VIEWING WORKSHEET

Episode 44: Testing Literature

I. Before Viewing

A. This task aims to help you take a rough stock of your literature testing practices. Read the
questions after each number. Then tick ( ) the choice which best describes your practice.
Tick what you think you should have done. If you have other practices. Write these on
the blanks provided.

1. How often do you test literature?

______ Never ______ When the need arises Other answers
______ All the time ______ On periodic tests only ________________

2. What is the content of your literature test, whether formative or summative?

______ Details on selection taken up ______ Both literary knowledge and skills
______ Integrative approach ______ Literary terms and personages

3. What approach to testing literature do you most often use?

______ Discrete point approach ______ Task-oriented approach
______ Integrative approach ______ Interactive approach

4. What items-types do you use most often?

______ Multiple choice ______ Short answer Other answers
______ Alternate-response ______ Essay type _________________
______ Matching ______ Completion _________________

5. Do you use tests? ______ Yes _______ No

If yes, what type do you use?
______ Extracts _______ Full length
______ Both extracts & full-length texts
______ Texts already taken up in class
______ Texts not yet taken up in class

6. Do you make differentiations between reading and literature tests?

______ Yes ____ No _____ Why? Should there be?

B. The title of this TV episode is Literature Testing. What do you hope to learn/see in this TV
episode? Write theme in the space below.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

1
II. While Viewing

A. The space provided below is for you to write notes, observations, questions which you
want to remember or discuss with someone later. Check whether what you hoped to
learn/see in the episode were satisfied. If yes, that’s good! Congratulations!

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

III. Post Viewing Activities

A. Make an inventory of testable skills and the appropriate approach (es), Test (s), and item
types (s) to use with each skill. Feel free to use references indicated at the end of each
Teacher Support Materials.
B. Using the test plan in this TSM, construct a 10-25-item literature test. You may use the
texts (extracts of full-length) of your choice.

2
 Testing Literature
Description

In this episode, the following topics are discussed: the rationales, goals/aims of
literature testing, literary competence and its implications for literature testing, and the
decision that the test constructor has to make when he/she develops test items. Samples of
different item types are likewise presented in this episode.

Objectives

At the end of lesson, the education student should be able to:

1. Determine his own rationale, goals and aims for administering literature tests;
2. Adopt a model of literacy competence and operationalize it for testing purposes;
3. Make decisions relating to literature test purpose (s), approach, content, text, tasks, item
types, and marking/Scoring procedures;
4. Construct literature test items congruent with specific literature objectives.

Key Ideas

1. Testing will help teachers refine their understanding of literature and the way it is taught.

2. Many school literature programs focus on 1) knowledge of the literary and cultural heritage
of the people; and/or 2) the development of skilled readers and critics of literary texts;
and/or the encouragement of personal growth through reading and involvement with the
text.

3. This model of literary competence encompasses several sets of skills: understanding plain
sense, understanding context, learning to emphatize, learning to appreciate, learning to
critical framework and learning to be creative. Each of these skills include both language
and reading skills making them integral to each other. Furthermore, the set of skills can be
used selectively depending on the goal of any group or individual.

4. This model of literacy competence implies that the test maker:

 Should have a conscious awareness of the broad aims of the literature program.
 Must identify the target competence and the target role model;

3
  Has to make number of decisions relating to the purpose of the test, the approach to
use, the content of test, the texts or stimuli to use, the tasks to engage in, the item
types, and the marking/scoring procedure.
understanding understanding
plain sense context

learning to learning the

emphatize Literary Competence critical
framework
learning to learning to
appreciate be
creative
Fig. 1 A Model of Literary Competence
5. Some item types used in literature testing are: multiple choice: short-answer, matching,
alternate response, keylist, tabular/matrix, rank order and essay-type.

6. The texts used in literature testing may be either seen texts i.e. literary material that have
been previously read by testee either in class or elsewhere – and unseen texts i.e. literary
material which the testee will read for the first time during the test. The texts may either
be full-length or extracts.

7. In selecting texts, it is suggested that: the stimulus texts should exemplify examples of each
genre – poetry, prose, drama; the texts are representative of the chosen themes, topics and
issues; the texts match the cognitive level of the students even if they are linguistically
difficult; and the test must be long enough to generate meaningful activity but short enough
to be practical in a timed activity.

