Item Banks: Items, Passages, and Rubrics > Create or Edit a Passage

Create or Edit a Passage

You can create and edit passages, such as a poem, that can be associated with test items. Passages can be created on a test, or created individually and saved to item banks. Passages can be linked to items in the same bank or a different bank. For more information, see Passage Detail.

Items and passages that are created on a test are not automatically added to an item bank. In addition, when editing items or passages on a test that are already in a bank, changes are made only for the test -- the bank will not be updated. You can add an item or passage to a bank from Test Detail or Item Detail after a test is Scheduled, In Progress, or Completed.

If you would like to edit a passage where editing is not allowed, you can copy the passage and make changes to the copy. The edited copy can then be added to an item bank.

ClosedTo create or edit a passage
  1. Do one of the following:
    • To create a passage, go to Assessments > Create > Create Passage for Items, Rubrics, and Passages. You can also create a passage from a test item.
    • Go to Assessments > Item Banks and click Passages for the appropriate bank. Search for the passage you want, and then click Edit in the actions menu for the passage. This action is available only if you have edit rights to the bank.
  2. In the Passage Information area, enter the passage title, subject, and grade level.
  3. Click in the Passage Content area to edit the passage content. Use the editor buttons to format, spell check, insert media files (such as images, MP3 audio files, and MP4 video files), insert equations, etc., into your passage. Hover over an icon to see each button's function.
  4. Optional: For the Text to Speech accommodation, you can provide alternate text to be read aloud in place of a selected word, math equation, image, audio file, or table. To do so, select the item you want to provide alternate text for, and then click the Alternate Text icon and enter the alternate text to be read aloud. You cannot select more than a single line of text. For tables, alternate text can be entered for content within the table or the entire table (in Table Properties). If alternate text is entered for both, only the alt text for the entire table will be read. You can remove alternate text for a single word or click the Clear All Text to Speech icon to remove all alternate text for the test item. You can use alternate text to improve the pronunciation of certain words. See the phonetic spelling guide.
  5. Select the Online Layout for online tests: Portrait (default) or Landscape.
  6. Optional: Click Manually Enter Number and enter the Word Count if you want to manually enter a word count.
  7. Optional: Select the Grade Level Vocabulary document to associate with the passage.
  8. Click Show Optional Properties or Additional Properties to view the optional fields. See below for more information.
  9. Click Save to Bank, and then select the item bank you want to save the passage to. Passages can be linked to items in the same bank or a different bank.
ClosedOptional/Additional Properties
Field
Input
Additional Passage ID
A unique item number that may be provided when importing items from a publisher, such as Equella.
Asset Type
The type of passage.
Author
Defaults to the name of the logged in user. Can be changed by typing an alternate creator’s name in the form “Last Name, First Name.”
Course ID
The course ID the item is associated with.
Flesch-Kincaid
If you know the Flesch-Kincaid grade level of your passage, a measure of reading level, enter it here. This measure can be obtained by pasting your passage into Microsoft Word and running a grammar check.
Genre
Type the genre of your passage. The field will suggest genres used by other passages as you type.
Question Language

Select the language to create a passage in a language other than English. The passage can be attached to items when administering assessments to students in their primary language. Use the keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V) to copy and paste text into title, question, and passage fields if your keyboard does not support the selected language.

This property is available for school districts with system configurations to support multiple languages. Currently supported languages include:

  • English
  • American Sign Language
  • Chinese
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Latin
  • Spanish
Lexile

Select a Lexile code, and if you know the Lexile measurement of your passage enter it here. Valid Lexile measurements range between 0-1900. Beginning Reading and Non-Prose Lexile measurements are automatically set to zero.

Publisher
Type the original publisher of the passage here (e.g., Equella, Kaplan, ETS). The field will suggest publishers used by other passages as you type.
Reading Maturity Metric (RMM)
Identifies the Reading Maturity Metric of the passage to help target a specific group of readers.
Topic
Write in a short description of the passage’s topic.
Type
General is preselected. Click the dropdown menu for more options.
Year
The year the test item was imported or created.
Batch
The batch number. This field is used by Florida only.
Add Teacher Instructions
Click to add instructions for teachers regarding this passage.

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