Preparing Students for Technology Enhanced Items on Standardized Tests

With the rise of technology, standardized testing is not the same today as it used to be. The biggest hurdle is familiarizing students with the tools that they need to be able to use within the test itself.

After reviewing and dissecting test questions and scores from last year, my teaching partner and I came to the conclusion that our largest pitfall was our students' ability to manipulate the technology enhanced questions.

So, how do we overcome this hurdle? Provide opportunity for practice and expose students to the type of questions that they may encounter.

Five of the most common type of questions I have found to occur on the computerized standardized tests are the follow:

Drag and Drop

Students are required to drag an item from one part of the screen to another.

Multiple Select

These types of questions are similar to multiple choice with one major exception, students select more than one answer.

Text Selection/Highlighting

Students are required to click on words, phrases, or an entire sentence to answer the question.

Equation Builder

The equation builder is specific to math and is similar to a mini calculator. It contains mathematical symbols and numbers.

Constructed Response

These types of questions are nothing new to students except instead of writing their response with a pencil, they type their response in a given box.

To prepare students for these types of question, I locate the specific type of question and show students different examples. Students are given the entire file chart (see below) in the beginning, but I only introduce students to one or two types of questions each day. Once students are familiar with the type of question that we are covering, I have them create their own example on the flip chart with a partner.