The Move to Text-Dependent Writing Office of Curriculum Services Leon County Schools Tallahassee, Florida Thursday, October 17, 2013

Todays Agenda Review the purpose of text-dependent writing assessments. Examine challenges in approaching text-dependent writing assessments in our district. Practice using the rubric for assessing student writing and provide feedback for consideration. Discuss LCSs Plan to move toward text-dependent writing assessments. Analyze another example of TDW and reflect on LCSs first administration. Discuss Vanderbilt Study on effective writing instruction.

Meeting Protocol Participate in ALL activities to further your understanding of our challenge. Provide constructive comments that promote understanding and efficiency. Approach our task with a positive mindset that promotes a pleasant, stress-free working environment.

Writing Assessment: Where are we? The CCSS are under review by the State Board of Education. All indications point to the development of a state-wide text-dependent writing assessment. The future of text complexity in state assessments is under review. We will not address the issues of text selection todayonly the tasks and rubric.

Lets take a look at the sample rubric for expository writing. Our goal today is to work with the rubric to determine its effectiveness in scoring and any needed changes, additions, deletions, etc. We will work to develop a standard scoring process at another time.

Holistic vs. Analytic Scoring

Familiarize yourself with the rubric. Read through the descriptors for each category and score level. Highlight key words that show the changes in scoring. Discuss at your table and as a whole group.

Familiarize yourself with the rubric. Read through the descriptors for each category and score level. Highlight key words that show the changes in scoring. Discuss at your table and as a whole group.

Practice with Scoring a Paper Using a blank rubric, highlight the bullet points that describe the sample paper. As a group, discuss and designate a score. Be prepared to defend.

Practice with Scoring Score the sample papers in your packet individually and then as a group. Discuss and designate a score for each at your table. Be prepared to discuss and defend.

Feedback on Rubric As a group, discuss any changes you would recommend to the rubric. Write suggestions on an index card and be prepared to share with whole group.

Now lets look at the development of tasks for the assessment.

Objectives of Text-dependent Writing Assessments Determine whether students are college- and career-ready or on track. Assess Florida standards for reading, writing, and language. Measure the full range of student performance, including the performance high- and low-performing students. Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development. Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth. Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the assessment system. Emphasize high-quality, challenging literary and information texts.

Use these indicators to evaluate the first writing task your students were asked to complete. Discuss at your tables. Determine whether students are college- and career-ready or on track. Assess Florida standards for reading, writing, and language. Measure the full range of student performance, including the performance high- and low-performing students. Provide data during the academic year to inform instruction, interventions and professional development. Provide data for accountability, including measures of growth. Incorporate innovative approaches throughout the assessment system. Emphasize high-quality, challenging literary and information texts.

Our Current Limitations in Creating Text- Dependent Writing Prompts The confusion regarding the future of CCSS in the state of Florida. LCS progress monitoring is currently limited to 60 minute test window. We have no reliable models to follow at this time.

Lunch Time 11:30-12:45

Task: Review sample assessment from Louisiana. What elements should we include in our TDW assessments? What elements will not work for us? Discuss in your groups. Write on index card and be prepared to share with group. Give index card to Kathy as you present.

Using the CCSS for English Language Arts and Science, create another possible writing prompt for the first TDW based on the activity we just completed. Put on index card and give to Kathy.

Share your text-dependent writing prompts with the group. Give index card to Kathy.

District Perspective on First Administration Tasks need to be scaffolded to support final extended writing. Two writing prompts should be provided: one that addresses basic tasks (summary or central idea) and another that addresses a more complex task (point of view or techniques of the writer). Pre-prepared planning templates did not help the students. High quality, challenging texts both literary and informational are STILL a priority.

Feedback on Teacher Script Review the script that includes directions for students on approaching the text-dependent writing. Please note any changes you feel are needed to the teacher script. Discuss in your group. Write on index card and share. Give index card to Kathy.

Vanderbilt Writing Study Stu Greenbert

Feedback Please thoughtfully complete the exit ticket. All of the comments and suggestions from our meeting today will be considered in the development of future assessments.