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Common Learning Disabilities

What is Learning Disability?

Learning disability is a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities.

TYPES OF LEARNING DISABILITIES

Learning disabilities can be categorized either by the type of information processing that is affected or by the specific difficulties caused by a processing deficit. Information processing deficits. Learning disabilities fall into broad categories based on the four stages of information processing used in learning:

  • Input
  • Integration
  • Storage
  • Output

Specific Learning Disabilities

  1. Reading disability (Dyslexia)
    This type of disorder, also known as dyslexia, is quite widespread and is the most common learning disability. In fact, reading disabilities affect 2 to 8 percent of elementary school children. And, of all students with specific learning disabilities, 70%-80% have deficits in reading.

Specific Characteristics:

  • inability to distinguish or separate the sounds in spoken words
  • problem sounding out words
  • trouble with rhyming games
  • trouble understanding or remembering new concepts
  • difficulty comprehending words read
  1. Writing disability (Dysgraphia)
    Writing too, involves several brain areas and functions. The brain networks for vocabulary, grammar, hand movement, and memory must all be in good working order. So, a developmental writing disorder may result from problems in any of these areas.
  2. Arithmetic disorder (Dyscalculia)
    Specific Characteristics:
    has difficulty …
  • recognizing numbers and symbols
  • memorizing facts
  • aligning numbers
  • understanding abstract concepts like place value and fractions
  1. Nonverbal learning disability

Nonverbal learning disabilities often manifest in…

  • Motor clumsiness, poor visual skills, problematic social relationships, difficulty with math, and poor organizational skills.
  • These individuals often have specific strengths in the verbal domains, including early speech, large vocabulary, early reading and spelling skills, excellent rote-memory and auditory retention, and eloquent self-expression.
  1. Disorders of speaking and listening
    Difficulties that often co-occur with learning disabilities include difficulty with memory, social skills and executive functions (such as organizational skills and time management).
  2. Auditory processing disorder
    Difficulties processing auditory information include difficulty comprehending more than one task at a time and a relatively stronger ability to learn visually.

COMMON SIGNS OF LEARNING DISABILITIES

Toddlers/Pre-K

  • Speaks later than most children
  • Pronunciation problems
  • Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word
  • Difficulty rhyming words
  • Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colors, shapes
  • Extremely restless and easily distracted
  • Trouble interacting with peers
  • Difficulty following directions or routines
  • Fine motor skills slow to develop

Kindergarten

  • Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
  • Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
  • Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
  • Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
  • Slow to remember facts
  • Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
  • Unstable pencil grip
  • Trouble learning about time
  • Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents

Prep

  • Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)
  • Slow to learn spelling strategies
  • Avoids reading aloud
  • Trouble with word problems
  • Difficulty with handwriting
  • Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
  • Avoids writing assignments
  • Slow or poor recall of facts
  • Difficulty making friends

CAUSES AND RISK FACTORS

The causes for learning disabilities are not well understood, and sometimes there is no apparent cause for a learning disability. However, some causes of neurological impairments include:

  • Heredity – Learning disabilities often run in the family.
  • Problems during pregnancy and birth.
  • Accidents after birth (head injuries, malnutrition, toxic exposure)

EVALUATION

Evaluation depends on an integrated assessment of the child’s functioning in the following domains:

  • cognition – perceptual organization, memory, concept formation, and problem solving
  • communication – speech/language form, content, and use for receptive and expressive purposes
  • emergent literacy – phonological awareness, awareness of print; numeric – number recognition, and number concepts
  • motor functions – gross, fine, and oral motor abilities
  • sensory functions – auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, and visual systems
  • social – emotional adjustment, including behavior, temperament, and social interaction

TREATMENT AND INTERVENTION

Interventions include:
1. Mastery model:

  • Learners work at their own level of mastery.
  • Practice
  • Gain fundamental skills before moving onto the next level.
  1. Direct Instruction:
  • Highly structured, intensive instruction
  • Correcting mistakes immediately
  • Achievement-based grouping
  • Frequent progress assessment
  1. Classroom Adjustments:
  • Special seating assignments
  • Alternative or modified assignments
  • Modified testing procedures
  1. Special Equipment:
  • Electronic spellers and dictionaries
  • Talking alphabet
  • Books on tape
  1. Classroom Assistants:
  • Note-takers
  • Readers
  • Proofreaders
  1. Special Education:
  • Prescribed hours in a special class
  • Placement in special class

Enrollment in a special school for learning disabled students

Integrated Activities and Teaching Strategies in Mathematics (Colors)

Rationale

Teachers teach best what they need to learn. The teacher’s responsibility is not just to teach, but to learn, and never cease to learn. It is vital, therefore, that teachers constantly reinvent themselves in order to maintain their effectiveness. Mathematics is often mislabeled as a difficult subject, thus, it has always been a challenge to educators to plan and implement a teaching technique that makes learning enjoyable and engaging for children.

