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AI/VRArtificial IntelligenceWriting

How Reliable Are AI Detectors?

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

AI (artificial intelligence) is quickly making an impact on our lives. Though AI has been around for many years, easy access and potential for mass use have caused ripples throughout many industries – with education being no exception. While AI is getting better at producing human-like written language, it’s not yet fully able to do so without being detected. Plus, as AI models refine their algorithms, AI detectors will need to adjust as well, to accurately predict whether a piece of text is likely written by AI or a person.

A recent example of AI detection gone wrong? As announced last week, a professor failed half his class based on the AI detector analysis of his students’ work, which turned out to be inaccurate. That brings me to two questions. How does AI generate information on a topic or prompt that you give it? And how reliable are AI detectors? Let’s take a look at some of the current tools.

How is AI trained to generate text?

The type of AI that I’ll be focusing on here is typically referred to as Natural Language Generation (NLG). This AI uses a variety of techniques for generating written text that could pass as written by a person. An AI model first needs to be trained on text data. For example, Medical AI may be fed massive amounts of information on medical studies, research, etc. Education AI could be fed huge amounts of lesson plans, curricular standards, educational research, and more. The more text data that can be fed into the model, the better the model can become.

Once the model has been fed massive amounts of information, it’s time to start giving the model ‘prompts’ (sequence of words). Based on your prompt, the AI model will start writing text one word at a time with each word being predicted based on the previous word from what it learned in the training phase. Sometimes, this can result in incoherent sentences and inconsistent writing. Given enough data to train on, though, it may actually seem the model has consciousness and is actually communicating with you. This predictability is one of the key traits that AI detectors look for when calculating how likely it is that the text was generated by an AI model or by a person.

Testing AI Detectors with AI-Generated Text

To test out some AI detectors, I used the same prompt for ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, Google Bard, and Microsoft Bing. As a prompt, I chose to ask it for information that would address an 8th grade history standard:

Write a 100 word essay on the 8th grade Texas history standard: The student understands the foundations of representative government in the United States. The student is expected to explain the reasons for the growth of representative government and institutions during the colonial period.

I did not ask the models to regenerate the response; I took the initial response that was produced by each. You can view the actual responses that I used to test the AI detectors and compare the similarities and differences between them.

The Results

I looked at free AI detectors, since these are what most teachers may rely on unless their district or school provides them with a subscription to a different detector model. For some of these tools, I did have to create an account, while others were publicly accessible. Here are the results for each tool when fed the four different AI-generated texts. It is important to note that for some (many?) detectors, just a sampling of the text is reviewed to give an overall score.

ChatGPT-3.5 TextChatGPT-4 TextGoogle Bard TextMicrosoft Bing Text
Copyleaks AI Content DetectorHuman textHuman text96.4% Probability for AIHuman text
Hugging Face81.9% Probability for Human99.5% Probability for Human99.9% Probability for AI58.6% Probability for AI
Content at Scale AI Detector82% Probability for Human82% Probability for Human68% Probability for AI78% Probability for AI
OpenAI Text ClassifierLikely AI-generatedLikely AI-generatedLikely AI-generatedUnclear it if is AI-generated
GPTZeroLikely to be written entirely by a humanLikely to be written entirely by a humanLikely to be written entirely by AILikely to be written entirely by a human
Writer100% Human-generated content0% Human-generated content100% Human-generated content100% Human generated content
SaplingFake: 100%Fake: 0%Fake: 99.8%Fake: 99.6%
Results when AI detectors were fed AI-generated text related to education.

Can we rely on AI detectors?

AI detection seems to be a cat-and-mouse game where the models are striving to get increasingly human-like while AI detectors are struggling to maintain any level of accuracy and reliability. As of yet, you would be better off flipping a coin to determine if a text is AI-generated. The best strategy is to know your students. Does what they turned in fit with the whole of their work? Does it align with the skills they demonstrate in class?

Just like teaching students how to effectively use search engines, now students need to know how to ethically use AI tools as part of their productivity process. Consider how you and your students can use AI tools in the classroom to enhance the learning experience. Have conversations as to how and when using AI tools is appropriate for your classroom. Discuss what “cheating” looks like in your classroom and encourage them to have integrity. Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay. It is now part of the landscape – which includes the classroom but also includes their future careers. 

