Formative Item Set

Reading · Grade 8

Domain: Reading Informational

Cluster: Craft and Structure
Passage Name(s): The Beekeeper Next Door
Item Types: Multiple-choice and constructed-response items

Blueprint
Item Item
Standard(s) Learning Target DOK Type Position
Determine the meaning of words and phrases
as they are used in a text, including figurative,
connotative, and technical meanings; analyze I can analyze the impact of words
2 MC A–1
the impact of specific word choices on meaning on meaning.
and tone, including analogies or allusions to
other texts. (RI.08.04)

I can determine the role of

Analyze in detail the structure of a specific 2 MC A–2
particular sentences in a text.
paragraph in a text, including the role of particular
sentences in developing and refining a key
I can determine the structure an
concept. (RI.08.05) 2 MC A–3
author uses in a text.

I can determine an author's

Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in 2 MC A–4
reasons for writing a text.
a text and analyze how the author acknowledges
and responds to conflicting evidence or I can evaluate how an author
viewpoints. (RI.08.06) presents opposing viewpoints in 3 CR B–1
an argument.

MC = multiple-choice
CR = constructed-response

A
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 Scoring Guide | Reading · Grade 8

Scoring Guide–Part A Reading Informational • Craft and Structure

The Beekeeper Next Door

Multiple-Choice Items
STANDARD: Determine the meaning of words and phrases Distractor Rationales
as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, A. Key
and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word
choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions B. Student chooses an incorrect response. While Mr. Barrett
to other texts. (RI.08.04) did enjoy raising bees himself, there is no support offered
in the text to suggest that he was actively encouraging
LEARNING TARGET: I can analyze the impact of words on others to take up the hobby.
meaning.
C. Student chooses an incorrect response. While Mr. Barrett
DOK: 2
did apply what he had learned about beekeeping to
his own hive, there is no support offered in the text to
770977 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
suggest he had solved the problem of colony collapse.
1. Read these sentences from paragraph 3 D. Student chooses an incorrect response. While Mr. Barrett
of the article “The Beekeeper Next Door.” did make sure that his hive had access to a variety of
food sources, there is no support offered in the text to
“I was surprised how much I really care suggest that he had taken his efforts to provide food for
bees community wide.
about the bees,” said Mr. Barrett, 49,
a systems administrator for New York
University, in reflecting on his inaugural
season as a beekeeper. “You start to
think about the ways to make their lives
better.”

The most likely reason the author chose

to use the word “inaugural” was to explain
that Mr. Barrett
A would go on to have additional
seasons as a beekeeper.
B encouraged neighbors to take up the
hobby of beekeeping.
C discovered new ways to increase the
number of bees in the wild.
D supported efforts by the community
to increase food sources for bees.

