Tips to Help Students Prepare
for the Elementary AzMERIT Writing Test:

Tip #1 – Writing from Sources
It is imperative that we are assigning our students “writing from sources” tasks
often. In Grades 3-12, students have to be comfortable using information from
sources they’ve read as they write (teachers should refer to their grade level
standards for specific expectations regarding the use of evidence). At the older
grades, it is also important that our tasks ask students to pull information from
multiple sources. The test cannot be the first time students have been asked to
write from sources or write from multiple sources. The Document Based
Questions (DBQs) resources provided by the Social Studies Department are a
great resource for finding sources.
Students should also have practice reading the sources online; not all of the time,
but often enough to be comfortable reading online. The close reading strategies
presented in our trainings are important, but if students have only used hard copy
texts and physically highlighted and annotated their sources, the online reading
expected on AzMERIT will throw them. The district provided databases can be a
good place to find online sources/passages.

Tip #2 – Match Instruction and Assessment
Another vital preparation tip is that students must have opportunities to practice
writing in the same format they’ll be expected to write on the test. This does not
mean that every piece of student writing has to go through the whole writing
process and end as a polished, typed piece of writing, but it should happen often
enough that students are comfortable with the steps of the writing process (and
ready to go through them independently on a test) and with the online format of
the AzMERIT writing test.
o If you want students to first write a draft on paper, revise and edit their
own work, and then type an improved “final draft” onto the computer
during AzMERIT then some classroom assignments must follow the same
format. The test can’t be the first time they’ve transcribed from their
handwritten draft to type a final draft.
o If you want students to compose their written response directly on the
computer (possibly after completing a prewriting activity on scratch paper)
and do their revising and editing on the computer, this must be something
they’ve had practice doing. Composing on a computer is different than
composing on paper. We don’t want students performing poorly on the
test because they were uncomfortable with the online format.

Tip #3 – Use the Writing Guides
Make sure you are using the AzMERIT Writing Guides regularly with students.
This is what the students will see on the actual assessment. If we use the guides
in the classroom then students know what to expect on the assessment and can
use it to guide their writing.
Helping students understand the different sections of the Guide will help remind
them what they need to focus on during their prewriting, drafting, revising, and
editing. Notice that the “Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization” section
has direct connections to the Six Traits of Writing (added to Writing Standard 5 in
the MPS curriculum documents) and the “Evidence/Elaboration” section relates
to the Writing from Sources shift.
Notice that a student’s “Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization” score is
worth 40% of their overall writing score, “Evidence/Elaboration” is worth 40%,
and “Editing/Conventions” is only worth 20%. While Conventions is important, it
is weighted less heavily than other traits of good writing. The AzMERIT rubric
gives a 2 for “an adequate command of basic conventions” and a 1 for “a partial
command of basic conventions.”

Tip #4 – Use the State’s Practice Test
As previously stated, it is important to give students opportunities to practice
typing their response. The AzMERIT sample tests can give students that
opportunity. While there is only one task per grade band, the test format is the
same as AzMERIT and students can use the space to type their response to an
alternative writing task provided by the teacher (although the reading passages
won’t match). Because the sample test doesn’t score the writing, it doesn’t
matter if a response doesn’t match the task given; it can still be used to practice
using the AzMERIT online format.
Advantages to using the AzMERIT practice test (with alternative writing tasks):
 Practice typing in the box they’ll see on the test
 A chance to review/discuss the “Test Instructions and Help” section
with the teacher prior to taking the AzMERIT
 Teachers can show students where the Writing Guide can be
accessed (although it isn’t currently working)
 Practice using the online resources provided during testing such as
the Dictionary/Thesaurus, Notes, Line Reader, the Tutorial, etc.
 Practice using the online test’s features such as putting the reading
text full screen and back again and the zoom out/zoom in feature
 Practice using the test’s formatting features (bold, italics, special
characters, indenting, etc.). This may also help the features be less
of a distraction during the test if students have already had a
chance to “play” with them and they aren’t a novelty.
Challenges using the AzMERIT practice test:
 The task/prompt is the same for Grades 3-5 (is clutter sometimes
okay) and Grades 6-8 (are mistakes key to making discoveries) and
has not changed from last year
 While the practice test can show students what the passage sets
will look like, and that there will probably be more than one passage
to read (Grades 3-5 has a 3 passage set and Grades 6-8 has a 4
passage set), the passages won’t match the writing task/prompt
you give students so they can’t actually practice going back and
forth from the reading to their writing