Welcome to the
Practicing for the Smarter
Balanced Writing
Performance Task Online
Session
October 15, 2014
West Virginia Department of Education
Office of Assessment and Research
While you wait for the webinar to begin, please be
sure to turn on your speakers.
Welcome
Stacey Murrell
Office 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-Activityand-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 34; 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/wpcontent/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, 2uneven, 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/practicetest/resources/
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/practicetest/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/wvnxginterims
• 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