ITEMS Grocery Store? Couples? No, language testing

Test Development  State testing “problem” fully and clearly.  Write specifications for the test.  Write and moderate items.  Trial items informally w/native speakers and make changes.  Trial the test on a group of non-natives similar to target group.  Analyze results and make necessary changes.  Calibrate scales.  Validate.  Write handbook for test takers, users and staff.  Train any necessary staff, iviewers, raters etc. What’s the problem for classroom teachers??? How could we save time and still do a good job?

Some ideas...  -Refer back to your objectives that you wrote as you started to plan your instruction.  -Make a brief list of the knowledge and skills you need to assess.  -Write the test based on the two items above. Include how you will score it and create any rubrics that may be necessary.  -Evaluate, read the test over yourself,  -Evaluate, ask a colleague to look it over,  -Evaluate, give to similar students even just portions of it.  -Make changes based on input.  -Give the test.  Revise based on results Where is the validation? How could we examine reliability?

Test Items  What’s an item?  How do you say “item” in Spanish?  You don’t, probably pregunta, or ítemes

Test Items  Two main types of ítemes:  Closed-ended and Open-ended  What are the basic kinds of closed-ended items?  Multiple choice  Yes/No or True/False  Matching – subset of Mult. Choice  Closed-ended generally good for?

Test Items  What are the basic forms of open-ended items?  Essay questions  Write a two page paper on...  “Hands on” tasks  Create an objective...  Imagine...  Opened-ended generally good for?

Test Items, Closed-Ended  Multiple Choice  Good or bad example:  Cuando yo ____ las llaves no me las quería dar.  A. pido  B. pidió  C. pedí  Probably good, depending on level.

Test Items, Closed-Ended  Multiple Choice Advantages  Reliable scoring  Seen as objective  Ease of scoring  Lots of questions short time  Infrequent testing of large groups  Multiple Choice Disadvantages  Limit what you can test  Only recognition  Guessing  Hard to write  Cheating

Testin, Open-ended  Turn to p. 182 table1  Skim them for 19.3 seconds  Which point(s) stand out to you as most important?

Testing, Open-ended  Suppose you are teaching Spanish 101  One of your objectives is that, students will be able to use the present tense to explain their daily schedule.  Is this appropriate as the last question of a 40 question test in the testing lab?  Write about your daily routine:  What does it lack?  With a partner try to rewrite this

Testing – Short Answer  Example:  ¿Qué significa “lo” en la ultima oración?  ¿Qué edad tenía el niño en este cuento?  Yo _______ comer tacos.  Problems???  What are some advantages and disadvantages of short answer questions?  Harder to guess  Easier to write  Can take longer for students  More subjective scoring

Short Answer  Try some.  Do you see any problems?

Put it all together  3 groups of two  Look at the pages marked in the text  Write a teaching objective related to the material.  Then try to write three short answer/fill in the gap questions.  One multiple choice question  An essay question