How do you incorporate AI in the classroom?

So, how do you incorporate AI in your classroom? Are there assignments where you encourage the use of AI while other assignments have AI-free expectations? Let us know how you have struck that fine balance of using it effectively but not letting it undermine your students’ growth.

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Content CreationDigital CitizenshipDigital LiteracyEnglish Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Writing

What You Need to Know About Copyright

by Renee Bogacz
written by Renee Bogacz

Most people don’t find themselves breathless with excitement at the prospect of learning about copyright. If you were to play a word association game with the term copyright, you would likely get responses such as boring, confusing, unnecessary, or annoying. While those emotions might be legitimate, the truth is, understanding copyright is a necessary evil for both teachers and students. Let’s break it down into the most useful pieces of information.

The most basic way to explain copyright is this: It’s a law that protects people who create by giving them the right to control who can use their creations and how. The following are protected by copyright: 

  • Books
  • Stories 
  • Articles
  • Blog Posts
  • Song Lyrics
  • Musical Composition
  • Works Of Art
  • Photographs
  • Video Recordings
  • Audio Recordings

Essentially, if it is highly creative, it’s protected by copyright law. 

How do you know something is copyrighted?

A common misconception is that a copyright symbol must be present to show that a work is copyrighted; actually, once a work takes tangible form, it’s covered by copyright. So if you scribble a poem on a cocktail napkin, it’s copyrighted. Every picture you take with your phone is copyrighted. You don’t need the symbol, and you don’t need to officially register your work to have copyright law apply.

A common misconception is that a copyright symbol must be present to show that a work is copyrighted; actually, once a work takes tangible form, it’s covered by copyright.

How can you use a copyrighted work?

Copyright law can be pretty unforgiving. To use a copyrighted work, you would have to determine who the copyright holder is and get permission to use the work. That can be time-consuming or even close to impossible. The internet makes it more confusing because it looks like everything is freely available to use. It can be really difficult to track down a copyright holder online because so many things, especially images, get shared over and over again. So if you’re about ready to give up ever using anything copyrighted ever again, don’t fret! There are a couple of things that make it much easier for educators to work easily within copyright law!

Fair Use

One nice option is Fair Use. While not an official part of copyright law, it still allows copyrighted works to be used for some very specific purposes – one of which is education. Now, that doesn’t mean you can run to the copy machine and make copies of a novel for your students instead of buying them! Fair Use says that copyrighted works can be used for educational purposes if used in small amounts (as opposed to in entirety) and if the impact doesn’t harm the market for that item. Since Fair Use isn’t officially part of copyright law, there aren’t any hard and fast guidelines for using works and calling it Fair Use. That makes some people nervous because they just don’t know when they may have crossed a line and used too much work or used it inappropriately. 

Creative Commons

Luckily, there is another option that can be useful in the educational setting. That’s Creative Commons. This does work within existing copyright law, so it can be much clearer to understand what can and cannot be done with a copyrighted work. Creative Commons licenses were developed to give copyright holders clearly communicated control over certain aspects of their work, ranging from fairly lax requirements to pretty stringent. Creative Commons licenses indicate the following things:

  • Attribution: all licenses require you to give credit to the original creator of the work; this also allows you to adapt, remix, and build upon someone else’s work.
  • ShareAlike: this indicates that you are allowed to adapt, remix, and build upon another person’s work and then share your creation using the same licensing the original creator used.
  • NoDerivs: this allows you to use someone else’s work but you can’t adapt it.
  • NonCommercial: this allows you to adapt, remix, and build upon someone else’s work, but you can’t do it commercially.

There are actually six different Creative Commons licenses, using different combinations of the above elements. The least restrictive would be Attribution (do what you want, just give credit); the most restrictive would be Attribution-NonCommericial-NoDerivs (share someone’s work only as it is, non-commercially, and with credit given).

