District English Google Calendar

If you teach English in one of the SFSD high schools, the District English Google calendar was recently shared with you. Events on this calendar are updated regularly to reflect the most current information. As it is a Google calendar, you may choose whether or not you wish to allow it to show in your normal Google calendar by adjusting the settings. If you select to hide the calendar now, you may always go back into the settings and select to show it.

Information Available on This Calendar

For All English Teachers

*No School days

*Inservices

*Semester Test Previews

*Semester Tests

*Grading Windows

*Teacher Workdays

*Conferences

*Upcoming Professional Development Conferences (This is merely for information purposes as teachers must apply to the travel committee to attend these.)

*There are NO Director Called Meetings during a Curriculum Study, but starting in the fall of 2017, you will see DCMs on this calendar as well.

For Teachers on Curriculum Writing Teams

*Curriculum Writing Team meetings

*Due dates for curriculum components

District Assessment Resources

The wonderfully helpful Nicole Hansen from ATI shared out some resources for the assessment within our district. I've linked to the two that pertain to high school English below; the one caveat is that you must be logged-in to your k12 account to view these district files. If you happen to find one or some of them helpful, please make sure to thank Nicole!

South Dakota Assessment Portal resources folder includes:

• Authoring Help Guide
• Portal Help Guide
• Reporting Help Guide
• Scoring Help Guide
• Widget and Properties Help Guide

Smarter Balanced resources folder includes:

• Design Support Accommodations
• Online Reporting
• Test Security
• Testing Information
• Training Test Information
• User Guides

Semester Test Viewing Dates

Dr. Raeder will be hosting semester test previews starting this week. The test preview simply provides you with an opportunity to see the question types that are attached to the content standards and to see how they are worded. If you are unable to attend the preview scheduled for your building, you are welcome to attend a session at one of the other high schools. If none of the previews work for you, you are welcome to call ATI (605.367.6112) to set up a time to review the test. All 1st semester previews must be completed by November 30th, 2015.

You are invited to preview the District 1st semester tests at the following locations, dates, and times:

• Tuesday September 22nd – Roosevelt High School – 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. – Library
• Thursday, September 17th – Washington High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Library
• Thursday, October 29th – Lincoln High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Library (Please note the date change from the original email!)

For those of you who like to put everything on the calendar at once, you are invited to preview the District 2nd semester tests at the following locations, dates, and times:

• Monday February 8th –Roosevelt High School – 3:15 - 4:30 p.m. – Library
• Tuesday February 9th – Washington High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. -- Library
• Thursday, February 11th – Lincoln High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Library (Please note the date change from the original email!)

Semester Two Test Viewings

Although we have only just begun second semester, there have been many questions regarding the in-building viewings of the semester two tests. Here are the dates, times, and locations per Dr. Raeder's September email. Remember that you are welcome to attend the viewing at a building other than your own or at ATI if your buildng's date doesn't work for you.

You are invited to preview the District 2nd semester tests at the following locations, dates, and times:

·         March 3rd –Roosevelt  High School – 3:15  - 4:30 p.m. – Library

·         March 31st – Washington High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. -- A116/A117

·         April 7th – Lincoln High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. – Library

The test preview provides you with an opportunity to see the kinds of questions that are attached to the content standards and how they are worded. . .

If you are unable to attend any of these previews, you may call ATI (367-6112) to set up a time to view the test.  

Online Semester Tests Are Available for Semester 1

*This information is copied from the email that was sent out by the District on Monday, December 8, 2014. Please email either your department chair or myself if you did not receive the email as it does include two attachments.

The District Semester Tests are now available to be scheduled.  You will need to schedule several tests.  You will need to schedule an Essay test, the Multiple Choice test and, possibly, the Accommodation test.

1.)    The Essay test is available from December 17^th – December 22^nd.  Please create your individual testing windows to reflect this entire testing window to allow for makeups.  The Essay Test will be administered online.  The students will log in using their Essay Test passwords and enter their response on the right-hand side of the screen.

2.)    The Multiple Choice test is available from December 18^th – December 22^nd.  Please create your individual testing windows to reflect this entire testing window to allow for makeups. 

3.)    The Accommodation test is available from December 18^th – December 22^nd.  Please create your individual testing windows to reflect this entire testing window to allow for makeups.    This test is available for those students needing accommodations in which they would need to follow the paper copy of the test.  This test can be used for students needing a test read aloud in which a staff member could read from the paper copy while the student follows along on the screen.  This can also be used when a staff member, other than the student’s teacher, needs to transfer answers from a bubble sheet to the SDAP.

Each student will need to log into two tests; the Essay test and one of the Multiple Choice tests (the “… District Exam” test or the “… District Exam – Accm” test).

Tests to Schedule:

Accelerated English 2:

Acc English 2 S1 District Exam – Essay

Acc English 2 S1 District Exam

English I:

English 1 S1 District Exam – Essay

English 1 S1 District Exam

English 1 S1 District Exam – Accm

SDAP/eMetric Semester Tests

If you teach regular English I or accelerated English II, you may be interested in some (or all!) of the documents in the "2014-2015 Online Semester Test Documents" folder. (Most - if not all of you - should already have access to it through your Google Drive, but you can get quick access through this post.)

Items currently in this folder include:
*Chromebook iTester App Instruction Slide
*District Semester Test Administration Details (email from ATI)
*Essay Portion Online Directions (information from ATI)
*Fall 2014 Practice Test Details (email from ATI)
*How to Access SDAP from a Laptop or Desktop
*How to Restore the SDAP Icon on Chromebooks
*Scheduling a District Test (teacher-created cheat-sheet)
*Scheduling a Test You Created (teacher-created cheat-sheet)
*SDAP Teacher Directions Sem Test (from ATI)

As we learn more information about the online semester test process, I will add documents to the folder.

Online Semester Tests for 2014-2015

Just a reminder that regular English I and accelerated English II will be administering semester tests via the South Dakota Assessment Portal's secure browser. Here's a recap of the district information:

"A practice test will be available for each District Semester Test several weeks before the District Semester Test dates.  The tests will not necessarily be related to the content of the course and should not be graded.  The purpose of the practice tests is for students to become familiar with the process of taking a test online through the SDAP as well as for teachers to practice using ScoreNet to score the written portions of the test."

Accelerated English II

1.       Multiple Choice Test: Online

2.       Essay Test:  Students will enter their essay response online.  The Essay portion of the test will be administered the day before Semester Tests as in the past.  Teachers will use ScoreNet in the SDAP to enter the Essay score for each student.

English I

1.       Multiple Choice Test: Online

2.       Essay Test:  Students will enter their essay response online.  The Essay portion of the test will be administered the day before Semester Tests as in the past.  Teachers will use ScoreNet in the SDAP to enter the Essay score for each student.

Other Smarter Balanced Provided Support Documents

The Smarter Balanced website offers a few other support documents and resources.

Practice and Training Test User Guide: This document guides you through the tests. It also addresses the "TA (Test Administrator) Practice and Testing Site" option.

Activities: SB has provided some sample activities to practice the class-activity-before-the-test piece. All grade levels can be accessed here, but the single high school activity can be accessed directly here.

Performance Task Scoring Guides: There are multiple documents for each grade level, but the one that will probably be most helpful is the ELA Performance Task/Braille Performance Task. It explains how students earn points for each questions.

Performance Task Writing Rubrics: SB has provided their rubrics for all four possible writing types found in the Performance Task. They can be found at the bottom of this page.

Accessing the Smarter Balanced Practice Portal

Teachers are starting to think about (and ask about) the Smarter Balanced practice portal. Although you can access it through clicking multiple links from the SB homepage, you can also directly access the portal here. (For convenience, you may want to save the portal page as a bookmark if you plan to use it in class.)

• Once on the portal page, click on the green "Practice and Training Tests" box.
• On the Practice Test page, scroll down to find the two green boxes; click on the "Student Interface Practice and Training Tests" to access the practice test. (The other green box, "TA Practice and Training Site," is a practice site for test administrators.)
• Leave all information boxes as the pre-filled "GUEST" and click "Sign In."
• Select the proper grade and click "Yes."
• Select the appropriate practice test. (Click here to view a chart explaining the differences between the ELA HS Training Test and the ELA Practice Test.)
• Follow the rest of the directions on the screen to enter into the test.

High Frequency Verbs in the Common Core

This chart lists the verbs used in the CC standards and their frequency. (For example, analyze appears 73 times in the high school ELA CC standards.) Since this is the academic vocabulary of the standards, it is most likely to be the vocabulary found in the Smarter Balanced test questions. Something to keep in mind as you think about the academic vocabulary of your goals.

(The chart is a view-only PDF, but you may add a copy of it to your Google Drive.)

Semester Test Preview Dates for 2014-2015

You are invited to preview the District 1st semester tests at the following locations, dates, and times:

·         Wednesday, October 29 –Roosevelt  High School – 3:15  - 4:30 p.m. - Library

·         Thursday, October 30 – Washington High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. - Little Theater

·         Monday, November 3 – Lincoln High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. - Library

You are invited to preview the District 2nd semester tests at the following locations, dates, and times:

·         March 3rd –Roosevelt  High School – 3:15  - 4:30 p.m. - Library

·         March 31st – Washington High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. - A116/A117

·         April 7th – Lincoln High School – 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. - Library

The test preview provides you with an opportunity to see the kinds of questions that are attached to the content standards and how they are worded. If you are unable to attend the preview at your building, you are very welcome to attend a preview at another building. If you are unable to attend any of these previews, you may call ATI (367-6112) to set up a time to view your test(s).

Please keep in mind that all previews must be completed by November 30th for the first Semester.