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 3 Controlling Language

Expectation 3.1 The student will demonstrate understanding of the nature and structure of language, including grammar concepts and skills, to strengthen control of oral and written language.

Indicator 3.1.4 The student will differentiate grammatically complete sentences from non-sentences.

Assessment Limits:

  • Identifying sentence fragments
  • Identifying run-on sentences, including fused sentences and comma splices
  • Completing inappropriate sentence fragments

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Yuri is writing an article for the school paper about science in the classroom. The draft of Yuri's article requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following.

Which of these should be revised to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. The movie Titanic and the expeditions to explore the ship's remains took thousands of viewers into depths of the ocean.
  2. The JASON Project named after the Greek hero Jason.
  3. The JASON Project is training a new generation of explorers by developing their skills in science, technology, math, geography, and language arts.
  4. Using the curriculum and materials of the JASON Project, students can complete many activities during the school year.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_314_eng06.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2005

Read the student-written paragraph about Plants Used as Medicine. The paragraph requires revisions and edits. After reading, answer the following question.

Which of these should be revised to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. Plants throughout the world are used to create medicines.
  2. For example, the Madagascar rosy periwinkle is used to make several different medicines.
  3. Also, the leaves of foxgloves to make heart medications.
  4. It is important to discover what healthful benefits plants have before we destroy them and their habitats.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2005_314_eng27.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

Miriam is writing a draft of an essay about the SS Central America, a ship that sank in 1857. The draft of Miriam's essay requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following:

Which of these should Miriam revise to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. The storm pounded the ship for three days.
  2. It tossed the ship about on waves 20 feet high or higher.
  3. Using state-of-the art electronic equipment, sonar, and an undersea robot.
  4. Amazingly, the coins looked just as they had when they were minted 130 years before.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_314_eng05.xml

Correct Answer:
C

Selected Response Item - Released in 2006

The student paragraph “Bats” requires revisions and edits. Read the paragraph. Then answer the following.

Which of these should be revised to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. Many people think bats can be very scary, and it is true that some bats carry the rabies virus.
  2. For example, believing bats will get stuck in people's hair.
  3. That belief is not so.
  4. This ability is called “echolocation.”
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2006_314_eng25.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

Students in an art appreciation class conducted research and wrote about different ways of creating art. Richard wrote an article about a Baltimore sculptor. The draft of Richard’s article, “A Spoon Reborn,” requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following:

Which of these should Richard revise to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. When I was a child, I used to make “music” using pots and pans from my family’s kitchen, but I just read about an artist who uses kitchen utensils to create another kind of art.
  2. Which are quickly becoming collectors’ items.
  3. Wanting to be a little less “normal,” he began laminating wood, Plexiglas, and foam into sandwiches and then carved ballet dancers from these sandwiches.
  4. He called this creation “Soupentine.”
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_314_eng06.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2007

This student paragraph requires revisions and edits. Read the paragraph. Then answer the following:

Which of these needs to be revised to correct an incomplete sentence?

  1. The sport involves medieval costumes, tradition, and pageantry.
  2. And just a little bravery and adventure.
  3. Each contestant, galloping on horseback down a dirt track and through three arches, tries to spear a metal ring with a long, steel-tipped lance.
  4. Scores are based on the number and size of the rings captured on the lance.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2007_314_eng26.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

Read the draft of the first part of Ricky’s article. Then answer the following item.

Which of these revisions of Sentence 2 makes it a complete sentence?

  1. The breed is America’s only native hunting dog and was bred especially for bay conditions.
  2. The breed, America’s only native hunting dog, especially for bay conditions.
  3. The breed, which is America’s only native hunting dog, and was bred especially for bay conditions.
  4. The breed, America’s only native hunting dog, and being bred especially for bay conditions.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_314_eng04.xml

Correct Answer:
A

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

The student paragraph below requires revisions and edits. Read the paragraph. Then answer Numbers 22 through 24.

This student paragraph requires revisions and edits. Read the paragraph. Then answer the following item.

Which of these is an incomplete sentence that should be revised?

  1. The White House, the home of the President of the United States, is unique.
  2. Every President’s family adapting the White House to its own lifestyle.
  3. In the early 1900s, the horse stables were converted to a garage.
  4. Other Presidents have added a bowling alley, a golf putting green, and a jogging track.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_314_eng22.xml

Correct Answer:
B

Selected Response Item - Released in 2008

In Jessica’s English class, students are writing about artists they admire. Jessica decided to write about the piano player and composer Eubie Blake. The draft of Jessica’s essay requires revisions and edits. Read the draft. Then answer the following item.

Which of these is an incomplete sentence that should be revised?

  1. Sometime around the age of four or five, Blake playing his family’s pump organ.
  2. Noticing his interest in music, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons.
  3. Among these shows was one of his more famous, “Shuffle Along.”
  4. He lived to be one hundred years old and died on February 12, 1983.
/share/clg/xml/public_release/english/2008_314_eng49.xml

Correct Answer:
A
Resources for 3.1.4:
PUBLIC RELEASE ITEMS | Sample Assessment Items |