TAKS Holistic Scoring

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TAKS Holistic Scoring

• Region 10 ESC
• Michelle Green and Jayne Knighton
• Language Arts Consultants

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Todays Agenda

• 830 Welcome Introductory Remarks
• 900 Presentation of Scoring Guide
• 1000 Break
• 1015 Continuance of Guide Presentation
• 1145 Lunch
• 100 Practice Set A
• 215 Break
• 230 Practice Set B
• 345 Closing Remarks Evaluation

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TAAS vs. TAKS

• Elaboration driven
• Quantity of ideas
• Writer silent
• Run out of room
• Ideas w/ extension
• Scorers decoded
• Contrived devices
• Disconnected points
• Add up strategy

• Driven by writing
• Quality of Ideas
• Student voice
• Sense of completeness
• Developed Ideas
• Conventions count
• Focus on thinking
• Connectedness
• Coherence Focus

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Focused Holistic Scoring

• Focused because the scorer focuses on an
  established set of criteria
• Holistic because the scorer takes into
  consideration the whole paper and assigns one
  score

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Score Points
Ineffective

Somewhat effective
Generally effective
Highly effective
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Scoring Procedures

• Ten scorers make up a team.
• Each paper is scored by two scorers from two
  different teams.
• If the two scorers assign the same score, then
  the decision is final and the paper is given a
  score.

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Scoring Procedures, continued

• If the two scorers assign different scores, then
  the paper is given to a third scorer from another
  scoring team.
• If there is still a discrepancy, then the paper
  goes to the scoring director and sometimes on to
  Victoria Young and the TEA staff.

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About the Prompt

• The prompt is meant to be a springboard to get
  the writer to think and reflect.

We are going to allow the greatest possible
latitude in regard to the way students approach
the prompt. Victoria Young, TEA
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About the Prompt Page

• The prompt page has two components
• The actual prompt in a rectangular box at the top
  of the page
• A kid friendly version of the rubric

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About the Prewriting

• Three or four blank pages will be available at
  the back of student test booklets for prewriting
  with a heading that will read, Use this page for
  prewriting.
• Scorers will not see the prewriting pages.

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About Authenticity

• We want to honor student writers and their
  desire to bring their ideas to the paper in an
  authentic way.
• Victoria Young, TEA

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About Scoring

• The space within score points is a lot bigger
  than the space between scorer points. In other
  words, some low fours look a lot more like high
  threes than high fours.
• The rubric, while the same at all grade levels,
  plays out differently.

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About Scoring

• The push is for depth of thought.
• Questions to Ponder
• Does the information thats added help the reader
  understand what the writer is saying to a grater
  capacity?
• Is there evidence of reflection?

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Whats the difference between elaboration and
depth of development?

• Elaboration has many adjectives, uses lots of
  details, tells more, provides horizontal
  development
• Depth of development provides significance,
  goes deeper into the writers thoughts, provides
  vertical development

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About Reference Materials

• Seventh graders will write the composition first,
  then turn in their reference materials
  (dictionaries and thesauruses) before taking the
  editing/revising multiple choice portion of the
  test.
• Sample questions come before the seal.
• Students may return to the composition, but they
  may NOT have access to reference tools once the
  seal is broken.

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About Reference Materials

• Ratio of 15 constitutes reasonable access
• Resources may contain biographical, geographical
  information, etc.
• Students may not have access to a grammar or
  style guide during the revision/editing section
• Students may not use a bilingual dictionary
• Students may use resources from home

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Focus Coherence

• Central theme
• Controlling idea
• Links clearly show relationship of ideas
• Connectedness apparent
• Introduction Conclusion add meaning
• Ineligible for 4 without conclusion
• Completion within 2 pages allotted

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Organization

• Does it make sense?
• Organizational strategy
• Sentence to sentence movement
• Paragraph to paragraph progression
• Not physical organization (ie., indenting)
• Thread throughout the flow of ideas
• Successful planning critical

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Development of Ideas

• Depth and substance v. abundance of info.
• Thorough and specific dev. of each thought
• Not elaboration driven
• Beyond plot summary, links to own ideas
• Quality v. quantity
• Ideas are interesting and thoughtful
• Evidence of thought development
• Compositional risk encouraged

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Voice

• Is there a face behind the paper?
• No certain gimmick that leads to voice
• Not sparkle words, statistics,
• A sense of the writer is apparent
• Evidence of thought and reflection
• Reflects the writers individuality
• Dialogue and personal anecdotes

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Conventions

• Writing for an outside audience
• Encourage rich vocabulary
• Weak conventions can hinder score
• Strong conventions can help score
• Sentence boundaries important
• Spelling remains critical
• Consistency of conventions key