Assessing Student Progress in the Macomb ISD Genre Units ...

[Pages:10]Assessing Student Progress in the Macomb ISD Genre Units Grades 2 ? 8

Thank you to the following teachers from the Chippewa Valley School District for collaborating with Elaine Weber, Diane Berg and Barbara Nelson to develop the following assessments for the MISD Genre Units:

Cherokee Elementary Michelle Grabb Linda Houc Janice Osminski

Cheyenne Elementary Karen Codrea

Mary Beth Collins Pamela Gold Nicole Simons Suzanne Tuttle

Clinton Valley Elementary Linda Biglane

Erie Elementary Victoria Myers

Fox Elementary Heather Bochenek Marianne Fleming

Mary Pisha

Ojibwa Elementary Kathleen DeLiso Amanda Goedge Lisa Kimmel Linda Seidel Margaret Simpson

Miami Elementary Judy Makowski

Mohawk Elementary Aimee Abney Carol Brantley Kathleen Jerse Patrick O'Neil

Deborah Richnak

Shawnee Elementary Joseph Connolly Mary Hrisoulis

Algonquin Middle School Nicole Neumann Jane Pickelsimer

Wyandot Middle School Joy Clapsaddle Rose Harrison Melissa Hilton Wendy Ross

Iroquois Middle School Kirstin Cook Marina Licari

Kelly McMillian Mary Presta Pam Tobiczyk

Karen Wegryn Brittany Weidemann

Seneca Middle School Kathy Clor

Stacie Hughes Stephania Hutchins

Lynn Mair Laura Vogel

These genre units were designed with assessment as an integral part. Opportunities for formative assessment abound in the units, and the opening prompt and the closing response to literature can be used as summative assessment. Some current users of the units have requested a more specific list of assessment opportunities and also a few quick, easy-to-administer pre/post assessments. NOTE: Formative assessment is done to check the level of student learning constantly during each unit. Summative assessment checks the level of student learning at the end of each unit.

You will find many of the following opportunities for formative assessment in each unit. (See the list of contents at the beginning of each Appendix for assessment opportunities and days on which their use is suggested.):

Think-Write-Pair-Share Interactive Notebooks Quick Writes Marginalia Story Element Charts Retellings Reading Logs Focus Questions with Scoring Rubric Charts, e.g. comparison, "windows," Tear and Share, I-Search, Genre Bookmarks Writing Checklists

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

There are also opportunities for teacher-recorded observations of the following: ? Discussions ? Student writing processes ? Student cooperative work on: - charts - jigsawed activities - timelines - research ? Student use of comprehension strategies (from Strategies that Work) ? Student reactions/answers during sharing ("with") ? Student fluency during Reader's Theater, Story Theater, Choral Reading, etc. ? Student Vocabulary in Context work

Included in this assessment section for each unit are:

? Pre/Post Informal Reading passages, questions, suggested answers and instructions for administration and scoring. NOTE: These assessments can be used at the beginning of the unit to find out about students' listening/reading comprehension in response to implicit and explicit questions.

? Directions for using the unit opening prompt as a pre/post assessment of student writing competency. NOTE: An alternate post-prompt is included so that teachers can gauge the growth of students' thinking from the beginning when they relate the unit theme to their own lives to the end when they relate the theme to a world view (possibly social action).

? For Grade 2--a retelling pre/post assessment to use instead of or in addition to the Informal Reading Inventory. NOTE: For Grades 3-8, retelling can be used as an optional assessment using the retelling at the beginning of each unit as an assessment and scoring it using the rubric included in each unit Appendix. The Genre Unit Assessment Summary at the end of each unit assessment section provides a section for recording student scores.

Another important opportunity for assessment of student progress in the units, is student selfevaluation/reflection, especially in the area of metacognition (monitoring thinking). As good/expert readers read, they monitor their comprehension; they repair their comprehension when it breaks down. Being aware of this monitoring/repairing and knowing and using strategies, helps students to better understand and remember what they read. Expert readers use some or all of the following strategies when reading is not making sense:

? slow down--adjust reading rate, ? stop and think--make connections to own knowledge and experience, to related text(s) and/or to the

larger world, ? reread--try to find the thread of meaning, ? continue reading--look for cues and/or use context clues, ? retell or summarize--think through or briefly write what has been discovered so far in reading, ? reflect in writing--make comments about what reader feels about what he/she has learned so far, ? visualize--see in one's mind what is happening or described in the text, ? ask questions of the author--then predict answers and read to confirm, ? use text patterns or text resources, and/or ? consult another student or the teacher.

