Focus on the Question

by Carol Brown Dodson

The Ohio Graduation Test is a major topic of conversation among teachers, even though the Ohio Academic Content Standards are currently being revised and the test will eventually be changed to align to the revised standards. Because the OGT will continue to be the graduation test until the standards revision process is complete and a new assessment system replaces the OGT, each issue of In Perspective will continue to feature “A Look at the OGT.”

The column focuses on suggestions and resources that can be used to improve students' understanding of the standards and students' performance on the OGT. The OGT columns from all the In Perspective issues are available in the archives.

Most of the columns deal with reading, but some target the other content areas, including writing, social studies, mathematics, and science. Links to ORC resources are provided in each article. The resources include lessons for teaching difficult standards and classroom-based assessments for determining whether or not students meet the expectations established by Ohio's standards.

In addition to the OGT suggestions, the column will incorporate periodic updates on the standards revision process and news and notices about the state assessments. If you have questions about the OGT or suggestions for the column, please send an email to editor@ohiorc.org.

Updates from ODE

The September 2009 Ides of ODE newsletter contains the following information about the Ohio Graduation Test. Note that for the current year, there are no changes to the OGT assessment schedule.

Impact of House Bill 1 on OGT Assessments

HB 1 calls for development of a new assessment system to replace the current Ohio Graduation Tests with a three-part assessment system:

1. Nationally standardized assessment (science, mathematics and English language arts);

2. Series of end-of-course exams (science, mathematics, English language arts and social studies); and

3. Senior project (student or group of students, assess chosen content and skills).

These three parts will be used to comprise a composite score for graduation. ODE is working on the details and a timeline for this transition to take place.

Now let’s turn our attention to the topic of this column—focusing on the question.

“Why Didn’t My Students Do Better on the Reading OGT?”

When the Ohio Department of Education releases test scores, teachers may be surprised to find that some of their most successful students performed poorly on the reading test. If you find that to be true for your students, you might ask yourself why their scores were lower than you expected. You’ve been teaching the standards, you’ve been working with assessment items that are similar to the OGT items, and you’ve spent a great deal of time working with all your students on test-taking strategies. So what’s missing? Why didn’t they do better on the reading OGT?

You might want to begin your search for an answer to these questions by reviewing the structure of short-answer and extended-response questions. Each tested content area has unique attributes, and the Ohio Content Advisory Committees help to influence how the questions are structured to reflect the needs of a particular discipline. Your students see all five OGT subject tests: reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. Most teachers view only one test, or in the case of reading and writing, two tests.

Structure of OGT Questions

Let’s take a look at the different ways questions are structured.

Structure of Mathematics Questions

After the basic information is shared, the task is presented in a separate paragraph.

Multiple-choice math questions are structured the same way, with the information given first, followed by the task. After students read the question or task, they are given four possible answers from which they are to choose the correct answer.

Science and Social Studies Questions

The science and social studies questions often require students to use specific knowledge from their studies of the two subjects. To review science and social studies questions, go to the ODE Success website and select the content area and year of the test.

As you examine the different structures of questions, you will understand how a student who takes a different test each day might be confused and misunderstand what is being asked. As an English language arts or reading teacher, you have reviewed test items for reading and writing, but as noted above, your students are confronted by a test in each of the five disciplines. Consider then the need to review the construction of reading questions, but also think about how you might point out for your students the differences between the structure of a reading question and a mathematics or science or social studies question.

Structure of Reading Questions

Most constructed-response questions on the reading test contain at least two parts—one part that asks the basic question and a second part that asks for support from the passage. Students who read the item quickly and proceed to write their response often omit the second part, thus losing one of the two possible points in the case of a short-answer question or as many as two or three points in an extended-response item which is worth four points.

The following two-point item illustrates how most short-answer reading questions are set up. Notice that after the student reads the passage, the questions are asked directly, without the addition of other information.

Capable students may offer an excellent explanation of the author’s attitude toward learning, but the explanation will earn only one point. They must cite an example from the reading passage to show that the explanation is text-based. To make test takers more aware of this requirement, remind them during class time that they will be taking a reading test and must cite examples or details to show that they have read the passage.

Multiple-choice reading questions are set up in the same way as the constructed-response items. In the example below, notice how the structure of the question directs the students to look at a specific part of the poem and to answer the question based on the text.

Strategies for Reading a Question

One strategy for students to use when reading a question is physically to break the question into two parts. They can’t write on the answer document, but they can write in the test booklet. Ask students to practice the test-taking strategy of rewriting the question as two distinct but related questions. In the case of the two-point short-answer question above, they might rewrite the question in two parts and write a note or two to go with the separated parts of the question.

Part 1. Explain the author’s attitude about learning. Note to self: Read the first part again.

Part 2. Provide an example from the article that supports your answer. Note to self: Be sure the example shows the author’s attitude toward learning. Maybe use a quote. Find the quote about how her grandpa held her hand while he showed her what to do.

