How to Make Better Use of Multiple-Choice Assessments

Research indicates that frequent low-stakes testing in the classroom results in better scores on high-stakes tests, such as state-mandated Common Core Tests, the SAT, and the ACT. This fact may seem paradoxical, as many teachers think that we test too much, but assessing with low-stakes tests in the classroom is much different from the high-stakes tests mentioned above.

I do not think that administering a multiple-choice test in the classroom, where students simply fill in bubbles, is effective as it could be in the learning process. We give the students a test, they fill in bubbles, and we, as educators, have something very easy to grade (certainly much easier than grading a pile of essays, which we don't assign enough of, but that's another story, and another post).

I also believe that we need to mandate time limits for multiple-choice tests (and most activities, as a matter of fact) in the classroom environment. It is counter-intuitive, illogical, and absurd to allow students excessive amounts of time to take an assessment in the classroom, then expect them to take a timed high-stakes test and expect that they will do as well as they could have if we used different strategies. Students do not practice pacing enough, and this deficiency in our curriculums inhibits the habit/skill of performing a set task in a given period of time.

Certainly, as English teachers, a multiple-choice test is an easy way to get a quick grade. but we can do better. We can make the multiple-choice test both an assessment and a learning event. We need to re-vision our conception of the multiple-choice test in the classroom as both an assessment and a learning tool. To that end, I propose the following:

Rationale: Too often students answer questions on multiple-choice tests without "thinking through" their answers. As a way to ensure that students are reading closely and reflecting upon exactly why their chosen response is correct (metacognition, critical thinking skills), I use the following techniques. The multiple-choice assessment in the English classroom can be a wonderful tool, if used correctly.


Objectives:

• Improve close reading skills.
• Improve skill at providing support for an assessment response.
• Improve work-citation skills.
• Improve metacognition (thinking about the thought process).

I tell students the following:

1. For each answer that you select, you must include a quotation (with page citation) from the text to support your choice. Exception: If the question or your answer choice includes a quotation or reference to lines within the text, you need not include a quotation.
2. For each multiple choice answer, you must explain why the answer you chose is the best (metacognition). This explanation could consist of you telling me why the other choices are wrong, or which key words or phrases in the quote that you chose support your answer, and precisely why those words support your answer.
3. If the multiple-choice test asks you to select the best definition of a word, you must also write two excellent context sentences. You need not do steps one and two above.
4. If the test includes a short-response section at the end of the multiple-choice questions that requires you to write a few sentences, your response must be at least one paragraph with a quotation and citation (keep it brief) to support your answer. The minimum number of sentences in a paragraph should be five (quotation not included in this sentence count).
5. Use the handout on the different types of multiple-choice questions (see New SAT Reading Test post on this website). After you have taken the multiple-choice test, analyze the questions, indicating on a separate sheet of paper the type of question for each and every question.

Additional Teaching Strategies:

1. After students have taken the multiple-choice test, use the scantron sheet to calculate a grade, but mark the answer sheet to produce a percentage correct only, and NOT indicate the wrong answers. Then form groups of students (no more than three per group) and have them retake the test with group members explaining/debating the correct choices. 
2. Allow students to retake the multiple-choice test during/after the group discussion. Students can choose their original answer again, or perhaps after a conversation with a peer, change their original response because they have learned something and agreed with a peer's rationale for choosing a particular answer.

I anticipate that one of the arguments against the above techniques is that they will take too much class time. Would you rather waste valuable learning time with cursory ineffective easy-way-out multiple-choice tests repeatedly, or would you rather engage the students in worthwhile learning events that result in high-stakes still acquisition and the development of a range of skills: reflection, metacognition, critical thinking, collaboration, confident independent cognition, and deep (not surface or random) thinking? The answer, as I see it, is obvious.