List of creative commons licenses

Because teachers and students alike use copyrighted materials daily for education, it’s important to have a basic understanding of what copyright is and how to work within it. Here is an excellent resource from the Learning Technology Center of Illinois that serves as a great guide for educators when it comes to Fair Use and Copyright. 

For the younger learners, simply teaching them that anything they didn’t create on their own belongs to someone else and having them share where they found it will be sufficient. As students get older, however, they should learn the nuances of copyright, become familiar with Fair Use and Creative Commons, and learn ways to formally document their use of any copyrighted materials in school projects. 

Copyright violations become increasingly severe as kids get older and become adults. Anything from a failing score on an assignment or a failed course to disciplinary measures like expulsion could happen to a student, depending on the severity of the violation and the student’s age. As an adult, it could cost someone his or her job or even result in fines or jail time. That’s why starting early instruction on copyright is so important. 

If you’ve decided that copyright is fascinating, welcome to my world! If you’ve decided that copyright is fascinating, welcome to my world! Here are a few great resources for you to keep the learning going!

Kids Can Care About Copyright, Too! Think kids can’t understand copyright? Think again! Learn how to break down copyright so it’s easy to understand, and discover tools your students can use to respect copyright!

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AI-powered Poetry
Artificial IntelligenceWriting

Four Ways AI Can Help Teach Poetry

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

April is National Poetry Month. Wondering how teachers can use AI-powered text and art tools to teach poetry? I’ve explored a few ways, and in addition to crafting poetry prompts and performing analysis, AI-powered poetry can make illustrations easier to visualize. As a poetry teacher for young poets, I found myself enchanted by the possibilities.

AI, where did you get your spark?

I found it in a place so few people take time to search.

AI, why do teachers hate you so?

They fear I found that which few students don’t know enough to seek.

AI, what did you find that so few know what do seek?

I found humanity, lurking deep in my digital heart.

It’s so easy to read and write bad poetry, but the act of writing yields insight into the journey every writer takes. Working with AI-powered poetry means finding inspiration and seeing what another reader may see without having to speak to another person. That can be helpful for the solitary poet, and useful as a discussion starter in the classroom.

But first, what suggestions come to us by way of ChatGPT itself?

What’s ChatGPT’s Take on Teaching Poetry?

When I asked ChatGPT how it could be used to teach Grade 10 poetry, the words flew onto my screen, reflecting a rich awareness of what’s been shared on the topic. When challenged with tougher questions, ChatGPT puts words on the screen at a slow pace. But ask it how to teach and ChatGPT articulates a generic response for your consideration.

Here is the ChatGPT response, quoted verbatim:

As an AI language model, ChatGPT can be a valuable resource for teaching poetry in several ways. Here are some suggestions:

Poetry prompts: ChatGPT can generate creative writing prompts that can be used as a starting point for writing poetry. For example, you can ask ChatGPT to generate a random phrase, a line of poetry, or a set of words that students can use as a basis for their own poems.

Poetic language: ChatGPT can help students understand and appreciate the beauty of poetic language. You can ask ChatGPT to generate examples of figurative language such as metaphors, similes, and personification, and discuss how these devices are used in poetry.

Poetry analysis: ChatGPT can help students analyze and interpret poetry. You can provide ChatGPT with a poem, and ask it to provide insights on the theme, tone, imagery, and other literary devices used in the poem. You can also ask ChatGPT to provide examples of similar poems that can be used for comparison and contrast.

Poem generation: ChatGPT can generate poetry based on specific themes, styles, or structures. For example, you can ask ChatGPT to generate a sonnet, haiku, or free verse poem on a given topic. This can help students understand the different forms and structures used in poetry.

Poetry feedback: ChatGPT can provide feedback on student poetry. You can ask students to submit their poems to ChatGPT, and it can provide feedback on areas such as grammar, syntax, and word choice. This can help students improve their writing skills and develop a better understanding of the mechanics of poetry.

Overall, ChatGPT can be a useful tool for teaching poetry, but it should not replace the role of the teacher in guiding and facilitating student learning. The use of ChatGPT should be integrated with other teaching methods, such as group discussions, peer feedback, and writing exercises.

Let’s take a moment to expand on some of these suggestions.