After completing their answer in the answer booklet, students should always revisit the question to be sure that they have answered all parts of the question.

The question on the author’s attitude about learning appears to be fairly easy, but 13 percent of Ohio’s tenth graders received a score of 0, indicating either that they failed to answer the question or that their responses were incorrect. Another 13 percent of the students received a score of 1, suggesting that they most likely answered only the first part of the question and failed to provide any examples to support their explanation. No points are given for examples or details if the explanation is missing.

Sometimes, the constructed-response question is written so that examples are called for in the first half of the question and the explanation follows the examples. The following four-point question about the passage “Trees” by Josephine Jacobsen asks students first to identify some examples and then to reach a conclusion about how each detail or example shows the meaning of the passage.

When you share this four-point question with students, remind them to read carefully to determine what they need to do when they answer the question. Some key action verbs in this question are “explain” and “give.” Point out to students the two verbs and how they indicate that the question contains two parts. Students should also note that the question asks for two examples or details.

A “think-aloud” is a strategy that helps students read a question carefully and prepare their answer. Many students need help learning to use a think-aloud when answering questions. A think-aloud about the question might go like this:

Give two examples—I think I need to reread parts of the passage to find the examples. Which examples should I use? I need to be sure the details or examples I choose contribute to the meaning of the passage.

The meaning of the passage—what’s that? Maybe I’d better skim through the entire passage again to figure out what it’s really about before I choose the examples. What’s the author trying to say here?

Explain how the examples contribute to the meaning—how can I do that? I guess I should take one example at a time and tell how that example helps the meaning.

In addition to the think-aloud, students will also find it helpful to make a few quick notes in their test booklet. Their notes might be structured like this:

Example 1—King Solomon and the baby case (Biblical)
How it contributes to meaning—

Example 2—the Van Gogh painting (Historical)
How it contributes to meaning—

Once again, students should be reminded to read the question and revisit their notes after they complete their answers.

ORC Resources

Share Your Test-Taking Thinking Processes Through Think-Alouds (ORC #10194)
For more thorough information regarding the use and teaching of the “think-aloud” process, check out Jan Goodwin’s column, “Share Your Test-Taking Thinking Processes Through Think-Aloud,” from the In Perspective archive. Goodwin presents a thorough guide for teaching the process by example. She goes on to discuss how this process might carry over to prepping for a test question. She supplies the method and means for classroom demonstrations in reading and mathematics as well as questions from the Ohio Graduation Test.

AdLIT Reading Strategies (ORC #11634) 
These strategies were prepared by Ohio educators for the ORC AdLIT website. The strategies are invaluable when working with struggling readers to help them reach the reading academic content standards and to show their growth in reading when they take the Ohio Graduation Test for Reading. Experienced Ohio educators highlight key reading strategies used by proficient readers and offer suggestions for teaching these strategies throughout the reading process and across the curriculum. This professional resource includes the specifics for teaching ten key reading strategies: (1) Setting a Purpose, (2) Synthesizing, (3) Questioning, (4) Making Inferences, (5) Determining Importance, (6) Visualizing, (7) Connecting to Prior Knowledge, (8) Comparing/Contrasting, (9) Predicting, and (10) Self-Monitoring. 

Each strategy is thoroughly explained, including a detailed definition of the reading strategy, where the strategy is discussed in the Ohio Academic Content Standards, how the strategy supports reading comprehension, what before, during, and after activities support students in using this strategy, how the strategy can be used to teach vocabulary, and where readers can go for additional resources pertaining to the strategy. This is a remarkable resource, in both its breadth and scope, for Ohio middle and high school teachers. 

Using Student-Centered Comprehension Strategies with Elie Wiesel’s Night (ORC #5934)
This lesson plan is perfect for giving students practice in using reading strategies for a specific work. Working in small groups, students use reciprocal teaching strategies as they read and discuss Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night. Everyone in the classroom takes a turn assuming the “teacher” role, as the class works with four comprehension strategies: predicting, question generating, summarizing, and clarifying. When they finish reading the memoir, each group composes questions and leads the class in a discussion that focuses on themes, events, and symbols for an assigned section of the book. Excellent web resources are included to enhance this lesson.

Using Active Reading Strategies During the Test
This OGT column from In Perspective is about the use of active reading strategies during the Ohio Graduation Test. Two released OGT reading questions provide the focus for discussing processes or strategies students might use to analyze similar test questions. The author notes that "as a language arts or reading teacher, you've probably been teaching students to use appropriate reading strategies to help them comprehend difficult text . . . but what happens to these strategies when students are faced with taking a high-stakes test?” A list of outstanding ORC resources for supporting student learning with instructional strategies is included.

Carol Brown Dodson is the outreach specialist for the Ohio Resource Center. Dodson was an English language arts consultant for the Ohio Department of Education and is past president of OCTELA (Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts). Dodson, formerly a high school English teacher, department chair, and supervisor of English language arts in Columbus Public Schools, serves on the Ohio Graduation Test Reading Content Committee.

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