School Improvement in Maryland

Public Release Item: Public Release items have appeared on HSA forms and then are released for public viewing and use. Releasing items is one step to ensuring that schools, districts, and other stakeholders understand how the core learning goals are assessed on the HSA.

Goal 1 Reading, Reviewing and Responding to Texts

Expectation 1.1 The student will use effective strategies before, during, and after reading, viewing, and listening to self-selected and assigned materials.

Indicator 1.1.2 The student will use during-reading strategies appropriate to both the text and purpose for reading by visualizing, making connections, and using fix-up strategies such as re-reading, questioning, and summarizing.

Assessment Limits:

  • Using visual aids
  • Making connections between ideas within the text
  • Making connections between ideas within the text and relevant prior knowledge
  • Identifying the organizational pattern of the text
  • Focusing on similarities or differences in organizational patterns, text/author's purpose, and relevant prior knowledge within or across texts
  • Identifying the meaning of above-grade-level words as they are used in context
  • Identifying the appropriate meaning of multiple-meaning words as they are used in context
  • Identifying the meaning of phrases as they are used in context
  • Predicting the development of ideas that might logically be included in the text

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

Read the poem “Fireflies in the Garden.” Then answer Numbers 7 through 9.

Read the poem “Fireflies in the Garden.” Then answer the following:

In line 2, the word emulating means the speaker believes the fireflies are

  1. imitating the stars
  2. entering the skies
  3. making soft sounds
  4. changing their shape
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_112_eng07.xml

Correct Answer:
A

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

The following item should be answered upon reading the poem “Good Hotdogs” from My Wicked Wicked Ways by Sandra Cisneros, which can be found at most local or school libraries.

“Good Hotdogs” is a poem about the memory of rushing to the store with a close friend to buy hotdogs after school. The speaker provides many sensory details to describe the experience.

Read lines 9 and 10 from the poem.

What do these lines show about the children in the poem?

  1. They rarely do things together.
  2. They are generous to many people.
  3. They are good friends who share.
  4. They sometimes quarrel about money.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_112_eng27.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Read the essay "Starwalking with Sarah." Then answer the following.

Read this sentence from paragraph 37 of the essay.

He was too small to negotiate the deep-plowed furrows on the Dickman Farm, so I ended up carrying him on my shoulders.

In this sentence, to negotiate means

  1. to plant
  2. to arrange
  3. to move through
  4. to bargain with
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_112_eng09.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Read these sentences from paragraph 10 of "In The Country of Grasses."

Anticipation is another gift for travelers in unfamiliar territory. It quickens the spirit.

The word quickens most nearly means

  1. angers
  2. excites
  3. hurries
  4. lightens
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_112_eng37.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Read the screenplay Anna and the King. Then answer Numbers 14 through 18.

Read the screenplay Anna and the King. Then answer the following:

What is the main purpose of the information in the introduction to this scene?

  1. to describe the physical setting of the play
  2. to reveal the personalities of the primary characters
  3. to clarify the locations of the various scenes of the play
  4. to provide background for the interaction that follows
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_112_eng14.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Read the poem “Foul Shot.” Then answer the following:

Which phrase best describes the organization of the poem?

  1. a description of the boy followed by a description of the crowd
  2. a description of the crowd followed by a description of the foul shot
  3. a description of the boy's actions followed by a description of the ball's movement
  4. a description of the ball's movement followed by a description of the crowd's reaction
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_112_eng22.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Read the essay “High Tide in Tucson.” Then answer the following.

Which phrase best explains the purpose of paragraph 2?

  1. to describe natural beauty
  2. to create a suspenseful mood
  3. to establish a humorous tone
  4. to provide background information
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_112_eng35.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

Read the poem “Unfolding Bud.” Then answer the following:

In line 12 of the poem, the word Yet

  1. provides elaboration
  2. decreases the surprise
  3. connects the poem to the bud
  4. indicates a shift in thought
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_112_eng22.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

Read the story “Winter Hibiscus.” Then answer the following item.

Read these sentences from paragraph 24 of the story.

“You what?” Her mother stared at her incredulously.

The details in paragraph 24 show that the word incredulously most likely means

  1. with joy
  2. with fear
  3. with disbelief
  4. with sympathy
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_112_eng38.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

Read the article “Titanic’s Tempestuous Afterlife.” Then answer the following item.

According to the information in paragraph 4, the use of technology enabled scientists to

  1. pinpoint the ship’s location
  2. raise the remains of the Titanic
  3. improve modern shipbuilding procedures
  4. determine the structural damage of the Titanic
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_112_eng33.xml

Correct Answer:
D