PARCC Summative Assessment
with EBSR, TECR, and PCR Items
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Summary of Items Released August 2013
• Grade 3 – EBSR, TECR, and PCR items that demonstrate the types of
items PARCC will use to measure reading for information, reading
vocabulary, written expression, and knowledge of language and
conventions claims on a research simulation performance-based
assessment task. Research simulation task question samples.
• Grade 4 – A sample of a complete literary analysis task.
• Grade 5 – Three sample items to indicate the types of items that will
appear on an End of Year Assessment.
• Grade 6 – When combined with the early prototype items released
2 previously, educators can view a complete narrative writing task.
Three Innovative Item Types That
Showcase Students’ Command of
Evidence with Complex Texts
• Evidence-Based Selected Response (EBSR)—Combines a traditional
selected-response question with a second selected-response question
that asks students to show evidence from the text that supports the
answer they provided to the first question. Underscores the importance of
Reading Anchor Standard 1 for implementation of the CCSS.
• Technology-Enhanced Constructed Response (TECR)—Uses technology to
capture student comprehension of texts in authentic ways that have been
difficult to score by machine for large scale assessments (e.g., drag and
drop, cut and paste, shade text, move items to show relationships).
• Prose Constructed Responses (PCR)—Elicits evidence that students have
understood a text or texts they have read and can communicate that
understanding well both in terms of written expression and knowledge of
language and conventions. There are three of these items of varying types
on each annual performance-based assessment.
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Questions Worth Answering:
Items demonstrate:
– Sequences of questions that draw students into deeper
encounters with texts (as in an excellent classroom), rather
than sets of random questions of varying quality.
– Opportunities for students to demonstrate what they
know, rather than what they don’t know; items allow for
partial credit
– Purposeful options for student expression of divergent
thinking
– Use of technology to allow students to construct meaning
for machine-scorable items
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Understanding the Literary Analysis Task
• Students carefully consider two literary texts worthy of close
study.
• They are asked to answer a few EBSR and TECR questions
about each text to demonstrate their ability to do close
analytic reading and to compare and synthesize ideas.
• Students write a literary analysis about the two texts.
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Understanding the Literary Analysis Task
EBSR QUESTION Grade 4
Part A Question: What is the meaning of
the word avenge as it is used in the story?
a. believe
b. get even*
c. make friends with
d. scare
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Part B Question: Which detail from
the story best supports the answer to Part
A?
a. "’In this forest, I am the chief of the
animals!’"
b. “’I don't believe you, little insect,’
snarled Cougar.”
c. "’Ahrr! Ahrr!’" cried the cougar in
pain, "’Get out of my ear!’"*
d. "’Cricket, come out! Let me meet
EBSR QUESTION-Grade 4
Part A Question: How are the
events in paragraphs 1 and 2 important
to the theme of the story?
a. They list the many lessons that
Lynn taught her younger sister,
Katie.
b. They explain that Katie’s
family had very high
expectations of her when she
was young.
c. They show how strong the
relationship is between Katie and
Lynn.*
d. They introduce the idea that Katie
and Lynn want to learn more
about the Japanese language.
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Part B Question: Which sentence
from the story provides the best
support for the answer in Part A?
4TH-TECR QUESTION
Question: Create a summary of the story using three of the sentences listed
here. Drag the three sentences that describe key ideas from the story into
the boxes titled “Summary.” The sentences should describe key ideas from the
story in the order they happen.
1. Katie’s mother is disappointed that the girls
use Japanese words incorrectly.
2. Katie remembers when a dog ran out of a
corn field and attacked Lynn and her.
3. Katie keeps Lynn’s diary in a drawer beside
her bed.
4. Katie and Lynn spend much of their time
together as they grow up.
5. Lynn taught young Katie to say “kira-kira,”
which was her first word.
6. Katie believes that Lynn saves her life, but
Lynn believes Katie saved her.
7. Lynn explains that the sky is special like the
ocean or people’s eyes.
8. Lynn sprayed the dog with water so it
wouldn’t hurt its tongue on broken glass.
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Understanding the Research Simulation
Task
• Students begin by reading an anchor text that introduces the
topic.
