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 1.3 The student will explain and give evidence to support perceptions about print and non-print works.

Indicator 1.3.3 The student will identify features of language that create tone and voice.

Assessment Limits:

  • Analyzing the effects of certain words and phrases on the tone or voice of a text or across texts
  • Identifying similarities or differences in the overall tone created by language choices throughout a text or across texts

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

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

Which word best describes the tone of "Starwalking with Sarah"?

  1. mischievous
  2. mysterious
  3. scientific
  4. tender
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_133_eng08.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Which word best describes the tone of the poem "I, Too"?

  1. apologetic
  2. confident
  3. playful
  4. respectful
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_133_eng22.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Read these sentences from paragraph 6 of "Silencing the Sound of Music."

Scholars believe the wood block was invented before music. And if you needed proof of that, you had only to listen to the way I played.

Which word best describes the tone of the author's words in these sentences?

  1. admiring
  2. instructive
  3. self-confident
  4. self-mocking
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_133_eng30.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Read “Breakfast,” the first chapter from the novel Jim the Boy. Then answer the following:

Which word best describes the tone of Jim’s conversation with his uncles?

  1. cheerful
  2. concerned
  3. indifferent
  4. puzzled
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_133_eng10.xml

Correct Answer:
A

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

Read the essay “Bug, Interrupted.” Then answer the following:

Read these lines from the essay.

And perhaps I, the parent, needed...oh, who knows? All I really know is that the fireflies appreciated my effort that night.

Which word best describes the tone of these lines?

  1. apologetic
  2. instructive
  3. mournful
  4. satisfied
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_133_eng11.xml

Correct Answer:
D

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

The following item should be answered upon reading the excerpt “Wanderlust” from the autobiography A Life on the Road by Charles Kuralt, which can be found at most local or school libraries.

“Wanderlust” is a memoir of Kuralt’s early life on the road with his father, his childhood experiences on the farm, and the memory of winning a journalistic contest at age twelve.

Which of these phrases from the excerpt best communicates a positive tone?

  1. wondered where the roads went (paragraph 2)
  2. wrapped in a cloud of companionship (paragraph 5)
  3. places I had trouble imagining (paragraph 6)
  4. entered contests that promised travel as a prize (paragraph 8)
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_133_eng13.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

Read the essay “The Architecture of a Soul.” Then answer the following item.

Which of these words best identifies the tone created by the author’s description of her grandmother?

  1. grieving
  2. humorous
  3. puzzled
  4. sentimental
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_133_eng17.xml

Correct Answer:
D