Incorporating fun and integrating mathematics in other subject areas would provide teachers a refreshing way of teaching the basic mathematical concepts.

Weaving a Web of Learning

Integrating Mathematics with other subject areas is one way of assuring that children will enjoy learning, and that learning takes place at its optimum level. Mathematics can be taught across different subject areas such as Science, Music and Creative Dramatics, Arts and Crafts, Speaking, Reading, Writing, P.E. and Health, Values, and even Cooking!

Lesson Plan Web

Specifically for this module, a web plan is made for specific themes such as Colors, Shapes, and Numbers. The children will discover the joy of learning new concepts through thematic teaching, which is the natural way to integrate curriculum content areas.

[This article will first discuss Colors as its theme]

COLORS

  1.   This is a no-lose variation of this classic game with your children. Select a piece of white paper and draw a red circle on one side and a green one on the other. Show the paper and see if they have any ideas about what the circles might mean. Help them conclude that the red circle means “stop” and the green one means “go”. Then invite the children to pretend that they are cars: when you hold up the green light, they drive around; when you hold up the red light, they stop. (P.E./Social Studies) 
  2.   Collect a few red (or any color) items and place them in a pillowcase. Seat the children in a group and begin to tell a story. Choose a child to come and select one item from the pillowcase. Incorporate the item into the story. Choose another child and continue until all the items have been selected. (Language)
  3.  Sing to the tune of “Three Blind Mice”:

 

I Like Red 

I like red, I like red

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Red is the color of strawberries

As well as apples and some cherries

Did you ever see such a color, my friend

As red, red, red?

I like blue, I like blue

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Blue is the color of oceans and skies

Brand-new jeans and some birds I spy

Did you ever see such a color so true

As blue, blue, blue?

I like yellow, I like yellow

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Yellow is sunny that’s oh so bright

Yellow’s the color of the moon at night

Yellow shines and yellow glows

That is yellow.

I like green, I like green

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Green is the grass and the leaf of a tree

Lilies and frogs that croak at me

Green is the color of vines with beans

It’s green, green, green.

I like orange, I like orange

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

A carrot is orange and pumpkins, too

The sun in my paper that I drew

A fruit tree with an orange or two.

That is orange.

I like brown, I like brown

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Brown is the color of chocolates

Coffee cups and morning toasts

And what do you think of our skin?

It’s brown, brown, brown.

I like pink, I like pink

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Baby cheeks and tongues are pink

Flowers and cotton candies

And what do you think of powdered cheeks?

Pink, pink, pink.

I like violet, I like violet

Do you like it too? Do you like it too?

Yams and eggplants are violet

Orchids and grapes as well

The color I see when I bruise my thumb

It’s violet, violet.

  1.   Make a simple color graph on a large sheet of paper, enough to fit in a bulletin board or for everyone to see. Cut out small squares from construction paper that matches the colors named on the chart. Have each child paste a square of his or her favorite color on the chart. (Math)

When the chart is complete, discuss the results:

  • Which color is the most popular?
  • Which color is the least popular?
  • Which color(s) is/are not liked by anyone?
  • How many people like each of the colors?
  • How many people like ____ than ____?
  1.   Prepare three large transparent jars, water, red, blue, & yellow coloring, and large spoons or sticks for stirring. Fill the jars with water. Put a few drops of yellow food coloring in the first jar. Take time in doing this as children will enjoy the swirl design the food coloring makes as it mixes with the water. Add red food coloring to the yellow water a few drops at a time until the water is colored orange. Repeat the steps above, mixing red and blue food coloring to make purple, and yellow and blue coloring to make green. (Science)
  2.   Prepare a neighborhood (community) map. Outline streets, buildings, trees, parks, and so on with black marker or crayon. In one corner of the map, create a color key. Let children decide on appropriate colors for landmarks. (Social Studies)

Example:

Streets – gray

Houses – purple

Buildings – yellow

Parks – green

Bodies of water – blue

 

