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Study Guide

Field 069: Business and Marketing

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Sample Constructed-Response Item

Competency 0009 
Pedagogical Content Knowledge

 start bold Use the information below to complete the task that follows. end bold 

You are planning to teach a high school unit on the use of social media and social networking sites as marketing tools. Using your knowledge of business and marketing concepts, principles, and practices, write a response of approximately  400 to 600  words in which you:

Sample Strong Response to the Constructed-Response Item 
(600 words)

Learning goal: 
Students will be able to demonstrate how e-marketing can be used to enhance a business' sales, reputation, and market share.

Rationale: 
Social media and social networking provide a fast and effective way for a business to connect with potential customers. They provide online visibility and the capacity for two-way communication with customers. Social media can provide rapid feedback on business policies, customer service, product reliability, customer loyalty, and the prospect for future customers. When they enter the workforce, most students will need to be familiar with the roles that social media play in business and marketing.

Instructional activity: 
Students will be divided into mixed ability groups. Each group will be given a description of a hypothetical company, including its size, products, target markets, and corporate mission. The task for each team is to create an e-marketing proposal.

The teacher will provide guidelines for the proposal and each group will develop a written e-marketing plan as if it were a proposal to management. The proposals will cover different marketing approaches and explain how each approach will help the business reach its target markets. The proposals may include areas such as developing a Website, a Facebook page, and/or other social media outlets. They may also include the use of rating sites (such as Yelp), and other activities they think are appropriate for their target audience. There will be a general list of suggested resources such as Websites and books. Their proposal may include multimedia elements such as a Website mockup or slide presentations.

Differentiated instruction: 
One of the key principles of differentiated instruction is that the teacher ensures that all students are engaged in meaningful work. This approach accomplishes this by focusing on a real-world activity that requires each student to participate in order to meet a team goal. The activity includes tasks that call for skills and knowledge in different areas, such as art and design, writing, research, popular culture, analysis, and management. These tasks can be distributed among the group to work on individually according to interest and skill level. Students will have to explore concepts and solve problems as they arise. Each group will have to make choices as to how they divide up their work and develop their plans.

Assessment: 
Students will be given a rubric that clearly outlines the expectations for the finished project. The areas to be included are organization, required elements, content, mechanics, and appearance. The organization portion will highlight the overall organization of the proposal from the introduction to the closing summary. The required elements consist of the company logo, product description, and target market emphasis. The content of the campaign includes the description of specific approaches and any mockups or multimedia materials as well as the justification of approaches. The mechanics portion will include the quality of the writing and presentation. The appearance portion includes the overall look of font, text, and graphics of the campaign. This rubric may also be used for peer assessment as a learning tool for students.

Evaluation: 
By reflecting on the assessment rubrics, the teacher can identify areas where students struggle or seem confused and use this information to improve instruction. For example, a group's proposal may focus on the wrong age group or use an approach that is inappropriate for the company's product. The teacher can then carefully pose questions to those students so they could discover the flaws in their thinking and come up with ways to improve their proposal. The teacher may also identify areas where additional review is needed in order for the students to master the content of the learning goal.

Performance Characteristics for Constructed-Response Item

The following characteristics guide the scoring of responses to the constructed-response item.

Completeness The degree to which the response addresses all parts of the assignment
Accuracy The degree to which the response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills accurately and effectively
Depth of Support The degree to which the response provides appropriate examples and details that demonstrate sound reasoning

Score Scale for Constructed-Response Item

A score will be assigned to the response to the constructed-response item according to the following score scale.

Score Point Score Point Description
4 The "4" response reflects a thorough command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
  • The response thoroughly addresses all parts of the assignment.
  • The response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills with thorough accuracy and effectiveness.
  • The response is well supported by relevant examples and details and thoroughly demonstrates sound reasoning.
3 The "3" response reflects a general command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
  • The response generally addresses all parts of the assignment.
  • The response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills with general accuracy and effectiveness.
  • The response is generally supported by some examples and/or details and generally demonstrates sound reasoning.
2 The "2" response reflects a partial command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
  • The response addresses all parts of the assignment, but most only partially; or some parts are not addressed at all.
  • The response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills with partial accuracy and effectiveness.
  • The response is partially supported by some examples and/or details or demonstrates flawed reasoning.
1 The "1" response reflects little or no command of the relevant knowledge and skills:
  • The response minimally addresses the assignment.
  • The response demonstrates the relevant knowledge and skills with minimum accuracy and effectiveness.
  • The response is minimally supported or demonstrates significantly flawed reasoning.
U The response is unscorable because it is unrelated to the assigned topic or off task, unreadable, written in a language other than English or contains an insufficient amount of original work to score.
B No response.