Teaching command terms – help your students succeed in assessments!

I teach a year 9 and a year 10 integrated class and I’ve always had the luxury of not having to prepare students for external assessments. Not so anymore… With the introduction of the new Literacy and Numeracy standards, my Year 10 students will be sitting these two pilot assessments this year, which will be required in 2024. So how to best prepare them?

Knowing command terms is useful for success in these type of external, high stakes assessments. Command terms are active verbs that guide students in comprehending and answering an assessment question. A uniform definition and use of these terms throughout different subjects can help student achieve to their potential and so there is significant benefit in having a school wide approach to deliberately teaching these command terms (see ‘Command Terms – A Whole school approach‘)

More importance place on Command terms

It is not unusual in assessment report from various qualification authorities to see comments like this:

The difference between the key terms of describe, explain and analyse need to be clearly understood by candidates in order to meet the requirements of the
questions.

NZQA Assessment report on Geography 2018

We are also starting to see this have more importance in curriculum design. The recently released Aotearoa Histories places emphasis on “Know, Do, Understand”:

This is perhaps best explained by a practitioner:

‘Understand, Know and Do’ has always been a fundamental part of their (the students) inquiry process. Understand’, ‘know’ and ‘do’ are of equal importance; they need each other.

Any understanding, any inquiry that is absent of knowledge – the ‘know’ – runs the risk of being fluff, and any inquiry that is absent of the big and enduring and connecting ideas – the ‘understand’ – runs the risk of being irrelevant to our learners in the here and now. Any inquiry that is absent of the practices that bring rigour to learning – the ‘do’ part – runs the risk of not motivating, challenging and engaging our learners, let alone inspiring them to act on what they’ve learned.

When we deliver equally on these, our students will be informed. They will be active and passionate learners who will go on to make a difference in the world.

Barbara Ala’alatoa, Principal of Sylvia Park School in Auckland

Related to this idea in the concept of ‘capability’. A ‘capability’ is demonstrated in action. As Rose Hipkins defines, a capability is “…what the student shows they can do—and is willing to do—as a result of their learning.” We have also seen a recent shift from a focus on content to these capabilities (see ‘Growing Curiosity – Teacher Strategies to Engage Years 5 to 11 Student in Science, April 2021, Education Review Office’). We further see the need to teach these command terms with the recent change to NCEA.

Command terms in changes to NCEA

In the upcoming new NCEA Literacy and Numeracy achievement standards, there are a number of identified command words. The Literacy | Reading Assessment Specifications lists the following: locate, select, describe, recognise, identify, interpret, distinguish, predict, generalise, organise, summarise, recommend, compare, contrast. The Numeracy Pilot Common Assessment Activities (CAA) use command words such as explain (used 9 times in the September 2022 pilot CAA!), calculate, estimate. Below is a proposed list of command words that students would need to be familiar with to succeed in the NCEA Numeracy and Literacy standards:

1. Identify: recognise or name something, such as a feature or characteristic of a text or numerical problem. (similar to Locate, Select, Recognise)
2. Describe: provide a detailed account of something, including its key features and characteristics.
3. Explain: provide a clear and detailed account of something, including its underlying principles, causes, or mechanisms.
4. Compare: identify similarities and differences between two or more things, events or concepts. (similar to Organise, Contrast)
5. Interpret: explain or give meaning to something, such as a text or a numerical problem. (similar to Distinguish)
6. Apply: use their knowledge or understanding of something to solve a problem or complete a task.
7. Calculate: perform mathematical operations or computations to find a numerical solution.
8. Estimate: provide an approximate answer or value based on their knowledge or understanding. (similar to Predict)
9. Analyse: examine something in detail and break it down into its constituent parts to understand how it works.
10. Justify: provide a reasoned argument in support of a particular claim or position. (similar to Recommend)
11. Evaluate: consider the evidence and arguments presented in support of a particular claim or argument and make a judgment about its validity.

In addition to these command terms, The New Zealand National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) uses a range of command terms in their university entrance achievement standard assessments. Some of the key command terms used in these assessments include:

1. Critically evaluate: examine something in depth, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and make a judgement about its overall value or importance.
2. Discuss: consider different viewpoints on a particular issue or topic and weigh up the arguments for and against each one.
3. Evaluate: consider the evidence and arguments presented in support of a particular claim or argument, and make a judgement about its validity
4. Summarise: provide a brief outline of something, highlighting its key features or characteristics.
5. Synthesise: bring together information from different sources to create a new understanding or perspective on a particular issue or topic.

Developing coherence

When moving on to propose how we can best prepare students to understand these command terms it is important to consider the difference between progressions and coherence. Progression refers to the systematic development of knowledge and skills over time, ensuring that students are challenged appropriately as they move through the curriculum. Progression also involves a clear sense of direction and purpose, with each lesson building upon the previous one. On the other hand, coherence refers to the logical and meaningful connections between different parts of the curriculum. This involves ensuring that each component of the curriculum fits together in a way that makes sense, creating a unified and meaningful whole. In other words, progression ensures that students are consistently challenged to develop their knowledge and skills, while coherence ensures that this development is meaningful and connected to the broader goals of the curriculum. So a focus on coherence seems more useful in this context and it is one of the 8 principles of the New Zealand Curriculum.

If we take an Understanding by Design lens to how we can best teach this commend terms, Jay McTighe explains that the main goal of this approach is to teach for understanding and transfer. The approach involves two key ideas – teaching and assessing for understanding and transfer, and using backward design to plan curricula. To plan backwards, teachers start from the end, which is understanding and transfer, not content coverage. If we apply this to the narrow approach of earning a qualification, we start with NCEA University Entrance in Year 13 looking at what key command terms they need to know, and plan a coherent pathway to how these are taught across the year levels.

Deliberately teaching understanding of command terms

So after we now understand the importance of command terms, and how we can create a coherent approach by using backwards design, what are some activities that we can get student to do? How can we deliberately teach these command terms?

1. Use consistent language in tasks and assessments: For example you may create a Y9 Maths tasks that has some ‘Explain’ questions to start scaffolding that understanding in preparation for the Numeracy standard.
2. Cross curricular tasks: Look at tasks from different subjects and using the same command terms. For example an English literature task can ask “Analyse the character of Lady MacBeth in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth” and a Science task can have “Analyse the results of the neutralisation reaction experiment and predict what will happen using acids with higher concentrations”
3. Definitions activities: Create a matching task, either with physical cards, or a digital version using a platform like Blooket, Kahoot or Quizizz. You could even have students make their own copy of flash cards using Quizlet.
4. Create a visual glossary. What do these terms look like? Have student draw their own interpretations and share with the class (see this lesson plan).

In conclusion, while there will be many more approaches to the coherent teaching of command words, these few examples should provide a start in how a secondary school can use a coherent approach.