  1.   Prepare plain white paper towels (or white table napkins), bowls, food coloring – 3-4 colors. Put water in each bowl and add enough food coloring to produce an intense color. Fold the paper towel into eighths or sixteenths. Dip each corner of the folded towel into different colors of food coloring. Unfold the paper towel to reveal a beautiful tie-dyed design. When these lovely designs are dry, hang them in the window or on a clothesline strung across the classroom. (Art)
  2.   Using different colors of construction paper, cut out large simple shapes that match the following characters: brown bear, goldfish, red rooster, blue bird, yellow duck, green frog, purple cat, white dog, and black sheep. Include, too, the shapes of little children and a teacher. You may add outlines and a few details on the shapes so the children can recognize them more easily. Each character must be glued on a small white paper sheet or cardboard. Each paper has these familiar words: (Reading and Language)

Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

I see an orange fish looking at me.

Orange fish, orange fish, what do you see?

I see a red rooster looking at me.

[Red rooster…]

[Blue bird…]

[Yellow duck…]

[Green frog…]

[Purple cat…]

[White dog…]

Black sheep, black sheep, what do you see?

I see a teacher looking at me.

Teacher, teacher, what do you see?

I see boys and girls looking at me!

 

  1.   Give each child a piece of white paper and several blue (or any other color) circle stickers. Let the children attach these stickers to their papers at random. Then let them use blue (that same color) crayons or markers to connect the dots any way they wish. When the children have finished, talk about the various blue (that color) designs they created. (Writing)
  2.   Make a matching game for the children to play. Gather several shades of blue (or any other color) paper. Cut each shade into two, then mix up all the pieces. Let the children take turns sorting the pieces by color into matching games. As a variation, let the children take turns arranging them in order from the lightest to the darkest or vice-versa. (P.E./Math)
  3.   Prepare a white paper cup for each child by drawing a large smiling face on the side of each cup. Fill the cups to the top with potting soil. Then give them to the children along with some mongo or grass seeds. Have each child plant and water the seeds and set their cups in a sunny spot. After their seeds begin to grow, it will look like green hair on top of the smiling cup. (Science)

 

REFERENCES:

Puzzles and Games for Reading and Math, Susan Amerikaner & Kaye Furlong, McGraw-Hill Children’s Publishing, 1992

Best of Totline (Teacher Resource), Vol. 4, Compiled by Gayle Bittinger, Totline Publications, 2004

Integrated Activities for Whole Language and Thematic Teaching (Colors), Creative Teaching Press, Inc., 1991

Basic Arts and Crafts for Children

The Growing Skill of Drawing

Drawing moves from simple scribbles and jumbles to more detailed art that can be used within many fun projects.  Remember that young children still have a limited attention span.  There are lots of preparation involved starting up any arts and crafts activity, so it’s sensible to work through two or three mini projects in any single session.  This maintains and sparks their enthusiasm.  If you are planning a drawing session, you could begin by drawing simple shapes and images and challenging your students to copy.  This could progress to an effective introduction to coloring in.

Fill a sheet of blank paper with random squiggles and shapes, and then encourage the child to fill in the pattern with blocks of color.  This arts and crafts idea is an effective way to promote pen control and color design.  The session could end with a game using hands and feet as simple stencils.  Once there is an outline on paper, promote the child’s creativity by using the shapes as a base to create animals or faces.  Suddenly, toes and fingers become horns, manes, or tentacles!

Painting Ideas

Another perfect arts and crafts activity for the younger child is painting.  It is again advisable to have several activities planned.  Simple techniques like blow painting are a great idea.  All you require is thin paint and a straw.  The child spreads the paint by blowing and experimenting with different effects.  Once interest has waned you can resort to exploring other paint techniques using simple items like string or a cotton reel.

Another paint craft idea is the butterfly print.  This never fails to delight the preschool child.  Fold back half of a piece of paper, let the child paint the visible half with lots of appealing colors, then firmly close the paper in on itself using the central fold.  Watch the smiles when the child opens up the paper card to find a glorious butterfly splashed across the page.  If the paint has spread, the child can help you to recreate the butterfly shape using child-sized scissors.

Starting to Cut and Stick

It is important to introduce the child to a range of different arts and crafts.  The easiest and most satisfying craft idea is cutting and sticking.  At this stage, just use old magazines, a sheet of paper and a non-toxic glue stick.  Learning to control scissors, the preschool child loves to choose appealing and exciting pictures and photos to cut and stick into a personal collage.

