Center for Applied Linguistics 1 The Item-Writing Process for ACCESS for ELLs Online Involvement by...

1 Center for Applied Linguistics

The Item-Writing Process forACCESS for ELLs™ Online Involvement by ESL Teachers

January 2005

Illinois 28th Annual Statewide Conference for Teachers Serving Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students

Jim BaumanCenter for Applied LinguisticsWashington, DC

2IRC Conference Jan 24-27, 2005 ACCESS for ELLs™ Item Writing Jim Bauman [email protected]

Presentation Outline

The WIDA Assessment Framework

Structure of ACCESS for ELLs™

The Item Writing Course


WIDA’s Foundation

Standards

Clear expectations for students and schools

Motivation towork hard

ProfessionalDevelopment

Improvedteaching

Higher levelsof learning

Adapted from:

National Research Council, 1999 Testing, Teaching, and Learning:A Guide for States and School Districts

Assessment

Accountability


WIDA Enhanced Assessment System

Specifications

StandardsTask Blueprint

ELP StandardsClassroom

Assessment

State ContentStandards

Lesson Plan

AssessmentFramework

ELP StandardsLarge-scaleAssessment

Specifications

Test Blueprint

English LanguageProficiency Test

(ACCESS for ELLS)

Alternate Assessmentof Academic Achievement

(Alternate ACCESS)Classroom Assessments


Organization of the WIDA Standards

Frameworks for Classroom & Large-Scale Assessment (2)

English Language Proficiency Standards (5)

Language Domains (4)

Grade Level Clusters (4)

Language Proficiency Levels (5)

Model PIs are the lowest level ofexpression of the standards

Model Performance Indicators (>800)

SI

LA

MA

SC

SS

L

R

W

S

K-2

3-5

6-8

9-12

1

2

3

4

5


WIDA Standards ExamplesSocial Studies, Listening, 6-8

English language learners process, understand, interpret, and evaluate spoken language in a variety of situations.

Level 1: Identify icons on maps or graphs from oral statements.

Level 3: Categorize resources or products of regions from oral descriptions.

Level 5: Draw conclusions about resources or products in various regions based on oral descriptions.

Social & Instructional, Writing, 6-8English language learners engage in written communication in a variety of forms for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Level 4: Suggest ideas for making changes in school, such as rearranging a schedule or adding subjects.

Language Arts, Reading, 6-8

English language learners process, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols, and text with understanding and fluency.

Level 5: Draw conclusions from explicit and implicit text.


Aligning State Content Standards with WIDA ELP Standards

MIDDLE/JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Illinois State Social Science Standards

STATE GOAL 17: Understand world geography and the effects of geography on society, with an emphasis on the United States.

17.B.3a Explain how physical processes including climate, plate tectonics, erosion, soil formation, water cycle, and circulation patterns in the ocean shape patterns in the environment and influence availability and quality of natural resources.

17.C.3b Explain how patterns of resources are used throughout the world.

17.A.3b Explain how to make and use geographic representations to provide and enhance spatial information.

WIDA Social Studies Standards — Listening

English language learners process, understand, interpret, and evaluate spoken language in a variety of situations.

Level 1: Identify icons on maps or graphs from oral statements.

Level 3: Categorize resources or products of regions from oral descriptions.

Level 5: Draw conclusions about resources or products in various regions based on oral descriptions.



The WIDA Assessment Framework and Standards




Structure of ACCESS for ELLs

Grade Level and Tier

K

1-2

3-5

6-8

9-12

A (adaptive)

A B C

A B C

A B C

A B C

100 (roll-out Spring 2005)

999 (used to produce screener)

200 (roll-out Spring 2006)

Listening — group admin, machine scored

Reading — group admin, machine scored

Speaking — individual admin, adaptive, TA scored

Writing — group admin, rater scored

Domains

Forms


Theme and Item Structure

Theme

Item Model

Item Stimulus Question and Response Options


Expression of the Thematic Folder

• Orientation• Contextualizes the items• Engages background knowledge

• Stimulus — Text and/or Graphic• Presents new information• Organizes information visually• Reduces memory load

• 3 or more items at same or scaffolded proficiency levels

• Item levels determined by specs• Address single strand of PIs


Sample Listening ThemeScript: Look at the map. It shows some of the important economic activities in different regions of modern Russia. Each symbol in the legend shows a different economic activity. A fish indicates fishing, a factory heavy industry, logs forestry, wheat agriculture, a pick and shovel mining, and an oil rig petroleum.

The Russian Economy


Sample Listening ItemsScript: Find the symbol for oil. 1

Western Siberia Eastern Siberia Far EastUrals

3

Script: Russia has many kinds of natural resources. These include coal and iron ores from mining, oil from drilling, and wood from logging. Which region in Russia has the greatest variety of natural resources?

