Transcript Language Arts, Reading

GED® Testing Service
Language Arts, Writing
Using the Performance
Results from the GED®
Language Arts, Writing
Test
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“The reward of disciplined writing is the most valuable
job attribute of all: a mind equipped to think. Writing
today is not a frill for the few, but an essential skill for
the many.”
The National Commission on Writing, April 2003
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The Language Arts, Writing Test
• The Language Arts, Writing Test consists of two
parts: Part I, 50 multiple-choice items and Part II, an
essay. The multiple-choice section counts for about
65% of the composite score.
• In the multiple-choice passages and items,
candidates go through the cognitive skills they will
use in their essays: correcting, revising, and
shifting constructions for the four content skills.
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What Do the GED® Content Skills
Test?
•
•
•
•
Organization
Sentence Structure
Usage
Mechanics
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Percentage of Content Skill
Items Tested
Org.
15%
Mech.
25%
SS
30%
Usg.
30%
Org.
SS
Usg.
Mech.
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The Test Information
• Results were obtained from three operational
test forms.
• The study focused on the 20 most difficult
items for candidates in each of the three
forms (Total 60 items).
• These items represented 40% of the total
items on the test forms.
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How many GED® candidates are in this
study?
The Near Group--Candidates who scored +/- 1
SEM from the minimum passing score of 410
(N=107,163), and
The Below Group--Those candidates whose
standard scores were +/- 2 SEMs from the
minimum passing score(N=10,003).
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0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
ec
h.
M
U
sg
.
Near
Below
SS
O
rg
.
% Answering Correctly
How Did GED® Candidates
Perform?
•
In the Near group,
candidates seemed to
have the greatest
difficulty with
organization and usage.
•
In the Below group,
candidates found all
content skills to be
equally difficult.
•
NOTE: The Near group
answered approximately
20% more items
correctly.
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% Answering Correctly
Mean Difficulty for Remaining Items
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
Near
Below
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Org.
SS
Usg.
Mech.
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Number of Content Skills Items
Found Most Difficult (N=60)
Number of Items
30
24
25
19
20
15
12
16
14
13
14
SS
Usg.
Content Skills
Mech.
Near
Below
8
10
5
0
Org.
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Comparison of the Items Found Most
Difficult with Total Number of Items
45
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
45
35
21
24
19
14
12
13
16
14
Near
Below
Total
8
10
5
0
Org.
SS
Usg.
Mech.
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Candidates seem to find those content skills that
deal with an understanding of the ideas in a written
piece most difficult (viz. Organization and Sentence
Structure.
The Near Group
The Below Group
answered:
answered:
• 57% of the Organization
• 77% of the Organization
Items Incorrectly,
• 53% of the Sentence
Structure Items Incorrectly,
• 18% of the Usage Items
Incorrectly, and
• 46% of the Mechanics Items
Incorrectly
Items Incorrectly,
• 42% of the Sentence
Structure Items Incorrectly,
• 29% of the Usage Items
Incorrectly, and
• 40% of the Mechanics Items
Incorrectly
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What is Organization?
• Organization is often
referred to as
revision, the
manipulation of text
to improve
understanding,
clarity, and
coherence.
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Operations in Organization
• Candidates will be
asked to:
•
•
•
•
Move text,
Remove text,
Add text, or
Divide text.
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What Types of Organization Items
Did Candidates Find Most
Difficult? (N=12; B=14)
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
Near
Below
1
1
0
Correct
Move
Remove
Add
Divide
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What is Sentence Structure?
• A sentence has been
defined as “a group of
words expressing a
complete thought.”
• How words come
together in a sentence
(syntax) determines the
reader’s understanding
of that thought.
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What Types of Sentence Structure
Items Did Candidates Find most
Difficult? (N=24; B=20)
7
7
7
6
6
5
5
4 4
4
Near
Below
3 3
3
2
2
1
0
1 1
Fragment
1
Run on
Subord.
Clarity
Const. Shft.
No error
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Sentence Structure--Subordination
13. Sentences 9 and 10: I propose that we hire a designer and a
builder. They could develop the fenced area in the back of the
building.
The most effective combination of sentences 9 and 10 would include
which group of words?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
Although I propose
While I propose
builder, which develop
builder to develop
builder, they could
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Resulting sentence
Key is Alternative 4
I propose that we hire a designer and a
builder to develop the fenced area in the back
of the building.
Result: By making the second sentence an infinitive
phrase, the writer demonstrates why she wants to hire
the designer and builder.
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Sentence Structure—Construction Shift
10. Sentence 2: Our play area is too small the teachers and aides
have all agreed.
If you rewrote sentence 2 beginning with
As the teachers and aides have all agreed,
The next word should be
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
our
area
is
too
small
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The construction shift item asks the candidate to use
alternative structures to improve clarity, reduce wordiness, or
eliminate passive voice. The resulting sentence should be an
obvious improvement over the original. The stem usually
contains the words “The most effective revision/combination
would include . . . .”
Resulting Sentence
As the teachers and aides have all agreed, our play
area is too small.
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What Types of Usage Items Did
Candidates Find Most Difficult?
