ELA Assessment

Standard: W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts that name a topic, supply some facts about the
topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Learning Objective: Given an outline for an informative text, students will generate three specific
facts and a closing sentence about a topic by correctly recalling information from the read aloud.
 Readiness: Based on conversations with my MT, observations, and the students’ prior
knowledge, they are ready for this learning objective. The students have been working on
creating informative pieces of writing, using a topic sentence, some facts, and a closing
sentence. Students have used outlines to prepare for their final piece of writing. The students
have also learned about topics and non-fiction texts relating to different social studies and
science topics.
Assessment Description: Students were assessed on their ability to generate facts and a closing
sentence about a topic, using an outline. After doing a read aloud and activity about maps with
students, students had to use an outline to write a topic sentence, three facts, and a closing sentence
about maps. All students were given sentence starters for the topic and closing sentence, where they
would fill in the rest of the sentence. The students would use the information learned from the read
aloud to complete the facts.
Rationale: Students completed a read aloud and generated fact ideas, as a class, before completing this
assessment. A key aspect of the learning objective is that students will write an outline, using the facts
learned from the read aloud about maps. This assessment clearly aligns with the objective. Within the
assessment, students will be using their learning to generate facts, along with a topic and closing
sentence. In order to demonstrate that the learning objective has been met, students will clearly recall
correct information from the read aloud and use it to create their topic sentence, three facts, and closing
sentence within the outline.
Description of Scoring Guide: The scoring guide is a child-friendly rubric. The students will have
three things that they will be scored on, including: their topic, three facts, and their closing sentence.
The guide uses a smiley, straight, and frowny face to note how the student did. To receive all smiley
faces, students must have 3 facts that makes sense, the correct topic, and some sense of closure. The
scoring guide also includes a section for teacher comments at the bottom.
Differentiation: For this assessment, I differentiated the assessment and rubric for underperforming
students, struggling writers, and the two students that I have been observing. The main support for all
of these students was using sentence starters for the outline. I differentiated the assessments, by
creating a version that uses sentence starters for all three facts, as well as the closing and topic
sentences. I also adjusted my rubric to show this and had these students give 2-3 facts, given they take
longer to write informative pieces. In my observations, student one has shown a lack of confidence in
writing, needing a large amount of scaffolding and prompting. Sentence starters would scaffold
learning for this student, especially when creating closing sentences, which he/she has struggled with
in past pieces of writing. Student two has demonstrated a need for sentence starters and has shown
success using them in the past. For these two students, a large amount of the differentiation occurred
during the process of doing the outline, giving consistent verbal reminders about complete sentences
and using prompting to assist in developing facts. As discussed with my MT, underperforming students
and one of the struggling writers also need sentence starters to scaffold learning when learning a new
topic for informative writing.
Assessment and Differentiated Assessment:
Scoring Guide and Differentiated Scoring Guide: