Welcome to thePracticing for the Smarter

Balanced Writing Performance Task Online

Session

West Virginia Department of Education

Office of Assessment and Research

October 15, 2014

While you wait for the webinar to begin, please be sure to turn on your speakers.

Welcome

Stacey MurrellOffice of Assessment and Research

Agenda

• Smarter Balanced Writing Performance Tasks• Smarter Balanced Classroom Activities• Constructed Response Items and Scoring

Methods • Smarter Balanced Writing Rubrics• Additional West Virginia Practice Writing

Performance Tasks

Smarter Balanced ELA Claims

ELA: Targets by Grade Level for each Claim

A writing performance task:• Requires students to demonstrate the ability

to think and reason, and produce fully developed products.

• Measures complex “assessment targets.”• Provides evidence of college and career

readiness.

Performance task structure• Consists of 3 components-– Stimulus presentation- source documents and

prompt directions– Information processing- student interaction with

stimulus materials- should advance the students’ understanding of the stimulus content or assignment- constructed response items and multiple-choice, note taking

– Scorable product or performance- essays

Who Completes Writing Performance Task?

• 2014-2015– WV students in grades 3-11

3 Sections of Performance Task• First: Teacher-led standardized, classroom

activity• Then: Part 1:– Reading sources and answering constructed

response items and multiple-choice items– Taking notes on scratch paper

• Part 2: Typing in an essay in a textbox on the computer

Classroom Activity Purpose

• Introduces students to context of performance task, to prevent disadvantage

• Gives understanding of setting or situation, potential unfamiliar concepts (cultural, etc.), gives key terms/vocab

• Gets students interested in exploring topic more• Designed for 30 minutes, complete in one session of time• Non-secure and displayable materials (pictures, tables, etc.),

can use SmartBoard, etc.• Script used by teacher to make standardized• http://

sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Classroom-Activity-and-Performance-Task-Administration-Guidelines.pdf

Performance Task Part 1

• Made up of:– Setting the Scenario– Reading the Sources– Answering Items – Taking Notes

• Teacher-student interaction will be standardized (i.e., carefully scripted or described in the task directions for fairness and security)

• Group work- none in ELA writing performance task

Part 1: Scenario

• Set up a scenario for context, purpose, and audience of the performance task

• This is not the source materials• Scenario is short: 3-5 sentences at Grades 3-4;

5-7 sentences at Grades 5-8 and 11• Does not tell the specific writing prompt, just

tells what the context, purpose, and audience will be (writing an informational article about being an astronaut for your teacher)

Part 1: Sources

• Vocabulary- definitions of specialized terms that help students

• Sources should lexile below grade level when reading is not being assessed

• Sources will be able to be read and re-read• No Internet access- will use screenshots of

Internet pages

Part 1: Number of Sources• Source Documents– Number of documents dependent on grade level

Grade Span Number of Sources

Grade 3 2 source documents

Grades 4-5 3 source documents

Grades 6-8 3-4 source documents

Grade 11 4-5 source documents

Part 1: Length of Sources• Source Documents– Length of documents dependent on grade level

Grade Span Maximum Words

Grade 3 1000 words

Grades 4-5 1400 words

Grades 6-8 2400 words

Grade 11 3400 words

Part 1: Items asking Questions about Sources

• All Grades 3-8 and 11 will read the sources and answer items before moving to the essay writing.

• Number of items is the same regardless of essay type and grade level:– 2 constructed response items (hand scored)– 1 other item type, i.e. multiple choice

(automatically scored)

How do students answer constructed response items?

• Accuracy of answer is what matters• Can be:– Sentences – Incomplete sentence answers– Note taking form, i.e. bulleted answers

• Remember a person will score these using criteria specific to the item

Sample Constructed Response Item and Its Rubric

• The sources discuss <topic>. Explain what you have learned about <topic>. Use one detail from each source to support your explanation. For each detail, include the source title or number.

Score points

Scoring Criteria

2 of 2 The response:

- Explains something learned and identifies one detail from Source 1 and one detail from Source 2

- Gives the source title for each or uses Source 1 or Source 2 as labels.

1 of 2 The response:

- Explains something learned and identifies one detail from Source 1 or one detail from Source 2

- Does not reference both source titles or Source 1and Source 2 as labels

0 of 2 The response either misinterprets the explanation and details from the sources and provides no citation

Part 1: Taking Notes• Students can take notes about the sources

which will be used to write the essay.• They can:– Use scrap paper and pencils– Use Global Notes which is online note taking on

the computer

Part 2: Writing the Essay

• Tools for all students:– English dictionary may be available– Highlighter available– Global Notes is online note taking page– Spellcheck available, does not offer correct

spelling – From Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines,

http://www.smarterbalanced.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/SmarterBalanced_Guidelines_091113.pdf

What does student writing look like?

• No student samples or exemplars exist at this time.

• Look at the language in sample Smarter Balanced Task for Grade 3 informational article directions:– “For Part 2, you are being asked to write an

informational article that is several paragraphs long. Type your response in the box below. The box will get bigger as you type.”

Part 2: Essay Scoring

• 10 point analytic rubric– 4 points for organization/purpose– 4 points for evidence/elaboration– 2 points for conventions

• 5 different rubrics based on essay type and grade level- no longer one rubric like WV Writing Rubrics from WESTEST 2 Online Writing

Smarter Balanced Writing Rubrics (used on performance tasks essays)

Type of Essay Grades

Narrative 3-8

Opinion 3-5

Argumentative 6-8 and 11

Informative 3-5

Explanatory 6-8 and 11

Analytic Trait Language

• Organization/Purpose (4 points)– 4-clear and effective organization, 3- evident organization,

2-inconsistent organization, 1-little or no organization, NS- insufficient

• Evidence/Elaboration (4 points)– 4-thorough elaboration, 3-adequate elaboration, 2-

uneven, cursory elaboration, 1- minimal elaboration, NS- insufficient

• Conventions (2 points)– 2-adequate command, 1- partial command, 0- little or no

command, NS- insufficient

Smarter Balanced Rubrics

• Find them here at the bottom of page:• http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/reso

urces/

Timing and Sequence

• Performance task has two sessions. SBAC recommends two days.– Classroom Activity (completed prior to sessions)– Day 1/Part 1: Reading sources, notes, and constructed

response items and answers– Day 2/Part 2: Writing essay

• Students unable to return to Part 1, once they begin Part 2 (i.e., change a constructed response answer)

• Untimed sessions for Part 1 and Part 2. • SBAC estimated times for Classroom Activity (30 mins),

Performance Task Part 1 (1:30-2 hours) and Part 2 (2 hours)

Practice Opportunities for Students

Smarter Balanced Practice

• One ELA performance task per grade level• Grades 3-8 and 11• Here is how they are titled: Grade 3 ELA

Performance Task/Braille Performance Task [PDF]• PDFs located here:

http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/resources/

Office of Assessment Practice• WV teachers wrote the performance tasks using

Smarter Balanced item specifications in 2012.• Grades 3-11 available, 9 and 10 grades also• At least 3 practice tasks for each grade level• Some are grade bands, such as grades 6-7• Find them here: http://

tinyurl.com/wvnxg-interims • We did not create Class Activity because we

made them prior to Class Activity being designed

Questions?

• Survey on this training session• Go here:• https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/L9FZPSY