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Today: 5/18/13

Pep Talk by Kid President

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FCAT 2.0 Writing Assessment Preparation Plan

The Escambia County School District has put together a plan that begins in December and runs through the test date, February 26th, 2013.  The goal of this plan is to prepare our students for the particular demands of the FCAT 2.0 Writing Assessment.  The plan has been divided into five phases.  You can download the calendar  that lays out a timeline of the phases.  They are as follows:

Phase 1 Dec. 3 - Dec. 21 Focus on FCAT Writing Rubrics and Sentence Writing
Phase 2 Jan. 8 - Jan. 18 Focus on Planning
Phase 3 Jan. 21 - Feb. 1 Focus on Paragraph Writing Strategies
Phase 4 Feb. 4 - Feb. 15  Focus n Practicing Writing and Scoring Essays
Phase 5 Feb 15 - 25 Focus on Deconstructing Prompts and Planning

 

Each grade level taking the test (4th, 8th, and 10th) has a different set of documents prepared specifically to address its specific needs.  Click on the grade level of the following documents (or on the document itself if it is the same for all grade levels) to download them.

 Phase 1 - FCAT Writing Rubric

Phase 2 - Planning

Phase 3

Phase 4 - Practice Writing & Scoring

  • 2012 Narrative Calibration Scoring Guides (4th ) 
  • 2012 Expository Calibration Scoring Guides (4th , 8th , 10th ) 
  • 2012 Persuasive Calibration Scoring Guides (8th , 10th ) 
  • FCAT Writing Rubric 
  • Practice Prompts 

Phase 5 - Deconstructing Prompts

  • Step Up to Writing "Turning a Prompt into a Topic Sentence," Tool 4-21a

Escambia Writing Assessment - Moving Forward Towards PARCC

As we transition into the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessments that come with them, we have made some adjustments to our own district-wide writing assessment.
 
This year's Escambia Writing Assessment will contain two different types of prompts.  Some of our students will, based on the current PARCC timeline, not have to take the FCAT Writing Assessment anymore.  Those students are currently in 2nd, 5th, and 6th grades.  These grade levels will have a text-based prompt.  This means that they will be given a reading passage with a question (prompt) that follows.  Students will need to write an extended response (one to two paragraphs) to answer this prompt.  There are many types of analytical questions that can be used with any given prompt.  This year's assessment will focus on key ideas and supporting details.  Our reading passages will be nonfiction texts (either biographical, science, or social studies texts). 
 
The students who will have to take the FCAT 2.0 Writing Assessment next year (3rd, 7th, and 9th) will be assessed with an "FCAT" type prompt.  They will be expected to write an essay in response to this prompt.
 
The focus for our assessment remains the overall quality of the writing.  The biggest change is in the area of support.  Students whose prompt is text-based are required to use evidence from the text to support their ideas in order for it to be considered "quality support." 
 
We will use the FCAT Scoring rubrics (4th, 8th, 10th) and Calibration Scoring Guides as a guide for our scoring for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 9th grades.  Second grade essays will be scored using the 2nd grade scoring rubric. 
 
Each school will be responsible for forming school-based scoring teams who will be trained in the scoring process and be held responsible for scoring these assessments.  The training for scorers will take place in January or early February.  Testing dates are: 
 
  • 6th, 7th, and 9th grades - February 26, 2013 (same day as FCAT 2.0 Assessment)
  • 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades - April 30, 2013

To help teachers and students prepare for this assessment, here are some sample items that students can use.  We have also included scored student responses.

2nd Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade

Desert Animals (Science)

Our Farm  (Social Studies)

Scored Student Responses
From "Our Farm"

Score 0  Score 1

Score 2  Score 3 ,

Score 4  Score 5

Red Cloud  (Social Studies)

The Water Cycle (Science)

Revolutionary War  (Social Studies)

Gail Devers  (Biographical)

Charles Babbage  (Social Studies)

Mean Messages (Social Studies)

Iraqis Vote on Constitution  (Social Studies)

 Practice FCAT Writing prompts can be found in the above section on Preparing for the 2013 FCAT 2.0 Writing Assessment.

With the help of some teachers, I have an Elaborated Paragraph Grading Rubric .  This rubric, unlike the holistic FCAT Scoring Rubric, is an analytic rubric that can be used to assign grades and analyze the student's strengths and weeknesses in specific areas.  This is not the rubric that will be used to score the assessment!  It is a classroom tool to address critical areas of writing.  Although it was designed with secondary grades in mind, it can be adapted to intermediate grade levels as well.

More FCAT Writing Resources

Here is the PowerPoint that describes the changes to the FCAT writing test starting last year.  You may also download the memo from the DOE that the PowerPoint summarizes.

Changes to FCAT Writing 2012 and Beyond Memo from DOE

FCAT 2.0 Writing and Reading Updates - Fall 2012

 

Here is the web address for the DOE Test Development Center Shared-Material Site  where we are getting our updates. 

http://sharepoint.leon.k12.fl.us/tdc/external/default.aspx

 

FCAT Scoring Rubrics:

4th Grade

8th Grade

10th Grade

If you have any questions about the information provided, feel free to contact us for further clarifications.

 

Practice Writing Prompts

Here are a few sources for practice writing prompts.  It is VERY difficult finding original elementary prompts. 

Elementary and Middle:

8th grade:

10th Grade:

Research Process Lesson Plans

The links below are to booklets for lessons on the research process and products they can create.  They are on graduated levels, going from 6th to 12th grade.  Student products include essays, presentations, podcasts, and documentaries.

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

9th Grade

10th Grade

11th Grade

12th Grade

American Musical Project

American Muscials Project DSC00002.JPG DSC00003.JPG DSC00004.JPG DSC00005.JPG DSC00006.JPG DSC00009.JPG DSC00010.JPG DSC00013.JPG DSC00015.JPG DSC00016.JPG DSC00017.JPG DSC00018.JPG DSC00019.JPG DSC00021.JPG DSC00022.JPG DSC00028.JPG DSC00030.JPG DSC00030.JPG DSC00031.JPG DSC00033.JPG

Contact information

The Hall Center
30 East Texar Drive
Room 103

Brian Spivey
Language Arts Specialist
Office phone: 469-5409
Email: bspivey@escambia.k12.fl.us

Beverly Patteson
Language Arts Teacher on Special Assignment
Office phone: 469-5325
Email: bpatteson@escambia.k12.fl.us

Dee Riley
Secretary
Office phone: 469-5408
Email: driley@escambia.k12.fl.us

Virtual Museums in PowerPoint

Want a fun and engaging way for your students to show their comprehension and understanding of any topic you have covered ... no matter what you are teaching?  Check out this excellent tool that Mark Alberda presented at the Language Arts / Social Studies inservice, the virtual museum!  If you need help implementing this most excellent tool, feel free to email Mark Alberda at MAlberda@escambia.k12.fl.us or Brian Spivey at BSpivey@escambia.k12.fl.us.

And we definitely would LOVE to have some student product displayed, so if you use the virtual museum  in your classroom, please share some results!

Just click on this link to download the file! 

NOTE:  This explanation is for the 2007 release of PowerPoint.  The tabs in the 2010 version are slightly different.

Taylor Mali Video

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