Table 2.

Wh-question scoring rubric.

Form
Rating	Preservation of tense	Part of speech requirement	Subject inclusion
Explanation	The response tense matched the requirements of the question.	Participant produced the minimal elements, e.g., nouns, verbs, causal clause, etc., required to satisfy the question.	If the question required, a subject was included in the response.
Example	“What did you do this morning?” requires a verb in the past tense, as in “I ate breakfast.”	“Why do people go to college?” requires a verb, as in “to learn.”	“Why was Frank Sinatra so popular?” requires a sentence with a subject.

Content
Rating	Subject specificity	Content specificity	Relevance
Explanation	The response referred to the appropriate noun.	The information in the response was sufficient to answer the question.	The response included any information related to the question.
Example	“How do Americans celebrate Christmas?” requires that the subject is “Americans” or third personal plural pronoun “they.”	“Why was Frank Sinatra so popular?” requires an answer that contains a reason.	Scoring was item-specific.