Li Menard Zhu Testcreationassignment

Running head: TEST CREATION – ALL SUMMER IN A DAY 1
All Summer in a Day: Assessment
Catherine Li
Roxanne Ménard
Melissa Zhu
McGill University
TEST CREATION – ALL SUMMER IN A DAY 2
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Part I: Student Version.........................................................................................................4
Part II: Teacher Answer Key and Rationale.......................................................................11
Analysis.............................................................................................................................19
Validity...........................................................................................................................19
Authenticity...................................................................................................................20
Reliability......................................................................................................................20
Reflection...........................................................................................................................21
Group process................................................................................................................21
What was learned...........................................................................................................21
What will be retained from this practical assignment...................................................22
References..........................................................................................................................23
Introduction
The class taking this test is in their third year of high school (high school cycle two ESL
students). They are avid English readers and enjoy relatable and adventurous stories. Before the
test, students were asked to familiarize themselves with the different works of Ray Bradbury, as
they are about to begin a unit titled “Utopia and Dystopia”, with the novel Fahrenheit 451 as a
main point of focus. They will have read All Summer in a Day prior to this test. This assessment
will serve a double purpose in this case: firstly, it will be a C2 evaluation (Reinvests
understanding of texts), and secondly, it will be used to analyse Bradbury’s distinctive writing
style. In this C2 evaluation, students will be asked to answer each question by referring back to
the text (as it is an open-book exam) and recall upon previous knowledge, such as character traits
and literary devices. They will have one hour to complete this evaluation. During this time, they
are expected to read the text, and complete the following evaluation. When correcting, the
teacher will focus on “Evidence of understanding of texts through the response process” from the
second competency’s evaluation criteria.

Part I: Student Version
TOTAL: /44
Name: ____________________________
Group: ______________
All Summer in a Day – Assessment
Read the short story All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury from beginning until
the end. Then, answer all of the following questions.
TRUE OR FALSE
Read the following statements. If you find them to be true, CIRCLE T. If you find
them to be false, CIRCLE F. If the answer was not provided in the text, CIRCLE
NM. Each question is worth 2 POINTS. You may not have partial marks.
Example:
T / F / NM 1. The author of this story is Ray Bradbury. /2
T / F / NM 1. Margot got to see the important event at the end of /2

the story.
T / F / NM 2. It has been raining for 8 years on Venus. /2
T / F / NM 3. Margot has a little brother named Michel. /2
/6
FILL IN THE BLANKS
Read all the sentences. Use the words in the Word Bank to complete the sentences.
You do not need to use all the words in the Word Bank. You may not use the same
word from the Word Bank twice. Each blank space is worth 2 POINTS. You may
not get partial marks.
WORD BANK
Round Gigantic Humid Black

Happy Bleak Grey Red
Ray Bradbury is a famous sci-fi author. He wrote classics such as Fahrenheit 451
and 1984. He also wrote short stories, like All Summer in a Day. In this story, the
children live on a different planet, where the nature looks very different. There are
_____________ plants everywhere. These plants have different colours than those
on earth, they are _____________ and _____________. Since it rains a lot,
children use underground tunnels to travel. The tunnels are _____________
because there is no light in them. Since there is no fresh air circulating in the
tunnels, we can suppose that they are very _____________.
/10
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
Answer each of the following multiple-choice questions by CIRCLING the letter
corresponding to the correct answer. There is ONE correct answer to each
question. Each question is worth 2 POINTS. You may not get partial marks.
1. Which of the follow statements are true to nine-year-old children who have
spent all their lives on Venus?
a. They children are always cruel to girls who are pale
b. The children have never heard a bird sing
c. The children grow up with no real memory of the sun
d. The children have never experienced heavy rain
2. What do the children do when the sun comes out?

a. They compare it to a penny
b. They play in the great jungle
c. They wait for the rainfall
d. They return to the classroom
3. Why do the children move slowly and hesitate to open up the closet door to
let Margot out at the end of the story?
a. They know the will get in trouble for what they did
b. They are worried that Margot may not be where they left her
c. They do not want to see her pale face again
d. They know they have done a cruel thing to her
/6
MATCHING QUESTIONS
1. Character Identification
The two columns below are a list of the characters from the story and
characteristics. Read the left columns carefully and select the appropriate
characteristic from the right column. WRITE the corresponding LETTER of the
response in the blank provided in the left column. ONE point will be earned for
each correct response.
____ 1. Margot A. Jealous

____ 2. Wiliam B. Unaware/ignorant
____ 3. The teacher C. Frail
____ 4. The children D. Sensitive
E. Follower

/4
2. Figurative Language
The two columns below are a list of literary devices and passages from the story.
Read the left columns carefully and select the appropriate passage from the right
column. WRITE the corresponding LETTER of the response in the blank provided
in the left column. ONE point will be earned for each correct response.
____ 1. Simile A. “... she knew they were dreaming and

remembering gold or a yellow crayon or a coin
large enough to buy the world with.”
____ 2. Metaphor B. “But then then always awoke to the tatting
drum…”
____ 3. Personification C. “... and if she spoke at all, her voice would be
a ghost.”
____ 4. Hyperbole D. “The children pressed to each other like so
many roses, so many weeds…”
E. “The door slid back and the smell of the
silent, waiting world came into them.”
/4
3. Vocabulary
The two columns below are a list of vocabulary words and definitions. Read the
left columns carefully and select the appropriate definition from the right column.
WRITE the corresponding LETTER of the response in the blank provided in the
left column. ONE point will be earned for each correct response.
____ 1. Tremor (noun) A. Of crucial importance

____ 2. Vital (adjective) B. Combined, made twice as much
____ 3. Tumultuously (adverb) C. Equipment designed to serve a
specific function, a machine
____ 4. Compounded (verb) D. A sudden rise or push forward in a
violent way
____ 5. Cluster (noun) E. In a wild and disorderly way
____ 6. Apparatus (noun) F. A trembling or shaking especially
from weakness, emotional stress
____ 7. Surge (verb) G. Unusually great in size or amount or
extent or scope
H. A grouping of a number of similar
things
/7
SHORT-ANSWERS QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions with 1 TO 3 SENTENCES ONLY. Question 1 is
worth 1 POINT while Question 2 and 3 are worth 3 POINTS EACH. You may get
partial marks.
1. Why are the children excited to see the sun? /1
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. Why is Margot different from the other children in her class in terms of her
past experience? (2 reasons) /3
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
3. Would you be Margot's friend? Justify your answer with elements from the
text. /3
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
/7
Part II: Teacher Answer Key and Rationale
TOTAL: /44
Name: ____________________________
Group: ______________
All Summer in a Day – Assessment
Read the short story All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury from beginning until the end. Then,
answer all of the following questions.
TRUE OR FALSE
Read the following statements. If you find them to be true, CIRCLE T. If you find them to be
false, CIRCLE F. If the answer was not provided in the text, CIRCLE NM. Each question is
worth 2 POINTS. You may not have partial marks.
Example:
T / F / NM 1. The author of this story is Ray Bradbury. /2
T / F / NM 1. Margot got to see the important event at the end of the story. /2
T / F / NM 2. It has been raining for 8 years on Venus. /2
T / F / NM 3. Margot has a little brother named Michel. /2
/6
Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of the story’s basic
facts. One question concerns plot, the second one setting, and the last one, characterisation.
Rational/Weighting: Each question is worth two points because it is quite easy to answer:
students will be able to find the answers directly from the text, after a careful reading. This
section is made easier to answer purposefully, as the matching questions are more difficult. This
is done to balance out the difficulty of the test.
FILL IN THE BLANKS
Read all the sentences. Use the words in the Word Bank to complete the sentences. You do not
need to use all the words in the Word Bank. You may not use the same word from the Word Bank
twice. Each blank space is worth 2 POINTS. You may not get partial marks.
WORD BANK
Round Gigantic Humid Black
Happy Bleak Grey Red
Ray Bradbury is a famous sci-fi author. He wrote classics such as Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. He
also wrote short stories, like All Summer in a Day. In this story, the children live on a different
planet, where the nature looks very different. There are __gigantic___ plants everywhere. These
plants have different colours than those on earth, they are ____black/grey____ and
____black/grey____. Since it rains a lot, children use underground tunnels to travel. The tunnels
are ___bleak____ because there is no light in them. Since there is no fresh air circulating in the
tunnels, we can suppose that they are very ____humid____.
/10
Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of adjectives.

