Smarter - Balance

The sample items and performance tasks are intended to help teachers, administrators, and policymakers implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and preparing for next-generation assessments. They provide an early look into the depth of understanding of the CCSS that will be measured by the Smarter Balanced assessment system. While the items and tasks are not intended to be used as sample tests, educators can use them to begin planning the shifts in instruction that will be required to help students meet the demands of the new assessments.

Our Assessment Goals if they are to aligned with SBAC:

·            UBD:  rubric, product development, process, over view of task

o   Consider how to spiral tasks throughout a unit and the year

·            Alignment: Daily instruction matches formative assessment matches summative/common assessments

·            Text Demand: 

o   Assess and reassess reading materials (are they grade level?)

o   How do we get them into grade level text?

o   What is the place for independent level texts?

o   How do we close the gap AND give access to grade level text?

·            Never one text

o   Mixed media on topics

§  How do you watch a video and take notes?

o   Visual Literacy

o   Include a wide range of reading and writing

·            Cold reads and think alouds

o   Assessments are not supported by the teacher – make sense of the prompt

o   Support with video after?

o   This needs to be modeled ongoingly.

·            Refine prompts: 

o   Prompt provides format, audience, topic, and purpose (FATP)

§  Prompts should use authentic readings and create authentic reasons to write.

§  Create reading assessments that support appropriate writing levels (scaffolds)

o   Aligns with formative assessment

o   Timed

§  build stamina for length of reading time and amount read in a certain period of time

§  How do I get students to do more in less time?

§  Build fluency with skills

o   Write good directions so they don’t need help from me – they have to figure out the prompt

o   Include a range of reading and writing

o   Refine our prompts to include: Multiple text responses

o   Aligns with formative assessment

·            Work toward independence; Gradual release of Graphic Organizer

·            How do I help kids who struggle without spoon-feeding the material?

o   Small group instruction based on meaningful evidence

·            Rethink accommodations for SpEd and ELL

Structuring a Writing Task:  3 parts

Part One: State what you want the students to do, carefully choosing your

                task verb. Be sure the students understand the task verb (analyze,

                explain, describe, compare, tell a story…) 

(Clear directions allow for independence from the teacher!  It also supports students who are not auditory by nature.)

Part Two: Provide a short word bank (list of 5-10 words that will work well in

       this writing task, but that the students would probably not have thought of

       by themselves:

(The words chosen can be differentiated OR higher writers can get the words, others can get words with definitions and/or pictures...)

Part Three: Provide 2 or 3 sentence frames that will work well in this writing task:

(Expectations for use can vary:  is it voluntary? used to plan and then revised out if possible? used.)

Ex: Sentence frame for argument:

Talking Testing - new website by many leading reading researchers.


In discussions of _____________, one controversial issue has been

___________________________. People who believe____________

claim that________________________________. On the other hand,

those who believe _____________________________ assert that

______________________________________________________.

My own view is __________________________________________

Examples of Performance Tasks: 

•  From Oregon (grade level performance tasks at all DOK levels)

Examples of Online Test Questions:

3-5^th Grades:

1.     What does Naomi learn about Grandma Ruth? Use details from the text to support your answer.

a.      Type your answer in the space provided

2.     Read the sentences from the passage. Then answer the question.

a.      “My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right in the middle was a big signature in black ink that I had somehow overlooked. It was smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said ‘Babe Ruth.’ I began to shake inside.”

b.     Click on two phrases from the paragraph that help you understand the meaning of scarred.

3.     Read this part of the text again.

a.       “It turns out my mother loved the name Ruth. That’s how I got my name and how my father got these: he let Ty Cobb name me after Babe Ruth.”  I tried to swallow but couldn’t. I hoped that she wasn’t going to say what I thought she was going to say.

b.     Then she said it.

c.      “In this shoebox are the ten baseballs Ty Cobb gave my father. They are signed by some of the most famous ballplayers in history, including one that has one single signature on it: Babe Ruth’s.”

d.     My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right in the middle was a big signature in black ink that I had somehow overlooked. It was smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said “Babe Ruth.” I began to shake inside.

e.      But my grandma just looked at the ball and smiled sweetly. She said softly, “Even though it doesn’t look like much, this ball has brought our family a lot of joy in its time. I remember when I was your age, Naomi, I almost rubbed the signature right off from tossing it up and down all the time. You see, I’ve always felt that a baseball should be used for a lot more than looking. My dad, your great-grandfather, used to say the same thing.”

f.       Select three sentences that show that Naomi is worried she has done something wrong.

6-8^th Grades:

1.     How does the author emphasize the point that the TAM program was a positive influence on the sisters’ lives? Use details from the text to support your answer.

2.     Highlight the parts of the text that provide evidence to support the idea that the Tuskegee Airmen were historically important.

3.     What does the author mean by “the sky is no longer the limit”? How does the meaning apply to the Anyadike sisters? Use details from the text to support your response.

High school:

1.     Read the sentence from the text. Then answer the question.

a.      “Nanodiamonds are stardust, created when ancient stars exploded long ago, disgorging their remaining elements into space.”

b.     Based on the context of the sentence, what is the most precise meaning of disgorging?

2.     Which of the following best identifies what the discovery of diamond icebergs teaches us about the nature and properties of diamonds?

a.      Diamonds have a changeable state of matter.

b.     Diamonds can reach sizes larger and heavier than the Earth.

c.      Diamonds found on Earth can originate from distant parts of space.

d.     Diamonds help scientists better understand the formation of galaxies.

3.     Read this sentence from the passage.

a.      “Besides being beautiful to contemplate, space diamonds teach us important lessons about natural processes going on in the universe, and suggest new ways that diamonds can be created here on Earth.”

b.     Explain how information learned from space diamonds can help scientists make diamonds on Earth. Use evidence from the passage to support your answer.

c.      Type your answer in the space provided.