RLA STAAR 2024 Practical Practice
3rd Grade - English II Reading Language Arts
What is in this Practical Practice?
- TEA-Released Informational Videos.
- *NEW* Teacher Shared Resources: Teachers in the classroom who have been successful with a resource or who've taken one that I've shared and made it their own are highlighted here!
- Short-Constructed Response & Extended-Constructed Response Tools: This collection of documents for Elementary to EOC will take you through the process of teaching how to respond to an SCR and an ECR with a strong structure, a clear answer, and relevant evidence in a way that students will remember.
- Strategy Videos, demonstrating how to work with students for STAAR preparation, will be labeled with STAAR-skill-specific keywords: Summarizing, Inferring, Identifying the Theme.
- Graphic Organizers that are addressed in the videos or those that may help your students will be attached as editable documents so that you can customize them for your own classroom.
- E-TOCs, Electronic Table of Contents, are grade-level collections of resources you can use in PLCs or individually for planning.
- Scoring Guides & Samples: These guides share information from the 2022 field test items: one Extended-Constructed Response and two Short-Constructed Response items. Prompts, student samples, and rubrics are included.
- *UPDATED* STAAR FAQ: When an educator emails or phones in a question, I answer it. That collection is here for all to learn from.
- Contact Information so that you can ask specific questions and request specific resources or strategies.
As an educator in Texas, you may visit TEA's STAAR Redesign page for a number of information documents and resources. TEA did release the "New Question Types Scoring and Reporting Guide - RLA" as well. This document clarifies the new item types and an explanation for the changes required to create STAAR 2.0.
The items found in this Practical Practice are a direct result of teachers asking for help for their students' specific needs. As the days and weeks go by, more resources will be added to this collection. High School STAAR Resources will continue to be added too. Thank you for partnering with us.
TEA-Released STAAR Information Videos
- STAAR FAQ: Constructed Responses (Extended-Constructed Response)
- (Spanish) ¿Cómo se califican las preguntas de respuesta construidas con precisión y consistencia en todo el estado? STAAR FAQ - CR Scoring Spanish
- STAAR FAQ: Equating the STAAR (Difficulty level of STAAR tests from year to year.)
- (Spanish) ¿Cómo sabemos que la prueba STAAR tiene el mismo nivel de dificultad cada año? STAAR FAQ - Equating - Spanish
- STAAR FAQ: Lexile Levels (Are they really grade-level appropriate?)
- (Spanish) ¿Cómo sabemos que los pasajes de STAAR son apropiados para el nivel de grado? STAAR FAQ - Lexile - Spanish
- 2023 STAAR Parent One-Pager Flyer (English)
- 2023 STAAR Parent One-Pager Flyer (Spanish)
- 2023 Página para Dar a los Padres
For more information to share with parents, visit TEA's STAAR Redesign Resources for Parents page or TEA's Recursos del Rediseño de STAAR para los Padres page.
Teacher-Shared Resources
Courtney Holdren of Tahoka ISD shared a Gimkit, vocabulary practice with the region. Open the links and review the Argumentative Vocabulary or Informational Vocabulary in a fun way! Great work and thank you, Courtney!
GIMKIT: Argumentative Vocabulary
GIMKIT: Informational Vocabulary.
Rachel Hood has shared her idea of reviewing STAAR Phrases in a unique way that engages students and helps them learn. Find a new way to help students understand what STAAR questions are asking by knowing the words: reveal, conclude, infer, function, indicate, and much more! She has also shared a review resource for Whole Test Terms and she even included a Teacher Key! Check out the links below.
Thank you, Rachel!
Click here for a Teacher-Created video of folding your Fortune Teller Review!
(Thank you to Jenny Henry of Whiteface ISD!)
- WEIRDO: (for Revision) "Don't choose a weirdo!" Words repeat. Everything moves. Information is deleted. Run-on sentences. Doesn't make sense. Off-topic.
- CUPS: (for Editing) Check your- Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, and Spelling.
- 1. 2. a. b. __ __ : (Multiple Choice Processing Strategy). 1. Whole or Part (of the text). 2. Look at the keywords. a. Content-specific vocabulary. b. Verbs. Which (of those that are left) are true and which are false?
- RACE: (Short-Constructed Response) Restate the question. Answer the Question. Cite Evidence. Explain how the evidence supports your answer.
- SWBST: (Summary) Someone... Wanted... But... So... Then...
- BME: (Sequencing) Beginning. Middle. End.
STAAR Reading & Writing Strategy PowerPoint.
Short-Constructed Response and Extended-Constructed Response Tools
Each grade-level passage has three steps and aligned sheets:
Answer the Question (Restate the Question is included.)
Citing Evidence
Explaining Your Answer
Each grade-level passage also has examples of Extended-Constructed Response prompts and an example response to the ECR example prompt.
Strategy Videos
Although there may be a grade level title with some of these videos, these strategies can be used with almost any grade level. Any slides or resources used will be listed beneath the title. You will be asked to make a copy of the resources for your own records.
Make an Inference in 5 Steps (Elementary)
Make an Inference in 5 Steps (Secondary)
The following steps may be needed for students who are having a hard time reading from a computer screen and annotating on a sheet of paper. Annotating and Questioning, Parts 1 and 2, serve as a step BEFORE annotating from a computer screen. If a student does not need this step, they can continue on to the following videos.
To ensure the originals stay intact, please make a copy to save to your Google Drive.
3-8 Argumentative Graphic Organizers
Retelling, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing Resources
Retelling, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing Slide Deck
Cheetah Paraphrasing Task Cards (PDF)
Cheetah Paraphrasing Task Cards (Publisher)
Blank Paraphrasing Task Cards (Publisher)
Gardening with Native Plants (Informational Passage)(PDF)
"It Says I Say" Paraphrasing Graphic Organizer
Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then (Graphic Organizer PDF)
Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then #2 (Graphic Organizer PDF)
Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then (Cut-Out Icons for Anchor Chart-PDF)
Summary Checks and Xs Slides. (Editable Slides)
The following documents are examples to be used as in the video. You may choose your own passages or those from released STAAR Assessments.
- Middle School: Student Handouts for Informational Texts
- Middle School: Informational Texts (Full Selections)
- Elementary: Student Handouts for Informational Texts.
- Elementary: InformationalTexts (Full Selections).
Electronic Table of Contents (E-TOCs)
The intent of the E-TOCs is to house multiple documents from STAAR Blueprints to STAAR Analysis sheets to Frequency Distributions and lots more.
2023 STAAR Preparation E-TOC: The documents and resources in these E-TOCs were used in the 2023 STAAR Reviews.
- 3rd Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- 4th Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- 5th Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- 6th Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- 7th Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- 8th Grade STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- English I STAAR Preparation E-TOC
- English II STAAR Preparation E-TOC
2024 STAAR Preparation E-TOC: The documents and resources in these E-TOCs were used in the February and March STAAR Reviews.
Scoring Guides & Samples
- RLA Grades 3-5 Constructed Response (10/7/22)
- RLA Grades 3-5 Constructed Response-Spanish (10/7/22)
- RLA Grades 6-8 Constructed Response (10/7/22)
- English I and II Constructed Response (10/7/22)
- STAAR Dictionary Policy (9/7/22)