Teacher Directions:

Text-Based Writing Prompts:

Administration and Scoring Guidelines

Students will read a stimulus about a single topic. A stimulus consists of several texts written on a single topic.

The stimulus may include informational or literary fiction or nonfiction texts and can cover a wide array of topics.

After reading the stimulus, the students will respond to a writing prompt in which they will provide information

on a topic, develop a narrative, or take a stance to support an opinion or argument. Students will be required to

synthesize information from the text sets and must cite specific evidence from the texts to support their ideas.

Students’ informative/explanatory responses should demonstrate a developed and supported controlling idea.

Students’ opinion/argumentative responses should support an opinion/argument using ideas presented in the

stimulus. Students will have 120 minutes to read the passages, and plan, write, revise and edit their essay.

Students should read the prompt first. They should be encouraged to highlight, underline, and take notes to

support the planning process.

Scoring:

The attached text-based rubric should be used to score student responses. While the total possible points on the

rubric is ten, it is recommended that three individual scores be given—one score for each of the three domains on

the rubric. This will allow the teacher to determine specific areas of need within individual student responses,

thus allowing for differentiation in the writing instruction that follows these formative writing tasks. The three

domains are: Purpose, Focus, Organization (PFO), Evidence and Elaboration (EE), and Conventions of Standard

English (CSE). Teachers should score holistically within each domain—PFO (4-points), EE (4-points), and CSE

(2-points).

Each level of scoring within a domain is based on the overarching statement for the score found in the rubric. For

example, on the grades 6-11 rubric for argumentation, the overarching statement for a score of 4 in the Purpose,

Focus, Organization domain is, “The response is fully sustained and consistently focused within the purpose,

audience, and task; and it has a clear and effective organizational structure creating coherence and completeness.”

The bulleted points that follow the statement must be considered as factors in the scoring, but should not be

utilized as a checklist. Most, but not all, of the bulleted points will be evident in the student writing for a score at

a specific level.

Teachers should keep in mind that a score of 3 on the rubric for a domain signals student proficiency in the

addressed writing standard with a score of 4 representing mastery. In the CSE domain, a score of two represents

student proficiency in the standard.

Ninth Grade Informative Prompt

Write an informative essay in which you explain how students can fund their college education. Use the information

from the passages in your essay.

Manage your time carefully so that you can:

Read the passages

Plan your essay

Write your essay

Revise and edit your essay

Your written response should be in the form of a multi-paragraph essay. Remember to spend time reading, planning,

writing, revising, and editing.

How to Pay for College

From HowToGo.com

Figuring out how to pay for college can be difficult and confusing. Many worry about paying too much, being caught in a loophole or a large amount of debt — making the investment stressful. When you complete your college search, start applying to scholarships far and wide, and saving money. Seek out federal financial aid, and then utilize private student loans to cover the cost of attendance. We have broken down these three options below.

Step 1: Scholarships & Grants

Apply for as many scholarships and grants as possible! The money you receive will go directly towards the cost of college, and you do not have to pay it back, which reduces the amount you take out in student loans and pay out of pocket.

There are many places to look for scholarships. You can visit your guidance office to find local scholarships, or search on StudentScholarshipSearch.com for national and regional scholarships and grants. There are scholarships for literally everyone — for a student adept in soccer, art, math, calling ducks, or for just being tall (over 5'10"). Check out the site to see weird scholarships, you will be surprised at what you find! You do not have to be a writer, a star athlete, or over 5'10" — although these are great opportunities — to obtain scholarship money.

There are programs you can join, such as ScholarshipPoints.com, that only require participation to be eligible. ScholarshipPoints is one of the only free rewards programs online that gives away over $100,000 dollars to students and prospective students each year. These scholarships are referred to as "free scholarships", and can be earned before and throughout college to supplement costs.

Step 2: Federal Student Loans

The next step in paying for college is securing the most federal financial aid as possible, in the form of federal student loans. Federal loans are the most abundant type of student loans, and usually have the best benefits and the lowest interest rates. The Stafford Loan is the first federal student loan that you should apply for. The undergraduate Stafford loans have an interest rates as low as 4.66%, no application fee, and no payments until six months after you graduate. In order to be approved for this loan, you must file a FAFSA, a Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Find out more about filing a FAFSA on FAFSAonline.com.

