Keys to preparing students for the new Texas standardized S.T.A.A.R. Test

Well Chosen Ideas

The first key to getting a four on the new S.T.A.A.R. Test is development.....the D in D.O.C.  (Development, Organization, and Conventions)  

 The scoring guide is written and designed for teachers, because of its difficulty level.  Think about these points as you train your students this coming year in writing.  The ideas they choose must be very well chosen.  Since the graders have to score anywhere from 100 to 200 papers per day per person, it is crucial the students put some thought into their main points and ideas.   

Let me prove my point by sharing an experience I had once as a consultant.  I was asked to analytically score a hundred compositions for a campus and the prompt was, Write about a time you were proud.  Over 75 students chose to respond with the same idea!  They had just taken the benchmark in Reading and Math on the two previous days.  The majority of them wrote about being proud because they passed their benchmark tests!  If that is happening that often in ONE school, imagine what is happening at the state level with over 300,000 students!   

Allow me the opportunity to work with your campus/district in providing high quality research based staff development on writing original well thought compositions! Contact "The Write Prescription" for more information about in-school trainings.
Look at our products at www.thewriteprescription.com or on TpT under The Write Prescription/Bill MacDonald!