NECAP Writing Grade 8 Supporting the Transition to Common Core State Standards

1. NECAP Writing Grade 8Supporting the Transition to Common Core State Standards Patsy Dunton English Language Arts Specialist Patsy.dunton@maine.gov Susan Smith NECAP Coordinator Susan.Smith@maine.gov

2. Common core State Standards (CCSS) • Fundamental understandings about the CCSS initiative include: • Strong literacy skills support workplace success • Most jobs (70-85%) require specific study or training beyond high school • A primary CCSS goal is for all students to graduate from high school College and Career Ready (CCR)

3. College and Career Ready For English language arts, this means: • Students can read and use information • Students can make their thinking process explicit • Students use evidence to support their conclusions How do we know if a student college ready? • Placed in composition course without remediation • Meets conditions outlined in the Framework For Success in Postsecondary Writing • Generally, achieved SAT of 500+ • Read and comprehend independently and consistently text with Lexile of 1300 minimum

4. How do we get to CCR? • Use evidence to inform your plan: existing data and exemplars • Make thinking explicit: build a reasoned argument to explain your methods • Use information effectively: determine which resources have sufficient quality and usefulness to use • Develop a relationship with the text (stimulus) in order to respond to the text.

5. Comparison to Common Core State Standards for Writing • NECAP includes 5 Types of Writing—persuasive, report, responding to literature, responding to informational text, and narrative. • CCSS defines writing types as argument (with persuasive being a subset), informational or explanatory, and narrative. Skilled writers will blend writing types. • Assessment of the CCSS will include: • Language and Text Structures • Conventions • Research • Writing via technology

6. How can NECAP Data inform your transition?

7. NECAP Assessment Design—Writing • 2 Sessionsof Writing • Minimum 45 minutes to maximum 90 minutes • Item Types by Session • Session 1 • 10 Multiple Choice (1 pt each) • 4 Short Responses (4 pts each) • Session 2 • 1 Long Essay (12 pts)

8. Multiple Choice Items Assess • Accurate spelling • Correct use of end punctuation • Correct use of commas in series and dates • Accurate capitalization of words • Correct and efficient combining of sentences • Correct use of grammar

9. Short Response Construct paragraph length responses for 3 of the following 4 types of writing, after first reading or viewing grade appropriate stimulus materials (short texts or photos): • Response to literature • Response to informational texts • Report • Narrative

10. Long Response • One prompt will assess the type of writing not included in the short response items. • Stimulus materials for the extended response prompt are read by the teacher. • How can the NECAP data inform your transition to the CCSS? Ask the right questions – find useful information!

11. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration. • http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/documents/Reading%206-12%20by%20CCR%20chart.pdf This is a grade 8 writing standard from CCSS What you are doing!

12. Depth of Knowledge (DOK)/Cognitive Demand • Many models of cognitive levels, built from Bloom’s Taxonomy • Norm Webb’s four-level model is used for NECAP • Level 1—Recall • Level 2—Skill/Concept • Level 3—Strategic Thinking • Level 4—Extended Thinking

13. Reflections and Questions

14. Susan Smith NECAP Data Overview

15. Let’s Explore the NECAP Reading Assessment Data Confidential Student Reports are available at a password-protected site. Your principal can set up an account providing access for you to review and reconfigure your students’ data. http://iservices.measuredprogress.org/ To view a 37 minute webinar on using this system: Using the Interactive NECAP Reporting System - recorded webinar located at http://www.maine.gov/education/necap/presentations.html

16. Let’s Explore the NECAP Writing Assessment Data http://iservices.measuredprogress.org/

17. Sub Group Data - Gender A significant gender gap exists in writing results at both grades 5 and 8.

18. NECAP October 2011 Performance Analysis GenderDifferencesinWritingPerformance Chart Statistics Based on Oct. 2011 Student Performance

19. Questions What questions do you have?

20. Patsy Dunton • Using data to inform everyday instruction and support the transition to CCSS

21. Instructional Implications

22. Released Items • http://www.maine.gov/education/necap/2011releaseditems/gr8_writing_released_items.pdf • Stand-alone items provide examples of language strand targets • Research does not support teaching these items in a stand-alone format • The most effective strategies for teaching grammar, usage, and mechanics is embedded in reading and writing instruction • Read, analyze, evaluate, use, edit • Effective evaluation is formative level

