Ben Lev asks:
I’m in my second week and I’ve given 2-3 listening comprehension quizzes per class. I have super stars writing the quizzes based on the PQA they hear as we circle props and activities. I take the quiz they write and modify it as I read it aloud. I’m giving 10 items quizzes, half are True/False and half are Who? or What? questions. But they’re too “easy” –31 of 39 students got 10/10 on today’s quiz. Not that I deliberately want to make the quizzes difficult or tricky just to change the distribution, but I do want to make them more challenging. Any thoughts about this?
I especially want to have that one tough inference question to distinguish the As from the Bs. So okay, 9 questions would be easy, factual, recall. And one would require thinking beyond the facts. I need to develop this skill, of quickly inventing the inference question. Do you or anyone in the PLC have insight/ideas about writing inference questions?
Ben, my answer is that I like the distribution I get. But I only ask Y/N questions and the superstar writer generally works pretty hard at getting to a level of questions that is at least a bit challenging. I don’t edit on the spot bc it gets confusing but I do train my quiz writers intensely and they really have to pass muster for that job. I don’t do a higher level question bc I’m too lazy and I don’t know what tests have to do with learning a language so I just do it bc I have to. I think that if your quiz writers ask all Y/N questions and tried consciously to bump up the level of difficulty slightly it might help. Other ideas?