Preparing for PARCC - - Blog Series Part II

Preparing for PARCC

Using PARCC Writing Rubrics 

to Inform Instruction – Part 1

Scoring Student Essays

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.

Last year, PARCC posted their writing rubrics for the Prose-Constructed Response (PCR) and then revised them this past July. However, since each writing task is unique and the rubrics are generic, to make good use of these rubrics you must create item-specific guides that qualify the range of student responses.

You can create item-specific guides to score your students’ on-demand writing samples. These guides will give you an idea of which writing skills you should focus on to help students improve their writing.

First, we need a thorough understanding of PARCC’s generic rubrics, and then we must identify the item-specific information related to each prompt. There are three components to PARCC’s generic rubric: Reading Comprehension – Comprehension of Key Ideas and Details; Writing – Written Expression; and Writing – Knowledge of Language and Conventions. Below is a list of student expectations for each category.

Reading Comprehension

     •     Students must include evidence of understanding, including direct references and inferences.

     •     Students need to link perspective (“analysis”) to specific evidence.

Written Expression

•      Students must respond to all parts of the prompt.

•      Students must develop a claim or topic with reasons and textual evidence.

•      Students must write in the specified discipline (narrative, essay, etc.).

•      Students must write in a style and organization effective for the conventions of the discipline.

Written Conventions

•      Students must demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English.

•      Students need to write enough so that scorers can properly assess their command of standard English conventions.

The first step in creating the task-specific rubric is to survey your students’ essays. Task-specific rubrics are constructed using student responses and by identifying expected conditions for each category of the generic rubric. Use Standards Solution’s Item-Specific Considerations to set the expectations for each category.

Now that you have considered every element of the rubric, return to your students’ essays and use the rubric and your item specific guide to identify strengths and areas of need.

Scoring LATs and RSTs

For responses to the Literary Analysis Task and Research Simulation Task, three dimensions are scored for a total of 19 points (15 for grade 3).

•      Reading: worth up to 4 points

•      Written Expression: worth up to 12 points*

•      Knowledge of Language and Conventions: worth up to 3 points

*When determining the score for Written Expression, the scorer first determines the holistic score (4, 3, 2, 1, 0) based on which score point best describes that paper. Then that score (4, 3, 2, 1, 0) is multiplied by three. This means that only certain scores can be represented (12, 9, 6, 3, 0). This is true for both rubrics.

The Scoring Process

•      Use the rubric and your item specific guide to review each essay.

•      Score Reading Comprehension.

•      Consider the elements to Written Expression and score accordingly:

•      Did the student write an essay that addresses all parts of the prompt?

•      Did the student provide a claim with reasons and evidence?

•      Was the student’s essay organized and effective for the given genre?

•      Remember to consider the holistic nature of the essay when selecting point values for Written Expression and remember to multiply by three.

•      For the Writing – Knowledge of Language and Conventions category, points should only be deducted when the errors impede meaning.

Remember, the purpose of evaluating our students is to help them improve their abilities. In our next post, we’ll describe how to analyze your students’ needs and provide corrective instruction.

Standards Solution and Inspired Instruction offers 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

Standards Solution Holding, LLC is not owned by or affiliated in any fashion with PARCC, Inc.

Preparing for PARCC - Blog Series Part I

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.

For an example, read the PARCC prompt below. A student may read it and think that she is only identifying the authors’ arguments. However, what she’s really being asked to do is analyze the strength of the arguments.  

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.

Standards Solution Holding, LLC is not owned by or affiliated in any fashion with PARCC, Inc.

Did you read them?

On a recent Saturday morning, I rose early to get to the local farmer’s market before it swelled with the masses. It was a picturesque day, and as I drove past the bay, I took in the early morning light reflecting off the glistening turquoise water. One of the main reasons I go to this market is because I am new to life in a subtropical city, and I enjoy every nuance of the exotic environment. And at this market, there is a store that sells very unique equatorial flowers.

I purchased my organic vegetables, paid too much for frozen shrimp, and even got a couple of empanadas before making my way to the flower stand. As I approached, I squealed with delight at the buckets of Birds of Paradise, Ostrich Plume, and the most amazing Heliconia. I didn’t know what Heliconia were before I moved to my Floridian paradise, but there they were, the most unusual and breathtaking flower I have ever seen, and all for my taking.

I quickly set my packages down and began to make two bunches of flowers (Why buy one when you can fill your home with two?). I handed them to the owner and he said, “These are as strange as the Common Core.”

I have to admit, I was perplexed by what he said; it was so out of context. Why would he say that? I asked him if he had ever read the Common Core. He said, “No, but college students could not do them.” My first thought was that a lot of people were coming out against the Common Core. And I wondered if the naysayers had actually read the Standards or if they relied upon information from other people to tell them what they should think, as the flower shop owner had done.

