Writing Good Responses:

Open-Ended Questions: There are many different kinds of test questions, from multiple choice to short answer. Open-ended questions require that you answer in your own words, and your success depends on a few simple elements.

Open-Ended Responses: Your score on open-ended responses depends on two things: 1)How well you understand the reading selection 2)How well you express your answer in writing

SLAMS Rules: There are 5 simple rules to remember to write good open-ended responses. We call these the SLAMS rules. By the end of the presentation, you will know what SLAMS represents. S L A M S

SLAMS Rules 1:  Sentences Always use complete sentences when responding to an open-ended question.

Examples 1:  According to the selection, what can African pouched rats be used for? Bonnie’s answer: finding mines Although Bonnie’s answer is correct, she would not get a good score on the test because it is not in complete sentences.

Improved answer:  Bonnie’s answer would have been better if written like this: Scientists have found that African giant pouched rats can be used to sniff out buried landmines. The rats have a very keen sense of smell and can be trained to find mines buried in the ground.

SLAMS Rules 2:  Lines Line length = Answer length The number of lines on a test is a rough guide for how long your answer should be.

Lines…  If you see 4 or 5 lines, you should probably write about 3 or 4 sentences.  If you see a whole page of lines, you should probably write 1 or 2 paragraphs.  If you see a whole page of lines, you should write 3 or more paragraphs.

Example 2: Shaun’s (not-so-good) answer: How do African pouched rats differ from ordinary rats? They are bigger and have pouches._______ _____________________________________

Example 2: Shaun’s IMPROVED answer: How do African pouched rats differ from ordinary rats? African pouched rats are much bigger than ordinary rats, even as large as a small cat! They are also very smart and can be trained to sniff out landmines or detect tuberculosis in human saliva samples.

SLAMS Rules 3:  Answer the Question This might seem like a logical thing to do, but many students do not give a good answer because they do not understand the question or do not fully answer it. Read the question carefully and only give information that actually answers that question.

Examples 3: In the wild, what do the giant rats use their noses for? Steve’s answer: The giant rats have super-sensitive noses. They can smell things you and I could never smell. We can only smell strong things, like burning toast or an apple pie cooking in the oven. But the giant rats can smell much, much better than that.

Examples 3: In the wild, what do the giant rats use their noses for? David’s answer: The giant rats use their super-sensitive noses to sniff out buried food. They collect food in their cheek pouches and then bury it. Then, when they get hungry, they use their noses to sniff out the buried food.

About Examples 3: Although both answers are true, Steve’s does not answer the question that is asked: In the wild, what do the giant rats use their noses for?  Most of Steve’s facts are not from the reading passage.  The question does not ask students to compare the smelling ability of rats with that of humans, which is what Steve wrote about. Therefore, David’s answer is better because it answers the question that was asked!

SLAMS Rules 4:  Mechanics Count! Mechanics are important! (punctuation, grammar, spelling) Your answer should have no mistakes. You won’t get a low score if you write a good, thorough response with just a few small errors, but if your answer has several mistakes, you could lose major points.

Examples 4: How can African rats help in the fight against TB? Maria’s answer: The african giant rats can be used in labs to indentify the spit from a person who has TB they can be traned to spot the smell of spit. From a TB pashunt. A human with a micriscope can only looked at 20 spit samples a day. But a giant rat can sniff 300 spit samples an hour.

Examples 4: Maria’s answer has a lot of good information, but she would have gotten a much better score if she had paid attention to mechanics. Her answer includes  4 spelling errors  1 run-on sentence & 1 fragment  3 mistakes in capitalization  1 mistake in verb tense Hint: all of the misspelled words can be found in the written passage. All she had to do was look back at the article!

SLAMS Rules 5:  Support your answers with DETAILS from the selection! Support means to include information that explains or adds to your answer. Supporting details make your answer complete and thorough.  For some questions, some or all of the support for your answers must come from the reading selection you are reading  For other questions, it is okay to add your own opinions, but you MUST include some information from the selection, no matter what you write

Examples 5: In training, were all the rats equally good at sniffing out buried TNT? Pat’s answer: No. Some rats were no good. Christy’s answer: In training, some rats were better than others at sniffing out buried TNT. The rat named Julie got a perfect score, and a rat named Bean was also very good. The rats named Dina and Bianca never did well. Vincent’s answer: Some rats were not as good as other rats. Maybe they were just not naturally good sniffers, or maybe something was wrong with their noses. Or maybe they were good sniffers, but just couldn’t be trained.

Examples 5: Pat’s answer: (Weak! Not enough supporting details!) No. Some rats were no good. Vincent’s answer: (Weak! Details did not come from passage!) Some rats were not as good as other rats. Maybe they were just not naturally good sniffers, or maybe something was wrong with their noses. Or maybe they were good sniffers, but just couldn’t be trained. Christy’s answer: (Good! Supports answer with details from passage!) In training, some rats were better than others at sniffing out buried TNT. The rat named Julie got a perfect score, and a rat named Bean was also very good. The rats named Dina and Bianca never did well.

SLAMS Rules:  Sentences – always use complete sentences  Lines – the number of lines gives you an idea of how long your response should be  Answer – read the question more than once and make sure you answer it thoroughly  Mechanics – Be careful not to make errors in grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage  Support – support your answer with DETAILS from the passage

You try the SLAMS rules: On your own paper, write a response to this question and use the SLAMS rules. Refer to the passage for your details! How did the scientists train the African giant pouched rats to find buried landmines? ________________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________