• EBSR and TECR items ask students to gather key details about
the passage to support their understanding.
• Students read one (Grade 3) or two additional sources (Grades
5 and 6) and answer a few questions about each text to learn
more about the topic, so they are ready to write the final essay
and to show their reading comprehension.
• Finally, students mirror the research process by synthesizing
their understandings into a writing that uses textual evidence
from the sources.
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Grade 3, Item #1—Part A
The article includes these details about life:
• She wrote newspaper articles to tell others about what she saw in Alaska
to inform those who had not been there. (paragraph 1)
• She wrote the first guidebook about Alaska. (paragraph 1)
• She was the first woman to work at the National Geographic Society,
where she wrote many articles and books. (paragraph 11)
What do these details help show about?
a) They show that she shared the benefits of her experiences with others.*
b) They show she had many important jobs during her lifetime, but
becoming a photographer was one of her proudest moments.
c) They show that her earlier travels were more exciting than the work she
did later in her life.
d) They show that she had a careful plan for everything she did in her life.
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Grade 3, Item #1—Part B
Ideas from paragraphs 1 and 11 were used to help you learn
about her. Click on two other paragraphs that include additional
support for the answer in Part A. There are more than two
paragraphs that include additional support, but you need to only
choose two.
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Understanding the Narrative Writing Task
Narrative Task (Grade 6):
Jean Craighead George’s
Excerpt from Julie of the Wolves
• Students read one or two brief texts and answer a few
questions to help clarify their understanding of the text(s).
• Students then write either a narrative story or a narrative
description (e.g., writing a historical account of important
figures; detailing a scientific process; describing an account of
events, scenes, or objects).
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Grade 6 Prose Constructed-Response
Item
In the passage, the author developed a strong character named
Miyax. Think about Miyax and the details the author used to
create that character. The passage ends with Miyax waiting for
the black wolf to look at her.
Write an original story to continue where the passage ended. In
your story, be sure to use what you have learned about the
character Miyax as you tell what happens to her next.
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Grade 6, Item #1—Part A
Which statement best describes the central idea of the text?
a) Miyax is far from home and in need of help. *
b) Miyax misses her father and has forgotten the lessons he
taught her.
c) Miyax is cold and lacks appropriate clothing.
d) Miyax is surrounded by a pack of unfriendly wolves.
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Grade 6, Item # 1—Part B
Which sentence best helps develop the central idea?
a) “Miyax pushed back the hood of her sealskin parka and
looked at the Arctic sun.”
b) “Somewhere in this cosmos was Miyax; and the very life in
her body, its spark and warmth, depended upon these
wolves for survival.”*
c) “The next night the wolf called him from far away and her
father went to him and found a freshly killed caribou.”
d) He had ignored her since she first came upon them, two
sleeps ago.”
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Grade 6 Evidence-Based SelectedResponse Item #1
Part A
What does the word “regal” mean as it is used in the passage?
a. generous
b. threatening
c. kingly*
d. uninterested
Part B
Which of the phrases from the passage best helps the reader understand the
meaning of “regal?”
a. “wagging their tails as they awoke”
b. “the wolves, who were shy”
c. “their sounds and movements expressed goodwill”
d. “with his head high and his chest out”*
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Grade 6 Technology-Enhanced SelectedResponse Item
Part A
Choose one word that describes Miyax based on evidence from the text. There is more than one correct choice
listed below.
A.
reckless
B.
lively
C.
imaginative*
D.
observant*
E.
impatient
F.
confident
Part B
Find a sentence in the passage with details that support your response to Part A. Click on that sentence and
drag and drop it into the box below.
Part C
Find a second sentence in the passage with details that support your response to Part A. Click on that sentence
and drag and drop it into the box below.
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Grade 6, Item #5—Part B
(Prototype revised to create sample item)
Drag and drop two details from the passage that support your
response to Part A into the box labeled “Supporting Details.”
Supporting Details
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Understanding the End-of-Year
Assessment
• Students will be given several passages to read closely.
• EBSR and TECR questions will be sequenced in a way that they
will draw students into deeper encounters with the texts and
will result in thorough comprehension of the concepts that
can also provide models for the regular course of instruction.