I could have just paid for my flowers and left, but frankly, I was tired of hearing unsolicited perspectives on the Standards from people who had never even read them. I explained to the flower shop owner that the Standards are challenging and far-reaching. I asked him, why would we would want to establish low expectations for our children? I further stated that the Standards identify requirements such as, “Students will know the main idea of text,” and “Students will know how to apply mathematics in real world context.” Then I asked him if he objected to those ideas. He didn’t respond and kept his back to me while he packaged up my treasure.

The next time I went to the market, I planned on bringing the flower shop owner a set of English language arts and mathematics Standards. I was even considering knocking his socks off and bringing along the Next-Generation Science Standards. If he actually read them, he could see for himself that the Standards are a common sense guide of content that represents the minimum requirements that our students should know and be able to do after a 13-year education.

However, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I am not sure why he chose to make such a nonsensical statement about something that he never read. But I made my point, and I didn’t want to brow beat him; I just wanted him to be better informed.

We should all read the Standards and make up our own minds. Are they “strange” or just common sense in a 21st century world? You can find the Standards and read them for yourself at www.corestandards.org.

Victoria Pagonis

Founder and President
Standards Solution

Changing Never to Now in Technology (and Life!)

If you look back on high school, college, a first job, changing careers, and/or parenthood, I’m sure you could find several moments when you said you would never do something only to find yourself doing that exact thing down the road.

The list is probably longer than you’d like to admit.

With technology alone, I can remember a time when I said I would never get an answering machine! An answering machine; never mind a cell phone. Yes, I was a holdout on the cell phone. I never wanted to be attached to my phone. If I was out, I didn't want to be reached.

Now? Now I reach for my phone a hundred times a day and mostly to look at pictures of my beautiful daughter and our selfies. Selfies! Another thing I was never going to do! And no, I don't have a selfie stick, but boy do I love holding the camera up, watching my daughter say "cheese" and then seeing her face light up when I show her the picture.

I was never going to use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter. Done, done, done, and well I still don't tweet...but should I say NEVER???

That beloved, selfie-taking phone? Another never. I was never going to get a smart phone. I didn't need a fancy phone. I was fine with my flip phone! Yeah...how would I Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest on a flip phone!

Bluetooth: "I don't want to walk around with that thing in my ear!" Another never that I can't live without now! My hair covers it so you can't see it. It’s also a driver's best friend. I use it all the time. I cook dinner, do dishes, make the bed; all while talking on the phone. I can't understand how someone could hold a phone up to their ear nowadays.

And that beautiful daughter of mine, whose pictures grace my phone, my computer, Facebook and Instagram...there are A LOT of "nevers" as a parent I said I wouldn't do and now do (some good...some not so good).

One of those "nevers"? Technology!

 I was never going to let her watch TV or play on a computer until she was over two years old (pediatrician's recommendation...so we must never veer!).

Well...hmmm....okay...you caught me! She just turned two and yes she has watched TV and she has (gasp) her "toy"....a tablet loaded with educational games.

I have to say that I am blown away at how quickly she has learned to play some of these games. I hear the counting game:

"Can you count all the monkeys on the screen?"

There she goes "One, two, three...Hooray!"

She’s gotten up to 18!

Then there is word recognition, animal sounds, matching games...

BLOWN AWAY!!

Now there are some games that she doesn't know how to play. Like Hangman! She will push any letter, keep getting the "boink" wrong answer noise as the hangman fills in and once she's lost, she claps! She gets very excited when it plays the "whomp, whomp, whomp" game-over music! But that doesn't stop her. In time she will get it, and probably sooner than I think.

Because in a child’s world there is no "never."

It's the adults that hear of something new and say "Never!" before they even give it a chance. Bucking against it without even realizing that opening up to it opens up a world of possibilities.

I'm guilty of it and in light of all the recent changes in the classroom, I wonder if I would embrace it or say "never."

Would I be the parent opting my child out? Moving classes or changing teachers because of new methods of teaching and testing? Would I be afraid that the added technology would overwhelm my child making it impossible for her to learn?

I don't know, but I would like to say, "I hope not."

I would like my daughter to experience as much as she can so that the world of possibilities is laid out in front of her. Even if the experience is the sound of "boink" or "whomp, whomp, whomp" and I would hope to have taught her to get excited because she learned something regardless.

But more importantly I want her to have that carefree abandon to keep trying, and not the fearfulness of moving forward in a "never" kind of world. That it’s better to have tried and learned than not attempt it at all. By trying, you learn your strengths and weaknesses.

I know that it's hard when you are trying to do what is best for your child. But is saying "never" what's best?

With advancing technology continually changing teaching and testing, what challenges do you fear your child will face?

I fear mine never taking a chance.

So with that said...

I think it's time I go try to tweet!

Michaela Szidloski

Director of Technology
Standards Solution

Musings on Classroom Management

I think back to when I was a teacher...