Simple Building and Modeling

At this age kids can explore simple arts and crafts by building and modeling.  Again, keep it simple and use this craft idea to explore the possibilities offered by simple household items.  Could a plastic milk carton become a car or plane by the simple addition of cardboard wings or wheels?  What about the toilet roll that’s just itching to become a space rocket?  Arts and crafts are the ideal way to reach the child to look at the world with fresh and imaginative eyes.

The world is an exciting place for the growing child which makes their attention very limited at best.  Remember; line up several craft ideas for any arts and crafts sessions.  Above all, continue to keep it simple, don’t bombard the child with lots of sophisticated crafts ideas.  Look at the basic skills and use them to generate ideas in the child’s mind.  The idea at this stage is to confirm that the world is place full of exciting ideas and possibilities.

Skills Typically Developed Through Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts activities can provide each child with wonderful opportunities to create unique forms and pictures as well as explore materials and experiment with the use of various “tools.”  Remember, the experience or process is more important than the product.

Here is a listing of the type of skills that can be developed through arts and crafts:

  1. Creative expression
  2. Experimentation
  3. Fine-motor development
  4. Building self-esteem
  5. Using drawing, writing, cutting tools
  6. Learning properties of substances
  7. Following directions
  8. Manipulation of various materials and tools
  9. Pre-literacy skills
  10. Finding new ways to use materials

Communication and Interaction Tips, Activities, and Ideas

  • Materials – Talk about the various materials and how they are used.  For example: “Scissors are sharp for cutting,” “Glue is sticky to keep things together.”
  • Word Lists – Describe how materials feel or what can be done with the materials.  For example: when painting at an easel, show them how to mix the colors red and blue together to change the paint to purple.
  • Label Works of Art – Write the date and child’s name in the upper left hand corner of the paper.  Say the name and letters as you write them.
  • In the Child’s Words – Write down what the child tells you about his or her picture.  It’s best to write the exact words the child uses to describe the picture.
  • Showcase Artworks – Children’s crafts map a child’s development and skills.  This journey through preschool deserves to be proudly exhibited in colorful displays.  Dry or display artworks by using a drying rack or stringing a clothesline across a wall and using clothes pins to attach the artwork.  Artwork should be displayed throughout the school.

Cross Curriculum Lessons, Activities and Resources

Finding ways to incorporate arts and crafts into the everyday classroom is essential.  It’s been proven that early exposure to visual art, music, or drama promotes activity in the brain. What better way to create excitement in the math, science or history classroom?  Arts and crafts activities help children understand other subjects much more clearly… from math and science, to reading and language arts, and to music and movement.

So go ahead, start incorporating arts and crafts into your everyday teaching. Your students will thank you!

 

*This article was prepared especially for Saint Matthew’s Publishing Corporation.

The Wonders of Arts and Crafts

The Psychology of Arts and Crafts for Children

Arts and crafts activities for children are important elements of preschool education.  It’s vital to remember that preschool isn’t just fun and socialization, or just a way of passing the time but a crucial part of a child’s educational development.  There are so many positive benefits for children if they are encouraged to enjoy the wide range of arts and crafts activities available.

A Creative Problem

Creativity is a challenging process that takes the child on a journey through a whole spectrum of skills.  Arts and crafts activities are a series of problem-solving activities.  Kids are presented with a goal, perhaps a painting or a model.  Using a method and a set of skills, they either recreate this item or design an entirely new piece of artwork.  There is no ‘right’ answer with arts and crafts. Children must find ways to interpret and identify the best way forward from a whole set of ideas.  As they proceed, they are constantly discovering the laws of cause and effect.  The young artist will often have to think laterally and may have their perseverance tested.  In other words, every art and craft project is one big problem to be solved so that it results in a real sense of achievement.

 Quiet Time

Arts and crafts activities may be particularly valuable for more children.  The activities demand patience, and results are only achieved with effort and time.  It means that arts and crafts activities provide a valuable opportunity for concentration and quiet time.

Play as Therapy

Sigmund Freud, a famous psychotherapist, once claimed that play was a direct pathway into a child’s unconscious mind.  Even if you don’t subscribe to this view, it’s easy to spot how it can relate directly to hidden feelings and emotions.  It’s an effective insight into a child’s personality and thought patterns.  The power of arts and crafts activities are demonstrated superbly when it’s used to assist traumatized children as they attempt to come to terms with negative experiences.  There is a whole profession built on the principles of play therapy.  Safe and unrestricted play is used to explore issues that may trouble children and could otherwise be difficult to uncover.