Script: The part of Russia from Siberia east is extremely cold for much of the year and is sparsely populated. The western part of the country, particularly in the south, has a milder climate and a longer growing season. Almost 80 percent of the population lives in the western part.

Since factories require a large labor force to run them but they also need raw materials and energy, where would you probably find the greatest concentration of Russia’s heavy industry?

In the southern part of the country where food is plentiful

In the northern part of the country where the population is large

In the eastern part of the country where raw materials are abundant

In the middle part of the country where raw materials and people are abundant

5


Sample Writing Theme

Changes in Cafeteria MenuItem Old Price New Price

Hamburger 1.25 1.50

Soda .45 .60

Milk .50 .25

Apple .50 .40

Banana .40 .30

Pie .90 1.00

Ice Cream .80 1.10

Yogurt 1.00 .80

The principal at your school has decided to change the prices of some foods in the school cafeteria. Some students like the changes and some do not.


Sample Writing Item

Look at the new cafeteria price list. Suggest changes you would make to the prices for these or other foods.

Write a short paragraph of at least 8 sentences. Write about changes you would make to cafeteria prices.


Goals of an Item Specification

• State the assessment objective

• By grade• By PI

• Describe the item stimulus• Use of graphics/text• Mode of presentation to

test taker

• Describe the test taker’s task• Method of selecting a

correct response• Method of constructing a

scorable response• Properties of response

options

Assessment Objective

Assessment tasks will allow ELLs in the 6th to 8th grade to demonstrate the ability to identify icons on maps or graphs from oral statements by selecting the corresponding picture.

Stimulus Description

Stimulus is a simple oral statement or command (no more than one sentence) that requires the students to identify an icon (e.g., stars, trees, compass rose, ) on a map. The teacher will read the stimulus aloud from the test administration book. The stimulus will not be printed in the student's test booklet.

Task Description

Description:Given four pictures on a map, the student selects the picture that matches the oral statement. The map can be of a fictitious country.Response Options:There are four options.Options consist of pictures of icons on a map. There is a single, correct answer. One picture is the key; the others are distractors representing other icons commonly confused with the key.

Social Studies, Listening, 6-8, Level 1


Life Cycle of a Test Item

1. Receive theme & items from item writer

2. Submit items to external review

3. Commission illustrations

4. Check thematic folder for internal consistency

5. Submit folder and items to bias review

6. Layout folder in test form

7. Field test to establish item properties

8. Operationalize for one year

9. Retire the folder and items


What the Item Writer Does

Read the scopeof the item

in the specsstatement Read the stimulus

description & identify an appropriate content area

Write ordescribe

the themestimulus and/or

modelWrite the item

stimuli orprompts

Read the taskdescription &

write responseoptions

for the items

R e v i e w &RevIse


Item Creation & Review

Item Writers

InternalReviewers

Bias & ContentReviewers

Specifications

Raw Items

Cleaned Items

ApprovedItems

(ready for field testing)


Raw Item

Selected-Response Item

Language Arts, Reading, Grade 6-8, Level 5

In your test booklet are some sentences that tell why something happened in the story I will read.

Orientation

Leo and his father went to the grocery store. They bought food for a party they are having. At the grocery store, they picked out a cake and some ice cream. When they got home, Leo’s father put the cake on the table in the kitchen and walked away. Then, Leo’s dog, who had not eaten all day, came into the kitchen and ate the whole cake!

Theme Stimulus

A. Because he was hungry

B. Because he was a bad dog

C. Because Leo told him to eat it

D. Because he was thirsty

Options

A. Because he was hungryKey

Why did Leo’s dog eat the cake? Question

None Stimulus

Performance Indicator

Draw conclusions from explicit and implicit text

Assessment Objective

Assessment tasks will allow ELLs in the 6th to 8th grade to draw a text supported conclusion from a reading passage by selecting the corresponding text option.

Stimulus Description

Stimulus is a fictional story of 4 to 6 sentences, some of which may show complex sentence structures. Vocabulary is familiar.

Specification (in part)


Cleaned Item

Item is reconceived as part of a thematic folder with items at levels 3, 4, and 5 (only level 5 is shown here)

The Brown family is going to have a party for their friends and neighbors to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Orientation

Generic picture of a family making preparations for a party.

Theme Stimulus


B. Because he was happy

C. Because Leo took him to the grocery store

D. Because Leo did not buy him dog food

Options


Why did Rambo eat the cake? Question

Leo and his father went to the grocery store to buy food for the party, but they forgot to feed their dog Rambo before they left. At the grocery store, they picked out a cake, some ice cream, and soda. When they got home, Leo put the food on table in the kitchen and went to help his father. When he got back, he was horrified to see that Rambo had his nose in the cake, happily eating away.

Item Stimulus(Level 5)


Approved Item

Item after review by content and bias committee.

The Rodriquez family is going to have a party for their friends and neighbors to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, an important holiday in Mexico.

Orientation

Generic picture of a family making preparations for a party. Family members should look Hispanic.

