Test taking can be a stressful experience for students.
However, with the right preparation and resources, instructors can prepare
students for PARCC so that they will be confident on test day. We believe that for
a student to perform at his or her personal best, he or she must be familiar
with the test content, comfortable with the test-taking environment, and equipped
with test-taking strategies. Fortunately, PARCC provides the tools and
resources that an instructor needs to address all three.
Content
One may think that being aligned with the test content is synonymous
with being aligned with the Standards. But this is not the case. How can one
test evaluate students’ acquisition of all
of the Standards? PARCC assesses a good many of the Standards, but cannot
address all of them. For instance, PARCC assesses three vocabulary concepts
within the Reading Standards (context clues, denotation vs. connotation, and
identifying the meaning of unknown words) but none of the Language Standards (Exception:
Students are evaluated on grammar and mechanics in the writing tasks.)
Instructors can better understand how PARCC assesses any
given ELA Standard by reviewing the PARCC Evidence Tables for Reading
and Writing.
Paired Texts
One way that PARCC assesses the Standards is to utilize
paired passages. Besides creating thematic units of study, using paired or
companion texts is a relatively new concept in the study of English language arts.
Instructors can hone their understanding of how and why one should use paired
text by using PARCC’s Passage Selection Guidelines (Information about selecting paired or multiple texts begins on page 11). Below
is a list of reasons (paraphrased from the PARCC guidelines) why PARCC uses
paired passages.
1. Compare literary elements, such as theme.
2. Compare central ideas, topics, and/or events (including
same event and point of view) in two or more informational texts.
3. Compare and/or analyze different versions of the same
text (literature or informational texts).
4. Analyze how ideas are transformed from one text to
another literary or informational text.
5. Integrate information for a purpose.
6. Compare text structures.
7. Analyze supplemental elements.
Text Complexity
Another way to align instructional practice with PARCC’s
content is to ensure that the level of text complexity is similar to PARCC’s as
well as the Standards'. For a more complete understanding of measuring text
complexity instructors can review the Common Core’s Appendix A.
To measure text complexity, PARCC uses two worksheets:
If instructors are still unsure about how to use these
worksheets they can refer to the Passage Selection Guidelines for more detail.
Environment
PARCC is novel in their test-taking design. PARCC (and most
of the new online state tests) utilize something call a technology-enhanced
item (TEI). According to PARCC’s glossary of terms, “TEIs are items
administered on a computer and take advantage of the computer-based environment
to present situations and capture responses in ways that are not possible on a
paper-based test.” Students need practice with this format so that navigating
these items becomes second nature.
This year, instructors can also use PARCC’s released samples
from the Spring 2014-2015 testing, which is provided for grades three through
eleven (released
test items).
Strategies
There are many ways that instructors can help students to perform
at their personal best on any standardized test. One of those strategies is to
help students understand the test construct and to develop personal strategies
in relationship to the test item requirements. An example of this is to teach
students how to score the writing tasks for the NWTs, LATs and RSTs. When
students learn how to score essays, theirs and others, they become acutely
aware of what’s expected out of their own essays. (See Scoring Rubrics: grade 3,
grades 4-5, grades 6-11 .)
PARCC also provides scored student samples with annotations
of their scoring rationale. PARCC’s annotated released samples are for the
Reading Comprehension and Written Expression portion of the rubric. Also, PARCC
provides separate samples on each grade level for the Language and Conventions
portion of the rubric.
Sample releases can be accessed on PARCC’s Partnership
Resource Center.
Creating EBSRs and
TECRs
Lastly, another strategy to assist students with PARCC is to
replicate the structure of the test items in daily work. One way to do this is
to use PARCC’s Evidence-Based Selected Responses (EBSRs) and
Technology-Enhanced Constructed Responses (TECRs) with classroom literature.
Two PARCC resources can be used to assist with this process.
One document is the scoring
guide for PARCC’s EBSRs and TECRs. With this document instructors know how
to score their student results.
And another more complex document is called the Item
Guidelines for ELA/Literacy PARCC Summative Assessment. Within this
document are specifications on how PARCC creates EBSR and TECR items.
Below are PARCC’s recommendations for creating these items.
EBSR and TECR Questions:
·
“Good
text dependent questions will often linger over specific phrases and sentences
to ensure careful comprehension of the text—they help students see something
worthwhile that they would not have seen on a more cursory reading.
·
An
effective set of text dependent questions delves systematically into a text to
guide students in extracting the key meanings or ideas found there.
·
They
typically begin by exploring specific words, details, and arguments and then
move on to examine the impact of those specifics on the text as a whole.
·
Along
the way they target academic vocabulary and specific sentence structures as
critical focus points for gaining comprehension.”
EBSR and TECR Distractors:
·
“The primary purpose of a distractor is to
provide evidence that a student is not able to meet the standard(s) assessed
due to student misconceptions.
·
Distractors must be plausible responses to item
stems.
·
Items should not use negative distractors (the
exact opposite of the correct answer).
·
The written style of all distractors in an item
should be similar to that of the correct response(s).
·
Answer responses (distractors) are not ordered
alphabetically by first word or by short to long.
·
In Part
B, when writing the distractors for evidences, all of the answer choices must
be the same type of citation of evidence (e.g. all quotes or all paraphrases).
·
Particular
care must be taken for Part B items, where students are asked to select
evidence from the text such that distractor wording to achieve parallelism in
style does not overly impose distractor wording.
·
All
answer choices for Part B must be accurate/relevant/from the passage.”
Conclusion
At times educators speak about the ills of teaching to the
test. PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and many of the state-created assessments are
now a strong reflection of the Standards. We have to implement the Standards. But
as pragmatic educators we should also consider how to assist our students with
the specific experience, similar to the way we teach someone to play soccer and
not just sports. PARCC has unique attributes. If we are to understand our
student’s ability to implement the Standards on these high stakes tests, then we
need to prepare them for this test in particular, and not tests in general.
Victoria Pagonis
Founder and President
Standards Solution Holding, LLC