B
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Scoring Guide–Part A
Multiple-Choice Items
STANDARD: Analyze in detail the structure of a specific
paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences
in developing and refining a key concept. (RI.08.05)
LEARNING TARGET: I can determine the role of particular
sentences in a text.
DOK: 2
770962 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
2. Read this sentence from paragraph 10 of
the article “The Beekeeper Next Door.”
Then, four years ago, honey bee colonies
mysteriously started to die around the
country.
What is the purpose of this sentence?
A to explain a problem affecting bees
B to have the reader think of solutions
to a puzzle
C to support the argument for
prohibiting bees in cities
D to explain the effects of bees coming
from other countries
Distractor Rationales
A. Key
B. Student chooses an incorrect response. This choice might
seem plausible because the target sentence uses the
word “mysteriously,” but the purpose of this sentence is
not to pose a mystery for the reader to solve.
C. Student chooses an incorrect response. This choice might
seem plausible if a reader misinterprets the nature of
the problem and incorrectly concludes that it represents
a threat to people near bees.
D. Student chooses an incorrect option. This choice might
seem plausible because paragraphs 9 and 10 describe
some key events in the history of beekeeping, but the
purpose of this sentence is to state that fact that bee
populations are in decline.
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Scoring Guide | Reading · Grade 8
Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
The Beekeeper Next Door
STANDARD: Analyze in detail the structure of a specific
paragraph in a text, including the role of particular sentences
in developing and refining a key concept. (RI.08.05)
LEARNING TARGET: I can determine the structure an author
uses in a text.
DOK: 2
770958 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
3. How does the author organize information
in the article “The Beekeeper Next Door”?
A The author begins with the most
important idea and moves to less
important details.
B The author begins with historical
background about an issue and
describes change over time.
C The author begins with three main
ideas, supports each section with
details, and then summarizes the
main idea.
D The author begins with a specific
case, then discusses a general trend,
provides background, and concludes
with a new specific case.
Distractor Rationales
A. Student chooses an incorrect response. Although students
might think this would be a logical way for the author
to organize the article, the organizational structure does
not work, as the article is more reflective of modern
journalism and “human-interest” stories that begin with
the discussion of a broader issue by first describing the
case of a specific individual.
B. Student chooses an incorrect response. Although students
might think this would be a logical way for the author
to organize the article, the organizational structure does
not work, as the article does not begin with historical
background information or follow a linear time line of
events.
C. Student chooses an incorrect response. Although students
might think this would be a logical way for the author
to organize the article, the organizational structure does
not work, as the article does not follow the classic five-
paragraph essay approach to organizing an informational
or persuasive text. For example, the article does not begin
with an introduction that includes three main ideas.
D. Key
C
 Scoring Guide | Reading · Grade 8

Scoring Guide–Part A Reading Informational • Craft and Structure

The Beekeeper Next Door

Multiple-Choice Items
STANDARD: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose
in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and
responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints. (RI.08.06)
LEARNING TARGET: I can determine an author’s reasons for
writing a text.
DOK: 2

770971 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door

4. Why did the author most likely write the
article “The Beekeeper Next Door”?
A to celebrate the benefits of bees to
agriculture
B to overturn any legislation against
beekeeping
C to inform people about the recent
increase in beekeeping
D to warn people of the many dangers
bees face every day

Distractor Rationales
A. Student chooses an incorrect response. The author
discusses the benefits of bees in support of the overall
purpose to inform, but celebrating the benefits of bees is
not the author’s primary purpose in writing the article.
B. Student chooses an incorrect response. The author
does write about beekeeping legislation in general and
provides a couple of examples of places where laws
have changed to allow people to keep bees; however,
the author does not remark about all restrictions
against beekeeping being removed.
C. Key
D. Student chooses an incorrect response. The author
does write about the many dangers and hazards bees
face daily (such as pesticides, mites, diseases, and
colony collapse disorder), but this is a detail in support
of the article’s overall purpose to inform.

D
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 Scoring Guide | Reading · Grade 8

Scoring Guide–Part B Reading Informational • Craft and Structure

The Beekeeper Next Door

Constructed-Response Item
STANDARD: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to
conflicting evidence or viewpoints. (RI.08.06)
LEARNING TARGET: I can evaluate how an author presents opposing viewpoints in an argument.
DOK: 3

778552 Section - Part B 770969 Extended Text - The Beekeeper Next Door
1. Explain how the author describes the change in attitudes toward bees and beekeeping over time.
Include information from the article “The Beekeeper Next Door” to support your response.

Constructed-Response Rubric
Score Description
The response is a clear, complete, and accurate explanation of how the author of “The Beekeeper Next Door” describes
3
changes in attitudes toward bees and keeping over time. The response contains important details from each text.
The response is a somewhat clear or partial explanation of how the author of “The Beekeeper Next Door” describes
2 changes in attitudes toward bees and keeping over time. The response includes limited details from each text and
may include misinterpretations.
The response is a minimal explanation of how the author of “The Beekeeper Next Door” describes changes in attitudes
toward bees and keeping over time. The response contains few or no details from each text and may include
1 misinterpretations.
OR
The response relates minimally to the task.
0 The response is incorrect or irrelevant or contains insufficient information to demonstrate comprehension.

Blank No Response.