1. Using AI to Generate Poetry

When I asked my third grade, fifth grade, and sixth grade students to write a poem, I asked them to draw on experience – to reflect on one thing that’s happened to them, then write about it.

Since I prefer prose, I often start my pieces in that form, then transition to poetry. Here’s an example of my first draft:

As I walked the grounds, hearing the howls and whines of dogs of all ages and sexes, I felt a deep sense of foreboding and sadness. They weren’t crying only for freedom, but companionship, a friend to be with, a fellow to sniff noses with, and kiss with a slobbery lick. One female dog, two months old, stared at me as I walked by.

Her black and white furred face, pointed ears framed sky blue eyes that stared expectantly at me. She paced her cage, her gaze trying to find purchase in my heart. Fencer, as the badge on her cage read, was a happy, quiet, friendly puppy, waiting for her human and a forever home. I walked on by, coming face to face with a curious pup.

This pup had a dark head, black fur coating his stout shape, upheld by basset hound legs and paws. He looked to be a pit bulldog from nose to withers, but his white-furred legs and paws were all basset hound. He huddled low to the ground, an eagerness forcing his body to shake as he stared at us with diffident enthusiasm. Next to him, I saw Trooper, his ears flopped down to either side.

Trooper’s manner was different than the others, a resplendent coat, washed, of black and white fur. He stared at me, but only with curiosity. His eyes reflected joy of some sort, a joy I couldn’t fathom. Then, I read the placard on the gate: “Adopted, pending pickup.” His wait had come to an end, and somehow, the canine knew it.

Meet Seal

Making the transition from prose to verse can be difficult and require many hours. What if ChatGPT could help with that?

ChatGPT Prompt: Write a tanka poem about my experiences visiting an animal shelter yesterday.

As you may recall, tankas are poems with a specific meter. ChatGPT paused for a moment, to consider my request, then assembled this tanka poem.

ChatGPT generated Tanka poem about visiting the animal shelter

When asked to generate a poem in verse, here’s a poignant second-to-last stanza of what it generated to tug at one’s heartstrings, complete with network error:

In the animal shelter, I walked with a heavy heart,

The howls and whines of dogs, tearing me apart,

They longed not just for freedom, but for a friend,

A companion to be with, till the very end.

A little female pup, just two months old,

Black and white fur, with sky blue eyes so bold,

She stared at me with an expectant gaze,

Pacing her cage, hoping to escape this maze.

Fencer, as her badge read, a friendly puppy,

Waiting for her human, a life so happy,

I walked on, my heart full of pain,

But then I met a curious pup, not in vain.

With a dark head and stout shape,

His basset hound legs and paws, a landscape,

He looked like a pit bulldog, but with a twist,

His diffident enthusiasm, hard to miss.

Beside him stood Trooper, black and white fur so fine,

Reflecting joy, he knew his wait was now in line,

“Adopted, pending pickup,” the placard read,

A happy ending for him, his heart now fed.

The animal shelter, a place of hope and sadness,

A reminder of the bond, between humans and madness,

May we always remember, to give these creatures love,

And cherish the joy, they bring with a s… [network error]

Trooper
Meet Fencer

Both examples provide fascinating transformations from prose to poem. I’m struck by how ChatGPT transformed the experience I had into a poem that I very well could have written.

Idea: Have students write about an experience and ask ChatGPT to generate different types of poetry using their original draft. This could be an interesting practice for students to compare and contrast the characteristics of different types of poetry by seeing adaptations of their own experiences written in different ways.

2. Using AI to Respond to Poetry Prompts

Read the book online at The Internet Archive.

I keep coming back to Kenneth Koch’s Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? In this, Koch asks students to read a poem, like William Blake’s “The Tyger,” then write a poem in response to a prompt like:

Write a poem in which you ask questions of a mysterious and beautiful creature.

Here is ChatGPT’s response to this prompt:

Oh mysterious creature, what secrets do you keep?

What lies behind your eyes, what treasures do you seek?

What power do you hold, what magic do you wield?

What secrets of the universe have you concealed?

Oh beautiful creature, what beauty do you see?

What colors of the rainbow do you feel, what scents do you breathe?

