Tips to Help Students Prepare for the Elementary AzMERIT ...

Tips to Help Students Prepare for the Elementary AzMERIT Writing Test:

Tip #1 ? Writing from Sources

It is imperative that we are assigning our students "writing from sources" tasks often. In Grades 3-12, students have to be comfortable using information from sources they've read as they write (teachers should refer to their grade level standards for specific expectations regarding the use of evidence). At the older grades, it is also important that our tasks ask students to pull information from multiple sources. The test cannot be the first time students have been asked to write from sources or write from multiple sources. The Document Based Questions (DBQs) resources provided by the Social Studies Department are a great resource for finding sources.

Students should also have practice reading the sources online; not all of the time, but often enough to be comfortable reading online. The close reading strategies presented in our trainings are important, but if students have only used hard copy texts and physically highlighted and annotated their sources, the online reading expected on AzMERIT will throw them. The district provided databases can be a good place to find online sources/passages.

Tip #2 ? Match Instruction and Assessment

Another vital preparation tip is that students must have opportunities to practice writing in the same format they'll be expected to write on the test. This does not mean that every piece of student writing has to go through the whole writing process and end as a polished, typed piece of writing, but it should happen often enough that students are comfortable with the steps of the writing process (and ready to go through them independently on a test) and with the online format of the AzMERIT writing test.

o If you want students to first write a draft on paper, revise and edit their own work, and then type an improved "final draft" onto the computer during AzMERIT then some classroom assignments must follow the same format. The test can't be the first time they've transcribed from their handwritten draft to type a final draft.

o If you want students to compose their written response directly on the computer (possibly after completing a prewriting activity on scratch paper) and do their revising and editing on the computer, this must be something they've had practice doing. Composing on a computer is different than composing on paper. We don't want students performing poorly on the test because they were uncomfortable with the online format.

 Tip #3 ? Use the Writing Guides

Make sure you are using the AzMERIT Writing Guides regularly with students. This is what the students will see on the actual assessment. If we use the guides in the classroom then students know what to expect on the assessment and can use it to guide their writing.

Helping students understand the different sections of the Guide will help remind them what they need to focus on during their prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Notice that the "Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization" section has direct connections to the Six Traits of Writing (added to Writing Standard 5 in the MPS curriculum documents) and the "Evidence/Elaboration" section relates to the Writing from Sources shift.

Notice that a student's "Statement of Purpose/Focus and Organization" score is worth 40% of their overall writing score, "Evidence/Elaboration" is worth 40%, and "Editing/Conventions" is only worth 20%. While Conventions is important, it is weighted less heavily than other traits of good writing. The AzMERIT rubric gives a 2 for "an adequate command of basic conventions" and a 1 for "a partial command of basic conventions."

Tip #4 ? Use the State's Practice Test

As previously stated, it is important to give students opportunities to practice typing their response. The AzMERIT sample tests can give students that opportunity. While there is only one task per grade band, the test format is the same as AzMERIT and students can use the space to type their response to an alternative writing task provided by the teacher (although the reading passages won't match). Because the sample test doesn't score the writing, it doesn't matter if a response doesn't match the task given; it can still be used to practice using the AzMERIT online format.

Advantages to using the AzMERIT practice test (with alternative writing tasks): Practice typing in the box they'll see on the test A chance to review/discuss the "Test Instructions and Help" section with the teacher prior to taking the AzMERIT Teachers can show students where the Writing Guide can be accessed (although it isn't currently working) Practice using the online resources provided during testing such as the Dictionary/Thesaurus, Notes, Line Reader, the Tutorial, etc. Practice using the online test's features such as putting the reading text full screen and back again and the zoom out/zoom in feature Practice using the test's formatting features (bold, italics, special characters, indenting, etc.). This may also help the features be less of a distraction during the test if students have already had a chance to "play" with them and they aren't a novelty.

Challenges using the AzMERIT practice test: The task/prompt is the same for Grades 3-5 (is clutter sometimes okay) and Grades 6-8 (are mistakes key to making discoveries) and has not changed from last year While the practice test can show students what the passage sets will look like, and that there will probably be more than one passage to read (Grades 3-5 has a 3 passage set and Grades 6-8 has a 4 passage set), the passages won't match the writing task/prompt you give students so they can't actually practice going back and forth from the reading to their writing

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