(N=8; B=13)
5
5
4
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
Near
Below
1
1
0
S-V Agr.
Verb form
Pron. Ref.
Double --
No error
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Verb Form—Tense
12. Sentence 5: We now had 25 full-time children and 6 children who
are part time.
Which correction should be made to sentence 5?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
replace We with you
change had to have
replace who with which
change are to is
change are to were
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The Key is Alternative 2 “change had to have.”
The sentence requires the present tense form
of the verb—”We now have . . . .”, not the past
tense “We now had….”
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What Types of Mechanics Items Did
Candidates Find Most Difficult?
(N=16; B=14)
8
8
7
6
6
5
4
3
2
3
2
2
2 2
1
1
1
1 1
1
0
Near
Below
0
Series
Intro.
Overuse
Appositive
0
Homonym
Apostrophe
No error
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Mechanics—Comma Overuse
Sentence 1: The purpose of this memo, is to propose an expansion
of the play area at the Kids’ Corner Day Care Center at 356 Hyland
Avenue.
Which correction should be made to sentence 1?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
insert a comma after purpose
remove the comma after memo
insert a comma after area
change Avenue to avenue
no correction is necessary
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Comma Overuse
The Key is Alternative 2. Commas are not used to separate
subjects from their predicates.
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Mechanics--Homonyms
Sentence 15: In addition, parents who send there children to
Kids' Corner will see the new play area as an improvement to
the school.
Which correction should be made to sentence 15?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
replace there with their
replace there with they're
change will see to to be seeing
change will see to saw
insert a comma after new
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The Key is Alternative 1. The correct form of the
homonym pair is their.
“In addition, parents who send their children….”
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An Excellent Source for Homonyms
Contemporary’s GED
Language Arts, Writing
Chapter 6 pp 179-182
Alan Cooper’s web site has approximately
460 pairs of homonyms.
www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html
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What do these results tell us?
Difficulty with Organization
and Sentence Structure
indicates problems with
higher order operations
involving analysis and
synthesis.
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How can instructors work with our GED®
Candidates to address the instructional needs to
solve higher order questions?
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Some Preliminary Thoughts about Writing
• The building block of an essay is a paragraph.
• The unit of a paragraph is the sentence.
• A sentence is a group of words expressing a
•
•
complete thought.
The topic sentence is the controlling idea of a
paragraph.
Usage and mechanics help improve the
effectiveness of sentences and paragraphs.
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What Instructional Strategies
Work?
• Writing is best taught by
the inquiry approach or
the candidates actually
writing.
• Sentence combining is
an effective strategy for
improving the quality of
writing.
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Sentence Combining
Researchers have found that sentence combining is an
effective strategy for improving the quality of writing.
Definition: Combining short sentences into longer ones
and inserting elements into simple sentences.
•
•
•
•
Scrambled Sentences
Sentence Deconstruction
Sentence Effectiveness
Scrambled Paragraphs
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Teaching Points: Sentence Combining
• Don’t teach the sentence as a grammar
•
lesson: subject, predicate, complement and
modifiers, but teach the sentence as a
cohesive component of words, phrases, and
clauses.
Most candidates know what a sentence is,
but they don’t see it as a group of words
expressing a complete thought.
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Sentence Combining: Activity One
In this Scrambled Sentence exercise, a sentence has been broken into parts,
and the parts have been listed out of their order. Read the parts carefully and
then decide what would be the best order in which to arrange them to form a
well-constructed, effective sentence.
Scrambled Sentence1
A- begin to lengthen
B- to shorten
C- the nights
D- the days
E- after June 21st
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Scrambled Sentence 1
•
•
•
•
•
After June 21st,
the nights
begin to lengthen
the days
to shorten.
Used by permission of Educators Publishing Service, 625 Mt. Auburn Street,
Cambridge, MA, (800) 225-5750. www.epsbooks.com.
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Another Activity to
“Kick it up a notch!”
Take sentence combining to another level:
Scramble paragraphs, so that the candidates look
for transitional words, phrases, and clauses to
understand the relationship among sentences in a
paragraph.
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Sentence Combining: Activity Three
The sentences below are listed out of their original order. Read them
carefully and decide what would be the best order in which to arrange them.
Scrambled Paragraph 1
A- This studio he turned into a kind of “art factory.”
B- Then he would tell a student to go on with the coloring.
C- Three thousand pictures were finally turned out in this center,
many of them sold for high prices.
D- The master would first sketch the main outlines of a picture.
E- Once, in a studio, Rubens, the famous artist became the master
of a group of painters.
F- Later, he himself would give the finishing touches to the painting.
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Resulting Paragraph
Once, in a large, studio, Rubens, the famous artist, became the
master of a group of painters.
This studio he turned into a kind of “art factory.”
The master would first sketch the main outlines of a picture.
Then he would tell a student to go on with the coloring.
Later, he himself would give the finishing touches to the painting.
Three thousand pictures were finally turned out in this center of art,
many of which were sold for high prices.
Order: E, A, D, B, F, C
Used by permission of Educators Publishing Service, 625 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, (800)
225-5750. www.epsbooks.com.
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