PARCC Literary Analysis Task
Grade 8 Reading
Lesson 6: The Evidence-Based Selected Response
Rationale
The EBSR presents a challenging new text item format. Students will benefit from
practicing these question types throughout the school year. Also, students should practice
developing their own text questions to reinforce their understanding of the item construct.
Goal
To familiarize students with the format and content of the evidence-based constructed response.
Task Foci
CCSS RL.8.1: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS RL.8.2: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the
course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an
objective summary of the text.
CCSS RL.8.3: Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel
the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
CCSS RL.8.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and
tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
CCSS RL.8.5: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the
differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
Objectives
Students will practice completing sample EBSRs
Students will build their own EBSRs to show that they understand the construct
Materials
Literary Text
One EBSR
Create Your Own EBSR worksheet.
Procedures
Tell the class that today they are going to read a literary text, answer a practice question, analyze
them as a class, and then create their own.
Distribute the sample text and EBSR.
After students have read the text, give five minutes to answer the question.
Go over the answers to Part A and Part B.
Next, return to Part A and discuss the question. Model aloud: “What is this question asking me to
look for in the text? How do I know?”
LAT Reading Lesson 6: The Evidence-Based Selected Response
© 2014 Standards Solution, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Explain to students that Part A will ask them a specific question based on the literary elements
(character, theme, POV, plot, setting, conflict).
Now go over the answer options. Ask students to give their reasons for ruling out the wrong
answers. Guide them to stating explicitly why each incorrect option can’t be the answer.
Next, turn to Part B. Point out that Part B questions always ask for the test taker to support their
answer to Part A. This is most often accomplished by identifying a quotation from the text for
support (to simulate what students should do in their writing when they make a claim).
Guide students through identifying why the incorrect answers are so.
Next, group students in pairs and distribute the Create Your Own EBSR worksheets.
Explain that creating your own question will give you a clear picture of how the PARCC test
questions work.
o Some guidelines for creating an EBSR:
 The question must require students to return to the text to answer it.
 Part A options should include at least one throw-away and one distractor.
 Part B options should be quotations from the text, accurately copied and properly
cited.
 At least one of the incorrect options in Part B should support an incorrect answer
in Part A (a distractor)
Give students ten minutes to create their EBSRs.
Have students share their questions with the test and see if other students can answer them.
Assessment
Students who correctly answer the EBSRs indicate that they have understood the question and the
tested aspect of the reading.
Student-created EBSRs should indicate that students understand the structure of the questions and
can think creatively and critically to come up with their own questions, answers, and distractors.
Extension Activity
Students can exchange their EBSRs with each other and answer them and/or evaluate their
effectiveness and accuracy.
LAT Reading Lesson 6: The Evidence-Based Selected Response
© 2014 Standards Solution, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
from Main Street
Sinclair Lewis
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12.
Vida Sherwin came in after school, with Miss Ethel Villets, the town librarian. Miss
Sherwin's optimistic presence gave Carol more confidence. She talked. She informed the
circle "I drove almost down to Wahkeenyan with Will, a few days ago. Isn't the country
lovely! And I do admire the Scandinavian farmers down there so: their big red barns and
silos and milking–machines and everything. Do you all know that lonely Lutheran
church, with the tin–covered spire, that stands out alone on a hill? It's so bleak; somehow
it seems so brave. I do think the Scandinavians are the hardiest and best people"
"Oh, do you THINK so?" protested Mrs. Jackson Elder. "My husband says the Svenskas
that work in the planing–mill are perfectly terrible—so silent and cranky, and so selfish,
the way they keep demanding raises. If they had their way they'd simply ruin the
business."
"Yes, and they're simply GHASTLY maids!" wailed Mrs. Dave Dyer. "I swear, I work
myself to skin and bone trying to please my maids—when I can get them! I do everything
in the world for them. They can have their gentleman friends call on them in the kitchen
any time, and they get just the same to eat as we do, if there's, any left over, and I
practically never jump on them."
Juanita Haydock rattled, "They're ungrateful, all that class of people. I do think the
domestic problem is simply becoming awful. I don't know what the country's coming to,
with these Scandahoofian clodhoppers demanding every cent you can save, and so
ignorant and impertinent, and on my word, demanding bathtubs and everything—as if
they weren't mighty good and lucky at home if they got a bath in the wash–tub."
They were off, riding hard. Carol thought of Bea and waylaid them:
"But isn't it possibly the fault of the mistresses if the maids are ungrateful? For
generations we've given them the leavings of food, and holes to live in. I don't want to
boast, but I must say I don't have much trouble with Bea. She's so friendly. The
Scandinavians are sturdy and honest—"
Mrs. Dave Dyer snapped, "Honest? Do you call it honest to hold us up for every cent of
pay they can get? I can't say that I've had any of them steal anything (though you might
call it stealing to eat so much that a roast of beef hardly lasts three days), but just the
same I don't intend to let them think they can put anything over on ME! I always make
them pack and unpack their trunks down–stairs, right under my eyes, and then I know
they aren't being tempted to dishonesty by any slackness on MY part!"
"How much do the maids get here?" Carol ventured.
Mrs. B. J. Gougerling, wife of the banker, stated in a shocked manner, "Any place from
three–fifty to five–fifty a week! I know positively that Mrs. Clark, after swearing that she
wouldn't weaken and encourage them in their outrageous demands, went and paid five–
fifty—think of it! practically a dollar a day for unskilled work and, of course, her food
and room and a chance to do her own washing right in with the rest of the wash. HOW
MUCH DO YOU PAY, Mrs. KENNICOTT?"
"Yes! How much do you pay?" insisted half a dozen.
"W–why, I pay six a week," she feebly confessed.
They gasped. Juanita protested, "Don't you think it's hard on the rest of us when you pay
so much?" Juanita's demand was reinforced by the universal glower.
13.
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Carol was angry. "I don't care! A maid has one of the hardest jobs on earth. She works
from ten to eighteen hours a day. She has to wash slimy dishes and dirty clothes. She
tends the children and runs to the door with wet chapped hands and—"
Mrs. Dave Dyer broke into Carol's peroration with a furious, "That's all very well, but
believe me, I do those things myself when I'm without a maid—and that's a good share of
the time for a person that isn't willing to yield and pay exorbitant wages!"
Carol was retorting, "But a maid does it for strangers, and all she gets out of it is the
pay—"
Their eyes were hostile. Four of them were talking at once. Vida Sherwin's dictatorial
voice cut through, took control of the revolution:
"Tut, tut, tut, tut! What angry passions—and what an idiotic discussion! All of you
getting too serious. Stop it! Carol Kennicott, you're probably right, but you're too much
ahead of the times. Juanita, quit looking so belligerent. What is this, a card party or a hen
fight? Carol, you stop admiring yourself as the Joan of Arc of the maids, or I'll spank
you. You come over here and talk libraries with Ethel Villets. Boooooo! If there's any
more pecking, I'll take charge of the hen roost myself!"
They all laughed artificially, and Carol obediently "talked libraries."
Part A: What does the author mean when describing Vida Sherwin’s voice as
“dictatorial”?
A.
B.
C.
D.
irrelevant
passionate
it took control
sounded like a machine
Part B: Which of the following phrases from the paragraph support your answer to Part
A?
A.
B.
C.
D.
“If there’s any more pecking, I’ll take charge of the hen roost myself!”
“They all laughed artificially…”
“Tut, tut, tut, tut!”
“Carol Kennicott, you’re probably right…”
Create Your Own PARCC Question
Part A:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Part B:
A.
B.
C.
D.
Answer Key
Part A: C
Part B: A