8. The selected texts may fall at different points along the following contimuums:

Seen unseen
Extract full-length
Culturally/linguistically culturally/linguistically
inaccessible accessible
conceptually inaccessible conceptually accessible
skills/knowledge inactivated skills/knowledge activated

9. The content of a literary test may focus on either literary knowledge and/or literary skills.
A knowledge tests involves recall of terminology, specify facts, conventions, trends and
sequences, classification and categories, criteria, methodology, principles, theories,
generalizations. Literary skills may include recognizing setting and characterization,
understanding the theme, and the like.

4
10. An integrative literature tests consists of an extract or a full-length texts used as stimulus
followed by questions/items on several literary skills. Different item types such as short-
answer, multiple choice, alternate response items, etc. may be used.

11. A literature test can be task-oriented, that is, strategies which have been found to be
motivating in the classroom are translated into tests. These may be tasks that involve
comparing, ranking selecting, identifying, matching, rewriting, gap-filling, and predicting.

12. Some examples of task-oriented literature tests are:

 Matching characters to appropriate settings, texts by the same author, openings and
ending of stories.
 Comparing literary tests and nonliterary paraphrase, rearranging version of the plot
with the original version.
 Ranking a series of statements about a text, texts from poetic to non-poetic
 Selecting titles for a text/respond to different titles, selection information from a text
to fill in a chart/grid different genre.
 Rewriting phrase to make them culturally accessible, rewriting a text in a different
genre or from a different point of view.
 Filling gaps with words/phrases that are stylistically/linguistically appropriate
 Setting a poem/play/novel for the stage/screen
 Predicting the development of the plot from the opening paragraphs
 Deducing the meaning of culturally alien words/phrases in a text.

5
 Sample Items
Knowledge Items
*********

Item type : Matching

Objective : Recall works of distinguished authors

Directions : Match the name of the writer in Column A with his work(s) in Column B.
Write the letter of your answer on your answer sheet.

Column A Column B

1. David Diop A. The poet of the African revolution

2. Mongo Beti B. The first Asian to win the Nobel prize in literature
3. Chinua Achebe C. Wrote “Things Fall Apart”
4. Kawabata D. Wrote “Letters to Martha”
5. Tagore E. Wrote “The River Between”
F. Wrote the satire “Poor Christ of Bombay”
G. Known for haiku-kike flashes in fiction

*********

Item type : Multiple Choice

Objective : Classify the lines of poetry in terms of the figurative language used

Directions : Read the lines of poetry after each number. Identify the type of figurative
language it exemplifies. Select your answer from the choices given.
Write the letter of your answer on your answer sheet.

1. “Twinkle, twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high
….”

6
The above lines exemplify ______________.

A. metonymy C. hyperbole
B. apostrophe D. oxymoron

*********

Item type : Multiple Choice

Objectives : Recognize rhyme scheme

Recognize type of figurative language

1. Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

2. What a tale their terror tells
3. Of despair!
4. How they clang, and clash, and roar!
5. What a horror they outpour
6. Oh the bosom of the palpitating air.

1. The rhyme scheme is:

A. abcabc C. aabccb
B. aabbcc D. aabccd

2. The line which best illustrates onomatopoeia is

A. line 2 C. line 5
B. line 4 D. line 6

*********

Item type : Short Answer

Objectives : To identify meter

Directions : Read the lines of poetry after each number. Identify the type of meter
used. Write your answer on the blank at the right.

1. Honor the charge they made!

Honor the Light Brigade,
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”

7
 2. Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
William Blake
“The Lamb”

*********

Item type : Short Answer

Objective : To infer the setting of the story

Directions : Write the place that is being pictured in each of the following passages.

1. The bells gave forth a peal, like a rain of crystal notes; the transparent waves of incense
rose, and the organ sounded.
Where does this take place? Answer: church

2. There was a great bay window in the stern, for all the world, like the squire’s drawing
room. There was a crows of little black cannons on deck and looking out of her portholes,
and she was anchored at each end to the hard ground.
What place is described? Answer: ship

*********

Item type : Keylist or Masterlist

Objective : To determine mood or atmosphere

Directions : Write the letter of the mood or atmosphere in the following passages.
Select your answer from the masterlist/keylist given. You may use the
same option several times.

a. horror d. depression g. exultation

b. terror e. serenity
c. somberness f. gaiety

1. “Alone, alone, all, all, alone

Alone, on a wide, wide sea.”

8
 “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

2. Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, under the terrible
burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs. Laughing even as an ignorant fighter
laughs who has never lost a battle. Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the
pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people.

*********

Item type : Multiple Choice

Objective : Determining sensory impression

Direction : Write the letter of the phrase that does not appeal to the same sense as
the underline expression.

1. Her breath was warm in my face…

a. pebbles cold and sharp against my feet
b. a nipping breeze blew from the sea
c. smoke which stung her eyes
d. warm and eloquent

2. the grating of cartwheels on the pebbles

a. the murmuring hum of flies
b. the crackling of the fire
c. the eternal note of the sadness
d. the moaning of the bar

*********

Item type : Short Answer

Objective : Interpret symbols

Directions : Write what the underlined symbol stands for

1. “I vowed violence against the void and the darkness and I forgot the Gleam.”
Question: If void and darkness stand for disillusionment, what does the gleam stand
for?
Answer: ideals

9
 2. “Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark.”
Question: If embark refers to death, what do the following stand for?
a. twilight
b. evening bell
c. sadness and farewell
Answers: a. time and near death or old age
b. call of death
c. lamentation

*********

Item type : Multiple Choice (incomplete stem)

Objective : Determine tone

Directions : Write the letter of the tone of each of the following passages.

1. For the man who should loose me is dead,

Fighting with the Duke in Flanders,
In a pattern called War.
Christ! What are Patterns for?

The tone expressed is one of __________.

a. accusation c. bitterness
b. curiosity d. condemnation

2. Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved
before we are hungry. Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they make a thousand
stitches today to save nine tomorrow.”

The writer’s attitude towards his subject is ________.

a. apologetic c. mocking
b. sarcastic d. bitter

10
 *********

Item type : Msterlist/Keylist

Objective : Determine the device used to bring humor

Directions : Write the letter which shows how humor is brought out in the lines given
below. Select your answer from the masterlist/keylist. You may use the
same answer several times.

a. incongruence d. quick, witty answers

b. unexpected twist e. irony
c. simple-mindedness f. play with words

1. Angel: Inay, you should see Toning’s wife.

1st woman: What does she look like?
2nd woman: Yes, yes –
1st man: Is she pretty?
Angel: I heard Toning call her Baby.
Rosa: Baby! They already have a baby?
Fausta: Toning married a Baby?

2. “Sit Down,” Tendeng said, offering Uncle Sator a wobbly chair.

“How did you lose your way into our humble dwelling?” she saud.
“I did not lose my way, AlingTendeng,” said Uncle Sator boldly. “My visit is intended.”

3. “Now you are convinced it is a rooster?” Kiko mutters between breaths. I was so glad the
whole thing was over!”
But the chicken had other ideas. It began to quiver. Then something round and warm
dropped on my hand. The chicken cackled with laughter. I looked down and saw an egg.

*********

Item type : Integrative Multiple Choice

Objectives : Deduce the meaning of words from the context

Make inferences on time
Determine the meaning of symbols
Determine theme

Directions : the selection below is followed by questions based on its content. After
reading the selection, choose the best answer to each question. On your
answer sheet, write the letter corresponds to the answer you have chosen.

11
 The Grasshopper and the Ant

The grasshopper just sang a song

All the easy summer long
When at last the Winter came
She had nothing to her name:
5 Not even a fragment of a fly
To eat, or insect. She began to cry
And begged her neighbor, Ant, in vain,
To lend her just a bit of grain
Until the spring. “I’ll pay you back!”
10 She cried, “I promise you won’t lack
-On the solemn word of an Animal-
The interest nor the principal.”
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be,”
Replied the Ant. “Just look at me:
15 When days were warm, I kept to my task.
What were you doing – may I ask?”

Day and night, night and day,

I sang and sang and sang away.”

“Sang? How nice? Now take the chance,

20 Dear grasshopper, to learn to dance!”

1. In line 3, winter suggests a time of

a. snow c. danger
b. need d. sorrow

2. She has nothing to her name in line 4 means that the grasshopper
a. spoiled her good name
b. lost her belongings
c. maintained her good reputation
d. did not own anything
3. Interest in line 12 refers to a

a. sum paid for the use of money

b. business one participates in
c. right to something
d. feeling of curiosity for something

4. Principal in line 12 means

a. one who takes a leading part

b. a head or governing officer

12
 c. the control structure of a roof
d. the amount used as capital

5. The grasshopper symbolizes one who is

a. fun-loving c. friendly
b. thoughtless d. extravagant

6. The phrase kept to in line 15 has about the same meaning as

a. continued faithfully
b. worked secretly
c. finished successfully
d. enjoyed fully

7. In lines 19-20, the ant’s attitude towards the grasshopper is

a. sympathetic c. unforgiving
b. sarcastic d. accusing

8. The theme of the poem may be stated thus:

a. Those who work hard are rewarded

b. Ants are more responsible than grasshoppers
c. One should not be borrower nor a lender
d. Singing and dancing are good ways of relaxing

*********

Item type : Task-oriented items

Objective : Recognize literary language

Demonstrate sensitivity to poetic language

Directions : Rank the following passages from most poetic (1) to least poetic (5) using
the following as your bases for judgement: a. organization
b. accomplishment of purpose c. significance d. freshness of approach
e.response from the reader. Be ready to support your choice with valid
reasoning.

1. area of rectangle = lw
2. Some books are to be tasted
Other books to be swallowed,
And some few to be chewed and digested.
Sir Francis Bacon

13
3. Round the cape of a sudden came the sea;
and the sun looked over the mountain’s rim;
And the straight was a path of gold for him,
And a need of world of men for me.
-Robert Browning
4. Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow
-Helen Keller
5. Greatly shining,
The Autumn moon floats in the thin sky;
And the fish ponds shake their backs
and flash their dragon scales
And she passes over them.
-Amy Lowell

*********

Task : Rewriting a text from one genre to another

Objectives : To apply understanding of genre/point of view to create one’s own text

To invite comparison between texts and identify their literary/non-literary
qualities

Directions : Read the extract printed below. Rewrite it in dialog form. Have two or
three characters.

Extract from:

A Martin Sends A Postcard Home

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings

and some are treasured for their markings –
they cause the eyes to melt
or body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but

sometimes they perch on the hand.
Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with a lock inside –

A key is turned to free the world
for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.

14
 But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

Vocabulary helps:
Caxtons - books
Model T - a car
Time - a wristwatch or clock

Tips on Literature Testing

1. Aim for a balance test. The test can include knowledge and skills items,
guided, controlled and free response items; and productive and receptive
response type items.

2. Use actual, authentic texts. The items require contact with actual texts. This
will eliminate dependence on prepared or memorized notes.

3. Provide linguistic support when necessary. Vocabulary and/or structure

(grammar) helps can help eliminate linguistic difficulties that hinder the
application of literary skills.

4. Test items should require the application of skills and principles.

5. Test items should encourage the transfer of skills from familiar texts to
unfamiliar ones.

6. Write the test items to meet student level, not tutor expectations.

7. The test items should give abstract concepts a practical and concrete focus.

8. Devise questions that would encourage the testees to identify with and
personalize the texts they meet.

9. Translate into test situations those activities found to be motivating in the

classroom.

15
Suggested Readings
Brumfit, Christopher, ed. 1993. Assessment in Literature Teaching. London: Macmillan
Publishers Limited

Finocchiarro, Mary and Sydney Sato. 1983. Foreign Language Testing: A Practical Approach.
New York: Regents Publishing Company.

Heaton, J. B. 1991. Writing English Language Tests. London: Longman GroupUK Limited.

Omaggio, Alice C. 1983. Proficiency-Oriented Classroom Testing. Washington D.C.: The

Center for Applied Linguistics.

Literature Practice Test

DIRECTIONS: Read each question below and answer each on your answer sheet. Think about
what you are doing.

1. Select the sentence that uses the bold-faced word incorrectly.

A. This is my personal pen.

B. The personnel director conducted the interview.
C. My apartment is my personnel dwelling.
D. They do not accept personal checks.

2. Select the sentence that uses the bold-faced word correctly.

A. Its not fair that he was able to go to the circus without me.
B. “Life is full of disillusionment” is one of it's themes.
C. Hemingway was a real good writer.
D. Amanda was really astonished by the sudden appearance of her old friend.

3. Select the sentence that uses the bold-faced word incorrectly.

A. Suzanne, place the dishes there on the kitchen counter.

16
 B. They’re planning on taking a trip to the Grand Canyon this summer.
C. The boys forgot to bring their sleeping bags.
D. Their are too many students in the hallway.

4. Select the sentence that uses formal language.

A. The dinosaur in the National Science Museum generated a lot of interest.

B. Looking at recent surveys, the director recognized the popularity of the program
American Idol.
C. The parents of the missing child didn’t accept the ransom.
D. It’s likely that the show will be cancelled next year.

5. Because it is written using formal language, which sentence is appropriate for a research
paper?

A. Many blue jays visit the bird feeder in our backyard each winter.
B. Jay is a common name for a group of birds of the family Corvidae.
C. Most jays will eat all kinds of things, including small amphibians and insects.
D. Don’t you think Jays are noisy birds that are often bossy and aggressive?

Read the following poem and answer questions 6-10.

“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house.

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

6. Who is the speaker of the poem?

17
 A. a son who is planning for a future with his father
B. a father who is often angry at his family members
C. a son who is recalling memories of his childhood
D. a father who has been working hard for his family

7. What is the speaker’s overall tone in the poem?

A. remorseful and ashamed C.

annoyed and furious
B. sorrowful and grief stricken D.
carefree and optimistic

7. Which is not a possible setting in the poem?

A. winter time
C. in the speaker’s home
B. the father’s office
D. in the early morning hours

9. When the speaker says that he spoke “indifferently to him,” he means

A. that he spoke in a different dialect.

B. that he was aloof and distant toward his father.
C. that he spoke to his father in a respectful manner.
D. that he spoke only when spoken to.

10. What is the best way to state the theme of this poem?

A. Life is hardest when it is cold outside.

B. Fathers often do kind-hearted things for their children.
C. People are often unappreciative of what loved ones do for them.
D. If you want others to be kind to you, then you best be kind to them.

Use the following poem to answer questions 11-15.

"Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain--and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

18
 I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye:

And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right,

I have been one acquainted with the night.

11. In which point of view is this poem written?

A. first person point of view C. second

person point of view
B. third person limited point of view D. third person
omniscient point of view

12. What is the speaker’s overall tone?

A. joyful B. angry C. resentful D. melancholy

13. What is the overall mood of the poem?

A. wistful and gloomy

C. bitter and indignant
B. happy and positive D.
frightened and alarmed

14. When the speaker states that he/she has been one “acquainted with the night,” he/she
means that

A. he/she only goes out after dark. C. he/she is a

night stalker.
B. he/she has experienced sadness and loneliness. D. he/she is a vampire.

15. When the speaker states that he/she has “outwalked the furthest city street,” he/she
means that

19
 A. he/she has experienced a great deal during his/her lifetime.
B. he/she has measured out the distances of various streets.
C. he/she has walked further than anyone else he/she knows.
D. he/she walked out into the street during the night time.

Use these answers for numbers 16-25: (Each is used more than once.)

(A) personification (B) metaphor (C) simile (D) hyperbole

(E) allusion

16. This is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things using
words such as like and as.

17. This is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without
using specific words.

18. This is a figure of speech used when non-human things are talked about as if they were
human.

19. This is a figure of speech that makes an exaggeration.

20. This is a figure of speech that makes a reference to someone or something that is known
from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture.

21. This is an example: I will luve thee still my Dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

22. This is an example: Athena, whom we praise on high!

23. This is an example: I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

24 This is an example: O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June;

25. This is an example: I knew the language of the floweret;

“My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart
enclose.”

20
Use the following passage from “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe to answer the question that
pertains to it: (numbers 26-27)

“The Raven”

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
“ ’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— 5
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— 10
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

26. Which of the following literary elements is used in these stanzas from “The Raven”?

A. rhyme B. alliteration C. imagery D. all of the above

27. Which of the following lines from “The Raven” is an example of personification?

A. From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—

B. And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
C. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
D. As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—

Literature Practice Test

Answer Key
C
D

21
D
B
C
B
C
A
B
C
A
D
A
B
A
C
17. B
18. A
19. D
20. E
21. D
22. E
23. B
24. C
25. A
26. D
27. B

22