Assessing with Rubrics

Test graders will use a rubric to judge the quality of your writing for assessment. They typically provide a score of 0–4, 0–6, or even 0–8 for each category on the rubric, such as Focus, Organization, Evidence, Language, and Conventions. Then they add up these scores and divide by the number of categories to get the overall average score. By using the following rubrics to judge your own assessment writing, you can become aware of what testers are looking for and can improve your scores in the future.

Answering Multiple-Choice Questions Nonfiction Assessment VI

The PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments and other tests of the Common Core English standards use multiple-choice questions to check your ability to revise and edit texts. The SAT and ACT also include these sorts of questions.

The following multiple choice questions test your understanding of conventions: punctuation, spelling, grammar, and sentences. Then you will find a reading and a set of questions to test your paragraph-revision skills.

Responding to DBQs Nonfiction Assessment V

The AP US History and AP World History exams include document-based questions (DBQs). A DBQ requires you to analyze a writing prompt, closely read a series of related documents, and then write an essay that answers the prompt using evidence from the documents. The documents may include a variety of media such as articles, graphs, photographs, and political cartoons.

Viewing and Writing Nonfiction Assessment IV

Some Common Core and AP assessments present you with visuals that you must analyze and respond to. Remember that every visual is a form of communication with a sender and receiver (who), a message (what and why), a medium (how), and a context (where and when).

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment III

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment II

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Source 1

Nonfiction Reading and Writing Assessment

Many high-stakes assessments test your ability to read nonfiction and write analyses about it. You'll find these types of tasks on the high school tests for the Common Core, the ACT and SAT, and the AP tests for English Language and Composition, U.S. History, and World History.

Of course, these assessments seek to measure the reading and writing ability you have gained over the whole of your schooling so far, so simply cramming won't spell success. However, taking a practice test that requires the same skills will help you know what kinds of questions to anticipate, allowing you to score your best.

How Can I Practice for Assessment?

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In this unit, you'll get to practice closely reading nonfiction texts. After each, you'll answer a bank of multiple-choice questions that check your comprehension but also require you to infer shades of meaning. Then you'll need to analyze a writing prompt about the texts and write an on-target essay response. You'll find three such practice tests.

You'll also find a practice test that requires you to view advertisements, answer questions about them, and write an essay response. Finally, you will find a practice test for answering document-based questions (DBQs) like those on the AP history exams. You'll analyze a writing prompt, closely read seven documents related to it, and write a response to the prompt.

At the end of this unit, you'll find sample argument and explanatory rubrics showing the way that essays are scored on high-stakes assessments. You can find the specific rubrics used for a given high-stakes writing assessment at these locations:

• PARCC Scoring Rubric for Prose Constructed Response Items (Grades 6-11)
• Smarter Balanced Performance Task Writing Rubrics
• ACT Writing Test Scores
• SAT Essay Scoring
• AP English Language and Composition Scoring Guidelines

For practice with high-stakes literature assessments, see the units "Reading and Writing Literature for Assessment" and "Practice Tests for Reading and Writing Literature."

Reading and Writing Nonfiction Assessment I

Closely read the following articles and answer the questions afterward. Then you will need to analyze a prompt about these models and respond by writing an insightful essay.

Writing for Literature Assessment

When you respond to a writing prompt, you should start by carefully reading and analyzing the prompt using the PAST questions. Then you should jot down a quick outline of your response. Do these activities in the first five minutes or so of the time you have. (If the prompt includes a reading, take more time with this step.) You'll spend the bulk of your time creating a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Afterward, you'll want to review your answers to the PAST questions and read your response, making sure it is on target. In the last five minutes or so, revise and edit your work. This abbreviated version of the writing process needs to fit into the total time you are given (often between 30 and 90 minutes).

Viewing a Sample Prompt and Response

Read the following prompt, and view one student's PAST analysis, outline, and beginning, middle, and ending. Then you'll get a chance to read and respond to a prompt of your own.

Sample Writing Prompt

Responding to Literary Writing Prompts

Often tests contain writing prompts that ask you to respond to literature. A writing prompt is a specific set of instructions that you must follow to write a well-targeted essay. If you write an excellent response that does not answer the prompt, you will score poorly.

Analyzing Writing Prompts

Some prompts may provide you a short reading and ask for a written response. Others may present a quotation or thesis and ask you to argue for or against it using evidence from literature that you have read.

To succeed on writing assessments, you must start by analyzing the writing prompt. You can use the PAST questions:

• Purpose? Why am I writing? (To analyze a character? To demonstrate a theme? To evaluate a work?)
• Audience? Who is my reader? (Tester? Classmates? Other readers?)
• Subject? What topic should I write about? (A central conflict? A key setting? Literary/poetic devices?)
• Type? What type of writing should I create? (Analysis essay? Character sketch? Review?)

Sample Writing Prompt

Answers to PAST Questions

• Purpose?

  To argue for or against the idea that "a person's greatest strength can also be his or her greatest weakness"

• Audience?

  Other readers

• Subject?

  Lives of characters in literature

• Type?

  Position/argument essay

Answering Multiple-Choice Questions

High-stakes assessments often include multiple-choice questions, which can be graded by machine. Questions may ask about character and conflict, symbol and theme, literary and poetic devices, or anything in between. Follow these guidelines to score your best on multiple-choice questions:

• Read questions first. Then you know what to watch for.
• Note question order. Often the first question asks about the first part of the reading. Usually questions follow the order of the passage.
• Treat each passage separately. You usually answer a bank of multiple-choice questions for each passage before being prompted to write about a set of passages together.
• Analyze characters and conflict. For literature, questions often focus on what characters desire and fear, which creates conflict that drives plot.
• Analyze narration, descriptions, action, and dialogue. Questions may also ask about how the writer creates a piece of literature, focusing on one or more of these components.
• Be patient with poems. They may take as long or longer to analyze than pieces of literature.
• Analyze words, sounds, images, thoughts, and emotions. For poetry, questions may ask you to focus on devices the poet has used to achieve a given effect.
• Answer easy questions first. Eliminate obviously wrong answers.

Answering Multiple-Choice Questions About a Text

Often, high-stakes assessments will present you with a text, asking you to read it and analyze it by responding to multiple-choice questions.