Out With the Workbook, In With the Workshop: Passing and Surpassing the HSAP

1. Out With the Workbook, In With the Workshop: Passing and Surpassing the HSAP Leslie Kaczmarczyk SWP Summer Institute June 23rd, 2011

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dby03Oczjps&list=PL2887B9046BB74A9C&t=1shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dby03Oczjps&list=PL2887B9046BB74A9C&t=1s • http://www.youtube.com/v/Dby03Oczjps&list=PL2887B9046BB74A9C&t=1s

3. The Immersion/HSAP Connection “Students who are immersed in reading and writing for real reasons and real audiences, on a daily basis, do fine on any assessment. They are thinkers who can figure out what any audience needs to know and how to convey that information” (264). --Brenner, Devon, et al. “Thinking Through Assessment.” Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise Into Practice

4. Group Discussion What does standardized test preparation look like in your school and classroom?What obstacles do you and your colleagues face in regards to preparing students for standardized tests?

5. Teacher Responses Our Obstacles How It Looks

6. Essential Questions • How do I go about decoding or “translating” the HSAP (or PASS) rubric? • How do I use the translation of the rubric in my writing workshop? • How do I accommodate my lessons for variations of time and student ability levels?

7. On Teaching Students to Read the Language of Tests: “Not only must the reader make sense of the way words are used (on the test)…be he must note the type of words used” (136). --Jim Burke, The English Teacher’s Companion

8. The Importance of Studying the Rubric • “Students benefit from learning about scoring systems when their own writing will be subjected to this kind of evaluation. Having students study rubrics…and asking students to use them to evaluate pieces of writing helps them understand how scoring works at the same that it gives them new ways to think more generally about the quality of writing.” • Gere, Anne Ruggles, et al. Writing on Demand: Best Practices and Strategies for Success.

9. Understanding The Extended Response Rubric • The extended response writing prompt is based on one of the four modes of writing: • Narrative • Expository • Description • Persuasion Each student composition is scored according to the following rubric:

11. Translating the Test • “Both curriculum documents and large-scale writing assessments tend to use the language of mode to name what it is students should be doing with writing. Figuring out what to gather to support children in learning about these different kinds of writing involves an act of curriculum translation on the part of the teachers of writing” (85). • Ray, Katie Wood. Study Driven.

12. The Translation How-To’s • Read each of the criteria for scoring student responses • Underline, highlight, or write down specific skills that students are asked to demonstrate in their writing • Notice the difference in language between scores of 4, 3, 2, and 1 for each of the bulleted criteria.

13. In your groups Take a few minutes to “translate” the provided HSAP rubric. At your table, you will find four colored cards. Label each one with the following words: content, organization, voice, conventions Under each heading, pick out the skills that are being assessed for that heading. Think in terms of mini-lessons that you could teach your students.

14. Content (Teacher Group Notes)

15. Organization (Teacher Group Notes)

16. Voice (Teacher Group Notes)

17. Conventions (Teacher Group Notes)

18. Designing Mini-Lessons • After decoding or “translating” the writing rubric, teachers can then begin working on mini-lessons for students. • It is best to start with mentor texts that are easily accessible to students and then progress to texts that are more challenging. • These mini-lessons will result not only in writing instruction, but also in reading instruction. For example, when you teach students how an author goes about adding specific details, you will also be teaching them main idea, effective transitioning, and relevance.

19. Sample Mini-Lesson • Read the provided text excerpt. • As you read, talk in your groups about where this text could fit in terms of an HSAP rubric mini-lesson.

20. Mini-Lesson Thoughts

21. Accommodating for Time and Student Ability Levels • Look for ways to streamline your teaching so that the text serves more than one purpose. • *See the provided lesson on using imagery. • Know your students! Teach the skills that need the most development first. • Choose mentor texts for a variety of reading and interest levels. • If using a “noticings” chart, guide your students in the direction that you want them to notice things. (Examples provided) • Give students purposeful choice. For example, you could provide students with a collection of writing topics and have them select two to write about. • Don’t beat yourself up for having an OCCASSIONAL prompt day.

22. What About Those Prompts? • Katie Wood Ray says, “I do believe that students should have some experience going from a prompt they’ve never seen to a finished piece of writing in a single sitting before they have to do this on a test. The only way I know to get experience with this weird process is just to practice it from time to time…in between studies, for example” (186).

23. In Conclusion • Katie Wood Ray says, “I’ve actually never seen a description or a rubric for a writing test that said students needed to write a formulaic, unreal kind of writing in order to do well on it, even though myths abound that this is true” (186). • If you utilize the writer’s workshop on a regular basis and in an authentic way, then students WILL do well on standardized writing tests because they’ve been immersed in good writing.

24. Works Cited Beers, K., Probst, R. E., & Rief, L. (Eds.). (2007). Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise Into Practice. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Burke, J. (2003). The English Teacher's Companion: A Complete Guide To Classroom, Curriculum, and The Profession. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Gere, A. R., Christenbury, L., & Sassi, K. (2005). Writing On Demand: Best Practices and Strategies for Success. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Ray, K. W. (2006). Study Driven: A Framework For Planning Units of Study In The Writing Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.