Welcome Parents to FCAT Night

1. Welcome Parents toFCAT Night Presented by the 4th Grade Panthers

2. What is FCAT? • Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test • Administered to students in grades 3-11 • Given to measure what students know in Reading, Mathematics, Writing, and Science • Fourth graders will take the FCAT Writing+, Reading, and Mathematics tests this year

3. Testing Dates • February 12-15, 2008 • FCAT Writing+ • March 11-25, 2008 • FCAT Sunshine State Standards (SSS)Reading and Mathematics • FCAT Norm-Referenced Test (NRT)Reading and Mathematics

4. FCAT Writing+

5. FCAT Writing+ • There are two parts: • Writing Prompt Assessment • Multiple Choice Assessment • Students will have 45 minutes to complete each portion

6. Types of Writing Prompts • EXPOSITORY: • Expository writing explains, defines, or tells how to do something • NARRATIVE: • Narrative writing tells a story that is either real of imagined

7. EXPOSITORY Write to explain why you think a certain pet would be good for your classroom. Explain why it is important to eat healthy foods. Write to explain why you would like to be a particular person for a day. NARRATIVE Tell a story about your most embarrassing moment. Tell what happens after you go through a door that is always locked. Tell a story about the day the teacher surprised the class. Prompts from the Past Write to explain why you think a certain pet would be good for your classroom. Explain why it is important to eat healthy foods. Tell a story about your most embarrassing moment. Write to explain why you would like to be a particular person for a day. Tell what happens after you go through a door that is always locked. Tell a story about the day the teacher surprised the class.

8. Writing Rubric • Student papers are scored using a 1-6 rubric based on the following guidelines: • Focus • Organization • Support • Conventions

9. Fourth Grade Rubric

10. Fourth Grade Rubric

11. Fourth Grade Rubric

12. Fourth Grade Rubric

13. Now it’s time to look at sample student writing!

14. Writing+ Multiple Choice Test • Addresses writing rubric: Focus, Organization, Support, and Conventions • Multiple choice questions are followed by several choices

15. Writing+ Sample Questions • Which subtopic from Lisa’s Writing Plan is off-topic and should be crossed of the plan? • What I did • What I learned • Why I like dogs • Who went with me

16. Writing+ Sample Questions • Which sentence contains a detail that is unimportant to the story? • Sentence 1 • Sentence 4 • Sentence 7 • Sentence 8

17. Writing+ Sample Questions

18. What You Can Do to Help • Read! • Provide writing materials • Be a writer yourself • Share some of your work related writing • Respond to your child’s writing by: • Keeping it positive! • Being excited! • Making suggestions for improvement when needed • Being the Coach…Not the Writer

19. FCAT Reading

20. FCAT Reading • Types of Questions: • Multiple Choice (1 Pt) • Short Response (2 Pts) • Long Response (4 Pts) • The Reading SSS Assessment is broken up into two sessions (80 minutes each) • Students will answer approximately 50 questions which include 5-7 short or long response questions • Students will also take the Reading NRT during the 2nd week of testing (one session)

21. FCAT Reading • Reading questions are based on the Sunshine State Standards benchmarks: • LA.4.1.6.2 Vocabulary • LA.4.1.7.2 Author’s Purpose • LA.4.1.7.3 Main Idea, Details, Sequence • LA.4.1.7.4 Cause and Effect • LA.4.1.7.7 Compare and Contrast • LA.4.2.1.2 Plot Development/Resolution • LA.4.2.2.1 Reference and Research

22. Types of Reading Passages • Literary Text 50% • Short Stories, Literary Essays, Excerpts, Poems, Historical Fiction, Fables and Folk Tales, and Plays • Informational Text 50% • Subject-Area Text, Magazine and Newspaper Articles, Diaries, Editorials, Informational Essays, Biographies, Autobiographies, How-To Articles, Advertisements, Tables and Graphical Presentations of Text • Passage Length Ranges from 100-900 Words (Average 400 Words per Passage)

23. Complexity Levels • The complexity of questions are based on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge: • Low (read the lines) • Moderate (read between the lines) • High (read beyond the lines)

24. Now it’s time to look at a sample reading passage!

25. What You Can Do to Help • Read! • Provide reading spaces at home • Be a reader yourself! • Ask your child questions about what they read • Connect reading and writing

26. FCAT Math

27. FCAT Math • Students will take two sessions of the FCAT SSS on the same day with a break in between • They will have about 120 minutes to answer approximately 50 multiple choice questions • Students will also take the Math FCAT NRT during the second week of testing

28. The Five Strands of Math • Number Sense • Measurement • Geometry and Spatial Sense • Algebraic Thinking • Data Analysis and Probability

29. Number Sense

30. Measurement

31. Geometry and Spatial Sense

32. Algebraic Thinking

33. Data Analysis and Probability

34. What You Can Do to Help • Help your child master basic facts • Explore math in every day life • Make mathematics part of your children’s daily life • Help your child learn the vocabulary of mathematics • Encourage your child to do math “in their head”

35. Remember that the most important person in your child’s education is you. Thank you for coming and have a great evening!