The Multiple Choice Challenge

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The Multiple ChoiceChallenge
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Begin with the item in mind!
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Key Terms

• STEM
• Introductory question or incomplete statement at
  the beginning of each item
• OPTIONS
• The choices, including the correct response
• DISTRACTORS
• The incorrect choices among the options

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The Challenge

• What does a correct response tell you about the
  learner?
• What does an incorrect response tell you?
• Why was one option chosen over another?

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Digging Deeper

• Content and/or Vocabulary
• Performance Verbs
• Level of Difficulty/Complexity
• Blooms Taxonomy

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Mathematics

• Which integer is a perfect square?
• 125
• 200
• 225
• 300

Released Ohio Achievement Test Item (8th-grade
mathematics)
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What can we learn from multiple choice responses?

• Which integer is a perfect square?
• 125
• 200
• 225
• 300

• (14)
• (21)
• (57)
• (7)

Notice the distribution of responses for each
option, including the number of correct responses
Released Ohio Achievement Test Item (8th-grade
mathematics)
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Science
The picture shows a pond ecosystem. Many
plants and animals live in and around the pond.

• One year the pond dried up. Which organism in
  the pond ecosystem was still able to take in
  oxygen?
• Turtle
• Trout
• Sunfish
• Tadpole

Released Ohio Achievement Test Item (5th-grade
science)
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Science
The principals chair has wheels. It
sits on her office floor next to her desk. She
pulls the chair away from her desk.

• What makes the chair move?
• the force of gravity on the chair
• the force of her pull on the chair
• friction between her hand and the chair
• friction between the wheels and the floor

Released Ohio Achievement Test Item (5th-grade
science)
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Reading

• The guitar music rings in my ears, and the
  salty-sweet tastes of Greece fill my mouth.
• Which definition of rings is used in the sentence
  above?
• definition 1
• definition 2
• definition 3
• definition 4

rings (rings) v. 1.) makes a clear sound or echo
2.) demonstrates a particular characteristic 3.)
makes a circle around 4.) alerts people or
signals the start of an event
Released Ohio Achievement Test Item (7th-grade
reading)
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Challenges
Instructional Strategies
Tips for Students
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Quality Check

• on
• Multiple Choice Questions

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Multiple Choice Test Items Should

• Offer consistency between stem and response
  format
• Be stated in a positive format
• Use clear and concise wording
• Present parallel options of similar length

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Multiple Choice Test Items Should Not

• Include impossible answers
• Over use qualifiers such as always or never
• Over use options such as none of the above or
  all of the above
• Use a and b, not c

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Multiple Choice Checklist - Make Sure That

• Items represent significant issues
• Stems present a problem
• Options offer only one correct or best answer
• Distractors are plausible
• Stems are carefully worded to exclude clues to
  the correct answer

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Design Time
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Think it. Ink it. Link it.

• On your own, consider the questions on the next
  slide (think it).
• Write down your thoughts related to these
  questions (ink it).
• Explore your own item analysis data on D3A2 and
  make connections from todays learning experience
  to your own classroom data (link it).

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Multiple Choice Questions

• What does a correct response tell you about the
  learner?
• What does an incorrect response tell you about
  the learner?

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The Multiple ChoiceChallenge