Reading Assessment Strategies

An Introduction and Overview of WASL Reading for Educators

Contents• Reading WASL Development

• Cycle• Targets• Assessment

• Purpose of this Plan• Intended Use

• Weekly Plans• Week 1• Weeks 2,3,4

• WASL Overview• Passage Types• Interacting with the Passage• Item (Question) Types• Scoring Rubrics

• Scoring Practice• Key Piece• How To’s For Each Task

Operational ScoringOperational

Rangefinding

Data Review Pilot Scoring Training and Pilot Scoring

Pilot Scoring Training and Pilot Scoring

Pilot RangefindingPilot Item TestingPilot Item TestingItem Reviews for Content

& Bias/Sensitivity by Committee

Item Review for Content by OSPIItem Review for Content by OSPI

Item Writing Training and Item Writing

.

Passage Bias/Sensitivity Reviews

Reading Passage Selection and

Copyrights Research

Reading Passage Selection and

Copyrights Research

Develop Item and Test Specifications

Develop Item and Test Specifications

Reading WASL Development Cycle

Operational TestingOperational Testing

Grades 6-HS WASL Reading Targets

Informational Text

Literary

TextLC01 – Main Idea

LC02 – Summarize

LC03 – Infer or Prediction

LC04 – Vocabulary

LA05 – Literary Elements

LA06 – Compare/Contrast

LA07 – Cause/Effect

LT08 – Author’s Purpose

LT09 – Evaluate reasoning and ideas/theme

LT10 – Extend information beyond text

IC11 - Main Idea

IC12 - Summarize

IC13 - Infer or Prediction

IC14 - Vocabulary

IA15 - Text Features (captions, maps)

IA16 - Compare/Contrast

IA17 - Cause/Effect

IT18 - Author’s Purpose

IT19 - Evaluate reasoning and ideas/theme

IT20 - Extend information beyond text

C = Comprehend A = Analyze T = Think Critically

WASL Reading Assessment MapTEST CHARACTERISTICS High School

# of total items (MC, SA, ER) on test 37

# of total points possible on test 52

# of Operational passages on each test 6

# of strands assessed per test 6

Minimum # of points per strand per test 6

# of multiple choice (MC) items on test 26

# of short answers (SA) on test 9

#of extended responses (ER) on test 2

Percent of multiple choice in total score 50%

Percent of constructed response in total score (short answer and extended response)*

50%

Total Number of Embedded Items 7

Purpose

• These reading assessment strategies are geared toward those students who are able to read the passages, did not meet standard on the WASL, but scored at level 2. The focus will be to familiarize students with the assessment language of the Reading WASL, so that they can apply the reading skills that they have to the specific types of questions they will encounter on the WASL.

• There is also a Collection of Evidence (COE) component that allows for additional WASL practice while starting a collection. COE is an option for students who do not meet standard on the WASL.

Intended Use

• This plan is designed for use with summer school programs.

• It is based on a 5-day, 2 hours per day model.

• If your school has a different summer school format, you may have to make adjustments.

Layout

• The layout for all four weeks will be very similar to establish a routine for students and the teacher.

• Layout week-by-week:

Week 1

• Day 1-Overview of Reading WASL and an introduction to WASL questions and scoring rubrics (this is VERY important; it is the basis for showing students how they will be scoring their own work)

• Day 2-Vocabulary, Pre-Reading Activity, Reading and Answering, Extension Activity

• Day 3-Finish Reading and Answering from the previous day, Scoring

• Day 4-Vocabulary, Pre-Reading Activity, Reading and Answering, Extension Activity

• Day 5-Finish Reading and Answering from the previous day, Scoring

Weeks 2, 3, 4

• Day 1-Review previous week, New Vocabulary, Pre-Reading Activity, Reading and Answering

• Day 2-Finish Reading and Answering from the previous day, Scoring, Extension Activity

• Day 3-Vocabulary, Pre-Reading Activity, Reading and Answering

• Day 4-Finish Reading and Answering from the previous day, Scoring, Extension Activity

• Day 5-Review and Extension Activity

Text/Story/Passage/Selection/Poem

• On the Reading WASL text/story/passage/selection/ poem all refer to the material being read.