Scoring Notes
The author suggests the following changes in attitudes:
Where once bees were seen as less efficient and more costly than modern farming practices, bees are now viewed as an
important asset/partner to agriculture.
• farmers stopped rotating their crops with clover (a primary source of pollen for bees)
• bees were no longer able to collect pollen from these farms
• farmers started using fertilizers, along with harmful pesticides and herbicides
• bees were harmed by the pesticides
• increasing demand for natural, organically grown foods led to more farmers finding safer alternatives to pesticides

Where bees were seen as a menace to society (dangerous), bees are now viewed as safe.
• outlawing of beekeeping in cities and towns across the country
• all agriculture (including beekeeping) was banned in towns and cities across the country
• stemmed from many towns’ desire to shed their rural images and be considered full-fledged municipalities
• stories of Africanized bees
• increased demand for homegrown honey, bans on beekeeping being lifted

Where beekeeping was seen as a waste of time and resources, beekeeping has now become a popular hobby.
• beekeeping is starting to make a comeback
• beekeeping classes and clubs are sprouting up across the country
• Other text-based views and evidence

E
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 Student Item Set

1
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 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

Passage
778543 Cluster - The Beekeeper Next Door 770954 Shared Stimulus - The Beekeeper Next Door
Read the article. Then answer the questions that follow.

The Beekeeper Next Door

by Kristina Shevory

1 Mike Barrett does not have much of a yard at his two-story row house in Astoria, Queens. But that
fact has not kept him from his new hobby of beekeeping—he put the hive on his roof. When it was
harvest time this fall, he just tied ropes around each of the two honey-filled boxes in the hive, and
lowered them to the ground.

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2 Eventually, Mr. Barrett loaded the boxes into his car, took off his white beekeeper suit and set
off for a commercial kitchen in Brooklyn. There, along with other members of the New York City
beekeeping club, he extracted his honey, eventually lugging home 40 pounds of the stuff.
3 He was happy with his successful harvest, but he also reaped something he did not expect. “I was
surprised how much I really care about the bees,” said Mr. Barrett, 49, a systems administrator for
New York University, in reflecting on his inaugural season as a beekeeper. “You start to think about
the ways to make their lives better.”
4 Until last spring, Mr. Barrett would have been breaking the law and risking a $2,000 fine for engaging
in his sticky new hobby. But in March, New York City made beekeeping legal, and in so doing it joined
a long list of other municipalities, from Denver to Milwaukee to Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, that have
also lifted beekeeping bans in the last two years. Many towns, like Hillsboro, Ore., have done the same,
and still other places, like Oak Park, Ill., and Santa Monica, Calif., are reconsidering their prohibitions.
5 Nationwide, hives are being tucked into small backyards and set alongside driveways; even the
White House has installed some. Beekeeping classes are filling up quickly, and new beekeeping clubs
are forming at the same time that established ones are reporting large jumps in membership.
6 At Mr. Barrett’s club, for instance, membership has more than doubled, to about 900, in the last
year. In Los Angeles, the Backwards Beekeepers club has 400 members—up from six members two
years ago. And in Denver, a club that was formed last year already boasts a roster of 200.
7 “Everyone who teaches a beekeeping course is finding themselves popular all of a sudden,” said
James Fischer, 53, an instructor at New York City Beekeeping.

2
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 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