Theme Stimulus


B. Because he was happy

C. Because Leo took him to the grocery store

D. Because Leo did not buy him dog food

Options


Why did Cabo eat the cake? Question

Leo and his father went to the grocery store to buy food for the party, but they forgot to feed their dog Cabo before they left. At the grocery store, they picked out a cake, some ice cream, and soda. When they got home, Leo put the food on table in the kitchen and went to help his father. When he got back, he was horrified to see that Cabo had his nose in the cake, happily eating away.

Item Stimulus(Level 5)


The Review Process

• Check for fit to PIs• Does length of stimulus match spec?• Does linguistic complexity of stimulus match spec?• Is vocabulary appropriate to spec?

• Check response options properties• Is there only one correct response option?• Are distractors motivated and equally attractive?• Are response options balanced in length & complexity?

• Check for inter-item balance & integrity• Are items consistent with theme?• Are items independent?

• Check for content accuracy

• Check for language, culture, and gender bias



The WIDA Assessment Framework and Standards




Course Goals

• Understand and apply established principles of language test construction, including notions of test validity and reliability

• Develop test items which accord with guidelines established for determining item difficulty, bias and authenticity

• Develop test items which accurately address a set of predetermined item specifications (the WIDA specifications), including writing test prompts and scoring rubrics

• Develop test items across the range of item formats designated by the WIDA specifications

• Develop test items that target specific levels of English language proficiency

• Develop test items that are aligned with the functional language requirements of social and classroom language and of the content areas: English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.


Course Work Requirements

• Study and apply the specifications for the participant’s designated grade level

• Write test items in each of the four language domains for the designated grade level

• Communicate with the class on substantive issues via discussion boards

• Communicate with the class on procedural issues via chat room

• Interact with other members of designated grade level

• Take and pass quizzes and final exam


Course Participants

Lead Instructor: Jim Bauman

Associate Instructors: Jessica Motz & Ellen Parkhurst

Teaching Assistants: George Motz (1-2), Lee Gough (3-5), Jennifer Himmel (6-8), Ellen Daniels (9-12)

Active Participants (28) From IL:

Marion Flaman—SD54Michael Safina—CCSD59Diane Wilkin—SD99Delia Rodriguez—CUSD300Irene Pelc—CCSD15Deb Grant—HSC220

Auditors (5)


Course Grading Structure

Item submission 60%

Participation in chat sessions and discussions 20%

Quizzes 20%

Successful completion of course requirements at an 80% level earns

2 university credits from the University of Wisconsin


Course Home Page

CourseMenu


Structure of the Course


Structure of a Module

Each module contains:

• Readings

• Self-Paced Exercises

• Interactive Exercises• Discussions• Chats

• Assignments

• Quizzes


Documents


Discussion Boards


Discussion Board Results

Discussion Forum Responses Pages Words

Exploring the item specifications

41 15 3,000

Sources of difficulty in listening items

106 36 10,700

How to evaluate constructed responses

115 43 13,700

Assessing language vs assessing content

85 34 11,725

Sources of reading errors 97 35 9,225

Total 444 163 48,350


Completing an Assignment

1. Download appropriate set of item specs from Documents area

2. Download data entry form from Documents

3. Conceive & research folder and items

4. Complete item data entry form

5. Submit completed form to Dropbox

6. Revise per instructor’s feedback

7. Resubmit to Dropbox

Specification

BlankData Entry

Form

Content Standards

Dropbox

CompletedData Entry

Form


The Dropbox


Test Item Results

Number of Items Produced

Standard

Language Domain GradeLevel LA MA SC SI SS

Grand Total

Listening 1-2 39 32 38 53 21 183

3-5 49 56 51 108 33 297

6-8 60 39 44 83 42 268

9-12 43 34 29 65 15 186

Listening Total 191 161 162 309 111 934

Reading 1-2 28 25 20 51 11 135

3-5 48 44 45 89 21 247

6-8 39 34 25 71 19 188

9-12 26 13 19 38 12 108

Reading Total 141 116 109 249 63 678

Grand Total 332 277 271 558 174 1612


What Teachers Got as Item Writers

• University credit or CEUs

• Direct experience with on-line learning

• Professional development on the WIDA standards and writing items for large-scale assessments

• Informed discussion on how to apply WIDA standards to the curriculum

• Professional contacts with other teachers across the consortium

• The deep gratitude of the ACCESS for ELLs™ development staff!!


What WIDA Got from Teacher Item Writers

• Approximately 1600 raw items

• A nucleus in each state of WIDA informed staff

• A pool of talent to serve as test coordinators, administrators, and future item reviewers

• Valuable insight on teachers’ perspectives on standardized testing

• Important clues on how to build professional development to apply the WIDA framework in the classroom


Questions, Discussion, Feedback?

Center for Applied Linguistics 1 The Item-Writing Process for ACCESS for ELLs Online Involvement by...

Documents

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