1. Georgia Milestones Assessment: Implications for Instruction
Kelley Webb, Humanities Program Specialist
Stephanie Haga, STEM Program Specialist

2. What will the assessment look like in ELA?
Write Score Sample Items (7th Grade)
OAS Items (becoming GOFAR in SLDS)
Engage NY: Just Released Test Items (Grades 3-8)
Georgia DOE Assessment Guides (Grades 9-11)

3. Georgia Milestones Consolidation of English Language Arts
English Language Arts and reading will be combined and a writing component added for every grade level and course within the ELA assessment
One overall ELA score and proficiency designation
Reporting categories below the overall content area will be reported similar to the domains on the CRCT
Cannot make proficiency claims at the lower level reporting categories

4. Georgia Milestones Criterion Referenced and Norm Referenced Items:
students will receive 2 scores:
*criterion referenced score (55 total points)
*norm referenced score (20 total points)
some norm-referenced items (10) will count as criterion-referenced items as well

5. Georgia Milestones ELA Criterion-Referenced Breakdown by Item Type:
Total Number of Items: 44 / Total Number of Points: 55
Breakdown by Item Type:
40 Selected Response (worth 1 point each; 10 of which are aligned NRT)
2 Constructed Response (2 points each)
1 Constructed or Extended Response (worth 4 points): literary prose
1 Extended Response (worth 7 points): informative/explanatory or argument/opinion
Norm-Referenced
Total Number of Items: 20 (10 of which contribute to CR score)
Embedded Field Test
Total field test items: 6
Source GA DOE
Total number of items taken by each student: 60

6. Writing at Every Grade Level
Georgia Milestones
Writing at Every Grade Level
All students will encounter a constructed-response item allowing for narrative prose, in response to text, within the 1st or 2nd test section.
Introduction/conclusion to short story

7. Writing at Every Grade Level
Extended Response Writing Section:
Writing prompts will be informative/explanatory or opinion/argumentative depending on the grade level. Students could encounter either genre.

8. Georgia Milestones Administration Times Content Area Test Section
Minimum Time Per Section
Maximum Time Per Section
ELA
1 and 2
60 minutes
70 minutes
(writing only) 3
90 minutes
ELA Section 3 (writing only)

9. Georgia Milestones Scratch Paper
Blank scratch paper, including notebook paper, should be provided to students taking Milestones regardless of the administration mode: ELA: Section 3 only Mathematics: All sections

10. Write Score Example
Blueprint very similar to ELA Georgia Milestones Assessment:
selected response (multiple choice)
constructed response
extended response

11. Sample Assessment Grade 3 Informational Task
Students can do their rough draft online – they only submit their final draft
Students must cite textual evidence in the essay
2 texts to analyze – students must closely read both texts
Responses elicit evidence that students understand the text they have read and can communicate effectively through informational elaboration and knowledge of language and conventions.
Graded for:
Statement of Purpose / Focus and Organization– clearly stating and maintaining a main idea or controlling idea; ensuring that ideas move logically from the introduction to the conclusion; using effective transitions; staying on topic throughout
Elaboration of Evidence – providing evidence from sources about your topic; elaborating with specific information from the sources; expressing ideas using precise language
Conventions – following the rules of usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

12. Sample Assessment Grade 7 Informational Task
Students can do their rough draft online – they only submit their final draft
Students must cite textual evidence in the essay
2 texts to analyze – students must closely read both texts
Responses elicit evidence that students understand the text they have read and can communicate effectively through informational elaboration and knowledge of language and conventions.
Graded for:
Statement of Purpose / Focus and Organization– clearly stating and maintaining a main idea or controlling idea; ensuring that ideas move logically from the introduction to the conclusion; using effective transitions; staying on topic throughout
Elaboration of Evidence – providing evidence from sources about your topic; elaborating with specific information from the sources; expressing ideas using precise language
Conventions – following the rules of usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling

13. What will students struggle with on the upcoming Georgia Milestones
What will students struggle with on the upcoming Georgia Milestones? Why?
What?
complex texts
text-dependent questions
written response
citing evidence
analyzing and synthesizing information from two or more texts
writing/typing online
Why?
lack of student exposure to complex texts using close reading strategies
lower level comprehension questions (Who? What? Where?)
lack of teacher experience and training with literary analysis
lack of teacher knowledge of Common Core standards
lack of student experience with written response to text-dependent questions
As we all know, the students will be required to complete written performance based assessments this year and we all agree the students are not yet ready. What are students struggling with? What could be the causes?
Many teachers still don’t integrate the use of complex texts during instruction. Due to the lack of teacher understanding of the standard, they often ask lower level questions. For example, many teachers know they are supposed to teach about characters but ask lower level questions such as “Who is the main character?” “Who was your favorite character?” “List the traits of that character.” rather than “What events in the story caused the character to change?”
Once we are able to identify some of the causes, how do we prepare our teachers and students for these assessments?