Text/Story/Selection/Passage/Poem

• Informational: true information (usually science or social studies topics)

• Literary: reads like a story (poem, story, literary biography)

When students take the Reading WASL they may:

• Write on the assessment with their No. 2 pencils

• Make notes and underline while they read• Mark on the questions • Stay away from the bubble on multiple

choice until they are ready to make a choice• Use these strategies for all 4 weeks of

practice

Three Types Of Items (Questions)

Why does the tortoise “begin his trek back toward the Mohave”? Include two details from the poem in your answer.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why does the tortoise “begin his trek back toward the Mohave”? Include two details from the poem in your answer.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you see a question with 9 lines use 4 details from

the text.

What problem do the ornithologists experience in the story? What are three events that contribute to the resolution of the problem? Include information

from the story in your answer.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What problem do the ornithologists experience in the story? What are three events that contribute to the resolution of the problem? Include information

from the story in your answer.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you see a question with 18 lines use 6 details

from the text.

Things to Know:

• Students cannot write themselves out of an answer.– It’s better to give more details than are asked for on an

item.• Short Answer: Give 4 details (the item requires 2 correct

text-based details to get full points).• Extended Response: Give 6 details (the item requires 4

correct text-based details to get full points).

– If some details are wrong, they will be ignored by the scorer.

– We will only look for what they get correct.

The format for each rubric is the same

– Item

– How to earn points

– Specific bullets that

are from the text• Origin of score

points

Rubrics

Desert Tortoise in the Rain

By Joseph Bruchac

SCORING PRACTICE:

The Basics of Answering a Multiple Choice Item

1.Read the item2.Underline what is being asked3.Read all answer choices4.Re-read the choices and eliminate wrong choices by using the text

18 What is the main conflict in the poem?

A. A tortoise emerges from hibernation.

B. A tortoise demonstrates curiosity.

C. A tortoise seeks his former home.

D. A tortoise lives near the ocean.

18 What is the main conflict in the poem?

A. A tortoise emerges from hibernation.

B. A tortoise demonstrates curiosity.

C. A tortoise seeks his former home.

D. A tortoise lives near the ocean.

•Read the question•Underline what is being asked and think about it•Read all answer choices•Re-read the choices and eliminate them using the text

19 Based on the information in the poem, what conclusion can be drawn

about the tortoise?

 

A. He is clumsy.

B. He is injured.

C. He is unhappy.

D. He is persistent.

19 Based on the information in the poem, what conclusion can be drawn

about the tortoise?

 

A. He is clumsy.

B. He is injured.

C. He is unhappy.

D. He is persistent.

•Read the question•Underline what is being asked and think about it•Read all answer choices•Re-read the choices and eliminate them using the text

23 Why does the tortoise “begin his trek back toward the Mohave”? Include two details from the poem in your answer.

Make sure you have a copy of the rubric in front of you.

•Underline what is being asked and how you have to answer.•Good Rule to Follow: When it says give two details, give four.

Looking at a Rubric…This is How it Will Appear When You Print the Notes

Go over each bullet:-as you reveal a bullet, talk about it and have students locate and write on their rubric where the bullet came from in the story

Bullet: Paragraph• A:1• B: 3• C: 5• D: 6/7• E: 12/16 *Notice that this bullet comes from 2 different paragraphs. Why

is it under the same bullet? Because it is the same idea in both sentence. Ideas that are the same can be listed under the same bullet.

• F: 14• G: 16• H: 17• I: 17• J: 18• K: 19 EXAMPLE

Text-based details may include, but are not limited to: A. The earth-dug bed beneath the porch steps is all that remains of a house washed away by fire (home burned down)B. The backyard fence which once kept him from the sight of ocean or winding canyon, has also been returned to ashC. He turns his gaze away from the sea belowD. Where human hands a decade ago picked him up to carry him hereE. Away from his own kindF. As I watch him move with what some call patience it seems that words can barely express what the tortoise knowsG. The tortoise knows of the rain and the fire here at the fenced-in edge of a continent where our human desires have come again to nothingness

2 A 2-point response provides two text-based details to show why the tortoise beginshis trek back toward the Mohave.

Example: The tortoise begins his trek back to the Mohave because the housewhere he lived was washed away by fire and he is going back to be with his kind.

1 A 1-point response provides one text-based detail that shows why the tortoisebegins his trek back toward the Mohave.

2 A 2-point response provides two text-based details to show why the tortoise beginshis trek back toward the Mohave.

Example: The tortoise begins his trek back to the Mohave because the housewhere he lived was washed away by fire and he is going back to be with his kind.

1 A 1-point response provides one text-based detail that shows why the tortoisebegins his trek back toward the Mohave.

Text-based details may include, but are not limited to: A. The earth-dug bed beneath the porch steps is all that remains of a house washed away by fire (home burned down)B. The backyard fence which once kept him from the sight of ocean or winding canyon, has also been returned to ashC. He turns his gaze away from the sea belowD. Where human hands a decade ago picked him up to carry him hereE. Away from his own kindF. As I watch him move with what some call patience it seems that words can barely express what the tortoise knowsG. The tortoise knows of the rain and the fire here at the fenced-in edge of a continent where our human desires have come again to nothingness

Lines 4-7

Lines 31-32Lines 28-29

Lines 38-42

Lines 8-12

Line 33

Lines 34-37

E

E

D

A

A

B

E

D

D

E

To make this a successful experience for students use a

“think-aloud” strategy to model the process for answering specific

types of questions. Hints as to how to do this are provided in the notes

of each PowerPoint.

Key Piece: Think-Aloud

• Remember the key piece is to talk through your process as a good reader.

• Model how you are applying your reasoning and reading skills.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Activate prior knowledge: When skilled readers approach a text for the first time, they consciously (or unconsciously) summon any information or background that they may have in relation to the topic, idea, people/characters, setting, historical context, author, similar events, etc. This process provides a footing or foundation for the reading; it helps us to make sense of new text.  This is an important step that inexperienced readers often skip over.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Set a purpose/reason/goal for reading: Another step that becomes automatic for skilled readers is establishing what they expect to get out of reading. Depending on the purpose, we adjust our reading to meet the chosen goal. Helping our students define the reason, purpose or goal for reading is a crucial initial step in helping them to successfully interact with the text. Are they reading for pleasure/entertainment? To gather information? To support a thesis? To answer an essential question?  Etc.

• Decode text into words and meanings: These are basic reading skills that our children begin to learn at the elementary level; but as secondary teachers, we must continue to work on them as texts become more varied and sophisticated. Decoding text into words and meaning can also involve using strategies to define unfamiliar words using context clues or word parts (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, roots). 

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Make personal connections: As skilled readers move through a text, they constantly compare and contrast their knowledge and experience with what is presented and revealed in the text. This process of “personal engagement” within the text improves the reader’s comprehension and understanding. Skillful readers often ask themselves (consciously or unconsciously) the following questions as they read: How is this like or unlike something I know or have experienced? How can I connect the ideas here to other texts I have read? How is this text (and the ideas presented in it) useful or relevant to me?

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Make predictions: From the moment a skilled reader picks up a text, they start making predictions about it. They look at such things as the title, table of contents, dedication, number of pages, font size, photographs, commentary on the back or book jacket, etc. They begin to make predictions about the contents, quality and their initial reactions to the text. As their reading progresses, they continue to check and revise their initial reactions and predictions.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Visualize: One of the most powerful tools that skilled readers develop is their ability to visualize what they are reading. While reading a fictional text they may create a mental picture of the setting, imagine how the characters look, in short, and immerse themselves in the visual world of the story. In a nonfiction text that is abstract in nature, the reader may create visual symbols, concept webs, or mind maps that help him/her to keep track of the information and organize it.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Ask questions: Good readers make a habit of asking questions while they read. They ask questions about the text, the writer, their own responses, opinions, and reactions to the reading. There may be questions that probe deeper for understanding, but they may simply be questions that voice the reader’s internal confusion and need for clarity. When explicitly taught, this is a skill that often will shock some of your less-skilled readers; they often think that it is time to stop reading when they become confused, assuming that good readers never get confused. It is powerful for them to see/hear someone work through their confusion.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

• Monitor understanding and summarize: Skillful readers carry an “invisible suitcase” of information with them as they read a text. Along the way, they drop important ideas into the case to help them make sense of the text. When something doesn’t make sense they unpack it and take a closer look. They review those collected items at various points in the reading to move toward understanding, synthesis and evaluation of the text.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

Apply what has been learned: Both during and after the reading, skillful readers are constantly asking themselves:

• How can I use this information?• What does this story mean to me?• How can I apply this in my own life?• Is this relevant to other situations or circumstances?• When students are reading a text to fulfill the demands of a task or

passage, they may keep the demands of the passage in mind and consider how they will apply information from the text to complete an assigned task. More generally, discovering how reading applies to our lives and the world around us is essential for engaging a reader in a text. We need to help our students discover the ways to reflect on how the reading “applies”.

