In this lesson, you will learn how to get started on a Constructed Response item in the Legacy Item Bank. The item type will provide a text box for students to type a response into and will require manual scoring.
Adding Standards and Publishing the Item are required to use the item in an assessment.
Where to Start

1. Click on Assessments.
2. Under Itembank, click Visit Itembank.
Create a New Item

- Click Create.
- Next click Item.
- Select Next.
You may also start from the Items tab. Then click Create Item.
Question
- Select Constructed Response from the drop down menu.
- Click Teacher Instructions to type Teacher Instructions (e.g., Read the question aloud to your students) if applicable.
- Enter the Stem. The stem is the beginning part of an item that presents a problem to be solved, a direct question, or an incomplete statement to be completed, as well as any other relevant information.
- Use the tool palette for special formatting. Tp learn more check out the Item Toolbar Overview.
- Click Save and Continue.
Teacher Instructions are only viewable on the Itembank Teacher Booklet. They will not appear in Online Testing or the Student Booklet
Rubric

Rubrics are required for constructed response items. When the item is completed and then added to an assessment, the question will be manually scored by filling in the appropriate bubble on the answer sheet and then using Lightning Grader's camera grading, or by manually choosing the correct score from the dropdown in Enter/Edit.
- Add a performance level to your rubric by clicking Add Rubric Level. If you plan to use this question on an assessment using an answer sheet that you will scan in using Lightning Grader, your rubric can only have 8 levels.
- Enter the rubric performance level criteria.
- Click the red minus (-) icon next to a criteria that you would like to remove. Use the arrow keys to move the criteria up or down.
- Click Save once you have finished, then go to the Details tab.
You can create multiple rubrics for questions that have multiple parts. When added to an assessment that you publish to Illuminate, a three-part question would create three separate questions in your answer key and subsequent answer sheet (1A,1B,1C) and a question group (Question 1) for reporting.
Next Steps
Now that you've set the question portion of your Constructed Response item, learn about the next step: Item Details.
The next required step is Adding Standards to an Item.