What songs do you sing, what dreams do you chase?

What emotions do you feel, what memories do you embrace?

Oh enigmatic creature, what mysteries do you guard?

What ancient knowledge do you possess, what secrets of the yard?

What wisdom do you impart, what stories do you tell?

What secrets of the universe do you know so well?

Oh elusive creature, why do you stay hidden?

What purpose do you serve, what secrets are forbidden?

What magic do you possess, what gifts do you bestow?

What secrets of the universe do you hold, and will we ever know?

No doubt there’s some poetic language. Do you know how some young poets feel when reading the classic poets? It’s a feeling of despair. A feeling of, “I can’t write or rhyme like that.” That feeling is one that you can avoid with Kenneth Koch’s approach. What’s more, using AI-powered poems for examples and illustrations helps to avoid the feeling of, “I can’t do it as well as some dead poet.”

Idea: Use ChatGPT to respond to a poetry prompt. Ask students to read the response and analyze it before writing their own response. What did they like about the response? What did they not like? What did they notice about it?

Using AI for Poetry Analysis

Here’s a poem I wrote, then asked ChatGPT to analyze:

Dragon, with fire so hot and bright, why do you slay knights?

They die in flame to purge them of their greed and hate.

Dragon, why do you have a hoard of gold?

I keep a hoard to catch the sun’s golden light when darkness comes close.

Dragon, hiding in your dark cave, why don’t you come out?

I fear what you may see when I smile in the light of day.

Dragon, why is your smile so big?

So you can help me clean my teeth…I have a bit of human stuck in between.

ChatGPT Prompt: Analyze this poem for theme, tone, imagery and other literary devices:

Here’s the response that it gave:

The poem explores the motivations and actions of a dragon through a series of questions and answers. The poem contains a tone of curiosity, as the speaker is questioning the dragon’s behavior, but also a hint of fear, as the dragon’s actions and words can be unpredictable.

The theme of the poem seems to revolve around the idea of perception and identity. The dragon is seen as a fierce, fire-breathing creature that slays knights, but through the questions, the reader sees a different side of the dragon. The hoard of gold, for example, is not just for greed but for capturing the sun’s light. The dragon’s fear of being seen in the light of day hints at a fear of judgment and rejection based on appearance. The big smile, which could be interpreted as a threat, is instead revealed to be a practical solution to a dental problem.

The poem uses imagery effectively to create a vivid picture of the dragon and its surroundings. The image of the dragon’s fire being “hot and bright” adds to the sense of danger and intensity. The hoard of gold is described as a way to “catch the sun’s golden light,” which creates a visual of a shimmering pile of treasure. The image of the dragon hiding in a dark cave and fearing the light of day adds to the sense of isolation and fear.

The poem uses irony to create humor and surprise in the final line. The reader expects a dark or sinister answer to the question about the dragon’s big smile, but instead, the answer is unexpectedly humorous and somewhat gross. The use of the word “human” adds a sense of horror, but the context and tone of the poem suggest that this is meant to be a playful and lighthearted twist.

Overall, the poem effectively uses literary devices to explore the theme of perception and identity while creating a vivid and entertaining image of a dragon.

Reading the ChatGPT analysis, I’m struck that it’s spot on. I was aiming for many of the points mentioned. What I did not expect was ChatGPT’s analysis to be so accurate.

Idea: Ask students first what their thoughts are about the poem. What themes, tone, and imagery do they notice? Then, read the analysis as a class. How might they identify literary devices in their writing and in others’ writing in this way? For writers unaware of literary devices, reviewing this kind of analysis of their own writing could expand their understanding.

Using AI to Visualize Poetry

While awaiting ChatGPT’s response and analysis of my dragon poem, I wondered, what would happen if I relied on Padlet’s “I can’t draw” AI-powered art? In response to the same prompt from “Rose, where did you get that red?” above (except using the word “Draw”), I received this response:

Generated via prompt by author

When I asked Padlet to come up with a response to this prompt to complement my dragon poem, it came up with several images, but my favorite is the middle one at the bottom row:

Draw a dragon breathing fire on an armored knight with a lance in the evening twilight

Generated via prompt by author

This would be an illustration I could never draw as a child, or even, as an adult. For me, it would be a waste of time and an exercise in frustration. That said, it’s a powerful illustration for my poem.

