ART OF QUESTIONING:

Honing Teachers Test-Making Skills

Prof. Roderick Motril Aguirre Department of Reading and Literacy College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature Philippine Normal University Manila

Introduction

Levels of Understanding
Literal/ Frustration Interpretative Instructional

Getting the information drift

Combining information & making inferences

Applied/ Independent

Using information to express opinions and form new ideas

Blooms Taxonomy and Learning

Category
Knowledge
(Remembering)

Cognitive Activity
Student recalls or recognizes information, ideas, and principles in the approximate form in which they are learned. Student translates, comprehends, or interprets information based on prior learning.

Key Terms
memory, knowledge, repetition, description

Comprehensio n
(Understanding)

explanation, comparison, illustration

Category
Application
(Solving)

Cognitive Activity
Student selects, transfers, and uses data and principles to complete a problem task with a minimum of directions. Student distinguishes, classifies, and relates the assumptions, hypotheses, evidence, conclusions, and structure of a statement or a question with an awareness of the thought processes he/she is using.

Key Terms
solution, application, convergence

Analysis
(Analyzing)

logic, induction and deduction, formal reasoning

Category

Cognitive Activity
Student originates, integrates, and combines ideas into a product, plan or proposal that is new to him/her.

Key Terms
divergence, productive, thinking, novelty

Synthesis
(Creating)

Evaluation
(Judging)

Student appraises, assesses, or criticizes on judgment, selection a basis of specific standards and criteria (this does not include opinion unless standards are made explicit).

LEVELS OF PROCESSING LITERAL

BLOOMS TAXONOMY Knowledge

DIRECTION OF COMPREHENSION TRANSMISSION (Bottom-Up)

Comprehension Application
INTERPRETATIVE

Analysis Synthesis

INTERACTIVE (InteractiveCompensatory)

APPLIED

Evaluation

CONSTRUCTION (Top-Down)

THE SIX FACETS OF LEARNING

Facet 1: Explanation
Understanding is not just knowledge of

facts but inference about why and how, with specific evidence and logic insightful connections and illustrations.
We need to explain why our answer is

correct, why the facts exists, why the formula works; we need to supply support to our opinions.

Facet 2: Interpretation
A story is more than a language arts concept. The

meanings and patterns we ascribe to all events, data, or experiences transforms our understanding and perception of particular facts.
The challenge in teaching is to bring the text to

life by showing how, through study and discussion, it can speak to our concerns Interpretation manifests itself in discussions of the significance of books, works of art, or past and present experiences.

Facet 3: Application
Understanding involves matching our

ideas, knowledge, and actions to context.

The problems that we develop for

students should be as close as possible to the situation in which a scholar, artist, engineer, or other professional attacks such problems.

Facet 4: Perspective
The critical sense of the term, students with

perspective expose questionable and unexamined assumptions, conclusions, and implications.

When students have or can gain perspective,

they can gain a critical distance from the habitual or knee-jerk beliefs, theories, and appeals that characterize less careful circumspect thinkers.

Facet 5: Empathy
Empathy is a form of insight because it involves

the ability to get beyond odd, alien, seemingly weird opinions or people to find what is meaningful in them.
Understanding

in the interpersonal sense suggests not merely an intellectual change of mind but a significant change of heart. Empathy requires respect for people different from ourselves.

Facet 6: Self-knowledge
Our intellectual blind spots predispose us

toward intellectual rationalization: the ability to unendingly assimilate experience to beliefs and to categories that seem not merely plausible ideas but objective truths.
Self-knowledge is a key facet of understanding

because it demands that we self-consciously question our ways of seeing the world if we are to become more understanding better able to see beyond ourselves.

Facets of Learning Explanation

Blooms Taxonomy Knowledge

Levels of Processing Literal

Interpretation Comprehension Application Perspective Empathy Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Applied Interpretive

SelfKnowledge

Ask questions that facilitate the comprehension of both the content and language of the lesson/subject matter.
COMPREHENSION PRODUCTION

Sample Rubrics for Recitation

Facets of Learning
Explanation Interpretation Application Perspective Empathy Self-Knowledge

Blooms Taxonomy
Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Score Score (Nominal) (Grade)

1 2 3 4 5 6 77-80 81-84 85-88 89-92 93-96 97-100

Questions Using Narratives

The core of- and heart of any true conversation is the content and not just pronunciation and grammaticality of the utterances.

Maria, a young lady, went to the market because she wanted to buy a dozen eggs. She would like to bake a cake for her mother. It was her 60th birthday.
1. Who went to the market? 2. Why did Maria want to go to the market? 3. What will she do with the eggs? 4. What is the cake for? 5. How do you celebrate your birthday? 6. How do you celebrate your mothers birthday?

 The Wind and the Sun were disputing which

was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said:
"I see a way to decide our dispute.

Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin."

So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.

Questions
What is the story about?
A. The Wind and the Sun B. The dispute between the Wind and the Sun C. Which is stronger between the Wind and the Sun

Who is the hero in the story?