14. How do we prepare our teachers and students for these assessments?
provide teachers with sample assessment items
model lessons that integrate reading and writing and cover multiple standards
provide examples of complex texts (variety of literary, informational, and digital texts) and assist teachers with selection of these texts
model close reading strategies, text analysis strategies, and text-dependent questioning
assist teachers with planning units and lessons that integrate reading and writing

15. Assessment Resources
Performance Based Assessments found in Fulton Connect
Grades: 2, 5, 8, 9-10
Genre: Argument/Opinion
Types of assessment: constructed and extended response
Location: Fulton Connect
Purposes: both instructional and assessment
Formative Item Bank found in Fulton Connect
Grades: all
Types of assessment: selected and constructed response
Purpose: assessment
coming soon!!!

16. Assessment Resources
Write Score Sample Items (3rd Grade)
OAS Items (becoming GOFAR in SLDS)
Journeys Performance Assessments (Reading Complex Text)
Engage NY: Just Released Test Items
Georgia Milestones Blueprints
How do we prepare our teachers and students for these assessments?
provide teachers with sample assessment items

17. Model Lessons
Reading and Writing Project Videos
Introduce a Text-Based Debate: Stray
Modeled Reading Lesson with Mary Ehrenworth: Pilgrims
Sample lessons from Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study, Craft Lessons, Mentor Texts
Sample lessons from Write Score
Elementary schools: CST professional development/Edmodo Group
How do we prepare our teachers and students for these assessments?
model lessons that integrate reading and writing and cover multiple standards

18. How do we prepare students for the online writing assessments?
provide opportunities to “write” on computers in and out of class
keyboarding skills
student and parent awareness
access to computers
Many of our students will be asked to write the constructed responses and extended responses online.
What must we do as instructional leaders and teachers to prepare our students for the online writing assessments?

19. Opportunities to “write” on computers
writing station during literacy stations at the computers (laptops, iPads, etc.)
collaborative group responses typed on computers
in-class assignments and responses posted on Edmodo or kid blogs
allow students to type homework assignments on computers at home as an option
computer lab “special” time used to
to practice typing, blog, etc.
Many of our students will be asked to write the constructed responses and extended responses online.
What must we do as instructional leaders and teachers to prepare our students for the online writing assessments?

20. Keyboarding Skills
Resources to help teach students keyboarding skills:
Dance Mat Typing:
Typing Instructor:
Typing Web:
Type to Learn
$795 lifetime subscription, web-based
We know all students will struggle with Keyboarding Skills:
Finding the letters, spacing, capitalization, punctuation, etc.

21. What will the assessment look like in Math?
Examples on upcoming slides
OAS Items (becoming GOFAR in SLDS)
Engage NY: Just Released Test Items

24. 5th Grade Constructed Response Ex

25. 5th Grade Constructed Response Ex

26. 5th Grade Constructed Response Ex

27. 5th Grade Constructed Response Ex

28. 5th Grade Constructed Response Ex

29. Instructional Implications
Student-Focused Classroom vs. Teacher-Focused Classroom
Students need to be the ones doing the math, not just copying procedures.  
Students need to think and reason in mathematics
“Too often, mathematics instruction gives students the erroneous notion that learning math is all about learning procedures, rather than making sense of ideas.” Marilyn Burns

30. Instructional Implications
build conceptual understanding starting with the concrete use of manipulatives
scaffold students to higher levels of thinking 
incorporate the Standards for Mathematical Practice into every lesson through writing and student dialogue

31. Scaffolding
presenting concepts through the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (C-R-A) model
teaching vocabulary
building context and background knowledge
modeling the problem solving process with challenging problems using gradual release
using graphic organizers

32. Standards for Mathematical Practice
make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
reason abstractly and quantitatively
construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
model with mathematics
use appropriate tools strategically
attend to precision
look for and make use of structure
look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

33. SMP Incorporate these standards into every lesson through:
student dialogue in partners, groups, and whole class
number sense routines
math talks
Videos of Math Talks
Professional Development Books:
Number Sense Routines (Grades K-3) by Jessica Shumway
Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies (Grades K-5) by Sherry Parrish

34. Math Resources
Video Model Lessons: Standards of Mathematical Practice by Grade Level Teacher Resources: Standards of Mathematical Practice Resources by Grade Level
“Our challenge as teachers is not to find better ways to explain to our students what we want them to learn, but rather to find better ways to ask our students to make sense of what they’re learning for themselves.” -Marilyn Burns