Teachers could model the use of these strategies and then ask students to keep track of their own monitoring and use of repair strategies in Learning Logs, with Marginalia, in Interactive Notebooks, etc. Teachers could evaluate student responses to track progress.

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Teacher Informal Inventory Procedure

1. Distribute the text to all students. Read the title of the selection to the class. Explain that there will be questions to answer when students finish reading.

2. Review marginalia as writing our thoughts, questions, and/or reactions to the selection in and around the margins.

3. Give everyone ample time to read the selection and write their marginalia.

4. Pass out the questions that accompany the text. Read the questions aloud, waiting after each question to allow students time to answer. (Students who work faster may read and answer questions independently.) Students may look back in the text to answer the questions.

5. Collect text and questions with answers.

6. Score the answers using the answer guidelines provided. Do not deviate or give partial credit.

Scoring Guidelines:

Level

Proficient

10-9

Instructional

8-7

Frustration

6-0

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Informal Reading Inventory: Reading Selection From The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Now it was the end of October. A cold, raw wind whipped dead leaves about the ankles of the four people grouped in the Sunset Towers driveway, but not one of them shivered. Not yet.

The stocky, broad-shouldered man in the doorman's uniform, standing with feet spread, fists on hips, was Sandy McSouthers. The two slim, trim high-school seniors, shielding their eyes against the stinging chill, were Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo. The small, wiry man pointing to the house on the hill was Otis Amber, the sixty-two-year-old delivery boy.

They faced north, gaping like statues cast in the moment of discovery, until Turtle Wexler, her kite tail of a braid flying behind her, raced her bicycle into the driveway. "Look! Look, there's smoke-there's smoke coming from the chimney of the Westing house."

The others had seen it. What did she think they were looking at anyway?

Turtle leaned on the handlebars, panting for breath. (Sunset Towers was near excellent schools, as Barney Northrup had promised, but the junior high was four miles away.) "Do you think-do you think old man Westing's up there?"

"Naw," Otis Amber, the old delivery boy, answered. "Nobody's seen him for years. Supposed to be living on a private island in the South Seas, he is; but most folks say he's dead. Long-gone dead. They say his corpse is still up there in that big old house. They say his body is sprawled out on a fancy Oriental rug, and his flesh is rotting off those mean bones, and maggots are creeping in his eye sockets and crawling out his nose holes." The delivery boy added a highpitched he-he-he to the gruesome details.

Now someone shivered. It was Turtle. "Serves him right," Sandy said. At other times a cheery fellow, the doorman often complained bitterly about having been fired from his job of twenty years in the Westing paper mill. "But somebody must be up there. Somebody alive, that is." He pushed back the gold-braided cap and squinted at the house through his steel-framed glasses as if expecting the curling smoke to write the answer in the autumn air. "Maybe it's those kids again. No, it couldn't be." "What kids?" the three kids wanted to know.

"Why, those two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown."

"What unfortunate fellas?" The three heads twisted from the doorman to the delivery boy. Doug Hoo ducked Turtle's whizzing braid. Touch her precious pigtail, even by accident, and she'll kick you in the shins, the brat. He couldn't chance an injury to his legs, not with the big meet coming. The track star began to jog in place.

"Horrible, it was horrible," Otis Amber said with a shudder that sent the loose straps of his leather aviator's helmet swinging about his long, thin face. "Come to think of it, it happened exactly one year ago tonight. On Halloween."

"What happened?" Theo Theodorakis asked impatiently. He was late for work in the coffee shop.

"Tell them, Otis," Sandy urged. The delivery boy stroked the gray stubble on his pointed chin. "Seems it all started with a bet; somebody bet them a dollar they couldn't stay in that spooky house five minutes. One measly buck! The poor kids hardly got through those French doors on this side of the Westing house when they came tearing out like they was being chased by a ghost. Chased by a ghost--or worse." Or worse? Turtle forgot her throbbing toothache. Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo, older and more worldly-wise, exchanged winks but stayed to hear the rest of the story. "One fella ran out crazy-like, screaming his head off. He never stopped screaming `til he hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. The other fella hasn't said but two words since. Something about purple." Sandy helped him out. "Purple waves." Otis Amber nodded sadly. "Yep, that poor fella just sits in the state asylum saying, `Purple waves, purple waves' over and over again, and his scared eyes keep staring at his hands. You see, when he came running out of the Westing house, his hands was dripping with warm, red blood" Now all three shivered. "Poor kid," the doorman said. "All that pain and suffering for a dollar bet." "Make it two dollars for each minute I stay in there, and you're on," Turtle said.

