Transcript MCA II Test Basics

MCA II Test Basics
Curriculum and Instruction
Rochester Minnesota - Fall 2005
Key Vocabulary
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What should children learn?
Strand
Standards
Benchmarks
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How will we know they’ve learned it?
Test Specifications
Content Limits
Item Samples
What the standards look like
Strand I – Reading and Literature
Sub-strand C – Comprehension
Standard: The student will understand the meaning of texts using
a variety of strategies and will determine literal,
Item Cognitive
interpretive, inferential and evaluative comprehension.
Types
Levels
Benchmarks
I.C.1
Students will summarize and paraphrase main idea and
MC
A
supporting details.
or
B
Content Limit:
CR
C
Items will require a summary or paraphrase solely from
the text given.
Items that will require the student to produce a summary
or paraphrase are CR
Items will require the identification of the explicit or
inferred main idea and/or its relevant details solely
from the text given.
Item Totals
By sub-strand
24-31
By Benchmark
10-14
Strand
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This is the broadest statement of what we
want students to learn. Under the umbrella of
the strand, you will find all of the categories,
known as sub-strands, and benchmarks that
the MCA IIs will assess.
Math Strands
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Math has 5 strands
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Mathematical Reasoning (Assessed within the
context of the other strands)
Number Sense
Patterns, Function, and Algebra
Data, Statistics, and Probability
Spatial Sense, Geometry and Measurement
Language Arts Strands
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Language Arts has 3 strands
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Reading and Literature
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Word Recognition, Analysis, and Fluency
Vocabulary Expansion
Comprehension
Literature
Writing
Speaking, Listening, and Viewing
Standards
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MN Academic Standards
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A standard is a generalized goal of what we want
students to know and be able to do.
Math Example
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Strand: Number Sense
Standard: Represent whole numbers in various ways to
quantify information and solve real world and
mathematical problems. Understand the concept of
decimals and fractions.
Benchmarks
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Closest to the classroom
Specific knowledge or skills that the student
should acquire by the end of the grade level.
Embedded in the curriculum
Layering it in: A Math Example
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Strand Number Sense
Standard Represent whole numbers in
various ways to quantify information and
solve real world and mathematical problems.
Understand the concept of decimals and
fraction.
Benchmark Student will compare and order
whole numbers.
Test Specifications
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Test Specifications help the test stay consistent over
time,
tell the test developers exactly what the test should
look like,
clarify, define and/or limit how test items will be
written, and
outline parameters of the test, for example
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number of items on the test
DRP level and number of passages (reading), and
cognitive levels.
Interpreting Test Specifications
Cognitive Levels
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A. Knowledge
B. Understanding
C. Application, Analysis, Synthesis,
Evaluation
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Highest Level
Evaluation
Evaluation questions ask that
judgments be made from information
Signal words: assess, rate, justify,
evaluate, judge, decide, criticize,
defend, argue, support
Synthesis
Synthesis questions combine information in a new
way. Students often use concepts learned to originate
new products.
Signal words: create, design, revise, hypothesize,
arrange, assemble, compose, construct, formulate
Analysis
Analysis questions ask for information to be broken down into
parts. Students may discover unique characteristics of
something by analyzing it.
C= Application,
Analysis, Synthesis,
Evaluation
Signal words: categorize, sort, classify, arrange, compare,
distinguish
Application
Application questions ask that the information be used in some manner.
Students must relate or apply what has been learned to new situations.
Signal words: ge neralize, infer, apply, predict, use, show
Comprehension
Comprehension questions determine how well information has been understood.
Students translate and interpret information heard or read. Respo nses are usually
in a student’s own words.
B= Understanding
Signal words: define in your own words, explain, tell, paraphrase,
summarize, identify, illustrate, discuss
Knowledge
Knowledge questions ask for facts about what has been heard or read. Information is recalled in
the approximate manner/form it was heard.
Signal words: who, what, when, whe re, why, how, list, locate, choose, name, repeat, state,
describe
Lowest Level
A = Knowledge
Cognitive Level A and Questioning
Knowledge:
Knowledge is defined as the remembering of previously learned material. This
may involve the recall of a wide range of material, from specific facts to
complete theories, but all that is required is the bringing to mind of the
appropriate information. Knowledge represents the lowest level of the cognitive
domain.
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Illustrative Behavioral Terms
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Define
Label
Name
Describe
List
Reproduce
Identify
Match
State
Recalling or locating information is the most common type of classroom
assignment. Information is not interpreted in any way, just simply fed back.