Rational/Weighting: Each fill in the blank is worth two points. In general, this section is pretty
easy to complete. There are two interchangeable answers, and the last two fill-in-the-blanks have
clues to help the students pick out the right answer. We have been working on adjectives in class
previously, so this is a small revision.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
Answer each of the following multiple-choice questions by CIRCLING the letter corresponding
to the correct answer. There is ONE correct answer to each question. Each question is worth 2
POINTS. You may not get partial marks.
1. Which of the follow statements are true to nine-year-old children who have spent all their
lives on Venus?
a) They children are always cruel to girls who are pale
b) The children have never heard a bird sing
c) The children grow up with no real memory of the sun
d) The children have never experienced heavy rain
2. What do the children do when the sun comes out?

a) They compare it to a penny
b) They play in the great jungle
c) They wait for the rainfall
d) They return to the classroom
3. Why do the children move slowly and hesitate to open up the closet door to let Margot
out at the end of the story?
a) They know the will get in trouble for what they did
b) They are worried that Margot may not be where they left her
c) They do not want to see her pale face again
d) They know they have done a cruel thing to her
/6
Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of the short story as
well as the main ideas the author wants to convey through this short story.
Rational/Weighting: Each multiple-choice question is worth two points with no partial marks
given. Two out of the three questions are rather straightforward, and the students will be able to
find the answers directly in the text. The 3rd question requires the students to have understood
what the author is trying to convey with the final passage of the text.
MATCHING QUESTIONS
1. Character Identification
The two columns below are a list of the characters from the story and characteristics. Read the
left columns carefully and select the appropriate characteristic from the right column. WRITE
the corresponding LETTER of the response in the blank provided in the left column. ONE point
will be earned for each correct response.
_C__ 1. Margot A. Jealous
_A__ 2. Wiliam B. Unaware/ignorant
_B__ 3. The teacher C. Frail
_E__ 4. The children D. Sensitive
E. Follower

/4
2. Figurative Language
The two columns below are a list of literary devices and passages from the story. Read the left
columns carefully and select the appropriate passage from the right column. WRITE the
corresponding LETTER of the response in the blank provided in the left column. ONE point will
be earned for each correct response.
_D__ 1. Simile A. “... she knew they were dreaming and remembering
gold or a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy
the world with.”
_C__ 2. Metaphor B. “But then then always awoke to the tatting drum…”
_E__ 3. Personification C. “... and if she spoke at all, her voice would be a
ghost.”
_A__ 4. Hyperbole D. “The children pressed to each other like so many

roses, so many weeds…”
E. “The door slid back and the smell of the silent,

waiting world came into them.”
/4
3. Vocabulary
The two columns below are a list of vocabulary words and definitions. Read the left columns
carefully and select the appropriate definition from the right column. WRITE the corresponding
LETTER of the response in the blank provided in the left column. ONE point will be earned for
each correct response.
__F_ 1. Tremor (noun) A. Of crucial importance
_A__ 2. Vital (adjective) B. Combined, made twice as much
_E__ 3. Tumultuously (adverb) C. Equipment designed to serve a specific

function, a machine
_B__ 4. Compounded (verb) D. A sudden rise or push forward in a violent

way
_H__ 5. Cluster (noun) E. In a wild and disorderly way
_C__ 6. Apparatus (noun) F. A trembling or shaking especially from

weakness, emotional stress
_D__ 7. Surge (verb) G. Unusually great in size or amount or extent

or scope
H. A grouping of a number of similar things
/7
Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of the characters in the
story, as well as the literary devices and vocabulary words found in this short story.
Rational/Weighting: One point will be earned for each correct response which will add up to a
total of 15 points for the matching questions. This section covers material that the students have
been working on such as literary devices. The matching questions about character identification
tests the students’ understanding of the text. The students should be able to match the correct
definitions to the new vocabulary with the use context and past knowledge.
SHORT-ANSWERS QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions with 1 TO 3 SENTENCES ONLY. Question 1 is worth 1 POINT
while Question 2 and 3 are worth 3 POINTS EACH. You may get partial marks.
1. Why are the children excited to see the sun? /1
The children are excited to see the sun because they can only see it once every seven years for
two hours.
3. Why is Margot different from the other children in her class in terms of her past
experience? (2 reasons)
/3
Margot lived on Earth in the past. She has seen and experienced the sun.
4. Would you be Margot's friend? Justify your answer with elements from the text.
/3
Yes, I would be her friend...because…/ No, I would not be her friend…because…
/7
Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of key elements related
to the plot, the main character and the theme of bullying.

Rational/Weighting: Question 1 is worth 1 point because it requires the students to answer it with
only one key element from the text. On the other hand, Question 2 and 3 are worth 3 points each
because students need to use more than one piece of information to answer them. Students may
receive partial marks depending on their answer. For example, for Question 3, students may
receive partial marks if they answered the question, but their explanation is not well justified
with elements from the text.