• These tasks will draw on higher order skills such as critical
reading and analysis, the comparison and synthesis of ideas
within and across texts, and determining the meaning of
words and phrases in context.
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Grade 3 Evidence-Based SelectedResponse Item #1
End-of-Year Assessment (Grade 3): “How Animals Live”
Part A
Part B
What is one main idea of “How
Animals Live?”
Which sentence from the article best
supports the answer to Part A?
a.
b.
Animals need water to live.
c.
There are many ways to sort
different animals.*
d.
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There are many types of
animals on the planet.
Animals begin their life cycles in
different forms.
a. “Animals get oxygen from air or
water.”
b. "Animals can be grouped by their
traits.”*
c. "Worms are invertebrates.”
d. "All animals grow and change over
time.”
e. "Almost all animals need water,
food, oxygen, and shelter to live."
Grade 3 Technology-Enhanced
Constructed-Response 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:
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Pupa
Adult
Egg
Larva
Grade 5
The sample items provide students an opportunity to read an article
and a corresponding side bar piece on the same topic.
Grade 5, Item #1—Part A
What is the meaning of the word dictate as it is used in
paragraph 23?
a)
b)
c)
d)
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hint
fix
understand
decide*
Grade 5, Item #1—Part B
Which phrase helps the reader understand the meaning of
dictate?
a)
b)
c)
d)
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“recreate the tree house”
“determine the shape”*
“is less expensive to build”
“has all the time in the world”
Grade 5, Item # 2
Choose the two correct main ideas and drag them into the empty box
labeled “Main Ideas.” Then choose one detail that best supports each main
idea. Drag each detail into the empty box labeled “Supporting Details.”
Possible Main Ideas
Possible Supporting Details
Jonathan has his own 1000-yard zipline.
"In fact, as a tree house architect,
Jonathan has built more than 380 custom
tree houses across the United States."*
Jonathan is an experienced tree house
“Jonathan’s love of tree-house living
builder.*
began when he was a kid.”
Jonathan works carefully so that tree
houses do not hurt the trees.*
Jonathan lived in a tree house when he
was in college.
Jonathan advises readers to learn the
names of trees.
"It was the most fun I ever had."
"'I build a tree house so it helps the tree,'
he says."*
"'Walk in the woods and learn the
different trees. Spend time climbing and
learn how to do it safely.'"
Jonathan once built a house in a crab
“One of his favorite names is ‘Ups and
apple tree.
Downs.’”
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Main Ideas
Supporting Details
Grade 5, Item #3—Part A
What is the purpose of the braces described in paragraph 6 of
the article?
a) They fix broken tree limbs, so a tree house will not fall down.
b) They lock several trees together, so almost any kind of tree
can be used.
c) They join two trees into one unit, so a tree house looks
secure.
d) They help trees hold up a tree house, so the trees will not
break.*
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Grade 5, Item #3—Part B
Which two details from the article help support the answer to Part A?
a) “Designing unique tree houses may sound tough, but Jonathan
says it's no sweat.”
b) "’Hardwoods such as oak, maple, or hickory make the best trees
for houses—but I did once build a wonderful tree house in a
crabapple tree.’”
c) “’My tree house is in two trees—an oak and a fir—and has three
posts to support the weight.’”*
d) “As a certified arborist, Jonathan tries to never harm the trees.”*
e) "The tree's center of gravity is at the top and the ends of its
branches, so I build a house down at the center of the tree. . . ”
f) "The tree grows over the artificial limbs, and they become part of
the tree, . . .”
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Grade 5, Item #4—Part A
Which idea is found in both the article about Fairoaks and the
side bar about Nelson?
a) Each tree house should be special for its owner.*
b) People should climb trees for practice before building a tree
house.
c) Having a tree house is good for people.
d) Going to a tree house school can be helpful in getting
started.
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Grade 5, Item #4—Part B
Choose one detail from the article and one detail from the side
bar that support the answer to Part A. Drag each of the details
into the box labeled "Supporting Details."
Supporting Detail from Article
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Supporting Detail from Side Bar