Technology Enhanced Item Questions

Here in Virginia the buzz word (at least here in Bedford County) is TEI or Technology Enhanced Item Questions.  These items are designed to make the students think more about their answer: why do you know this is true?  Math started using these types of questions last year and their scores dropped drastically.  English is up to bat this year and Social Studies is slated for next year.  Because of the drastic drop, English and Social Studies are prepping early to help our students do well.

With all of this advance time I am hoping to prepare my students.  This way when my present students see these questions on their World History II test in two years they will hopefully have a leg up.

This past week I had an activity planned but it iced that morning and we were delayed.  With that delay schedule I only had 35 minutes and something had to go.  *sigh*  The item that had to go was my TEI activity.  This week I am hoping to get to do it Thursday....we'll see.

Now, you maybe asking yourself, "Self, why are these TEI questions on paper??"  And that is a great question.  The most recent Quarterly Assessments had 5 TEI questions on paper and my students actually laughed.  "Mrs. X, what do you mean technology?  It's on paper?"  I explained to them that when they actually get to the SOL test they will be using the computer- which is the technology.  They are clicking and dragging, marking the spot with their mouse, clicking on the right answer, etc.

If you would like more information click here.  This link will take you directly to the Virginia DOE website about the TEI questions.

One pitfall that students, and teachers, need to keep in mind is if the student gets one part of the question wrong then the entire question is wrong.  Also, there could be outliers (wrong answers but the students aren't told that).  An example from the Quarterly Assessment was a Venn Diagram that had The House of Reps, both and then The Senate for the labels on the Venn Diagram.  There were six items such as make laws, representation based on population, 2 per state, has committees, appropriation bills start here and interpret laws.  The students were instructed to draw lines to complete the Venn Diagram.  Well, the last descriptor is for the judicial branch but the directions didn't specifically say "HEY! ONE OF THESE DOESN'T BELONG!".  So if the student got the first five correct and drew a line from "interprets the law" to the Venn Diagram the question has to be counted wrong.

Below are pictures of the TEI question that is a sequencing.  (There are five different types of TEI questions.) The first picture is of the activity and the next one is the correct answer.  You'll see that I put an outlier (from the steps to criminal process) in there.

I typed the directions and glued them to an envelope.  

Here they are in order- I took the outlier out.  

My goal is to have stations for different TEI questions later in the year.  I am hoping they'll be a good SOL review.

Happy Teaching!
C