Learn to Write the Right Way!
Pep rally held for writing test
February 03, 2010
Fourth grade students and teachers held a pep rally Tuesday at Washington School. Students were not preparing for an athletic event, but for an academic event. Teachers developed a skit to show students the proper way to take the statewide writing assessment. Following the skit students were asked questions about six trait writing and organizing for the test and were given “Smarties” candy for knowing correct answers. Finally, all students were given Dilly Bars to remind them to not “dilly-dally” when taking the test. Teachers planned these fun strategies to remind students to use the skills they’ve learned and practiced in class to help them perform well on the assessment.
All students in 4th, 8th and 11th grades are required to take the statewide writing assessment. Students in these grades are given two forty minute periods to write a narrative story on a topic designated by the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) assessment office. Fourth grade students write a narrative essay, eighth grade students a descriptive essay and eleventh grade students a persuasive essay. Students base their writing on the six traits of writing taught by all classroom teachers. The six traits include voice, sentence fluency, conventions, organization, word choice, and ideas. Each student test is scored on these traits at the state level by two certified teachers trained by the NDE. Students are deemed proficient or not proficient based on the average of the two scores. Ratings based on these scores are released to the public and are used to rank school districts throughout the state.
In addition to the statewide writing assessment, students in grades 3-8 and 11 will take a state reading test this year in April. This test will be a multiple choice assessment administered on computer. In the next two years math and science assessments will be added by the NDE.
