Break­Out Session
Special Education 6­12 Teachers
In this activity, you will have an opportunity to explore writing assessments for growth and
discuss next steps for you and your teams.
Part I:
Question Writing Activity
Directions:
Try your hand at writing questions intentionally at each level of cognitive demand. It is important
to acknowledge the various levels of complexity within each standard and write questions at all
levels. For today’s activity we are focusing on Common Core Reading Standard #1. Though
this is a mixed level group, we are focusing on grade 7 reading levels for this activity. Using the
provided passage, and the provided question stems to spark your thinking, write 3 multiple
choice questions at each level of cognitive demand.
Question #1 is Basic: Readily Assessable questions that ask the student to remember
something or simply understand. This includes memorization and automaticity of math facts as
well as questions that ask “right there” questions from the text.
Question #2 is Standard: Moderately Complex questions that ask students to apply, compare
and contrast or analyze. This includes application story problems as well as students
comparing more than one character, author or text.
Question #3 is Expanded: These questions are very complex and ask students to evaluate and
create. They are often associated with free response items but clever test writing can also put
evaluate questions in multiple choice formats.
Part II:
Discussion
Directions:
Share your questions with your break­out group. Discuss potential pros/cons to different
questions. What did you find easy about the process? What was hard about the process?
What forms (multiple choice, performance, free response) would be most appropriate for your
students and why?
Part III:
Assessment Content
The “Meat and Potatoes” of your assessment process
Directions:
Remember assessments for growth need to be mirrored in form, content and complexity.
Before we can make too many decisions about form and complexity we have to be “solid” on
what content our team thinks we will assess for sustained growth.
Step 1: Try a Team Discussion:
1. Do we know what threads run through our reading and language arts curriculum for the entire
year? (circle, square, triangle analogy)
2. On which of these threads can students demonstrate sustained growth? (Once a fact is
memorized, what additional learning occurs over time? You may want to think about applying
information analyzing a process, evaluating…)
Step 2: Try to Do:
1. Consider the chart on the next page from our morning discussion. Focus on column one.
2. Determine the threads that run throughout your curriculum that you can measure for growth.
Think about your essential skills or “threads” for the year. You may fill out column one with an
essential skills list. You may already have a curriculum map, and you may want to think about
what is essential. You may want to discuss what will give students leverage in future courses
and what has endurance for the subject. You may choose a different way to make your list
which is fine. Its far more important that you discuss the essential skills than the format of the
document!!
Lost? Pull out your common core standards and start there. Don’t have a copy handy?
http://www.corestandards.org/the­standards
(you like apps for your phone, do you? Check out the Common Core App by MasteryConnect.
It’s free and works great!)
Part IV:
Selecting the Reading Passages
Step 1: Try a Team Discussion
1. Think about text complexity. What makes a selection appropriate for your readers?
2. How do you determine if a text is at the right level for a reader? For end of grade level
expectations?
3. Are the considerations for text complexity different for informational and literary passages?
Lost? Want some reading and research for the discussion?
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_A.pdf
Step 2: Select End of Year Level Reading Passages
1. Consider grade level appropriate lexiles and end of year expectations.
2. Select 3 Informational Reading and 3 Literary Reading passages to possibly use on
assessments.
Hint:
Consider using small excerpts from stories, even if they are covered in your curriculum. As long
as the assessment occurs before you teach the excerpt, it is acceptable to use and can be a
great pre­teaching tool. Don’t be afraid to try something new. If you don’t know the level of a
passage, you can lexile it by typing an excerpt and uploading the *.txt file for free at Lexile.com
Basic: Remember & Understand
Identify explicit information:
According to the information in
paragraph x (lines x­x), what
happened to...?
Which of the following quotes best
describes the ....(explicit
information)?
Identify Theme/Idea:
What is the central idea/theme...
OR Which of the following quotes
from the passage is evidence of the
central theme?
Summarize the text without
judgement.
What was the author’s main point in
paragraph x...?
Identify elements
What is key to the resolution of the
problem in this story (drama)...?
(RL)
According to x (lines x­x) what
happened after...? OR What
happened after (cite specific
evidence)
What was the influence of ___ event
on ____...?