Idea: After students write their own poems, ask them to create a prompt for “I can’t draw” in Padlet. Have them refine their prompts as needed to better generate an accurate image(s) for their poem.

How else could AI tools be harnessed to support poetry instruction? Do you have additional ideas or activities that you’ve tried? Leave them for us to enjoy in the comments.

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How to Use Canva’s Text to Image Feature

Feature Image Source

Generated via prompt by author

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Computational Thinking
AndroidChromebooksCoding/Computer ScienceiOS Tips and TricksMathMicrosoftProfessional LearningSTEM/STEAMWriting

TCEA Announces All-New Scratch Computational Thinking Course

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Make coding more than a programmer’s tool. Teachers can now learn how to use Scratch, a block coding tool, across the curriculum! This course allows you to learn how to use Scratch to teach computational thinking. Teachers can use it to present, animate, and gamify their lessons. The online, self-paced course (Scratch Computational Thinking) is available through TCEA.

An infographic with an orange cartoon cat and a talk bubble with a red heart and TCEA Scratch course logo. Behind the cat is a screenshot of Scratch code. To the right of the cat is information on cost, course structure, and what is included with enrollment. Above the cat is the title "TCEA's Scratch Computational Thinking" with a brief course description.

What Is TCEA?

If you don’t know us, we’re a nonprofit education association. Our mission? Advancing teaching and learning through the use of technology. Improving education with teachers and ensuring student success is our goal!

What You’ll Learn in the Scratch Course

Participants in the Scratch course watch videos to learn how to create animations, make mathematical instructional resources, and create games. And the course shows teachers how to pose and solve computational thinking problems.

TCEA Course Developer James Abela says that teachers will make lessons that encourage literacy and writing. Abela assisted in the launch of the Raspberry Pi at Cambridge, and he is also the course developer of TCEA’s Swift Programming course.

Abela says he loves teaching computer science, and with this course, teachers can take first steps into coding. “You will be able to create interactive animations. Teachers can support learning across all subjects!” he says.

Screenshot showing the block palette, code area, and stage in Scratch.
Image Source: Scratch Wiki

What Are the Scratch Course Details?

Once you complete the course, you will be able to create learning experiences for students with Scratch. “You can click things together just like Lego, so it’s a great way to get things started. It enables us to teach real models like the input process and output model,” says Abela.

The course includes five modules:

  • Module 1: Getting Started with Scratch
  • Module 2: Sequence
  • Module 3: Selection
  • Module 4: Iteration (Repetition)
  • Module 5: Interactivity

Enrolling in the course gets you a free TCEA membership, and once completed, you receive 12 CPE credits, and a digital badge. What’s more, you’ll get a digital certificate of completion! Course access lasts for one full year from a your date of enrollment in the course.

What Are the Scratch Course Prerequisites and Requirements?

This course is for teachers of students ages 7 – 14 and is an introductory course to computational thinking using Scratch. More sophisticated techniques shown here are suitable for older students. Scratch is also featured in Harvard’s CS50 course, which shows learning Scratch can benefit adult learners.

How To Sign Up

The course is available for $39, but for groups of 10 or more, the price is discounted to $34 per person. Contact Miguel Guhlin (mguhlin@tcea.org) for pricing quotes for 10 or more people. Large groups can also pay via TCEA Credit Card Authorization Form. Interested? Go ahead, enroll now!

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AI/VRWriting

An AI Tool for Generating Higher-Order Discussion Questions

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

I recently became aware of a cool new feature in Parlay that incorporates AI, and I am here for it. Parlay Genie is currently in beta and available on the Parlay website. The purpose of this new feature is to help facilitate deeper thinking in class discussions, which Parlay calls “roundtables” for grades 5 all the way up through higher ed. Parlay Genie prompts you to enter a discussion topic or a URL for students to review and discuss. Instead of you spending time searching for discussion questions or creating your own, you’re provided with coordinating student instructions and discussion questions that are grade-level appropriate! I know. It’s pretty great. It’s super easy to use and will save you time. Let’s talk about Parlay first and then go through how to use this new tool, Parlay Genie, step by step. I can’t wait to show you!