Analysis
Validity
The areas of learning being assessed are the students’ ability to understand and to reinvest
their understanding of texts by answering different types of questions. They will also be tested on
material covered in class prior to the test such as character identification and literary devices.
This assessment can be considered valid as the content of the test accurately measures what is
intended to be measured and provides us teachers with valuable and appropriate information
about our specific purpose. The bulk of this assessment measures the students’ reading
comprehension. We made sure that the questions included in the test would address the students’
ability to comprehend the passages of the story rather than their ability to find the answer
through other test-taking strategies. We made sure that some questions didn’t give out the answer
or hinted to other questions. We decided to make this an open-book test with the purpose to
assess the students’ reading and comprehension ability rather than their ability to memorize a
whole story. The questions are not overly long and are appropriate to the students’ reading level.
The students will have had the chance to read the text before, and will be given one whole hour,
which is ample time, to complete the test. This way, there will be no misinterpretation of the
students’ knowledge due to time constraints and anxiety levels. By asking students to describe
their response process, we could have gathered more information about how students arrived at
certain answers, or about how they approached specific questions or problems. However, doing
so would involve more of the students’ writing ability, which is not our purpose with this
assessment. Hence, we decided to make up for this by eliminating any ambiguous questions. The
short answer questions are straightforward and are questions that can be answered with no more
than 3 sentences.
Authenticity
This assessment is considered authentic because students are asked to demonstrate their
understanding by answering questions correctly through the application of both their knowledge
of different elements from the text and grammar notions learned in class instead of recalling
information from memorization. Students are also developing their comprehension skills, which
could be used in other contexts. On top of showing evidence of their knowledge, they construct
new meaning by using information from the text to answer questions on the theme of bullying.
This helps them to develop their social awareness of real-life issues. These questions are
meaningful because they are required to take a stance in regard to this social issue, and to
effectively support and justify their opinion with any available information and their repertoire of
knowledge. In addition, having several types of questions reflects the reality of the world in
which students can succeed in many different ways.
Reliability
This assessment has a high level of reliability since it contains a substantial number of
questions - at least three questions for each type. The more items an assessment has, the more
reliable it is for teachers to use it to assess the understanding of learners. By using different types
of questions, this test can also minimize the chances of students’ weaknesses in test taking of a
certain type of question. Also, the phrasings of these questions are simple and adapted to the
level of high school ESL learners so they can demonstrate their understanding effectively
without being affected by other factors such as the use of complex lexicon. Their level of
proficiency should not inhibit them from showing what they learned. Furthermore, instructions
are formulated as clearly as possible to ensure that students truly understand what and how they
need to answer the questions, so the results are reliable to reflect their knowledge and skills.
Reflection
Group process
The process of creating this test was straightforward and cooperative. Upon receiving the
instructions, we chose our text, discussed about our target students including their background
and level, and read the story together. We then proceeded to identifying our main objectives. This
is an assessment created to test reading comprehension, hence we wanted the students to focus
on identifying the main idea of passages, understanding the vocabulary in context, making
inferences and understanding the author’s purpose. Once that was clear, we came up with
possible questions and “knowledges” we wanted to test our students on. We then separated the
task and created our questions on a shared Google Document; that way we would be able to give
each other feedback on the different types of questions created. Each one of us completed the
Knowledge statement and the Rational of our respective parts. The Analysis and the reflection
were done together. The clear instructions and expectations for this assignment provided us with
a good understanding of what to do from start to end. With good cooperation, we were able to
complete this assignment in a pleasant and timely fashion.
What was learned
While working on this assignment, we realized that making a test might seem like a
simple task, but it is, in fact, quite difficult to do. For instance, it was hard to construct the fill in
the blank text without revealing answers to other questions on the test (extraneous clues). Both
the multiple-choice questions and the matching questions revealed themselves as challenging.
When doing the multiple-choice section, we needed to ensure that we were not creating
subsuming response options, which is when “the intended answer and a very good distractor
could both be correct.” (Coombe, Folse and Hubley, 2007, p.22). In other words, we wanted the
students to know the facts very well so they wouldn’t get distracted, while making the test a little
difficult. Matching questions, on the other hand, were exigent due to their creation process.
Indeed, thinking of elements of the story that could be used in this format for an evaluation as
structured as this assessment was quite difficult. Once again, we always double-checked for
extraneous clues which would help students answer other questions in the test. The last
perplexing issue during the creation of this assessment came about while writing the short
answer questions. It was hard to formulate questions in a way that would lead to the knowledge
we wanted the students to demonstrate. For example, our original question was “Why is Margot
different?”. However, we were scared that the students would focus too much on Margot’s
appearance, and not about her coming from Earth. Thus, we had to change the question to “Why
is Margot different from the other children in her class in terms of her past experience?” to
ensure that students understood Margot’s origin. Lastly, as Coombe, Folse and Hubley
mentioned, creating true or false questions was fairly easy.
What will be retained from this practical assignment
From this assignment, we will remember that the first step in creating an assessment is to
establish a list of “knowledges” that we want students to demonstrate. We must as well ensure
that the text contains enough “knowledges” to be tested so that the questions are created to assess
big ideas and not small details. Then, in the next step of creating the test questions, we must
formulate each question based on one knowledge only and make sure that each question has a
clear purpose to be in the test. Also, it is important to write clear instructions and questions while
taking into consideration the level of proficiency of the students taking the test. In general, we
learned that an assessment is useful when the test creators are creating it while evaluating the
cornerstones of assessment, which include validity, reliability, transparency, practicality and

