Tag Archives: Assessment(s)

PARCC RST Prep: How to Connect Note-taking to Sentence Writing

Posted on April 13, 2019 by

Whether you are in the throes of “test prep season” or not, it’s important to teach students how to take effective notes (i.e., brief and suited to the question at hand) and turn those notes into sentences (then paragraphs and … Continue reading →

Posted in ELA Common Core Standards, Instruction, Lesson-planning, Note-taking, Paragraph writing, PARCC, Research Writing, Test Prep, Uncategorized, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Use Rewordify.com to Make Your Life Easier

Posted on February 8, 2019 by

I’ve mentioned Rewordify.com before here. Now I’d like to emphasize how useful this Website can be! If you want to use a text that might be too much of a stretch for some students to read independently, you could copy … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), TLC Website Resources, Vocabulary, Vocabulary in Context | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Techniques and Tools for Vocabulary Instruction

Posted on August 8, 2018 by

When it comes to vocabulary instruction, teachers have many, many questions. Here are just a few: “How can I fit vocabulary in with everything else I have to do? How should I pick the words? What should my quizzes look … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Curriculum, Demo Lesson, ELA Common Core Standards, Instruction, Lesson-planning, TLC Website Resources, Vocabulary, Vocabulary in Context | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

PARCC ELA Prep Checklist

Posted on March 14, 2018 by

As a former high school English teacher who loves literature and loves to write, I do not believe in doing test prep 24/7. I believe tests are a genre, the same way that drama is a genre and poetry is … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), PARCC, Resources, Test Prep, TLC Website Resources | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

PARCC Releases 2017 Items!

Posted on February 22, 2018 by

Apparently PARCC recently released 2017 ELA materials. To be honest, I’m not sure when they did this because I have not received their newsletter in months (in fact, I’m not sure they still send out newsletters). So I found out … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Literary Analysis Writing, Narrative Writing, PARCC, Research Writing, TLC Website Resources, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Designing ELA PARCC Prep Materials That Fit in Your Curriculum”– SIGN UP NOW!

Posted on December 15, 2017 by

I’ll be presenting at NJPSA/FEA in Monroe Twp., NJ, all day on January 25! Here’s the blurb: Designing ELA PARCC Prep Materials That Fit in Your Curriculum Date: Jan 25, 2018 Time: 9am – 3pm Location: FEA Conference Center Presenter: … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Lesson-planning, Literary Analysis Writing, PARCC, Presentations, Professional Development, Research Writing, Resources, Unit-planning, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PARCC Prep: Literary Analysis Writing DEMO LESSON

Posted on February 22, 2017 by

As I’ve noted in posts about the PARCC Narrative Writing Task Lesson Cycle, the PARCC Literary Analysis Lesson Task Cycle, and Research Simulation Task Lesson Cycle, it’s really important to provide and explain models of the work we expect. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Close Reading, Compare and Contrast, Demo Lesson, Literary Analysis Writing, PARCC, Research Writing, Resources, Test Prep, Thesis Statements, TLC Website Resources | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PARCC Prep: More ELA Test Items Released

Posted on February 12, 2017 by

In case you don’t follow the PARCC newsletter, PARCC announced on Jan. 30, 2017 that they have released more high school test items. It appears that since their previous announcement on Dec. 2, (which I blogged about here), they also … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Literary Analysis Writing, Narrative Writing, PARCC, Research Writing, Resources, TLC Website Resources | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PARCC Prep: Suggested Writing Skills Tracker

Posted on February 3, 2017 by

If you are working with students on any of the three writing tasks, this Writing Skills Tracker may be helpful. For an Excel spreadsheet version of the table below, here’s the free downloadable parcc-writing-skills-tracker.  For more tools like this, please check … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Literary Analysis Writing, Narrative Writing, PARCC, Research Writing, Resources, Test Prep, TLC Website Resources, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PARCC Prep: Suggested Grading Conversion Charts for PARCC ELA Rubrics

Posted on February 1, 2017 by

As you probably know, the PARCC ELA Writing Rubrics have been revised a few times. I have previously blogged about the rubrics HERE. If you are trying to convert scores from PARCC ELA rubrics to grades for your grade book, … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment(s), Literary Analysis Writing, Narrative Writing, PARCC, Research Writing, Rubrics, Test Prep, TLC Website Resources | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment