Sample Question 1: Explain what this radio play is meant to teach us. Be specific.

This short constructed-response question measures students’ abilities to analyze dialogue and narration. Because it asks students to consider the radio play as a whole, it is a useful means of creating context for the exercises that will follow. Responses were scored with a three-level scoring guide that allowed for partial credit. The sample student responses below represent a Partial score and the highest score, Acceptable. The graphs accompanying the sample responses feature percentages of students who received different scores for a given question.

Partial. Most students at this level could extract an idea that was part of the play but could not accurately capture the whole meaning of the piece. While this student seems to grasp that it is mean to be cruel to people, he or she cannot generalize to the complete message.

Acceptable. Students at this level were able to grasp the overall message of the radio play.