Spring is a time of renewal. Thanks to your incredible suggestions and a host of new features, School Island continues to be the best study and review experience around! In this issue, learn our new features/updates. Also in this newsletter, find out about upcoming conferences as well as get answers to frequently answered questions about DBQs and scoring on the Quick Results Report.

New Features/Updates

Report Options for Administrator Accounts

The Report Options for the Administrator Accounts page have been modified. Now located at the top of the page, options now include a new Grade selection option. This option allows you to specify a Grade Code. When a specific Grade Code is selected, only accounts with the specified grade display. Select -all grades-to display accounts with any grade code. Or, if some accounts do not have a Grade Code (common for teachers), select -no grade-for display of accounts without an associated grade. After changing one of the Report Options, be sure to click Refresh Report to display report results with the new options selected.

The Quick Results Report

The Quick Results Report, available as an option on the Assignment Details page, now shows three scores:

• Score - only counts correct answers is answers on the "first try".
• Score With Retry As Full Credit - answers "correct on retry" are scored as full credit.
• Score With Retry As Half Credit - answers "correct on retry" are scored as half credit. [NEW]

For more information about this, see the "From Our Mailbag" article below.

Multiple Choice Style

Many standardized tests use letters instead of numbers as the answer choices for multiple-choice questions. When a teacher creates a Short Answer assignment, a new "Multiple-Choice Style" option is available. Located in the right options panel on the Edit/Create Assignment page, this feature allows you to specify numbers (1234) or letters (ABCD) as answer choices for the multiple-choice questions in the assignment. Please note that once the assignment has been assigned, this option cannot be modified. Similarly, when a student creates a Short Answer session, a new "Multiple-Choice Style" option is now available. Located at the bottom of the Question Criteria page, this feature allows students to specify numbers (1234) or letters (ABCD) for the multiple-choice questions in the session.

Western Suffolk BOCES Conference, April 26, 2007

The Western Suffolk BOCES Conference will be held on April 26, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m at the Long Island Technology Center on Sunrise Highway in Great River, NY. Meet Gerry Cohen, our Long Island Territory Manager, at his display area. Feel free to bring a colleague with you to share your School Island experiences. Then, let Gerry introduce you to some new features on our website that have pleased many educators with our timely response to improving student education and in meeting NCLB requirements.

Niagara Frontier Council for Social Studies Conference, April 28, 2007

The Niagara Frontier Council for Social Studies Conference will be held on April 28, 2007.Hosted at Frontier High School, the School Island team will explore some of our latest features as well as show you how School Island can help Social Studies educators achieve the best results for their students. Meet with Jason Stanton, our Western NYS Territory Manager, along with Scott Fischer, our General Manager who works closely with all schools in the state. You may or may not realize it, but our social studies database of vocabulary alone is vast and is the backbone for any student to fully understand history and people, whether at home or in distant lands. We’re looking forward to seeing you on April 28th.

How do students respond to a short-answer DBQ question?

We're glad to know that you have noticed the Document Based-Questions (DBQs), which are now available in the Global History & Geography and US History & Government courses! DBQs are only available as assignments. Teachers score DBQ short-answer questions in the same way as they do for Constructed Response questions found in Earth Science, Living Environment, and Chemistry courses. The best way to find out how the mechanism works is to walk through a DBQ session as a student. As a teacher, you can create a DBQ assignment then assign it to yourself to view presentation of the material as well as student input of answers. In addition, online help (available via Help) will guide you through the intricacies of this new feature.

To create then assign a DBQ set to yourself to work on as if you were a student:

1. Click the Assignments link from the Teacher Home page. The Assignments page displays.
2. Select the appropriate course (Global History & Geography or US History & Government) from the Course drop-down list. The Assignments page redisplays for the selected course with the appropriate tabs.
3. Click the DBQs tab. The DBQ Assignment page displays.
4. Create a new DBQ assignment with any name you like as follows.
   
   Note: You can always rename it later.

• Enter the name of the new assignment in the Assignment name field below the list of existing assignments.
• Click the Create New DBQ Assignment link. The Edit/Create Assignment page displays. The new assignment goes into the currently selected folder. The exception to this is in the case where -any folder- is selected; the assignment then goes into the default folder.

5. Click the Add DBQ Set link under Assignment Options. This is located in the right portion of the Edit/Create Assignment page. The Add DBQ Set page displays.
6. View the available sets on the Add DBQ Set page. To do this, click the View icon associated with the desired set.
7. Select the desired DBQ set for your new assignment. To do this:

• Click the hypertext link associated with its name. A confirmation message displays, asking you whether you really want to select this set.
• Click OK to confirm. The Add DBQ Set page redisplays with the contents of the selected DBQ set.

8. View the instructions, essays, and documents associated with the DBQ set.
9. Click Back upon completion. The DBQ Assignments page redisplays with your new assignment in the list.
10. Assign the new assignment to yourself as follows:

• Click the Assign/Monitor Students icon associated with your new assignment.
• Click the Self-Assign tab. The Self-Assign page displays.
• Click the Assign to Myself link. The Self-Assign page redisplays with the status of Assigned to you in Open mode.

11. Click Home. The Teacher Home page displays.
12. Click the Student Home Page link. The Student Home page displays with an Incomplete Assignment Alert!
13. Click GO immediately below the Incomplete Assignment Alert! The Incomplete Assignments page displays.
14. Click the hypertext link associated with your new DBQ assignment. The DBQ Assignments page displays.
15. Click hypertext link associated with the date on which the assignment was assigned to begin work.
16. Review the assignment. Notice that the Answer section of the page provides input areas to record your responses.

Keep in mind that technically speaking, you are not a student of one of your School Island classes. As such, you cannot score your own assignment. However, if you had assigned this DBQ to "real" students, then you would access the scoring mechanism from the Assignment Details page. To do so, click the Details icon of a specific student. Then step through the questions, read the student's responses, and assign a point score under the Question Feedback section (located at the bottom of the page). Additionally, you may make general comments about the student's work by clicking the Assignment Comments for the Student link located at the top of the page. This feedback is available to students who choose to review their work when completed.

How do I obtain Assignment Reports where grades include half credit for responses that are correct on the retry?

The Quick Results Report now shows scores calculated in three different ways:

• Score - only counts correct answers on the "first try".
• Score With Retry As Full Credit - answers "correct on retry" are scored as full credit.
• Score With Retry As Half Credit - answers "correct on retry" are scored as half credit .

To access the Quick Results Report:

1. Click the Assignments link on the Teacher Home page. The Assignments page displays existing Short Answer assignments.
2. Locate the desired Short-Answer assignment.
3. Click the Assign/Monitor Students icon associated with the desired Short Answer assignment. The Assignment Details page for the selected Short Answer activity displays. This page has a tabbed interface, with the Assignment Results tab open.
4. Scroll down the list of students who are currently assigned this Short Answer activity until you reach the end of the list.
5. Click the Quick Results Report link below the list of assigned students. The Assignment Scores Report displays in a separate pop-up window for on screen viewing.
6. Click the Print link to print the report.
7. Click the Close link upon completion.
   

If you have any comments, ideas for future articles, or suggestions for a School Island product feature or enhancement, please send it to support@schoolisland.com. We would love to hear from you!