Time Together

Arts and crafts activities often use substances and materials that are harmful to children.  This means it’s usually a shared experience between the teacher and the child.  This shared activity can be a really positive experience. It encourages social skills, speech, language development, and listening skills.  It may be the first time a child starts to develop his ability to work in a team.  It’s also a good chance to learn to negotiate or compromise.  Close co-operation and adult attention makes the child feel valued and boosts his self-esteem and confidence.  Even if the teacher is not present throughout the entire creative process, there will always be a finished product to be admired.

The preschool child learns and absorbs information at an astonishing pace.  You can channel this activity by coming up with fun projects and craft ideas together.  Initially, a teacher’s role is purely supervisory, but arts and crafts for the growing children allow them to learn and explore techniques and ideas more independently.

Download our sample activities here: The Wonders of Arts & Crafts

 

*This article was prepared especially for Saint Matthew’s Publishing Corporation.

Understanding Budgeting & Handling Finances

Written by: Hazel Domingo Babiano

All organizations, both public and private, need to operate successfully financially in order to do all the things they want to. Even non-profit making organizations such as charities, local authorities, etc., need to achieve a surplus or profit in order to survive. In the case of schools, mishandling the school budget and finances may cause severe losses which, eventually, may lead to the cessation of school operations. Understanding basic budgeting is therefore important to keep the school going and growing.

The Importance of Financial Controls

It is not enough for an organization to break even. Profits are important because no matter how good an organization is at budgeting and achieving budgets, it is almost impossible for them to guarantee that they will exactly cover their expenditure. If an organization was only aiming to break even and consistently made a loss (i.e. expenditures are higher than income), then eventually it will have to close down

For an organization that wants to expand, to do new things, employ more staff, give pay rises, and buy new machinery and equipment, it needs to have funds to do that. The best way for a school to get these funds is to provide for themselves out of their profit or surplus. Also, if an organization has shareholders, these shareholders will expect to be paid dividends. Dividends cannot be paid unless the school is making a profit.

Most organizations have to pay corporation tax to the government which helps to pay for Education, Health, Defense and so on.

Important Terms to Remembers

  1. Profit and Loss Accounts

Profit and loss account deals with measuring the viability of a business. In oher words, it is doing well enough to stay in a business or in a case of the public sector, to justify its existence.

  1. Cash Flow

Even though an organization may be in profit on paper, it is essential that it has enough money in the bank to pay its bills. For example, it may be owned a substantial sum by its customers, but if they haven’t paid and the money isn’t in the bank, the organization may not be able to pay its salaries, bills, and its suppliers.

Because organizations spread the capital costs of fixed assets such as equipment over their expected “life” (so that one year’s profit is not adversely impacted versus another relative to the use of the asset), this is another reason why cash flow and profit are not the same.

When looking at the profit and loss account, we also need to take into account the cash position of the organization. In other words, if the profit is good, but the money isn’t in the bank, the organization knows that it needs to take action.

III. The Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet is basically a record of the assets that an organization owns and the wealth of the business. It is also records of the source of funding that the organization has, for example, the amount of the money contributed by shareholders (known as Capital), retained profit or reserves (the money that the organization has kept to one side and not paid to shareholders) and any long-term loans that it has.

  1. Budgets

A budget enables an organization to measure its performance against the financial plan that it has for its future. Normally, the yearly budget will be linked to the longer-term financial plan which will be tied into the aims of the organization.

A budget means that the organization can decide in advance what it wants to spend its money on and how much money it needs to make in order to buy new equipment, etc. and to make a profit.

During the year, the organization will have to report how well it is achieving against its budget. Many organizations will forecast in advance how well they thing they are likely to do compared to what the budget says they must do. This process becomes more important as the organization comes to the end of its financial year when the budget may no longer be an up-to-date guide to predicting financial results.

 

*This article was prepared especially for Saint Matthew’s Publishing Corporation

Crisis Management

Crisis is defined as a time of severe difficulty or danger, or a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. This is a serious, unexpected, and potentially dangerous situation requiring immediate action.

Crisis often arises from unexpected situations, and may sometimes be very hard to deal with or understand wherein a difficult choice has to be made between alternatives that are equally undesirable.

What to do in times of crises:

  1. Stay calm.
  2. Don’t panic.
  3. Don’t blame others.
  4. Analyze the crisis.
  5. Be rational.
  6. Decide on what action to take.
  7. Implement your decision.
  8. Evaluate.
  9. Talk about the crisis with your staff.

