Common Core Assessment ELA Sample Items
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What Teachers Can Learn from the
New PARCC & Smarter Balanced
English Language Arts (ELA)
Sample Assessment Items
Moderator: Carrie Heath Phillips,
Common Core State Standards Implementation,
Council of Chief State School Officers
Presenter: Rebecca Mieliwocki,
2012 National Teacher of the Year
Background on Common Assessment
 CCSSO, as a leader of the Common Core State Standards Initiative with
the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, supports
the state-led assessment consortia developing Common Core State
Standards assessments.
 The two common assessment consortia, the Partnership for Assessment
for College and Career Readiness (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced,
each released sample assessment items recently.
 Each assessment consortium has its own detailed overviews of the
assessment items, which you are encouraged to explore independently.
 www.parcconline.org and www.smarterblanaced.org
 Whether your state is a member of PARCC, Smarter Balanced, both or
neither consortium, you are encouraged to use both sets of sample
assessment items to inform Common Core implementation since the
assessments are based on the same set of standards.
Common Core Implementation
The Common Core State Standards identify
what students need to know and be able to do
in each grade level in order to be prepared
for college and career.
Teachers will decide the best way to teach
their students in order for them to meet
Common Core expectations.
The sample assessment items are one tool that
teachers can use to help guide Common
Core implementation.
Webinar Overview
 The purpose of this webinar is to hear from a nationally
recognized teacher about her reflections on the
sample assessment items in ELA and how she might
use them to inform Common Core implementation in
her classroom.
 We hope this webinar will spur teachers to reflect
individually and with their peers about how to use the
sample assessment items as one tool in their toolbox
when implementing the Common Core State
Standards.
Introduction
Rebecca Mieliwocki
2012 National Teacher of
the Year
grade English teacher
from California
th
7
English Language Arts (ELA) Shifts
Non-Fiction
• Building knowledge through contentrich non-fiction and informational
texts in addition to literature
Evidence
from the Text
• Reading and writing are grounded in
evidence from the text
Complex Text
& Academic
Vocabulary
• Regular practice with complex text
and its academic vocabulary (words
like “synthesize” and “correspond”)
PARCC: Grade 10 Reading Item
Part A
Which of the following sentences best states an important theme about human behavior as described in Ovid’s “Daedalus
and Icarus”?
a. Striving to achieve one’s dreams is a worthwhile endeavor.
b. The thoughtlessness of youth can have tragic results.*
c. Imagination and creativity bring their own rewards.
d. Everyone should learn from his or her mistakes.
Part B
Select three pieces of evidence from Ovid’s “Daedalus and Icarus” that support the answer to Part A.
a. “and by his playfulness retard the work/his anxious father planned” (lines 310-311)*
b. “But when at last/the father finished it, he poised himself” (lines 312-313)
c. “he fitted on his son the plumed wings/ with trembling hands, while down his withered cheeks/the tears were falling” (lines
327-329)
d. “Proud of his success/the foolish Icarus forsook his guide” (lines 348-349)*
e. “and, bold in vanity, began to soar/rising above his wings to touch the skies” (lines 350-351)*
f. “and as the years went by the gifted youth/began to rival his instructor’s art” (lines 376-377)
g. “Wherefore Daedalus/enraged and envious, sought to slay the youth” (lines 384-385)
h. “The Partridge hides/in shaded places by the leafy trees…for it is mindful of its former fall” (lines 395-396, 399)
PARCC: Grade 3 Reading Item
Drag the words from the word box into the correct locations
on the graphic to show the life cycle of a butterfly as
described in “How Animals Live.”
Words:
9
Pupa
Adult
Egg
Larva
PARCC: Grade 7 Reading and Writing Item
Based on the information in the text “Biography of Amelia
Earhart,” write an essay that summarizes and explains the
challenges Earhart faced throughout her life. Remember to
use textual evidence to support your ideas.
10
Smarter Balanced: Grade 11 Writing Item
Smarter Balanced: Grade 6 Reading Item
Mrs. Mieliwocki’s Reflections
 How would these sample assessment items help you
and other teachers plan instruction so students can
achieve the Common Core expectations?
 How can these assessment items inform discussions
with your fellow ELA teachers in your grade level and
in other grades?
 How can these assessment items inform discussions
with your fellow grade-level teachers, including social
studies, science, special education, and other
teachers?
To ask a question,
please type it into
the Q&A box
located on the
right-hand side of
the screen.
Wrap-Up
 We hope that Mrs. Mieliwocki’s reflections will help you
and your colleagues to use the sample assessment
items as a tool in guiding local implementation of the
Common Core State Standards.
 The Council of Chief State School Officers has several
resources on Common Core implementation you may
find useful as well. They can be found at:
http://www.ccsso.org/commoncore
Thank you for attending this webinar.
Slides and additional resources from
this webinar will be posted on
www.ccsso.org
For follow-up questions, please
contact
CommonStandards@ccsso.org