A. The Wind B. The Sun C. The Wind and the Sun

Standardized Assessment in Classrooms

1. Realigning and Chunking of Competencies

1. For Language Courses/Subjects

Realign the listening/pakikinig,

reading/pagbasa, (viewing/panunuod), speaking/pagsasalita, and writing/pagsulat competencies.

Chunk the realigned competencies

to four quarters.

2. For Content Areas

Realign the competencies/topics

from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract.

Chunk the realigned

competencies/topics to four quarters.

2. Construct Table of Specifications

Teacher-Made Tests of Achievement

Select Formats
Multiple-Choice Questions

True-False Statements

Supply Formats
Fill-in Questions Cloze Test Extended Responses

Extended Responses
Be precise in the directions so that students will

not have to guess what responses will be credited.

Describe, define, and

identify mean to give meaning, essential and make characteristics, and/or place within a taxonomy. List means to enumerate and implies that complete sentences and paragraphs are not required unless specifically requested. Discuss requires more than a description, definition, or identification; a student is expected to draw implications and elucidate relationships.

 Explain means to analyze and make clear or

comprehensible a concept, event, principle, relationship, or so forth; thus, explain requires going beyond a definition to describe the hows or whys. Compare means to identify and explain similarities among two or more things. Contrast means to identify and explain differences among two or more things. Evaluate means to give the value of something and implies an enumeration and explanation of assets and liabilities, pros and cons.

Developing HOTS

I-Chart
Question Area 1
What I Think

Question Area 2

Question Area 3

Question Area 4

Source #1

Source #2

Source #3

Summary

Opinion-Proof
OPINION
President Truman was justified in resorting to the use of the atomic bomb in the final days of World War II.

PROOF
The Japanese government and military had committed to fight to the last man. The alternative to atomic bombing was an invasion of Japan, which would have resulted in enormous numbers of casualties among U.S. troops. The United States was in a race to develop atomic weapons and had no idea whether or if the Japanese were also developing their own weapons of mass destruction. A continuation of the war indefinitely would cost untold thousands of military and civilian deaths on both sides of the fighting. A continuation of the war indefinitely would continue to drain the resources of the United States and the other Allied Powers. A continuation of the war indefinitely would further delay efforts to rebuild the war-torn nations.

Question-Answer Relationships
[Raphael, 1982, 1984]

Explain Those Four QARs!

Right There. The answer is in the text or the

discussion, and if we pointed at it, we'd say it's "right there!" Often, the answer will be in a single sentence or place in the text or utterance, and the words used to create the question are often also in that same place.
the discussion, but you might have to look in several different sentences or utterances to find it. It is broken up or scattered or requires a grasp of multiple ideas across paragraphs, pages or utterances.

Think and Search. The answer is in the text or

 Author and You. The answer is not in the

text or the discussion, but you still need information that the author or teacher has given you, combined with what you already know, in order to respond to this type of question. text or the discussion, and in fact you don't even have to have read the text or listen to the lesson to be able to answer it.

On My Own. The answer is not in the

 The sun was setting, and as the senator

gazed out his office window, he could see the silhouettes of some of the unique buildings and monuments of Washington, D.C. Directly in front of him at the other end of the National Mall, the stark obelisk of the Washington Monument thrust dramatically skyward, its red warning lights blinking in the approaching dusk. Although he couldn't quite see it, he knew that beyond the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool just past it, a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln sat thoughtfully in the Lincoln Memorial.

 The senator was worried. A bill was before

the Congress, called Safe Surfing for Safer Schools, that would deny federal education dollars to states that didn't have laws against internet pornography on their books. He was concerned about kids having access to dirty pictures, and even more concerned about internet predators having access to kids. But he also believed strongly in the right of people to freely access information, even if it meant sometimes children might be exposed to adult materials. And it seemed dangerous to take money away from schools, where the need was desperate, if state legislatures balked at this federal pressure on them.

His constituents had let him know in no uncertain terms that they supported strict standards of decency on the internet. He knew if he didn't support the bill, his next election opponent would paint him as pro-pornography, and anti-child. But he didn't want anything to get in the way of providing monetary support to schools through federal grants. The unique spires of the original Smithsonian Institution were getting harder to see, but there was still a faint gleam on the green dome of the Museum of Natural History. What was the right thing to do?

Right There

Think and Search Author and You

On My Own

What legislation is the senator worried about? What arguments is he having to weigh in his mind? How would you advise the Senator, and why would you advise him so? What's a tough decision you've had to make?

LEVELS OF BLOOMS PROCESSING TAXONOMY

QAR
Right There

UBD
Explanation

LITERAL Knowledge
Comprehension INTERPRETA TIVE Application Analysis Synthesis

Think & Interpretation Search Application Author & You On My Own

Shift Perspective

Empathy SelfKnowledge

APPLIED Evaluation

THANK YOU