6-12 Literacy Update
Week of April 27, 2015
APS Post Writing Assessment (End of Year)
Please work with your Instructional Coach to assess your students' writing.
Purpose: To better assess our students’ progress as writers of information, opinion/argument and narrative on-demand texts. The overall purpose of administering the same pre and post writing assessments is twofold. First, a pre-writing assessment in the fall helps the teacher diagnose student writing and plan instruction. While in the past they have not always recorded the scores, inputting the scores into Infinite Campus allows our teachers, school, and district a method for measuring student growth in writing.
Because the GA Milestones Assessment scores are not immediately available, the purpose of the post-writing assessment in the spring is to measure student growth. Some schools may choose to include the post-writing assessment as part of the students’ final average.
Nonetheless, the writing assessments are included in the writing portfolios as a “body of evidence” used to determine student achievement. Please review the APS Writing Portfolio Framework for more information.
Testing Window:
May 1, 2015 - May 15, 2015 (On-Demand Writing)
Input Scores into Infinite Campus by May 22, 2015.
(The grading session will be closed.)
Test Administration
Test administrators may read aloud the Writer’s Checklist, the Writing Directions, and the Writing Topic.
However, the reading passages on the writing test must not be read aloud or signed to students, except for those students with the accommodations.
Materials Needed
two pencils,
the writing prompt,
a page for taking notes (brainstorming/outlining),
two rough-draft pages, and
two final draft pages.
Scoring Procedures
- Use the APS Condensed Rubric to score each of the 6 Traits of Writing.
- Input the scores into Infinite Campus.
- After scoring the student papers, please provide the students with feedback and collect the essays.
Do You Want to Submit A Passage Based Prompt For Next Year? Email It To arhill@atlanta.k12.ga.us!
Professional Development Article
Special Events & Announcements
View web highlights from gadoe.org below:
The latest edition of the ELA Reporter can be found at the following link:
https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Documents/April-2015-ELA-Reporter.pdf
Free access to digital books all summer!
myON Reader has partnered with the Get Georgia Reading Campaign to provide every child in Georgia with FREE access anytime, anywhere to a library of more than 8,000 enhanced digital books with multimedia supports — over the entire summer. Access the books and find more information at the link above.
GaDOE announces 2015 Georgia Scholars
One-hundred and eighty-three graduating seniors from schools across Georgia have been recognized as 2015 Georgia scholars. Through this program, the Department identifies and honors high school seniors who have achieved excellence in school and community life. See the full list of scholars and learn more about the program at the link above.
National Agriculture Week contest winners named
As part of National Agriculture Week, which was celebrated March 15 to March 21, the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Department of Agriculture held a series of contests for students. The essay contest, poster contest, and coloring contest shared a theme: “Agriculture in my county and state: What does agriculture do for me?” More than 1,000 students from across the state participated, and a total of 12 winners have been selected. See the full list of winners, and scans of the winning entries, at the link above.
2016 Georgia Teacher of the Year Finalists announced
State School Superintendent Richard Woods has announced the finalists for 2016 Georgia Teacher of the Year. The 10 finalists were chosen from a pool of 151 applicants who were selected as the Teacher of the Year in their school districts. The applications were read by a panel of judges that included teachers, past Georgia Teacher of the Year winners and finalists, administrators, community leaders and others, and the finalists were chosen based on the strength of their essay responses. See the full list of finalists and learn more at the link above. We’re also highlighting each winner on our Facebook page – click here to follow along.
616 students win annual SkillsUSA contests
More than 2,000 students attended SkillsUSA Georgia’s annual State Leadership and Skills Conference, and 616 of them came away winners. From Superintendent Woods: “As we work to personalize education for all students, opportunities for hands-on career exploration could not be more important. I congratulate these student winners and commend every student who participated.” Learn more, and see the full list of winners, at the link above.
Dr. Alisha Hill, 6-12 Literacy Coordinator
ELA SharePoint: http://tinyurl.com/apsELAsite
Remind Updates: Text @aps612 to (678) 866-1954 and/or send an email to aps612@mail.remind.com.
Archived 6-12 Literacy Updates: https://www.smore.com/u/alishahill6
Email: arhill@atlanta.k12.ga.us
Phone: 404-802-2702
Twitter: @DrAlishaHill