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1. TAKS Holistic Scoring Region 10 ESC
Michelle Green and Jayne Knighton
Language Arts Consultants
2. Todays Agenda 8:30 Welcome & Introductory Remarks
9:00 Presentation of Scoring Guide
10:00 Break
10:15 Continuance of Guide Presentation
11:45 Lunch
1:00 Practice Set A
2:15 Break
2:30 Practice Set B
3:45 Closing Remarks & Evaluation
3. TAAS vs. TAKS Elaboration driven
Quantity of ideas
Writer silent
Run out of room
Ideas w/ extension
Scorers decoded
Contrived devices
Disconnected points
Add up strategy
Driven by writing
Quality of Ideas
Student voice
Sense of completeness
Developed Ideas
Conventions count
Focus on thinking
Connectedness
Coherence & Focus
4. Focused Holistic Scoring Focused because the scorer focuses on an established set of criteria
Holistic because the scorer takes into consideration the whole paper and assigns one score
5. Score Points
6. Scoring Procedures Ten scorers make up a team.
Each paper is scored by two scorers from two different teams.
If the two scorers assign the same score, then the decision is final and the paper is given a score.
7. Scoring Procedures, continued If the two scorers assign different scores, then the paper is given to a third scorer from another scoring team.
If there is still a discrepancy, then the paper goes to the scoring director and sometimes on to Victoria Young and the TEA staff.
8. About the Prompt The prompt is meant to be a springboard to get the writer to think and reflect.
9. About the Prompt Page The prompt page has two components:
The actual prompt in a rectangular box at the top of the page
A kid friendly version of the rubric
10. About the Prewriting Three or four blank pages will be available at the back of student test booklets for prewriting with a heading that will read, Use this page for prewriting.
Scorers will not see the prewriting pages.
11. About Authenticity We want to honor student writers and their desire to bring their ideas to the paper in an authentic way.
Victoria Young, TEA
12. About Scoring The space within score points is a lot bigger than the space between scorer points. In other words, some low fours look a lot more like high threes than high fours.
The rubric, while the same at all grade levels, plays out differently.
13. About Scoring The push is for depth of thought.
Questions to Ponder
Does the information thats added help the reader understand what the writer is saying to a grater capacity?
Is there evidence of reflection?
14. Whats the difference between elaboration and depth of development? Elaboration has many adjectives, uses lots of details, tells more, provides horizontal development
Depth of development provides significance, goes deeper into the writers thoughts, provides vertical development
15. About Reference Materials Seventh graders will write the composition first, then turn in their reference materials (dictionaries and thesauruses) before taking the editing/revising multiple choice portion of the test.
Sample questions come before the seal.
Students may return to the composition, but they may NOT have access to reference tools once the seal is broken.
16. About Reference Materials Ratio of 1:5 constitutes reasonable access
Resources may contain biographical, geographical information, etc.
Students may not have access to a grammar or style guide during the revision/editing section
Students may not use a bilingual dictionary
Students may use resources from home
17. Focus & Coherence Central theme
Controlling idea
Links clearly show relationship of ideas
Connectedness apparent
Introduction & Conclusion add meaning
Ineligible for 4 without conclusion
Completion within 2 pages allotted
18. Organization Does it make sense?
Organizational strategy
Sentence to sentence movement
Paragraph to paragraph progression
Not physical organization (ie., indenting)
Thread throughout the flow of ideas
Successful planning critical
19. Development of Ideas Depth and substance v. abundance of info.
Thorough and specific dev. of each thought
Not elaboration driven
Beyond plot summary, links to own ideas
Quality v. quantity
Ideas are interesting and thoughtful
Evidence of thought & development
Compositional risk encouraged
20. Voice Is there a face behind the paper?
No certain gimmick that leads to voice
Not sparkle words, statistics,
A sense of the writer is apparent
Evidence of thought and reflection
Reflects the writers individuality
Dialogue and personal anecdotes
21. Conventions Writing for an outside audience
Encourage rich vocabulary
Weak conventions can hinder score
Strong conventions can help score
Sentence boundaries important
Spelling remains critical
Consistency of conventions key