What Can an English Teacher Do

1. What Can an English Teacher Do? OCTELA Spring Conference March 5, 2005

2. Getting to know you

3. Understanding the OGT Avoiding Mistakes

4. Extended-Response Items Mistake: Leaving an extended-response item blank. Extended-response questions are worth four points--enough to make a difference in students� performance on the test.

5. Partial Points Students should always attempt to answer extended-response questions to get partial or full credit.

6. Extended Response Items Mistake: Quickly reading the question and starting to write.  Students should analyze the question and think about their response. Writing without this analysis leads many students into making major mistakes that result in lost points.

7. Support the Answer Mistake: Explaining a point but failing to give examples from the passage to support the explanation. It's important to answer the entire question, not just one part of it.

8. Finding Examples To find examples from the passage, students should go back to the passage and mark examples as they find them.

9. Quotation Marks Sometimes it's helpful to the scorers when students use quotation marks around examples to show that they're taken directly from the passage. 

10. Test preparation is most effective when it is integrated into class time, as a part of ongoing instruction. Langer, 2000 Test Preparation

11. Practices that help students Teach content that goes beyond the demands of the test. Gulek, 2003

12. Practices that help students Use a variety of assessment approaches and formats. Gulek, 2003

13. Using NAEP assessment items provide a model for crafting assessment items construct short cycle assessments evaluate sample student responses dissect and analyze demand of questions assess similar concepts in different ways

14. Practices that help students Teach time management skills. Gulek, 2003

15. Practices that help students Foster student motivation and reduce anxiety. Gulek, 2003

16. Practices that help students Goals Choice Interest Knowledge Praise/Rewards Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000

17. Resources for professional development

18. Adolescent Literacy In Perspective

19. Practices that help students Use graphic organizers to show thinking and manage ideas.

20. Writing in the Test Booklet Let students know that it is all right to make notes in the margins surrounding the passages in the test booklets.

21. ORC Resources ORC #3220 ReadingQuest ORC #9 Concept Mapping ORC #699 Graphic Organizers

22. Strategy: Post-it Note Taking Use post-it notes to write responses in the margins. Show students what goes into marginal notes. Ask students to suggest notes as you write. Help students reframe notes to move away from copying from the text. (Beers & Samuels, 1998)

23. Challenging Benchmarks

24. Literary Text Standard Benchmark F. Identify and analyze how an author uses figurative language, sound devices and literary techniques to shape plot, set meaning and develop tone.

25. OGT Question Give two examples of figurative language, either imagery or figures of speech, and explain how each affects the poem.

26. The Old Homestead Paul Laurence Dunbar 'Tis an old deserted homestead On the outskirts of the town, Where the roof is all moss-covered, And the walls are tumbling down; But around that little cottage Do my brightest mem'ries cling, For 'twas there I spent the moments Of my youth, life's happy spring.

27. I remember how I used to Swing upon the old front gate, While the robin in the tree tops Sung a night song to his mate; And how later in the evening, As the beaux were wont to do, Mr. Perkins, in the parlor, Sat and sparked my sister Sue.

28. There my mother heaven bless her! Kissed or spanked as was our need, And by smile or stroke implanted In our hearts fair virtue's seed; While my father, man of wisdom, Lawyer keen, and farmer stout, Argued long with neighbor Dobbins How the corn crops would turn out.

29. Then the quiltings and the dances How my feet were wont to fly, While the moon peeped through the barn chinks From her stately place on high. Oh, those days, so sweet, so happy, Ever backward o'er me roll; Still the music of that farm life Rings an echo in my soul.

30. Now the old place is deserted, And the walls are falling down; All who made the home life cheerful, Now have died or moved to town. But about that dear old cottage Shall my mem'ries ever cling, For 'twas there I spent the moments Of my youth, life's happy spring. "The Old Homestead" by Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1893.

31. Literary Text Standard Benchmark E. Analyze the use of a genre to express a theme or topic. Passage � Autobiography of Malcolm X

32. OGT Question Which thematic statement best applies to this passage? Experience is more important than knowledge. Good can come out of bad situations. Learning is principally for children. Decision-making is very difficult.

33. OGT Question Answer: B. Good can come out of bad situations. (Applies to entire passage) �

34. Identifying Theme Theme: a major idea broad enough to cover the entire scope of a literary work Ohio Academic Content Standards, ELA Glossary

35. Helping Students Recognize Themes in Literary Text Provide students with many experiences reading and responding to different literary genres.

36. Teaching Students to Recognize Themes in Literary Text Comparing several genres with similar themes lets students gain an understanding of the universality of theme. Small- and large-group discussions can be focused on a particular theme, encouraging students to determine how the theme plays out in literature and in contemporary society.

37. Teaching Theme Thinking of themes

38. We want to hear from you How can ORC help you prepare students for success on the OGT?