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Hot Text Questions (Silver/Gold Feature)
Hot Text Questions (Silver/Gold Feature)
Neta Raz Studnitski avatar
Written by Neta Raz Studnitski
Updated over a week ago

With Hot Text questions, students can demonstrate understanding by citing evidence by clicking highlighted text in a sentence, paragraph, or extended reading. Teachers can define questions to allow a single choice or multiple choices.

To create a Hot Text question:

  1. Click on the blue + button

  2. Choose "Hot Text" from the Question types

  3. Enter your question along with any prompts or directions to the top text box

  4. Enter the text to the second text box

  5. To turn parts of the text to Hot Text items select (highlight) them and checkmark the box next to the "Hot Text" pop up that appears upon each of your selections

  6. Hot Text items will remain highlighted and appear in a list below the text

  7. To remove a Hot Text item - click the X symbol next to it on the list

  8. Set up your auto-grading by checking the correct answer(s)

  9. To allow multiple selections toggle "Multi-select" on the right side of your screen

  10. Switch on "Allow Partial Credit" to take auto-grading up a notch by allowing your students to get credit for answering part of the question correct.

How we grade the "Allow Partial Credit" feature in Hot Text questions

When you select “Allow Partial Credit”* you can choose between subtracting points for incorrect answers, or not subtracting points for incorrect answers.

If you choose to subtract points for incorrect answers, students’ scores will be auto-graded like this:

Let's take a look at an example of how this works in practice. Here is a Hot Text answer key:

To receive 100% of the score, students will need to choose only the 2 correct answers.

Here are some examples of student responses to this Hot Text question, along with their auto-graded scores:

Student A

Student B

Student C


If you choose not to subtract points for incorrect answers:

Instead of looking at the answer choices as Correct/Incorrect, our auto-grading algorithm will assign each answer choice a value of True or False:

The answers a teacher check-marks in the answer key will be assigned the value "True".

The answers a teacher does not check-mark will be assigned the value "False".

Students will be expected to checkmark the "True" answers and leave the "False" answers un-checked to "label" them correctly.

With this algorithm, each answer choice has an equal value and is counted toward the score.

Let's take a look at an example of how this works in practice.

Here is the same Hot Text answer key as before, this time with the True/False approach:

There are 4 answers in total, each carrying an equal point value of the total score.

The question is scored out of 2 point, meaning each answer's value is 0.5 points.

2 answers have been assigned the value "True": happily and quietly.

2 answers have been assigned the value "False": large and yard.

Here are the same examples of student responses to this Hot Text question, along with their auto-graded scores, when choosing not to subtract points for incorrect answers.

Student A

Student A check-marked 1 answer labeling it "True", and left the 3 answers un-checked labeling them "False".

Student B

Student B check-marked 3 answers labeling them "True", and left 1 answer unchecked labeling it "False".

Student C

Student C check-marked all 4 answers, labeling all of them "True".


Did you know?

Hot Text questions are a standard STAAR question type used by the state of Texas.

What next?

Learn how to add Show Your Work and how to use a Rubric

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