23. Embedded instruction • Grade 7 standards • NECAP: Use varied sentence length and structure to enhance meaning (e.g., including phrases and clauses) • CCSS: Choose among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences to signal differing relationships among ideas. • Study K-12 progressions and understand what skills should be mastered at each grade level to support the next: http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/documents/ELA_Break-Down/ccss-language_811.pdf

24. Embedded instruction • Reading: look to language standards to guide reading analysis • Make sure the texts offer sufficient exemplars such as various sentences including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Have students annotate in text. DECONSTRUCT • Require a short writing assignment, such as an exit ticket, include an example of this type of sentence in student response. RECONSTRUCT • Use Reading Like a Writer protocol and Peer Edit protocol • http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/ccss_modules.html#mod3

25. Responding to Text • What lesson is the chieftain trying to teach the young men? Write a paragraph using details from the story to support your response. • Do you think you are more like the speaker in “Let’s Talk” or the speaker in “Listen”? Write a paragraph using details from one or both poems to support your response. • Similar to reading CR items when short • To get the full credit, students must use evidence to support response AND write complete sentences, most often in a well-crafted paragraph

26. Responding to Text • For the extended essay, students write more paragraphs using evidence from the text • Explain how Sallin’s invention creatively combines art, technology, and usefulness. Use details from the article and your own ideas to support your response. • For either short or long response, students need to be firmly grounded in the text • Reading like a writer: we will go there in a minute

27. Writing a Report • NECAP: provides information in phrases • Students much select what is appropriate for supporting response • There will be something not entirely useful • Limited selection • CCSS and SBAC: students will be provided stimulus source and will have to select information from text, complete sentences. Much more like responding to text. • How do your students perform on report writing now?

29. Responding to Text: Literary or Informational • Read and comprehend the text first. • Annotate while analyzing • Identify evidence! • Average +1 • Practice

30. Reading like a writer: annotating text • Big Ideas • Facts and Details vs Opinion • Language Use – imagery, uncommon language, sustained metaphor, repeated ideas or words • Author’s Purpose and Intended Audience • Story Elements (lit) • Text Features (info) • Analysis and Interpretation - author’s craft • http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/documents/reading_like_a_writer.doc

31. Eliciting the response from the student: in writing and speaking • Use simplistic text first, then increase difficulty • Use annotating strategies to deconstruct the text • Model the process/gradually release • Teach “language of stimulus” and deconstructing prompts • Teach models for organizing responses without encouraging formulas: using when, because, so that, etc. (reconstructing text) • Teach strategies for identifying evidence/specific details(from annotations) • Teach students to write their own constructed response questions and scoring guides to determine what to notice in a well-supported response

32. Using paired or grouped texts Select texts that have a related topic, theme, or style but are different types of texts. For example: • A poem about bats which emphasizes the speaker’s fear (literature) • An essay about exploring a cave full of bats (narrative nonfiction) • An article about different types of bats and their qualities (informational text) Ask comprehension questions about each to make sure the student understands the individual text

33. Using paired or grouped texts Ask questions across the texts: • Discuss how the speaker in the poem and the narrator of the essay feel about bats • Explain whether the fear of bats is rational or irrational • Compare the images of bats across the three texts and relate them to cultural perceptions

34. Developing Automaticity with various writing processes • Peer edit: effective when taught consistently, using direct instruction followed by targeted practice • Formative assessment indicates mastery of essential building blocks • Use with short as well as longer assignments • Focus on the feedback – it is not always necessary to revise in order to learn • Peer Edit Protocol: • http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/ccss_modules.html#mod3

35. NECAP and CCSS • Understanding the trajectory your school is on will help you chart the course • CCSS is more rigorous – writing standards provide a clear developmental progression of learning • Move your students up the proficiency scale, advancing through analysis and across multiple text types

36. Resources and Questions • NECAP Resources can be found at: http://www.maine.gov/education/necap/index.html • Common Core State Standards resources for Maine can be found at: • http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/ela/standards.html • Burning Questions?