NOTES

Another federal student loan option to consider is the PLUS loan. This loan is taken out under the parent or guardian's name, and has many great benefits allowing a parent to borrow the entire cost of education at a low-interest rate.

Step 3: Private Student Loans

If scholarships and federal financial aid fall short of providing the funds you need for college, the next step is obtaining a private student loan. Private student loans allow you to borrow from $500 up to the cost of education, no repayment until after graduation, and you do not need to complete the FAFSA. Some lenders will only offer private student loans for certain schools, and the provisions of each loan may vary. You can find and compare lenders on PrivateStudentLoans.com. To better inform yourself about the amount you will have to repay after school check out the student loan calculator. This will calculate monthly loan payments for a given loan amount and rate. If you have questions, visit the financial aid forum at financialaidforum.com to discuss options with students and financial aid experts.

Three Lessons to Teach Mom and Dad About Paying for College

By Susannah Snider in US News and World Report

September 9, 2014

Students cranking out term papers on typewriters. Making new friends without friending them first on Facebook. Ordering pizza on the library pay phone.

Sound familiar? Mom and Dad have probably given you the spiel on how college has changed since they were students. But when it comes to how families pay for college, they may not understand just how much the landscape has shifted.

If your parents have latched on to outdated ideas about college funding or start every college cost conversation with "back in my day," it’s time to enroll them in Paying for College 101. No typewriter required.

Lesson 1: I can’t cover tuition with a part-time job. Your parents may have paid tuition bills with a weekend job at the local mall. Good luck trying that today.

NOTES

It’s nearly impossible to make an entry-level paycheck cover tuition nowadays, says Randy Olson, a computer science graduate research assistant at Michigan State University, who creates and analyzes visual representations of data on his blog. He recently crunched the numbers for both Michigan State and all public universities in the U.S.

He found that a student in 1979 needed to work 182 hours at minimum wage per year to pay for one year of in-state tuition and fees at a public university. That translates to less than 10 weeks at a part-time job, says Olson, which could be finished fairly quickly, perhaps earning minimum wage during a summer scooping ice cream on the boardwalk. On the other hand, a student in 2013 had to work 991 hours at minimum wage to cover one year of in- state tuition and fees. That would require working a full-time minimum-wage job for about half the year – no easy task for a full- time student.

"It’s not nearly as easy to work your way through college as it used to be – stop telling us to do it just because you did a couple of decades ago," Olson said in an email.

A similar study with data from Pennsylvania State University found the same trend.

"To work enough to equal tuition, especially considering the price of private schools, is incredibly difficult," says Jamie Dickenson, a certified educational planner in West Virginia.

That doesn't mean that a part-time job is useless. Working through college can still cut into student loans, help pay the bills and earn you valuable work experience. But tell Mom and Dad to let go of the idea that you'll knock out your tuition bill each semester with a paycheck from Wendy’s, even if they did.

Lesson 2: It’s fine for me to take out some student loans. In 1992, full-time students received an average $2,270 in federal student loans in 2012 dollars, according to the College Board "Trends in Higher Education" report. In 2012-2013, the average was $6,370.

Mom and Dad may have managed to graduate without much debt, if any. But "you can’t expect students and parents to pay the same way they did a generation ago," says Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Taking on a reasonable amount in federal loans – the rule of thumb is no more than your expected first year’s salary – is manageable for most students because the payoff of a college degree is so great, says Draeger.

NOTES

Mom and Dad can rest a little easier knowing that federal loans come with protections, such as income-based repayment, extended repayment plans and eventual forgiveness for certain kinds of borrowers, including public service workers.

NOTES

FINAL

English Language Arts

Text-based Writing Rubrics

Grades 6–11: Informative/Explanatory

UPDATED OCTOBER 2014

FINAL ELA Text-based Writing Rubrics, Grades 6–11: Informative/Explanatory Florida Standards Assessments

Grades 6-11

Informative/Explanatory Text-based Writing Rubric (Score points within each domain include most of the characteristics below.)

