In preparing for the new unit on the Holocaust, Yvonne had read through the entire book, Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr. It was about the growing-up process in America: the long summer vacation, boy meets girl. Additionally, the boy's grandfather is accused of being an ex-concentration camp guard. It was a great book for her eighth grade unit on the Holocaust, on top of being a great book in general. She decided to use it, knowing that she would need to select an area to focus on for the assessment piece. The district had brought in a national speaker on the importance of vocabulary during their last in-service, so that focal point seemed like a natural fit. Vocabulary was also one of the items on Becca's Individualized Education Plan (I.E.P.), so she would benefit as well.

Yvonne reread the book, concentrating on vocabulary, and began a casual list of words to highlight. She focused on two types of words: those that would be critical for true comprehension of the storyline and words that were unusual and not a natural part of a typical eighth grade vocabulary. She wanted this test to be appropriately challenging, but she didn't want to make it so difficult that no one would pass this time around.

After she completed this initial list, she wasn't sure what to do with it. She had not worked much on creating tests, and did not know which format to use. She thought that a fill in the blank would be way too difficult, but also thought that a multiple-choice format might be too easy. She decided to schedule a meeting with her mentor to get some new test creation ideas.

		Click here to view the list of vocabulary.
		Click here to view the Multiple Choice Questions teacher tool in the Quality Test Construction Section.