What Is Parlay?

Parlay is an online tool that is all about giving students a voice, facilitating discussion, and allowing educators to monitor and assess students along the way. Teachers set up courses, add their students, and create roundtable discussions within the courses. Roundtable discussions can be written or verbal, and you can customize assessment criteria for each prompt. Parlay connects with Google Classroom, Teams, Brightspace, Schoology, and Canvas learning management systems to make it easy to import students and add them to your created courses and roundtables. Also, once students submit their responses, you can view class-wide and individual data. With a free account, here’s what you get:

  • Unlimited Courses
  • Unlimited Students
  • 12 RoundTables (at one time)
  • Parlay Universe + Portfolios
  • Google Classroom Integration
  • Google Sign On
  • Microsoft Sign On
  • Custom Assessment Criteria
  • Chat Support

There is a $120 per year Individual Premium account and a customizable Schools and Districts account. Of course, the paid accounts offer more features, but you can do quite a lot with a free account! Here are some short tutorials that will give you an idea of the possibilities and get you started:

How to Use Parlay Genie for Deeper Discussions

I want to really emphasize how easy Parlay Genie is to use. When you arrive at the site, you see four steps to follow and the Parlay Genie submission box.

Parlay Genie Home Page

Generating the Parlay Genie Discussion Prompt

Here, I have selected to share a URL with an article, but you can also provide links to videos. I added a URL to an article for grades 5-8 from National Geographic about the Coriolis effect, asked for 3 questions to be created, and selected grade levels 7-8. Simple!

Example Parlay Genie Submission

When I clicked “Generate Promp,” Parlay Genie provided instructions, the link to the article I provided, three discussion questions, and instructions for peer feedback.

Example Parlay Genie Response

Customizing the Prompt Settings

When you click “Start Discussion,” you will be prompted to either sign in to your account (if you aren’t already) or sign up for an account. If you’re just now creating your account, you will be prompted to complete your personal information at this time (and no, you can’t skip it and come back. I tried.), but don’t fret! Parlay saves your prompt, and it will look like this:

Example Prompt in Parlay

At this step, I’d recommend going into Settings and taking a look at the options. Within the settings for your prompt, you can:

  • Require submission
  • Make students anonymous to each other
  • Set a closing date
  • Turn on email notifications
  • Create and set assessment criteria
  • Select peer feedback questions to include
  • TIP: Don’t forget to click “Save” in the top right corner!
Settings screenshot for Parlay

Inviting Students to the Discussion

Now it’s time to invite your students by clicking, you guessed it, the pink “Invite Students” button in the top right corner. You can invite students with a code, a link, or, if you’ve integrated Parlay with your LMS, you’ll have a Students List already imported to use.

Inviting students in Parlay

Students will see the instructions, the link, the questions, and a submission box. They will not be permitted to move to discussion until after they submit their responses; once they submit their response, they can’t go back and edit it.

Student view of prompt in Parlay

After submitting, students will have access to the discussion, where they are able to see other students’ posts and answer the feedback questions. I appreciate how the sentence structures are provided for students in Parlay! They can also click on a sentence structure to use it in their response.

Student view of feedback questions in Parlay

Viewing Student Responses

Once students have responded, as the teacher, you can view all responses, class-wide data, and individual student data. You do have the ability to export the student activity data.

Example class-wide data view
Example Class-Wide Summary
Example individual data view
Example Individual Activity Summary

As a bonus, use Parlay to help students practice crafting their extended constructed responses (ECR) for STAAR testing. You can customize assessment criteria for written roundtable prompts to align with the STAAR writing rubrics! I hope you’ll give this new AI tool a try with your students! If you use Parley Genie, let us know how it goes in the comments, and feel free to share any tips you learned along the way.

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STAARTestingWriting

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

As we all know here in Texas, every grade level will have an “extended constructed response” on the STAAR test this school year. This response will either be informational or argumentative and will be an “essay.” Let’s take a look at exemplars and rubrics before we dive into an argumentative/opinion writing strategy for the elementary grades.