authenticity. Therefore, at the end of the creation process, we retained that it is necessary to
reflect on these cornerstones and to modify the test accordingly.

References
Bradbury, R. (n.d.). All Summer in a Day [PDF].
Brown, H. D, & Abeywickrama, P. (2010) Language Assessment: Principles and classroom
practices. Pearson-Longman: White Plains, NY. pp. 122-154
Coombe, Christine, Keith Folse & Nancy Hubley (2007). A Practical Guide to Assessing
English Language Learners. Ann Arbour: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 16-37.

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Running head: TEST CREATION – ALL SUMMER IN A DAY 1

All Summer in a Day: Assessment

Part I: Student Version.........................................................................................................4

Part II: Teacher Answer Key and Rationale.......................................................................11

What was learned...........................................................................................................21

What will be retained from this practical assignment...................................................22

second competency’s evaluation criteria.

Part I: Student Version

All Summer in a Day – Assessment

the end. Then, answer all of the following questions.

T / F / NM 1. The author of this story is Ray Bradbury. /2

T / F / NM 1. Margot got to see the important event at the end of /2

FILL IN THE BLANKS

not get partial marks.

Round Gigantic Humid Black

on earth, they are _____________ and _____________. Since it rains a lot,

children use underground tunnels to travel. The tunnels are _____________

tunnels, we can suppose that they are very _____________.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Answer each of the following multiple-choice questions by CIRCLING the letter

corresponding to the correct answer. There is ONE correct answer to each

2. What do the children do when the sun comes out?

each correct response.

____ 1. Margot A. Jealous

____ 1. Simile A. “... she knew they were dreaming and

____ 1. Tremor (noun) A. Of crucial importance

Answer the following questions with 1 TO 3 SENTENCES ONLY. Question 1 is

1. Why are the children excited to see the sun? /1

past experience? (2 reasons) /3

Part II: Teacher Answer Key and Rationale

All Summer in a Day – Assessment

answer all of the following questions.

worth 2 POINTS. You may not have partial marks.

T / F / NM 1. The author of this story is Ray Bradbury. /2

T / F / NM 2. It has been raining for 8 years on Venus. /2

T / F / NM 3. Margot has a little brother named Michel. /2

is done to balance out the difficulty of the test.

FILL IN THE BLANKS

Round Gigantic Humid Black

Happy Bleak Grey Red

tunnels, we can suppose that they are very ____humid____.

Knowledge statement: The students will demonstrate their understanding of adjectives.

previously, so this is a small revision.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

POINTS. You may not get partial marks.

2. What do the children do when the sun comes out?

d) They know they have done a cruel thing to her

will be earned for each correct response.

_C__ 1. Margot A. Jealous

_A__ 2. Wiliam B. Unaware/ignorant

_B__ 3. The teacher C. Frail

_E__ 4. The children D. Sensitive

be earned for each correct response.

_A__ 4. Hyperbole D. “The children pressed to each other like so many

E. “The door slid back and the smell of the silent,

each correct response.

__F_ 1. Tremor (noun) A. Of crucial importance

_A__ 2. Vital (adjective) B. Combined, made twice as much

_E__ 3. Tumultuously (adverb) C. Equipment designed to serve a specific

_B__ 4. Compounded (verb) D. A sudden rise or push forward in a violent

_H__ 5. Cluster (noun) E. In a wild and disorderly way

_C__ 6. Apparatus (noun) F. A trembling or shaking especially from

_D__ 7. Surge (verb) G. Unusually great in size or amount or extent

on earth, they are _ and _. Since it rains a lot,

tunnels, we can suppose that they are very humid.