test adaptation questions. Help, Please!

Hello Coleen:

I worked with my daughter for six years from middle school through high school both at home work and test preparation. I found one of the best methods for both test preparation and learning how to write as a sentence completion methodology.
You supply the first part of a sentence and the student supplies the last part of a sentence with the answer. If your resource room teacher I would go so far as to say that the student should ride out the whole sentence. This is good writing practice as well as a test for concepts.

Jim — Michigan

How much are you allowed to adapt?

And, more to the point, is it the test or the teaching that needs to be adapted?

Couple more details — multiple guess questions should have longer questions and shorter answers so you read the question once (the long part) and then pick the answer. (Same with matching — make the left side long.)

If you can, use pictures (identify the era these pictures dcome from and say how you knew). Hey, Microsoft Word will snatch images from anywhere (but be mindful of copyright laws)

I’ve found that the kinds of questions that textbooks have on their standard tests are so steeped in verbalness that LD students have incredible difficulty connecting with it. Often the words in teh question (“which of these is not an example of…”) was enough to throw ‘em off.

If the course and the test are the “read the text and answer the questions” type — ya know, the “bulimic” tests where we stuff it in and regurgitate it — then, welp, it comes down to survival — think of anything you can do to make it easier and connect to whatever few things there’s a chance of the kiddo remembering.

I’ve had a *lot* better luck — but it takes a lot more time and I was alwsays the teacher, too — to have tests that focused on the “big ideas” and understanding them. There are some great articles on that in the “for teachers” section here — see the “watering up the curriculum” article. It’s not something you cobble together when the teahcer hands you the test the period before the kids are going to take it, though.

There are some other ideas & such on my website…

Oh, but also, just to agree about the sentence stuff. It helps a lot in the long run to learn to “answer the question in a complete sentence that reflects the question.”
I’ve watched students get from struggling to spit back something and being coached through (“What are three examples of mammals? Three examples of mammals are wombats, armadillos, and lemurs”) to being able to use that to start writing short essay questions. It *is* writing intensive so I often make compromises — you dictate two to me, then write two of ‘em out the long & painful way, and … oh, alright, just tghe answers for the last six.

If it were a perfect world, the best adaptation would be to have the student provide an oral arguement for test questions like Kathie Nunley’s suggestion in Layered Curriculum. Individually, a student is questioned by the teacher to assess what is known. I have found that one can uncover what is really known (or not known) by a student if you can make her explain through further probes “because….” or “how would that be different from…” or “what caused the settlers to feel that way…” etc. Many kids just don’t know how to express what they know or their answers seem contradictory until you sort out some of the contradictions.
Anyway, it’s not a perfect world so…

*paraphrasing the questions so that there is less confusion over what is being asked;

*sometimes I write two or three responses on the board and have students choose one rather than have them write an essay response;

*sometimes I have them draw a diagram or an example instead of an essay response;

*sometimes I eliminate a question or two if I believe it to be poorly constructed or substitute for another question that is similar in content;

*turn other types of questions into multiple choice;

All of this, of course, depends on the individual student, parents’ wishes, and individual teachers. These considerations along with the idea that we are really trying to assess what the kid knows without having that obscured by his or her particular processing problem(s) are the things I use to guide me in my test adaptations.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Taking it to another level, the appearance of the questions themselves can be important. Use a regular font, (always type!) 12 or 14 in size and make sure the copies are legible. Too many tests are handed out with smudges and tiny fonts that make it only harder for ld students to read the questions.

I’d also say DON’T do what so many teachers do and insist on complete sentences for answers. Not every single test should also be a test of writing skills. yes, always have a word bank for fill-in-the-blank but I don’t like fill in the blank for ld students at all. Words banks ask them to read words out of context and many children with learning differences in reading struggle with that.

I do multiple choice questions and most often give choices such as in-class multiple choice or a take-home short answer test. Of course, extended time is very appropriate for ld students.

I think being able to answer questions in complete sentences is an important skill — but showing everything you know shouldn’t hinge on it. So usually I ask for that on *some* questions for classwork and homework, on a very regular basis, to develop that specific skill.
I also like visual identification questions — “How do you know this is a mammal?” with a picture (ask for three ways if you need to know three characteristics) instead of “What are three characteristics of a mammal?” I mean, a wildlife expert will be identifying a critter she’s looking at, right?
THough, I prefer to use that kind of question as a graded class exercise — and then teach that pretty direct bridge from that to “what are three characteristics of a mammal?” and that whole questioning technique is a good study strategy to teach the students to do.

I worked with my step-daughter from 7th grade to 12th grade. We did a lot of homework together every night. At first she had a terrible time with middle school tests to put it mildly! I found that test taking was a learning experience in itself. I created practice tests. She would do them at home and we would go over them before the “real test” came along. I would make the questions as simple and straight forward as possilbe. There were multiple choice, true/false, and matching type questions. All the practice paid big dividends. She was able to master taking tests in the regular room. Soon she began to ask me to prepare practice tests/quizzes for her.
Jim — Michigan

Hi Coleen,
I have struggled with test taking and a learning disability all my life! I also have Cerebral Palsy. It never came easy to me. Still, now, to this day, when I am under pressure I can tell within myself whether or not my perception will be off. It has always been an uphill battle for me. But a lot of things changed, after I won the first civil rights case in California. That was when I found my mentor and tooter in college. This was back in 1980. If you’d like to talk more, I’d be more then happy to catt with you. My email address is [email protected]
Hope to hear from you soon