EXAMPLES
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What is 8 + 4?
Recite the eight parts of speech.
What is the name of the main character in this story?
Who was Abraham Lincoln?
Cognitive Level B and Questioning
Comprehension
Comprehension is defined as the ability to grasp the meaning of material. This
may be shown by translating material from one form to another (words to
numbers), and by interpreting material (explaining or summarizing). The
students go one step beyond the simple remembering of material, and represent
the lowest level of understanding. Comprehension is more than merely
repeating something that has been heard or said.
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Illustrative Behavioral Terms
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Convert
Generalize
Paraphrase
Explain
Give Examples
Rewrite
Extend
Infer
Summarize
EXAMPLES
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Tell in your own words what the article is about.
What does this cartoon mean?
Summarize the main idea in chapter 2.
Why are the days shorter in the winter than in the summer.
Don’t stop yet!
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The knowledge and comprehension levels
form the foundation or launching pad for
higher thinking. Thinking must be extended
beyond these levels.
Don't leave your students and lesson
expectations just at levels A and B; move
them to level C.
Cognitive Level C and Questioning
Application
Application
Application refers to the ability to use learned material in new and concrete
situations. This may include the application of such things as rules, methods,
concepts, principles, laws, and theories. Lessons in this area require a higher
level of understanding than those in the understanding category.
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ILLUSTRATIVE BEHAVIORAL TERMS
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Change
Discover
Prepare
Show
Compute
Manipulate
Produce
Solve
Demonstrate
Operate
Relate
Use
This is the beginning of creative thinking. The student applies learning to his/her
own life or to new situations.
EXAMPLES
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Following these directions, build a birdhouse.
Using this recipe, bake a cake.
If the main character came to your house, what would you ask him?
If you had been the main character, whom would you have gone to visit?
Cognitive Level C and Questioning
Synthesis
SYNTHESIS
Synthesis refers to the ability to put parts together to form a new whole. This may involve
the production of a unique communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations
(research proposal), or a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying information).
Learning in this area stresses creative behaviors, with major emphasis on the formulation
of new patterns or structures.
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ILLUSTRATIVE BEHAVIORAL TERMS
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Combine
Create
Generate
Plan
Reorganize
Write
Compile
Devise
Modify
Rearrange
Revise
Compose
Design
Organize
Reconstruct
Rewrite
At this level, students take what they have learned and create or invent something entirely
new, usually a product such as a story, picture, diagram, model, etc.
EXAMPLES
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Write a new ending for "Red Riding Hood" that involves an elephant instead of a wolf.
Compose a poem about the French Revolution.
Draw a blueprint of a house in the year 2050
Cognitive Level C and Questioning
Evaluation
EVALUATION
Evaluation is concerned with the ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel,
poem, research report) for a given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite
criteria. These may be internal criteria (organization) or external criteria (relevance to the
purpose), and the students may determine the criteria or be given the criteria. Learning in
this are is at the highest of the cognitive hierarchy because the expectation contains
elements of all the other categories plus value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.
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ILLUSTRATIVE BEHAVIORAL TERMS
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Compare
Criticize
Explain
Relate
Conclude
Describe
Justify
Summarize
Contrast
Discriminate
Interpret
This level involves students making judgments and supporting those judgments with sound
reasoning. If a student states an opinion about something, she/he is only operating at the
evaluation level if she/he is able to tell why.
EXAMPLES
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Should capital punishment be abolished? Why or why not?
Was the boy in the story running away? How can you tell?
Which form of government is more fair, monarchy or democracy? Why?
Cognitive Level C: Analysis
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Analysis
Analysis refers to the ability to break down material into its component parts so that its
organizational structure may be understood. This may include identification of the parts,
analysis of the relationships between parts, and recognition of the organizational principles
involved. Learning her represents a higher intellectual level than comprehension and
application because analysis requires an understanding of both the content and the
structural form of the material.
ILLUSTRATIVE BEHAVIORAL TERMS
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Break down
Diagram
Differentiate
Discriminate
Distinguish
Outline
Point Out
Relate
Select
Separate
Subdivide
This level requires the ability to categorize: the ability to perceive similarity in different things and
differences in similar things.
EXAMPLES
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In what ways is the main character like you? different from you?
Which things in the story were real and which were make-believe?
Put the people in this article into categories according to their points of view.
What were the causes of the Civil War and its effects on the lives of those in the South.
