Welcome to 4 th Grade Open House

1. Welcome to4th Grade Open House 4th Grade Team Members Mrs. Cristina Ms. Fields Mrs. McNeil Mrs. Miller Ms. Rogers

2. Testing Dates February 9, 2009 FCAT Writing+ March 9-19, 2009 FCAT Sunshine State Standards (SSS)Reading and Mathematics

3. Differences Between the 3rd Grade and 4th Grade FCAT • FCAT Writing +: Essay Prompt requiring 45 • minute on- demand writing • Short and Extended Responses in addition to • Multiple Choice items on the Reading Test • Testing Time – 120 minutes in 3rd to 160 • minutes in 4th – Reading Test • Increased Level of Cognitive Complexity

4. Cognitive Complexity The demands on thinking that an item makes—that is, what it asks the student to recall, understand, reason about, and do—are determined with the assumption that the student is familiar with the knowledge and skills the item assesses.

5. Cognitive Complexity Categories Low complexity, moderate complexity, and high complexity—form an ordered description of the cognitive demands an item makes on a student. Low level of complexity require a simple skill, such as locating details in a text or solving a one-step problem. At the moderate level, an item can ask the student to summarize a passage or retrieve information from a graph and use it to solve a problem. At the high level, an item may require a student to analyze cause-and-effect relationships or justify a solution to a problem.

6. FCAT Writing+ Essay Prompt Writing High Cognitive Complexity

7. Each FCAT Writing+ prompt has two parts: • the writing situation and the directions for writing. • The writing situation orients the students to the subject about which they are to write. • The directions for writing guide the students to think about the topic before they begin to write. • Essays are scored on a scale ranging from 0 points (unscorable) to 6 points. • Students are given 45 minutes to complete their writing.

8. Types of Writing Prompts • EXPOSITORY: • Expository writing explains, defines, or tells how to do something • NARRATIVE: • Narrative writing tells a story that is either real of imagined

9. Prompts from the past • Expository • Narrative Write to explain why you think a certain pet would be good for your classroom. Explain why it is important to eat healthy foods. Write to explain why you would like to be a particular person for a day. Tell a story about your most embarrassing moment. Tell what happens after you go through a door that is always locked. Tell a story about the day the teacher surprised the class.

10. Writing Rubric • Student papers are scored using a 1-6 rubric based on the following guidelines: • Focus • Organization • Support • Conventions

12. Writing to Explain (Expository) 2008The Grade 4 expository prompt directed students to think about a classroom job and explain why it is a favorite job.FCAT 2008 Grade 4 Expository Anchor Set (PDF)Writing to Tell a Story (Narrative) 2008The Grade 4 narrative prompt directed students to write a story about what happens when someone plays a game with family or friends.FCAT 2008 Grade 4 Narrative Anchor Set (PDF)

13. FCAT Reading Contents of FCAT Reading Tests The Reading SSS Assessment is broken up into two sessions (80 minutes each) 6–7 reading passages 40–45 multiple-choice questions (low and moderate complexity)

14. 6–8 short response performance tasks (high complexity) 2–3 extended response performance tasks (high complexity)

15. 6–7 Reading Passages • Literary Text 50% • Short Stories, Literary Essays, Excerpts, Poems, Historical Fiction, Fables and Folk Tales, and Plays • Informational Text 50% • Subject-Area Text, Magazine and Newspaper Articles, Diaries, Editorials, Informational Essays, Biographies, Autobiographies, How-To Articles, Advertisements, Tables and Graphical Presentations of Text • Passage Length Ranges from 100-900 Words (Average 400 Words per Passage)