<p>Unpacking Questions in the North Carolina End-of-Grade Format</p><p>What is involved in unpacking a question?</p><p>1. Read the question and all the answer choices. 2. Examine the question stem. 3. Highlight vocabulary that is unfamiliar to the students or is likely to be confusing in its meaning. 4. Determine any knowledge/understanding that the student must bring to the question in order to understand and respond to the question correctly. 5. Consider each answer, one at a time, and analyze whether it is the correct/best answer or is an incorrect/not the best answer by consulting the text. 6. Explain why each of the incorrect answers is wrong or not the best choice. 7. Explain why the correct answer is correct or the best choice.</p><p>For teachers, unpacking the question should include the following:</p><p>1. Determine which of the North Carolina Thinking Skills are involved in answering the question. 2. Determine the North Carolina Standard Course of Study goal and objectives involved in answering the question.</p><p>It is helpful to students if teachers construct questions often in the EOG format. Teachers need to keep track of the kinds of questions they pose (including specific testing vocabulary) and the thinking skills that are required in choosing the correct response. In this way, they can ensure that students will have practice with all the types of questions they will meet on the End-of-Grade Test.</p><p>Keeping Records of What Teachers and Students “Discover” As teachers and students unpack questions, it is helpful to keep records of questions stems, vocabulary, thinking skills, etc. that are found. Even though the teacher may already know what will be on these records (e.g., testing vocabulary), students need to be led to discover for themselves what challenges they will meet and add items, one by one, to the classroom lists.</p><p> http://free.clipartof.com/details/176-Free-Cartoon-Owl-Clipart</p>