What Skilled Readers Do While They Read:

Think-Aloud Wrap-Up

• The list of skills that readers do automatically is quite long.

• Don’t be intimidated by this.

• Just talk through your reasoning with students.

• It will have a powerful impact on their reading.

How To’s: Vocabulary Tasks

• “I HAVE…WHO HAS”

• Rebus

• Word Maps

“I HAVE…WHO HAS”

• Purpose: To familiarize students with WASL vocabulary. Students need to have an understanding of the words and their meaning to apply their reading skills to the assessment. Before starting you should hand out the vocabulary cards to students. If you have a small group they will have multiple cards to keep track of. Choose a student at random to begin. They will read the part of their card starting with “Who Has” and then they will pair up with the “I Have” portion as quickly as possible. Then the next person will take their turn until everyone is paired up. (If space is limited or students have multiple cards you may choose to not have students pair up. Getting up and moving for the kinesthetic piece is important). Students who have the focus vocabulary for the week must use their word in a WASL example sentence. *When you are using the PowerPoint, if your computer has internet access, you can click on the clock to open a link where you can use a stopwatch to time students. It can be very motivating to them to try and beat their time.

Rebus

• Purpose: Many ancient writing systems used the Rebus principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to represent by pictograms. An example that illustrates the Rebus principle is the representation of the sentence “I can see you” by using the pictographs of “eye - can – sea – ewe”. We will be using this activity to show students another way to think.

Word Maps

• Word maps and charts help students expand word meaning and discover relationships between vocabulary terms (Santa, Havens, & Valdes, 2004). They also help students develop elaborate definitions, rather than simple one or two word descriptions. Many students have a narrow concept of what the meaning of a word encompasses. Most conceive of definitions as simplistic, imprecise statements that lack elaboration and personal comment. Word maps help students create a broader concept of a definition, one that encourages them to integrate their own knowledge (Santa et. Al., 2004). By teaching word learning strategies over a period of time, students are provided a way to learn vocabulary independently.

How To’s: Review Games

• The review activities are included to allow students to review while having a little fun. Summer school is rough, and if we can include some time to relax a little, then students will be better prepared in the long run.

• Student Millionaire: To play Millionaire simply keep clicking. Click once for the question, twice for the answer choices, and a third time for the answer to be revealed.

• Jeeparty: Open the Jeeparty PowerPoint. Begin the PowerPoint as a slide show. To play: click on a point value. An answer will appear. Students have to give the question that goes with the answer. Click again to see another phrased question. Click the screen again to go back to the main screen with all point values and repeat the process. *Note: The point value will disappear after another point value is selected. For some reason there is a delay with the already completed point values disappearing.

How To’s: Wrap-Up Activitiy

• At the end of each day students will have a Wrap-Up activity.

• Students will be given questions to reflect on for class discussion.

• Some days the discussion will happen on the same day and other days it will be carried over for the next day. This is indicated in the teacher notes.

How To’s: Extension Activities

There are two extension activity possibilities for the 4 Week plan.

The most basic is simple independent reading with journaling

and the more complex are COE Tasks. Choose one option for your

4 Week Plan.

Independent Reading and Journaling

– This is a straightforward activity where students read and reflect on their reading. It is recommended that students are given a minimum of twenty minutes each day to read independently and an additional five- ten minutes to journal about their reading. This is a nice way for students to use the reading strategies they have been working on in their journal responses.

Collection of Evidence (COE)

– Collection of Evidence (COE) is a collection of student work that demonstrates their reading skills much like the WASL. It is another way for students to show proficiency to meet the graduation requirement in reading.

– These extension tasks are included to allow students additional practice with WASL items and vocabulary and to get them started on a COE in case they do not meet standard on the Reading WASL. These six samples may get a student started, but do not make up a whole collection.

Prepare Yourself

• As you go through the scoring process each week with students you will become more comfortable.

• To familiarize yourself with the materials, go to each week and open the documents. Print materials and put them in a binder for quick reference.

• View each PowerPoint before using it to make your own notes and to become familiar with how they work.