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North Carolina Tenth Grade Writing Test. Objectives. Students will understand the NC Writing Test format, prompts, scoring and rubric. Who takes this test?. Any student who is listed as being in the tenth grade must take the NC Writing Test.
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Objectives • Students will understand the NC Writing Test format, prompts, scoring and rubric.
Who takes this test? • Any student who is listed as being in the tenth grade must take the NC Writing Test. • This is not an “English II” test. This is a school-wide test. You must take the test even if you are not enrolled in English II in Spring semester.
How long is the test? • Teachers are given about 15 minutes to set-up the test and read the prompt aloud to students. The teacher will read the prompt twice out loud before you begin writing. • Students are given 100 minutes (an hour and 40 minutes) to write.
Where and when is the test given? • You will be assigned to a classroom by homeroom teacher to take the Writing test. • You will take the NC Writing Test in early March.
Why do I have to take this test? • All tenth graders in the state of North Carolina take this test. • Your final grade in English II is dependent upon successful completion of the test.
What is the test on? • The Writing test analyzes your ability to use informational writing. • The two types of essays the state could ask that you write are: definition and cause or effect. • You do not get a choice of topics. It will be given to you on the day of testing.
What is informational writing? • You must explain reality or ideas so that the writer can teach the reader what they know. • A prompt introduces a problem or an issue to you. You may use the quotes or information provided, your own life, or literary examples to explain the answer to the issue presented.
Writing Test Sample Prompt • Look at your sample prompt. • Find the prompt given. Circle it. • Draw arrows to the quotes/information you are given for possible use in your essay.
Sample Prompt • Write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper in which you examine the effects of cell phone use on everyday life. You may use the following information, your own experiences, observations, and/or readings.
Sample Quotes and Information • All of the information in the text box is provided for you to use (if you want to) in your essay. • You do NOT have to use all of it or any of it, unless you would like to.
What are the types of prompts? • Definition • Cause • Effect
What if I get a Definition essay? • You define a key word or concept. • You go beyond the short, dictionary definition of a word to discuss the nature of something, how the word evolved, what the word is, denotations and connotations, and complexities and cultural characteristics of the word.
Examples of Definition prompts: • As a finalist for a civic group scholarship contest, write the speech you would give the local civic group defining prejudice.
Examples of Definition prompts: • Advertisements, commercials and magazines give a worldly definition of beauty to consumers. As the editor of a new magazine that will focus on inner beauty as opposed to outer beauty, write a letter to prospective readers that defines what beauty means to you.
What if I get a cause or effect essay? • You will examine the relationship between an event or circumstance and its cause or effect. • You are not asked to do both cause AND effect. It will be one or the other.
Examples of Cause/Effect prompts: • As a finalist for a civic group scholarship contest, write the speech you would give the local civic group on the causes of prejudice.
Examples of Cause/Effect prompts: • From the perspective of the Student Government Association, write a letter to your principal explaining the effect that a dress code would have on the morale of the student body.
How are these essays graded? • The grader uses two rubrics. • The first rubric is for the content of your essay (what you say). • The second rubric is for the conventions of your essay (how you said it). • The scores are combined and some fancy math is done to get your score.
Fancy Math Slide • Content rubric ranges from 1-4. • Conventions rubric ranges from 0-2. • Two people score your essay. They add their content scores together for a total content score. Then they add your conventions scores together for a total conventions score. • MATH: (Total Content) x 2 + Total Conventions = Writing Score • Then they convert that into Achievement Level 1-4.
Now what? (Total Content Score x 2) + Total Conventions Score = Total Writing Score (5 x 2) + 3 = 13
What they are grading on: • Focus • Organization • Support and Elaboration • Style • Conventions
10th Grade Writing Assessment Rubric • This is the rubric the grader will use to score your essay. • There is one rubric for content and one for conventions. • We will now use this rubric to score every essay we write in class.
How do I learn how to write a Level 4 essay? • Over the course of the next few months in class, your tenth grade English teachers will be teaching you how to focus, organize, support an essay using your own style and correct conventions to score a level 4!
Any more tips? • Attend school. If you aren’t here, we can’t teach you. • Do NOT write in text speak. If u r writin usin textin talk then youll get a bad grade cuz the test be graded by teachas…feel me? • There is a difference in essay writing and speaking, as well. Write like you are an adult.
Let’s check our objectives! • Do you: understand the NC Writing Test format, prompts, scoring and rubric?