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Student Questions for IRI excerpt from The Westing Game 1. What is this excerpt mainly about?

2. Where and when does the story take place?

3. What kind of mood is the author attempting to set at the beginning of the selection?

4. What did the smoke coming from the Westing house indicate?

5. What does Turtle do when someone touches her pigtail?

6. Why did the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown go into the spooky house?

7. Why did Theo and Doug exchange winks as Otis told the story of the unfortunate fellas from Westingtown?

8. What does the word asylum mean in the this sentence, "Yep, that poor fella just sits in the state asylum saying, `Purple waves, purple waves' over and over again, and his scared eyes keep staring at his hands."

9. In the end, what happened to the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown?

10. Why did Doug, Theo and Turtle shiver after Otis described what happened to the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown?

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Questions/Answers for excerpt from The Westing Game

1. What is this excerpt mainly about? Implicit: Otis and Sandy tell a mysterious story about two guys who, prompted by a bet, go into the spooky Westing house. This story prompts Turtle to bet she can stay longer in the house.

2. Where and when does the story take place? Explicit: Sunset Towers; end of October

3. What kind of mood is the author attempting to set at the beginning of the selection? Implicit: dark and gloomy OR mysterious

4. What did the smoke coming from the Westing house indicate? Implicit: Someone is in the Westing house.

5. What does Turtle do when someone touches her pigtail? Explicit: She kicks them in the shin.

6. Why did the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown go into the spooky house? Explicit: to win a dollar bet that they couldn't stay in the spooky house

7. Why did Theo and Doug exchange winks as Otis told the story of the unfortunate fellas from Westingtown? Implicit: They did not believe there was a ghost or maybe they did not believe the story itself.

8. What does the word asylum mean in the this sentence, "Yep, that poor fella just sits in the state asylum saying, `Purple waves, purple waves' over and over again, and his scared eyes keep staring at his hands."? Implicit: an institution or a place for the care of people who have mental problems

9. In the end, what happened to the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown? Explicit: One ran off screaming and hit the bottom of the cliff and the other is in a state asylum.

10. Why did Doug, Theo and Turtle shiver after Otis described what happened to the two unfortunate fellas from Westingtown? Implicit: The story was scary, and they were uncomfortable that these events happened so close to home.

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Macomb Collaborative Genre Units - 7th Grade Unit #1 The Westing Game Pre/Post Writing Evaluation:

Directions:

Everyone has to solve problems in life. People solve problems in different ways, and often learn important lessons from solving problems. Examples of problems you might have to solve are getting along with parents or other family members, getting along with friends, finding and keeping a job, and deciding whether or not to smoke, etc.

Write about the theme: solving a problem

Do one of the following:

? Write about a time when you or someone you know solved a problem. OR

? Explain what you learned from solving a problem. OR

? Tell why it is important to have cooperation when trying to solving a problem. OR

? Write about the theme in your own way.

You may use examples from real life, from what you read or watch, or from your imagination. Your writing will be read by interested adults.

Use the paper provided for notes, freewriting, outlining, clustering, or writing your rough draft, but only your "final copy" will be scored. If you need to make a correction, cross out the error and write the correction above or next to it.

You should give careful thought to revision (rethinking ideas) and proofreading (correcting spelling, capitalization, and punctuation).

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

Macomb Collaborative Genre Units - 7th Grade Unit #1 The Westing Game Alternate Post Writing Evaluation:

Directions:

There are many problems in the world. Some examples are terrorism, natural disasters, wars, pollution, and prejudice. Oftentimes people attempt to solve these problems by working together. We all have the opportunity to be part of the process of solving world problems.

Write about the theme: Solving a problem

Do one of the following:

? Write about a time when you attempted to solve a problem that affected the world. OR

? Write about a time when someone you admire solved a problem that affected the world. OR

? Tell why it is important to have cooperation when trying to solve a world problem. OR

? Write about a present world problem and explain how you would solve it to make the world a better place.

You may use examples from real life, from what you read or watch, or from your imagination. Interested adults will read your writing.

You may use paper provided for notes, freewriting, outlining, clustering, or writing your rough draft. If you need to make a correction, cross out the error and write the correction above or next to it.

You should give careful thought to revision (rethinking ideas) and proofreading (correcting spelling, capitalization, and punctuation).

MC 7 #1 Assessment

? Macomb Intermediate School District 2006

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