Mathematics Sample Level A
Use the figure below to answer question X.
Grade 5
Benchmark V.B.4
63˚
?
Students will know the
sum of the angles in
triangles and
quadrilaterals.
112˚
X.
A.
B.
C.
D.
117˚
Three angle measures are shown in the quadrilateral
above. What is the measure of the fourth angle?
22˚
68˚
108˚
292˚
From Minnesota Department of Education
Mathematics Sample Level B
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Grade 5
Benchmark V.C.2
Students will use a net
of a cube or rectangular
box to compute the
surface area.
From Minnesota Department of Education
Mathematics Sample Level C
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Use the data sets given below to make
conjectures about the meaning of the following
terms: mean, median, mode, range
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Set A: 5, 12, 16, 10, 2
Set B: 1, 2, 2, 6, 7, 18
Mean: 9
Mean: 6
Median : 10
Median: 4
Mode: none
Mode: 2
Range: 14
Range: 17
(The actual problem provides 8 data sets.)
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From Minnesota Department of Education
Why use cognitive levels in your
classroom?
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Provides educators with a place to start when
reviewing and revising units to better align with
the Minnesota Academic Standards
Provides educators with enhanced
understanding of writing well-defined
educational and instructional objectives that
frame exemplary teaching
Provides students with clearly defined
expectations as to what they must learn
From Minnesota Department of Education
Model Questions – Level A
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Model Questions and Key Words –
Developing Questions
Knowledge (eliciting factual answers, testing
recall and recognition)
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Who
What
Why
When
Where
How
How much
Select
Describe
Define
Match
Omit
Which one
What is the one best
Choose
What does it mean
Level B - Comprehension
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Which are facts, opinions…
Is this the same as…
What would happen if …
Explain what is happening…
Explain what is meant…
Read the graph, table…
Is it valid that …
Which statement support the
main idea…
Show in a graph or table…
What seems to be…
Match…
What seems likely…
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State in your own words…
What does this mean…
Judge…
Give an example…
Condense this paragraph…
State in one word…
Indicate…
What part doesn't fit…
What restrictions would you
add…
What exceptions are there…
Which is more probable…
What are they saying…
Select…
Level C - Application
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Predict what would
happen if …
Identify…
Explain…
Tell what would
happen…
Tell how, when, where,
why…
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Select…
Judge the effects…
Tell how much change
there would be…
What would result…
Choose the best
statements that apply…
Level C - Analysis
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Distinguish…
The least essential statements
are…
Identify…
What is the theme? main
idea? subordinate idea?
What assumptions…
What inconsistencies can you
find in the text?
What motive is there …
What literary form is used…
What conclusions…
What persuasive technique…
Make a distinction…
What relationship between…
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What is the premise…
What ideas apply? do not
apply?
What is the function of…
Implicit in the statement is the
idea of…
What does the author believe?
assume?
State the point of view…
What ideas justify the
conclusion?
What statement is
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relevant?
extraneous?
Related to…?
not applicable?
Level C – Synthesis
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Write (according to the
following limitations)…
How would you test …?
Propose an alternative …
Solve the following…
How else would you …?
Formulate a theory…
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Develop…
State a rule…
Choose…
Compose…
Make up…
Create…
Level C - Evaluation
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Appraise …
What
appear?
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fallacies,
consistencies
inconsistencies
Judge…
Defend…
Criticize …
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Find the errors…
What is
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more important?
more moral?
more logical?
more valid?
more appropriate?
What’s are the biggest changes with MCA II?
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The BST in reading and math at grade 8 is
gone, replaced by the MCA II.
Students will take the BST/MCA writing test in
grade 9 beginning in 2007.
The grade 10 reading MCA II GRAD will be
scored as both a high-stakes test (required to
pass for graduation) and a systemsaccountability test (school report cards).
What is the MCA GRAD?
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GRAD stands for Graduation-Required
Assessments for Diploma
The benchmarks are divided into four areas:
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Assessed by Grad
Common Assessments – either GRAD or MCA
Assessed only for MCA
Assessed only at the classroom level
The MCA GRAD replaces the BST.
Sample Standard with MCA, Common,
and GRAD
MDE Website
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Practice tests are available for each grade
level in both reading and math.
Go to:
http://education.state.mn.us/mde/index.html
Click on Accountability Programs
Click on Assessment and Testing
On the left side, click on Teachers in the
Resources box
Scroll down to find the sample test you want.