Re: MCAS Writing

Posted by Shannon on 3/23/08

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The test is 2 days away and I'm definitely nervous. We have gone over
everything...the students are writing 5-6 paragraphs, revising, etc. We have also
practiiced numerous prompts and like you mentioned it takes several days to get
through the whole process. At our school, in late Feb. we have a MOCK MCAS day.
We give them a writing prompt (released item from another year) and let them do
it exactly the way they will on the real test day. I feel that it helps them a lot...to
know what to expect....to build up their endurance for writing such a long period
of time...and to know what it feels like to have to do the whole thing by
themselves. Then we grade the students using the MCAS scoring guide and meet
with each student to go over their score, strengths, weaknesses, etc. That way on
the real test day, we don't waste energy on the "unfamiliarity" of the whole
process. These are the 4th graders so it's their first time on Long Comp. The most
nerve-wracking part about this test is that it's one prompt and we cannot read it to
them...we have many ELL students and if they don't understand or misinterpret the
prompt at all, it is very easy for them to go off track even though they do their best
to use all the strategies and write the best composition that they can.
All we do tomorrow is just review as best we can and hope for the best!! Good
luck!!!
Shannon

Posts on this thread, including this one

• MCAS Writing, 2/20/07, by Christine.
• Re: MCAS Writing, 3/23/08, by Shannon.