Score Purpose, Focus, and Organization (4-point Rubric)

Evidence and Elaboration (4-point Rubric)

Conventions of Standard English (2-point Rubric begins at score point 2)

4 The response is fully sustained and consistently focused within the purpose, audience, and task; and it has a clear controlling idea and effective organizational structure creating coherence and completeness. The response includes most of the following:

Strongly maintained controlling idea with little or no loosely related material

Skillful use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas

Logical progression of ideas from beginning to end with a satisfying introduction and conclusion

Appropriate style and objective tone established and maintained

The response provides thorough and convincing support, citing evidence for the controlling idea or main idea that includes the effective use of sources, facts, and details. The response includes most of the following:

Smoothly integrated, thorough, and relevant evidence, including precise references to sources

Effective use of a variety of elaborative techniques (including but not limited to definitions, quotations, and examples), demonstrating an understanding of the topic and text

Clear and effective expression of ideas, using precise language

Academic and domain-specific vocabulary clearly appropriate for the audience and purpose

Varied sentence structure, demonstrating language facility

3 The response is adequately sustained and generally focused within the purpose, audience, and task; and it has a clear controlling idea and evident organizational structure with a sense of completeness. The response includes most of the following:

Maintained controlling idea, though some loosely related material may be present

Adequate use of a variety of transitional strategies to clarify the relationships between and among ideas

Adequate progression of ideas from beginning to end with a sufficient introduction and conclusion

Appropriate style and objective tone established

The response provides adequate support, citing evidence for the controlling idea or main idea that includes the use of sources, facts, and details. The response includes most of the following:

Generally integrated and relevant evidence from sources, though references may be general or imprecise

Adequate use of some elaborative techniques

Adequate expression of ideas, employing a mix of precise and general language

Domain-specific vocabulary generally appropriate for the audience and purpose

Some variation in sentence structure

Continued on the following page

1 UPDATED OCTOBER 2014

FINAL ELA Text-based Writing Rubrics, Grades 6–11: Informative/Explanatory Florida Standards Assessments

Score Purpose, Focus, and Organization (4-point Rubric)

Evidence and Elaboration (4-point Rubric)

Conventions of Standard English (2-point Rubric)

2 The response is somewhat sustained within the purpose, audience, and task but may include loosely related or extraneous material; and it may have a controlling idea with an inconsistent organizational structure. The response may include the following:

Focused controlling idea but insufficiently sustained or unclear

Inconsistent use of transitional strategies with little variety

Uneven progression of ideas from beginning to end with an inadequate introduction or conclusion

The response provides uneven, cursory support/evidence for the controlling idea or main idea that includes partial use of sources, facts, and details. The response may include the following:

Weakly integrated evidence from sources; erratic or irrelevant references or citations

Repetitive or ineffective use of elaborative techniques

Imprecise or simplistic expression of ideas

Some use of inappropriate domain-specific vocabulary

Most sentences limited to simple constructions

The response demonstrates an adequate command of basic conventions. The response may include the following:

Some minor errors in usage but no patterns of errors

Adequate use of punctuation, capitalization, sentence formation, and spelling

1 The response is related to the topic but may demonstrate little or no awareness of the purpose, audience, and task; and it may have little or no controlling idea or discernible organizational structure. The response may include the following:

Confusing or ambiguous ideas

Few or no transitional strategies

Frequent extraneous ideas that impede understanding

Too brief to demonstrate knowledge of focus or organization

The response provides minimal support/evidence for the controlling idea or main idea, including little if any use of sources, facts, and details. The response may include the following:

Minimal, absent, erroneous, or irrelevant evidence or citations from the source material

Expression of ideas that is vague, unclear, or confusing

Limited and often inappropriate language or domain- specific vocabulary

Sentences limited to simple constructions

The response demonstrates a partial command of basic conventions. The response may include the following:

Various errors in usage Inconsistent use of correct punctuation,

capitalization, sentence formation, and spelling

0 The response demonstrates a lack of command of conventions, with frequent and severe errors often obscuring meaning.

2 UPDATED OCTOBER 2014