material)
Vertical Line Test
- A graph must pass the vertical line test to be a function. Use this information to figure out how to determine if a set of points is a function or not. Explain your answer.
- A graph must pass the vertical line test to be a function. Use this information to figure out how to determine if a table (an x column and a y column) of points is a function or not. Explain your answer.
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