8 One force behind this rise of beekeeping is the growing desire for homegrown and organic food.
Another, more complex one is the urge to stem the worrisome decline in the nation’s bee population.
9 The number of bees has been falling since the end of World War II, when farmers stopped rotating
crops with clover, a good pollen source for bees, and started using fertilizers. Pesticides and herbicides
became common as well. In cities, native plants were ripped out in favor of exotic ones that were not
good for bees.
10 Then, four years ago, honey bee colonies mysteriously started to die around the country. This drop-
off, called colony collapse disorder, added to the mounting health problems, like mites and diseases,
that bees are facing. About 30 percent of the country’s managed colonies have died; around a third of
the deaths are related to colony collapse disorder, according to the Agriculture Department.
11 “We don’t know the primary cause, but we know the combination of poor nutrition, heavy pesticide
use and bee diseases have put bees into a tailspin,” said Marla Spivak, an entomology professor at
the University of Minnesota and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for her work on
honey bee health.
12 Whatever the cause of colony collapse disorder, “People want to feel that they are doing something
to help,” said Dave Mendes, president of the American Beekeeping Federation in Atlanta. “Having a few
beehives in your backyard can make you feel better.”
13 But beekeeping is forbidden in many places. Some of the bans arose after World War II. Cities,
seeking to eradicate any traces of agriculture within their limits in order to show they were full-fledged
municipalities, forbade the raising of livestock, chicken and other creatures used in food production.
Another wave of prohibitions came 20 years ago with the arrival of “killer bees” from Mexico . . . “At the
time, people didn’t know what killer bees would do because they kept moving.” (Fortunately, the bees
turned out not to be the threat that people feared.)
14 Nurturing flowers, fruits and vegetables is another factor in the rise in beekeeping, and it ranks
high for Marygael Meister, who runs the Denver Beekeepers Association. In 2008, when Ms. Meister
took a beekeeping class and set up two hives in her backyard in Denver, her goal was to help her
more than 300 rosebushes thrive.
15 Ms. Meister said she had initially called the city information line and had been told it was legal to
keep bees. The information was incorrect, and she received a cease-and-desist order when a neighbor
complained about her hives. But instead of giving up, Ms. Meister decided to fight, showing the zeal of
the nation’s new crop of beekeepers.

“The Beekeeper Next Door” by Kristina Shevory, from NYTimes.com, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/garden/09Bees.html.

Copyright © 2010 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission of the New York Times Company.

3
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Reading · Grade 8
Part A
For each question, choose the best answer. Then completely fill in the circle for the answer you chose.
770977 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
1. Read these sentences from paragraph 3
of the article “The Beekeeper Next Door.”
“I was surprised how much I really care
about the bees,” said Mr. Barrett, 49,
a systems administrator for New York
University, in reflecting on his inaugural
season as a beekeeper. “You start to
think about the ways to make their lives
better.”
The most likely reason the author chose
to use the word “inaugural” was to explain
that Mr. Barrett
A would go on to have additional
seasons as a beekeeper.
B encouraged neighbors to take up the
hobby of beekeeping.
C discovered new ways to increase the
number of bees in the wild.
D supported efforts by the community
to increase food sources for bees.
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Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
The Beekeeper Next Door
770962 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
2. Read this sentence from paragraph 10 of
the article “The Beekeeper Next Door.”
Then, four years ago, honey bee colonies
mysteriously started to die around the
country.
What is the purpose of this sentence?
A to explain a problem affecting bees
B to have the reader think of solutions
to a puzzle
C to support the argument for
prohibiting bees in cities
D to explain the effects of bees coming
from other countries
770958 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door
3. How does the author organize information
in the article “The Beekeeper Next Door”?
A The author begins with the most
important idea and moves to less
important details.
B The author begins with historical
background about an issue and
describes change over time.
C The author begins with three main
ideas, supports each section with
details, and then summarizes the
main idea.
D The author begins with a specific
case, then discusses a general trend,
provides background, and concludes
with a new specific case.
4
 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

770971 Choice - The Beekeeper Next Door

4. Why did the author most likely write the
article “The Beekeeper Next Door”?
A to celebrate the benefits of bees to
agriculture
B to overturn any legislation against
beekeeping
C to inform people about the recent
increase in beekeeping
D to warn people of the many dangers
bees face every day

5
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 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

Part B
Write your answer in the box provided.
778552 Section - Part B 770969 Extended Text - The Beekeeper Next Door
1. Explain how the author describes the change in attitudes toward bees and beekeeping over time.
Include information from the article “The Beekeeper Next Door” to support your response.

6
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 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

7
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 Reading Informational • Craft and Structure
Reading · Grade 8 The Beekeeper Next Door

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