Standard
RL 7.1
&
RI 7.1
(cite
specific
evidence
when
possible)
RL 7.2
&
RI 7.2
(cite
specific
evidence
when
possible)
RL 7.3
&
RI 7.3
(cite
specific
evidence
when
possible)
Analyze Elements
How does the setting affect the
character (plot)...? (RL)
Which of the following is an example of
how the character evolves with the
plot...? (RL)
In lines (x­x) the dialogue helps the
reader understand the character (plot,
setting) because...?
Analyze Theme/Idea:
Which of the following quotes is an
example of how the theme recurs (is
developed) in the text?
After reading lines (x­x), how does the
character (author, narrator) change
(develop) his opinion (theme)...?
In what way is __ (theme or idea) like (or
unlike) _ ...?
Analyze explicit information; making
inferences:
Which of the following inferences can
be drawn from these two quotes...? (or
from lines (x­x) and lines (x­x)...?
Which of the following quotes allows
you to infer why the author wrote this
piece...?
According to lines (x­x), what can you
infer...?
Standard: Apply & Analyze
Evaluate Elements
How (evaluate) would the story
change in a different setting...?
Which changes in events were most
influential...?
Evaluate Theme/Idea:
What are the pros and cons or
inconsistencies of the
theme/message...?
Evaluate explicit information and
inferences:
Why do you believe (evaluate)...? and
choose two quotes from the text as
evidence.
Is there a better solution to...?
Which is more important, logical, valid
(cite evidence)...?
Expanded: Evaluate & Create
Reading Literature (RL) & Reading for Information (RI)
Grade 7 Question Stem Bank: Common Core State Standards
Key Ideas and Details Question Stems:
107
Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In Search of America.
I soon discovered that if a wayfaring stranger wishes to eavesdrop on a local population the
places for him to slip in and hold his peace are bars and churches. But some New England
towns don’t have bars, and church is only on Sunday. A good alternative is the roadside
restaurant where men gather for breakfast before going to work or going hunting. To find these
places inhabited one must get up very early. And there is a drawback even to this. Early­rising
men not only do not talk much to strangers, they barely talk to one another. Breakfast
conversation is limited to a series of laconic grunts. The natural New England taciturnity reaches
its glorious perfection at breakfast.
[...]
I am not normally a breakfast eater, but here I had to be or I wouldn’t see anybody unless I
stopped for gas. At the first lighted roadside restaurant I pulled in and took my seat at a counter.
The customers were folded over their coffee cups like ferns. A normal conversation is as
follows:
WAITRESS: “Same?”
CUSTOMER: “Yep.”
WAITRESS: “Cold enough for you?”
CUSTOMER: “Yep.” (Ten minutes.)
WAITRESS: “Refill?”
CUSTOMER: “Yep.”
This is a really talkative customer.
Source: Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In Search of America. New York: Penguin, 1997. (1962) From
pages 27–28; Common Core Appendix B
Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad
By the time Harriet Ross was six years old, she had unconsciously absorbed many kinds of
knowledge, almost with the air she breathed. She could not, for example, have said how or at
what moment she knew that she was a slave.
She knew that her brothers and sisters, her father and mother, and all the other people who lived
in the quarter, men, women and children were slaves.
She had been taught to say, “Yes, Missus,” “No, Missus,” to white women, “Yes, Mas’r,” “No,
Mas’r” to white men. Or, “Yes, sah,” “No, sah.”
At the same time someone had taught her where to look for the North Star, the star that stayed
constant, not rising in the east and setting in the west as the other stars appeared to do; and told
her that anyone walking toward the North could use that star as a guide.
She knew about fear, too. Sometimes at night, or during the day, she heard the furious galloping
of horses, not just one horse, several horses, thud of the hoofbeats along the road, jingle of
harness. She saw the grown folks freeze into stillness, not moving, scarcely breathing, while
they listened. She could not remember who first told her that those furious hoofbeats meant that
patrollers were going in pursuit of a runaway. Only the slaves said patterollers, whispering the
word.
Source: Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad. New York: HarperCollins, 1983.
(1955) From Chapter 3: “Six Years Old.”; Common Core Appendix B
Tools or Methods to
Teach Objectives
How you are “doing it”
Or
Exemplar ways to teach
Core Curricular Objectives
(Benchmarks to be mastered)
The Standards: CCSS, ILS, CCR or other major
curriculum focus areas
This is where you WANT to be…
Class:
How you are “assessing it”
(formative or summative)
Indicators of Student Mastery
Backward Planning Curriculum Tool