Smarter Balanced Resources for HS Math Teachers

High School Math Teachers, There are new resources available for Smarter Balanced at: http://oaksportal.org/students/

These resources would be excellent preparation for getting your math students familiar with the SB interface they will be seeing this spring.


Practice Tests:
* Computer Adaptive Test (29 questions)
* Performance Task (7 questions)
* Practice Test (8 questions)
* Universal tools to explore like: Highlighter, Strikethrough options, Print size can be enabled
* Text-to-Speech can be enabled

Announcements: * Calculator for Grade 5 Science and Social Sciences, and Grade 6 Math (Basic) * Calculator for Grades 7 and 8 Math (Scientific) * Calculator for Grade 8 and High School Science and Social Sciences (Scientific/Graphing) * Calculator for Grade 11 Math and Grade 12 Math Retest (Scientific/Graphing/Regression) * Equation Editor Tutorial

Intro Videos http://www.smarterbalanced.org/k-12-education/teachers/

If you have any additional questions please contact Amy Slaughter at aslaught@pps.net or x74250.

Smarter Balance Reminders - Grade 3-5

Grades 3-5 Teachers,

There are new resources available for Smarter Balanced (SB) at: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/resources These resources would be excellent preparation tools for getting your students familiar with the Smarter Balanced Assessment interface they will be seeing this spring.

Math:

Few things to remember:

·         The Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) portion in grades 3-5 will be computer scored.

·         There is a performance task that students will be taking for their grade level.

·         No calculators or outside manipulatives can be used during the test

Things to do in preparation for the Smarter Balanced Assessment:

·         Have students take the practice test and use the Equation Editor: Equation Editor Tutorial

·         Give students an opportunity to explore the universal tools such as the highlighter, strikethrough options, and digital notepad

·         There will be different kinds of items on the CAT than just multiple choice, so students should be prepared to encounter multiple answer, grid,  manipulating objects and matching

·         Look at sample SB problems off the ODE page: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=3729

English Language Arts

Things to do in preparation for the Smarter Balanced Assessment

·         Have students take the practice test

·         Give students an opportunity to explore the universal tools such as highlighter, strikethrough options, and the zoom in and zoom out buttons.

·         Look at sample SB problems off the ODE page: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=3713 and http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?=3405

Intro Videos

 http://www.smarterbalanced.org/k-12-education/teachers/

Smarter Balanced Math Assessment

For more information click here.

A Closer Look at the ELA Smarter Balanced Assessment

PK-12 teachers interested in learning more about the ELA Smarter Balanced Assessment are invited to attend a drop-in class offered by Instruction, Curriculum and Assessment. This class will help teachers align their instruction with the shifts embedded in the Common Core. Teachers have the option to attend this class as a stand-alone session or as part of a 2-credit course focused on the development of ELA/DLI Language Arts performance tasks to use in their own classrooms.   To maximize learning, teachers may want to participate with grade-level teams.

Session 1: Smarter Balanced ELA Overview (PICK ONE)

Location: BESC, Windows Cafeteria

•   10/15 - 3:00 - 4:30

•   10/16 - 4:30 - 6:00

•   10/22 - 4:30 - 6:00

Sessions 2 - 7 (For 2 Graduate Credits): Designing and Implementing Performance Tasks

Sessions are all from 4:30-6:00 pm. See the syllabus for more details.

•   11/5 - Components

•   11/12 - Select Texts & Design Questions

•   11/19 - Write Essay & Select Rubrics

•   12/3 - Peer Review

•   2/4 - Return with student work & Score

•   2/11 - Score and Revise

•   2/18 - Next Steps and Celebrate

Assessing Depth of Knowledge in the Common Core

by Angela Hubbs

As educators and parents, we know our children will need critical thinking skills in order to be successful in college and career. It's not enough anymore for our children to be able to acquire and retain information -- they need to be able to think critically about that information, challenge it, apply it, and test it.

The following video is an example of a classroom activity aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Smarter Balanced Assessment Resources

We have had many requests about good resources for learning more about the different types of questions that students will see on the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Here are two helpful sites with sample questions from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium:

• Sample questions organized by Claim and question type
• Smarter Balanced Practice and Training Test portal (scroll to middle of the page and select the Take the Practice and Training Test button)