Tag Archives: Assessment

Prepare for PARCC without Test Prep!

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Many of us are counting down to the beginning of our first PARCC Assessment or have already begun.  I have heard of a lot of colleagues scrambling to find PARCC practice or other test preparation materials.  Here is the scoop on test prep: it doesn’t work. With all of the criticisms about the amount of time that schools are spending on standardized testing, it is even sadder that we are piling on top of that with exorbitant time preparing students to take these tests. There may be short-term improvements, but large amounts of time and effort devoted to having students take practice items is a waste of instructional time.

What do we do instead? I propose something novel: teaching students the skills and strategies they will need  to be successful thinkers, readers, writers, and mathematicians. This is the goal of PARCC and other tests–to measure how well students think and can do.  If we create successful thinkers, they will be able to read and write and problem solve whatever PARCC throws at them.

Here are some things you can do with your students to prepare for PARCC without test prep:

  • Read complex text independently
  • Orally paraphrasing texts, questions, or writing prompts
  • Answer text-dependent questions
  • Close reading
  • Quote and paraphrases evidence from text
  • Read multiple texts
  • Write from sources
  • Produce extended writing and on-demand writing (2 pages in a single sitting in grade 5 and 1 page grade 4)
  • Write an essay
  • Edit for conventions: capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
  • Keyboard quickly and accurately
  • Use online tools to Drag & Drop,
  • Read on a Screen/ Electronic Device
  • Use note-taking
  • Scroll multiple windows
  • Navigate multiple screens
  • Use online writing tools (spell check, etc.)
  • Use online math tools (calculator, ruler, etc.)
  • Consume media (viewing video clips, websites, listening to podcasts, etc.)

Download the PARCC Learning Activities  handout here.

PARCC Kid-Friendly Rubrics

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PARCC PCR Kid-Friendly Rubrics

Did everyone enjoy the PARCC field test this week?  I’m sure we are all looking forward to all the writing our students will be doing next year! One of the things I have been emphasizing is using rubrics with your students. I believe that encouraging metacognition is a critical skill, and that students who are able to use a rubric to self-assess produce stronger writing.

Download some PARCC-based, kid-friendly rubrics here. There are user- friendly Prose Constructed Response (PCR) rubrics for each grade level.  Prose Constructed Responses are on-demand writing pieces that are crafted in response to text, or prose.

This rubric is based on PARCC language but infuses kid-friendly language

This rubric is based on PARCC language but infuses kid-friendly language

These rubrics use the same language as those developed by PARCC for grades 4-5 or grade 3 (criteria have been scaled down for grades 1-2). The official PARCC rubrics address both analytic (opinion and informational) and for narrative. However, an asterisk on the rubrics indicates that narrative pieces are no longer scored for their demonstration of reading comprehension.  While narrative writing will be written in response to a piece of prose, they will only scored for their writing content and language conventions, not for evidence of reading comprehension.  Therefore, the rubrics are adjusted accordingly.

In addition, there are two versions of each rubric—a condensed and an expanded.  In August 2013, PARCC revised its Prose Constructed Response (PCR) rubric to make it condensed. This means it collapsed all of the writing content into one component and a single goal for possible points. You may find it helpful to use the expanded for instruction because it allows for more distinctions in each category.

Each rubric features precise language from PARCC rubrics; this allows students to become familiar with this language for the assessments.  At this time, students may access PARCC rubrics during PARCC assessments. Therefore, it is a good idea to familiarize students with this language.

Hints for teaching using PCR rubrics:

  • Use rubrics often throughout the writing process and instruction.
  • Read and think aloud what each section of the rubric means.
  • Write (next to the bullet) what it means in plain language (see page 2 for an example).
  • Model scoring writing using the rubric; underling key words and phrases in the writing that matches the rubric descriptors.
  • Show students exemplars of writing that meets the criteria for each of the sections.
  • Encourage students to self-assess using the rubric, highlighting sections of their writing that match the rubric components.
  • Require students to revise and edit Prose Constructed Responses that fall short of the standard.  Model and guide this first!

Instructional Technician

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Are you a teacher or an instructional technician?

instructional technician

Which best describes you–teacher or technician?

As our schools are transitioning to Common Core Standards, many teachers are having difficulty.  I realize why:  most of them have entered the profession in the past ten years; they only have experience teaching by opening a manual and following the prescribed sequence.  Common Core State Standards are asking us to do the opposite of this–selecting texts and lessons based on what our students need, matching instruction to our learners.  We have bred a generation of teachers who aren’t decision makers first, and lesson plan-followers second.

Many scripted programs are written so that anyone could pick up a manual and start teaching–any substitute or teacher with lackluster skills.  Master teachers should be able to rise above this and make instructional decisions–how much time to spend on this lesson, whether to omit or revise that one, whether students are ready to move on, and so on.

CCSS are asking us to move beyond simply being a technician who delivers the lessons, numbly following what some team of authors who never met your students and works in California has written.  We are returning to the art of teaching–selecting texts and delivering carefully crafted instruction that has students eating out of the palm of your hand, devouring the text and absorbing the strategies, skills, and ideas you are guiding toward.  The art of teaching requires a lot more than simply following the pages in the planner; it requires thoughtful consideration, pondering, planning, assessment, re-tooling, monitoring, and much, much more.

What will we get for all this extra effort?  We will get students who are self motivated thinkers, readers, and writers. We will get enthusiasm that builds in our classroom and stimulates us as well. We will get students who are College and Career Ready–the ultimate goal.

When you are designing lessons for your students, these are the questions to ask yourself:

  • What do I want my students to learn? Why do I want them to learn this? What are the Common Core State Standards I am addressing?
  • How will I know that they have mastered it?  What assessment(s) will I use to determine if my students have met this goal or if I need to reteach?
  • What will I do with the students who are struggling?  There is an old adage that says, “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten.”  This applies especially to teaching.  You can’t just repeat a lesson slower and louder; you have to adjust and try a new approach.
  • What will you do with students who have already mastered the skill?  This question is not one that we have traditionally considered.  The students who came to us knowing the letters and sounds will sit compliantly while you “teach” it to them again.  But, we aren’t doing them any favors having them sit and relearn.  They should be learning something new.

Let’s agree to attend the funeral of the Instructional Technician, who blindly plods through a manual page by page, day by day. Join me in celebrating the Teacher–instructional lesson designer, assessor, juggler, integrator, mentor, and more.