A Six-Step Process for Completing the LATs and RSTs
This post is part of our blog series on PARCC. In this series, we offer tips and strategies you can use to ensure that your students perform at their very best on the PARCC tests.
In this
article, we’ll explain our six-step process for responding to the Prose-Constructed
Response (PCR) prompt on PARCC’s Literary Analysis Tasks and Research
Simulation Tasks. Students who follow these steps will have a great advantage
on tackling the essay questions in these tasks.
These
steps are meant to be followed after the student has read the prompt and texts
at least once.
Step 1: Consider the Prompt
Too many educators assume
that students read a prompt and just know what it’s asking them to do. But
PARCC’s writing prompts can be startlingly easy to misread if one isn’t
careful. Students should be taught how to analyze the prompts and then state in
their own words what the prompt is requiring of them.
Step 2: Rewrite the Prompt as a Thesis
Statement
Once the student understands
what the prompt is asking her to write about, she is then ready to make a claim
in the form of a thesis statement. A thesis statement can be constructed
following a simple formula: Restate the main idea of the prompt and then state
your position. In the example below, I restate the crux of the prompt and state
my position:
Step 3: Gather Evidence
Next, the student has to
gather evidence to support her position from—and only from—the text, not from
personal experience or from life at large. The
box below displays quotations that the student gathered as possible evidence.
She won’t use all of it, but she wants to gather enough so that she has enough
to choose from. Because the prompt requires the student to evaluate the
strengths of the arguments in each text, the student should collect all the
evidence that mentions Earhart’s bravery or demonstrates it by describing her
actions. Based on the evidence collected, a student may notice that her original
thesis needs to be modified.
Step 4: Organize the Evidence and Construct the
Outline
This step is most often the
hardest. Writing a clear and organized essay is relatively straightforward when
you have a good quality outline. Organizing your argument and evidence into a
coherent whole is where the greatest challenge lies.
The outline should address
each of the three major sections of an essay: the introduction, the body, and
the conclusion.
Here’s a useful way to
organize each body paragraph:
A. Topic Sentence
B. Support
C. Explanation
D. Support
E. Explanation
F. Summary
G. Transition
With this order, the student
ensures that she introduces the topic of each paragraph, offers enough support
(textual evidence) for her thesis, and justifies the use of each individual
piece of evidence. Ideas for transitions and summaries can be jotted down too,
but they can also be left for the writing stage, when it will be easier to
articulate them once the ideas for the body paragraph are expressed.
Here is a sample with two
body paragraphs. The student should aim for specificity and simplicity.
Sophisticated language is best left for the revision stage.
Step 5: Write the Essay
Once students understand the
format of PARCC’s LATs and RSTs, the majority of classroom instruction should
focus on improving the quality of students’ writing. Instruction should begin
with the requirements of the task, followed by Steps 1 to 4 above. Once
students have mastered the essay construct, instructors can assist students to
write strong transitions between paragraphs, to make better word choices, and
to write conclusions that leave the reader thinking.
Step 6: Revise, Edit and Proofread
The last step should be
taught using explicit directions. Instructors often tell students to revise and
edit their essays but don’t explain what or how students should do so. One
method that worked well for my students when I was a teacher was to give them
an editing checklist, catered to the specific prompt the students were writing
from. After students finish their drafts, direct them to go down the list and
confirm that they have each item or add the items they don’t have.
Conclusion
Equipped with this six-step
process, students will be able to craft clear and organized essays for the
PARCC RST and LAT. Practice this process several times throughout the year, so
that by testing time your students are clear on what steps they should take to
complete the Prose-Constructed Response.
Standards Solution and
Inspired Instruction offer 540 PARCC lesson plans, online PARCC-like assessments
with technology-enhanced items, PARCC workshops, and PARCC demonstration
lessons. Please contact Judy Cataldi for more information: Judy.cataldi@standardssolution.com or call 908-223-7202.