Even if you don’t have a great deal of experiences, you can ensure that you are successful in crisis management and decision-making if you are methodical in your approach.

Do:

  1. Concentrate.
  2. Think logically and go through the stages of decision-making.
  3. Be honest. (Was it your fault?)
  4. Be positive.
  5. Be open to criticism.
  6. Accept problems.
  7. Be patient.
  8. Recognize your limits—you may need to pass the problem over to someone else.
  9. Be open-minded, particularly to other people’s solutions.
  10. Be willing to learn from the problem.
  11. Have the courage to try or start again.
  12. Keep the problem in perspective.
  13. Have a sense of Humor when it’s been solved.
  14. Talk to other people about the problem.
  15. Be confident.

Get off to a good start in communication by explaining why there is a problem and why you have decided to take the action that you have

Don’t:

  1. Be over-sensitive.
  2. Take it personally.
  3. Be over-emotional.
  4. Be tunnel-visioned; there is always a way out.
  5. Be negative.
  6. Blame others.
  7. Panic.
  8. Hide or cover up either the Problem or your actions.
  9. Put off decisions or Procrastinate.

 

*This article was prepared especially for Saint Matthew’s Publishing Corporation.

Constructing Tests

A Test is a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something; it is a short examination of skill or knowledge.

Tests are made for the following reasons:

  • Establish a baseline of information about each child to judge future progress.
  • Monitor the growth of individual children.
  • Have a systematic plan for intervention and guidance.
  • Plan curriculum.
  • Provide parents with updated information on their child.
  • Provide information for making administrative decisions.

Teacher-made Test Examinations are constructed by teachers to be given to their students for the purpose of making and promotions. It is a principal tool in measuring school achievement.

Teacher designed tests are created to supplement evaluation measures, enabling the teacher to make more accurate decisions that affect student learning. It can support decisions about students’ needs and determine their strengths and weaknesses in content areas. These allow the evaluation of the instructional program being used.

Types of Examinations

  • Oral examinations – test in which the answer is given in spoken words.
  • Written examinatioins – test in which the answers are given in writing.
  • Performance examination – test in which the answer is given by means of overt actions.

Several types of test questions have proved their value in teacher-made tests of computational ability, vocabulary, information, understanding, and other specific outcomes. These types are the short-answer, multiple choice, matching and true-false questions.

The short-answer question. This type of question comes in a variety of forms and is known by a variety of names. There is the incomplete sentence form: “A square has four straight sides, while a triangle has ____________ sides.” Then there is a question form: “What letter comes after ‘b’?”

These various forms measure essentially the same thing. Experience indicates that the short-answer forms are more easily read and less confusing than any other type of question. However, other kinds of questions may be used to provide interest and variety and to serve special purposes.

The short-answer type of question is limited, however, to questions that call for facts—what, who, when, where, and how many.

The multiple-choice question. The multiple-choice question type is the best general purpose question for testing outcomes. It is the most widely used type of question in standardized tests, largely because of its flexibility and the fact that it can be scored objectively—that is, anyone who scores it using the answer sheet will arrive at the same results. In teacher-made tests, the multiple-choice question is useful for measuring ability in vocabulary, reading comprehension, interpretation of pictures, letter forms, and symbols, drawing references from set of data, and understanding of concepts and relationships.

Matching-type questions. An interesting variation for the multiple-choice question, one which the teacher can use for a number of special purposes, is the matching-type questions.

This type of question is widely used in pairing off such things as definitions and words defined, or uppercase and lowercase letters. Three of the more important points to watch out for in constructing questions of this type are (1) the list on the right, from which selections are made, should contain more items than the list on the left; (2) to make it simpler for the pupil who knows the right answer to find it, possible answers should be arranged alphabetically, chronologically, or in some other systematic way, and each item should be shot; (3) the questions should be homogenous; that is, on item on the right should be logically excludable as an answer to any item on the left by a pupil who is uninformed.

True-false questions. True-false questions lend variety and interest to informal testing activities. It is easy to construct, interesting to the pupils, easily scored, and it arouses discussion. It is useful when performance of the pupil on any one item is not an important consideration.

Other Types of Test Questions

  • Following directions
  • Fill-in-the-blank
  • Sequencing
  • Vocabulary
  • Analogies
  • Problem solving
  • Grammar
  • Essay
  • Listening
  • Dictation
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