It’s the end of the school year. Summer beckons, and I put the last school year behind me and look ahead to a relaxing summer…

Fast forward to about August 1st, and that’s when the dreams begin. You know the ones I’m talking about. The “it’s-the-first-day-of-school-and-I’m-not-ready” dreams. Nightmares, really!

Back then, when those dreams began, I knew it was time to get down to business and begin getting ready for the upcoming school year. Each year, part of my routine was to consider what went well and what could be improved for next year, and that always included classroom management.

Why is classroom management so important? If your classroom is well-managed, everything else can easily fall into place. Lessons run more smoothly, tensions are lowered, and everyone is happier. Walk into a well-managed classroom, and you can instantly see the difference. So what does it take to achieve this ideal?

1. Be proactive. For anyone who has read Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you know that “Be proactive” is one of the habits. In fact, it’s the first one, and that’s because it sets the stage for everything else that happens around you. Being proactive means thinking ahead and making a plan. How do you want students to transition from one activity to another? How could a particular instructional activity create disruption in the room, and what can you do ahead of time to prevent the disruption? Being proactive, instead of reactive, will make your classroom a more pleasant environment to be in.

2. Choose what works for you. A quick search on Google or Pinterest will provide you with more classroom management ideas than you could ever hope to implement in one year. How do you choose? Think about what will work for you. A plan with too many moving parts won’t work for someone who doesn’t have the time to consistently implement it all year long. A plan that requires a large amount of bulletin board space won’t work in a classroom with limited wall space. When choosing management ideas, think about whether or not you can see yourself effectively and consistently using these ideas all year long.

3. Choose what works for your students. The reason there are so many classroom management ideas is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. Consider the age and maturity level of your students. Consider their sizes (height). When possible, talk to their teacher or teachers from a previous year to find out what worked with a particular group. You may find yourself tweaking your plan every year to best meet the needs of your students. And that brings us to the next point.

4. Be flexible. You’ve put a plan in place, and you expect that it will work! But what if it doesn’t? It is important to be flexible enough to identify when something is not working and make a change. Or go “off plan” when the situation calls for it. Or to make adjustments for individual students who may need it.

5. Be consistent. Wait. How can you be flexible AND consistent? Maybe I should rewrite this as “Be consistent in the beginning of the year,” or “Be consistent most of the time.” Consistency is important, because students feel most secure when they know what the expectations are. And because you want your plans to become habits, meaning that they need to be repeated consistently. And also because you’ve spent the time to put plans in place, so of course you should follow them! But if you are mostly consistent, that’s what counts. That leaves room for a little bit of flexibility.

Bonus: I recently read a reminder from one of my favorite classroom management gurus, Harry Wong. In a recent article, he wrote, “Classroom management is not about discipline. It is about organization and consistency.” When you look at classroom management in this way, you will find that, if your classroom is organized and you are consistent, the need for actual discipline is largely reduced.

So as you are enjoying the remainder of your summer, begin to think ahead to how you are going to manage your classroom this year. You’ll find that a little bit of proactivity now can go a long way! Sweet dreams…

Jennifer Caldwell

Executive Director
Standards Solution

Picture It: Getting Excited about Reading

When I was an 8th grade English teacher, I heard it from my students all the time: “I don’t like to read.” My response? “You just haven’t found the right book yet!” And I truly believe what I was saying. I don’t like to read science fiction, and I can imagine that if the only books I ever read were science fiction, I wouldn’t like to read, either.

I encouraged my students to find books written on a topic they enjoyed, in a style they liked. I asked them which books they had enjoyed in the past, and we tried to find similar ones to read. I wanted them all to discover the joy that can be found in the pages of a book.

That’s why I was so pleased to find teacher Vicki Davis’ blog post the other day, “How a School Threw Out Their Reading Program and Finally Got Everyone Excited about Reading.” You can read the entire post and listen to her podcast with Principal Todd Nesloney, the leader of the school referenced in the blog.

At Nesloney’s school, his goal was to raise the students’ reading level and instill a joy of reading in his students. The basic premise? Everyone at the school, from students to teachers to custodians to the principal himself, had to read 20 books over the course of the semester. Here are a few aspects of the initiative that I just love:

1) They could read ANY 20 books. There were no limits on grade level, topic, length, or format. Many schools implement reading initiatives, but often everyone has to read the same book. The idea here is for students to learn to love reading, so they were given the freedom to find books that they would, indeed, love to read.

2) Audiobooks count! This gave students who were interested in a particular book the opportunity to “read” it, even if their reading ability wasn’t quite up to the complexity of the book. And I’m betting that some students who started off with audiobooks ended up reading a few print books as well.

