1. Cutler Middle School February 4, 2014 Cutler Middle School February 4, 2014

2.  Andrea Davis, Coordinator of English 6-12  Leslie Forbes, Language Arts teacher, grade 6  Jennifer Carter, Language Arts substitute teacher, grade 6  Betzy Farnsworth, Language Arts teacher, grade 7  Nancy Stankiewicz, Language Arts teacher, grade7  Andrea Davis, Coordinator of English 6-12  Leslie Forbes, Language Arts teacher, grade 6  Jennifer Carter, Language Arts substitute teacher, grade 6  Betzy Farnsworth, Language Arts teacher, grade 7  Nancy Stankiewicz, Language Arts teacher, grade7

3.  Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium  Designed to measure student achievement of the recently adopted Common Core State Standards for English/language arts and Mathematics.  www.smarterbalanced.org www.smarterbalanced.org

4.  Based on student responses, the computer program adjusts the difficulty of questions throughout the assessment.  These assessments present an individually tailored set of questions to each student  This approach represents a significant improvement over traditional paper-and-pencil assessments used in many states today, providing more accurate scores for all students across the full range of the achievement continuum.

5. There are six major shifts in the focus of English instruction with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for College and Career Readiness (CCSS)

6.  Increased text complexity  Evidence- based writing ( writing arguments)  Academic vocabulary  Reading nonfiction  Reading and writing across content areas  Text-referenced reading response (close reading)

7.  Assessments are composed of reading, writing, listening and research. Assessments include a shift in:  Text complexity across literary and informational texts; greater exposure to informational texts  Writing for multiple purposes and to different audiences (i.e. narrative, informational/expository, and opinion/argumentative across all grade levels)  Writing to source materials  English Language Conventions  Performance Tasks (PT)

8.  FROM: Focusing only on reading skills  TO: Focusing on complexity of what students can read in preparation for college/career

9.  FROM: Students moving quickly through a text  TO: Students taking time to read and reread, study, and ponder

10.  FROM: Assessing literary terminology  TO: Assessing academic/tier 2 vocabulary

11.  FROM: Mostly assessing through select response items that do not require specific reference to textual evidence  TO: Assessing through a range of items that require students to draw evidence from text; use constructed responses and brief-write items to require a variety of complex performances CCSS Implications for English Language Arts/Literacy Assessments

12.  FROM: Mainly writing to de-contextualized prompts  TO: Connecting Reading to Writing; focusing on evidenced-based writing (narrative, argumentative, and informative/explanatory essays)

13. Day OneDay Two  2 Hour non-performance section of test that includes assessment of reading and responding in short and multiple choice answers, as well as listening to podcasts and answering questions about what was listened to. Questions about editing and revising are included.  2.5 Hour Performance Assessment that includes a 30 minute in-class teacher-whole class activity.  Next slides will show sample for grade 7.

14.  Performance tasks measure a student’s ability to integrate knowledge and skills  Depth of understanding, research skills, and complex analysis  Some scored automatically; many will be hand-scored by professionally trained readers.

15.  Napping Argumentative Performance Task  Issue:  There has been much debate about the role of sleep and the role of napping. How many hours of sleep is enough? What is too much sleep? What is too little sleep? How do naps fit into sleep cycles?

16.  The issue of “napping” will be one of the topics for an upcoming school debate club. To prepare for this debate, and to decide which side of “napping” you are on, you have been conducting research on the topic. As part of your research, you have found two articles and a newspaper column about sleep.

17.  After you have reviewed these sources, you will answer some questions about them. Briefly scan the sources and the three questions that follow.  Then, go back and read the sources carefully to gain the information you will need to answer the questions and finalize your debate stance.

18.  In Part 2, you will write an argumentative essay on a topic related to the sources.  Directions for Beginning:  You will now examine several sources. You can re-examine any of the sources as often as you like.

19.  Using SBAC released rubrics to assess student work throughout the school year  Increasing opportunities to read nonfiction texts and practice close reading  Embedding Academic Vocabulary across the disciplines ( as part of the team approach)  Practice with listening and responding  Research writing that requires reading multiple sources

20.  Please take a  flyer with you