Question blocks
Each section can hold question blocks alongside text, pictures, spelling lists and VAKT activities. Pick a type from the Add question menu in a section's toolbar. Each type has its own color, so you can scan a lesson and see its questions at a glance.
The types are defaults, not rules
The eight types and their colors are the app's defaults. The idea of "semi-open" questions (the two amber types below) comes from the S2C guidebook published for Spelling to Communicate. Spelling practices differ, and plenty of practitioners ask questions their own way, so use the types as they suit you. The editor doesn't require a set number of each or any particular order. The lesson checks do follow the app's lesson standard (for example, they expect a Single answer question's answer to appear word for word in the passage), so expect them to flag lessons that use the types differently.
| Type | Color | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Number answer | purple | The answer is a number. You can add the steps to work it out. |
| Single answer | green | One typed answer, usually a word from the passage. |
| Multiple answers | amber | Several accepted answers; any one of them is right. |
| Suggested answers | amber, italic | A few answers that would count. They're a guide, and other answers can be right. |
| Paraphrase | brown | Restate the passage in their own words. No stored answer. |
| Open ended | pink | A free written response. No stored answer. |
| Would you rather | grape | A "Would you rather... or...?" choice. Opinion only, so no stored answer. |
| Background knowledge | blue | A question that needs knowledge from outside the passage, with its answer. |
Multiple answers used to be a burnt orange. It's amber now because the orange sat too close to Paraphrase's brown, and on paper the color is nearly all there is to tell a question's type by.
The two amber types
Multiple answers and Suggested answers are one family, the semi-open questions, which is why they share a color. The difference is what the list of answers means:
- Multiple answers: the list is the complete set of accepted answers, usually a list the passage states outright. The speller only needs to give one of them.
- Suggested answers: the list is a suggestion. The question is bounded by the topic ("Give a synonym for GRATITUDE"), and anything else that fits is also right.
A printed lesson doesn't name a question's type, so two types with the same color would look identical on paper. That's why Suggested answers prints in italic, both in the lesson and in the legend at the foot of each page. The italic tells whoever is going over the answers that this answer key is only a guide.
In the editor every question has a label naming its type, so there's no italic there. The help text under the answer rows also says which kind it is.
Would you rather
A Would you rather question offers the speller a choice between two options: "Would you rather watch an opera or a movie?". It's about opinion, not understanding the passage, so like Paraphrase and Open ended it has no stored answer. It prints in grape, and the wording itself ("Would you rather...") makes the type clear even if the color is hard to tell on paper. The legend at the foot of each page shortens it to W.Y.R. so all eight types fit on one line.
Question numbers
In the editor, each question shows its place in its section, such as Q7, next to its type. A section can have a lot of questions, so the number is what makes one easy to find again after scrolling away (see Navigating large lessons). The numbers only appear in the editor; they aren't added to the lesson or printed.
How questions print
A question prints as its question in its type's color, followed by its answer in black on the same line. There are no labels or brackets: the color (and the italic on Suggested answers) is what shows the type. The legend at the foot of every page names each type in its color (see Exporting & printing).
A question without an answer, and the types with no stored answer (Paraphrase, Open ended and Would you rather), print as the question alone.
Steps for number questions
A Number answer question can also have a list of steps, the stages of working out the answer. Use Add step to add one and the remove button beside a step to take it away. Steps are optional, so the list starts empty. They print as an indented numbered list under the question, and they're kept when you export and re-import the lesson as a Word document or a lesson file.
For how question types are stored and exported, see the export pipeline developer notes.