3) There were no prizes or awards given. The flaw of “reading for prizes” programs is that the students who were already avid readers end up winning all the awards. Readers who worked hard to increase their reading ability are left in the dust and discouraged. At Nesloney’s school, instead of prizes or awards, every time a student finished a book, he visited the principal’s office and got his picture taken with the book. The picture was then posted on the wall in the cafeteria. In the podcast, Nesloney mentions that the wall currently has 400 pictures on it! The joy of seeing their picture on the wall with everyone else is the reward!

4) If a student realizes she doesn’t enjoy the current book she’s reading, she doesn’t have to finish it. Has that ever happened to you? You begin a book thinking that you’ll love it, but it becomes a chore to read. One of the reasons students develop a distaste for reading is because they are under the impression that when they choose a book for independent reading, they have to finish it, no matter what. Instead students here have an “out” to move on from a book they aren’t enjoying.

5) Finally, the school is fully immersed in and committed to this program. Everyone is reading. At any time, a student can talk to anyone about what book they are currently reading. Students can see the wall of pictures continue to grow as they eat their lunch in the cafeteria. Every day as part of the morning announcements, a faculty member briefly shares the title and a little bit about the book he is currently reading. The school librarian even started a “Secret Society” where different students are invited (by other students) each week to a clandestine meeting underneath the tables in the library, to talk about the books they are reading.

Now, what works at one school doesn’t always work everywhere. And certainly there are other approaches that also serve to develop a child’s love of reading. But this school’s approach really struck a chord with me. I’m picturing the school where every student is carrying around a book, reading whenever they can, discussing books with their teachers and peers, and loving it all. In the spirit of this school, I’ve posted a picture of myself with a book I just finished. I encourage you to do the same. Post your picture in the comments below. Let’s all share the joy of reading!

Jennifer Caldwell

Executive Director
Standards Solution

They’re Taking the PARCC Test AGAIN???

As a mother of two elementary aged children, the majority of my Facebook friends also have school aged children as well. In the last week or so, I’ve noticed this question popping up: “They’re taking the PARCC test again? Why? Didn’t they already take it?” I’ve even heard it from some of my children’s friends. “Why do we have to take PARCC again?”

Part of the role of a school district is to seek a partnership with parents in order to develop the ideal school-parent-child triangle of success. Districts must do all they can to communicate with parents regarding issues of concern, including the PARCC assessment. In order for that to happen, we must first understand the need for the two administrations of the PARCC test, the Performance-Based Assessment and the End-of-Year Assessment.

The Performance-Based Assessment, or PBA, is administered 75% of the way through the school year. The ELA portion of the test consists of 3 tasks, each of which requires students to read 1-3 texts, answer multiple-choice questions, and complete a writing task related to the texts. The math portion of the test consists of 2 units, each of which includes a variety of items: multiple-choice, multiple answer, and a constructed response. Other math items require students to provide not only an answer but also reasoning or modeling.

The End-of-Year test, or EOY, is administered 90% of the way through the school year. The EOY is shorter, and in terms of student response, simpler. The ELA section consists of reading passages and answering multiple-choice questions. There is no writing on the EOY. For math, all items will be multiple choice, multiple answer, or written answer only. There are no items that require students to write any explanation for answers.

So now we come back to the question of…why? Why two tests? Why is the seemingly harder test in March, when there is still so much learning that will take place between then and the end of the year? And how are students supposed to show growth when the tests are so close together?

Part of the answer lies in the logistics of it all. One of the goals of the PARCC consortium is to return testing results to districts in a timely manner, so that decisions can be made based on the data received. Reading students’ written responses in the ELA section takes time. Evaluating students’ reasoning and applications in the math section takes time. Administering the PBA with these types of responses 75% of the way through the school year allows the time necessary for proper scoring to be completed. Conversely, the EOY consists of computer scored items only. Even completing this portion of the test 90% of the way through the school year, results will be returned much more quickly, and at that point can be paired with the PBA scores for a complete look at how a student performed.

The other reason for having two tests is that the PBA and the EOY are assessing different things. It is not the intention of the PBA to give districts data they can use to inform instruction and therefore improve students’ performance on the EOY. The ELA PBA (have you caught up with all the acronyms yet?) is intended to focus on writing effectively when analyzing text, whereas the ELA EOY focuses on reading comprehension. The math PBA includes those items that require students to provide reasoning, apply what they know to real-life situations, and demonstrate precision. The math EOY focuses entirely on conceptual understanding, fluency, and application.

What can we do to answer the question of why students are taking the PARCC test again? Educate the parents. Through whatever means has proven to be successful in your district, whether it be through letters sent home, website posting, instant alerts, or parent meetings, assist parents in understanding the tasks and item types of the PBA and EOY. If parents understand the reasoning behind the two tests, they will be more likely to support their child’s taking of the test. A parent and a child who understand the test are more likely to take it seriously, which will result in more relevant results to use effectively.  

Jennifer Caldwell

Executive Director
Standards Solution