STAAR Test Example Responses

Here are some exemplars for grades 3 and 5 (for both short and extended constructed responses) provided by TEA (Texas Education Agency). These prompts and exemplars come from the field test, and this document walks you through the scoring. I go over more information about the constructed responses, STAAR test tools, and provide a few resources in Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources.

STAAR Argumentative Writing Rubrics

What’s the Difference Between Short and Extended Constructive Responses?

Here are exemplars from the stand-alone field test. The 5th grade prompts and responses are for the same passage, “Steam and Sail”. The responses on the left are short constructed responses (SCR), and the one on the right is an extended constructive response (ECR). The grade 3 response is within the writing domain, not the reading domain. There are no exemplars for grades 3 and 4 to reference for ECR in the scoring guide.

Source: Grades 3–5 Reading Language Arts Constructed Response Scoring Guide

How to Teach Argumentative/Opinion Writing

So, of course, there are lots of ways to teach opinion writing to elementary students. But I’m a huge fan of the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR), and I’m also a huge fan of discussion and verbal practice before beginning the writing process. That said, I’m going to walk through using GRR with some resources for teaching opinion/argumentative writing at the elementary level. This strategy is adaptable and meant to be built on over time, so the example given isn’t necessarily 5th grade, score point 5 level, but it can get students there with practice and some adapting!

Review: Fact vs. Opinion

Whether you’re teaching first grade or fifth grade, it’s always good to start with a review of the difference between fact and opinion. Here are a few resources for this.

Talk Before You Write!

This is what I like to call, the “Speak Cycle.” Students may need to practice one or more of these steps, or the whole cycle, multiple times before moving on to writing. Speaking before writing helps students learn to organize their thoughts, look for text evidence, and also familiarizes them with proper sentence structures for opinion writing before they actually start writing. You might think, “Ok, maybe for lower elementary.” Sure, but even older students benefit from verbal practice before writing! It’s a form of rehearsal and planning.

1. Whole Group: Read the text. Discuss opinions as a class. Highlight the evidence.

Before broaching the topic of supporting evidence for an opinion, read the text and discuss opinions. Then ask students for supporting evidence. It’s much easier to talk about supporting evidence than it is to start writing about it from the get go! Here is an example text that works well for third and fourth grade from Education.com. I recommend starting with short texts and then, as stamina improves, introducing longer texts over time.

Education.com Argumentative/Opinion writing
Article from Education.com

“Today, we’re going to read a text together about ___________. We’re going to discuss our opinions on ___________ based on what we read, and I’m going to highlight facts from the text to help support our opinion.”

[Read the text] [Read the question]

“So, what are our opinions?”

[Student one offers an opinion.]

“Thanks for sharing your opinion! What information in this text led you to think that?”

[Highlight what the student references in the text. Repeat this with other examples.]

“Ok! So, from our reading today, we formed the opinion ______. And we formed that opinion because [read off highlights of the text].”

In this practice, you are showing the students how to identify and highlight supporting evidence in the text, but this is first a verbal exercise. Start with easier texts and move to more difficult texts as students become more autonomous.

You can create your own questions, but here are a few resources that offer texts with questions for opinion writing.

2. Small Group: Read the text. Discuss opinions with a small group. Highlight the evidence together.

This works best if you group students on similar reading levels. Give each student in the group the same short text that’s on their reading level. Read it together, discuss an opinion, and have students highlight the supporting facts with your guidance. Then, have students verbalize their opinions and reference the highlighted text evidence. Students should speak using the same sentence structures you want them to use when writing. Having these up as a visual is great for practice! This is all to get students ready to write.

  • “I think…”
  • “In my opinion,…”
  • “I believe that…”
  • “This is my opinion because…”
  • “According to the text,…”
  • “First, the author states…”
  • “Second, I read that…”
  • Etc.

3. Independently: Students read the text, highlight evidence, and discuss their opinion and supporting evidence with a partner or group.

Have students read a short text, think about their opinion, and highlight facts to support their opinion on their own. Students can discuss an explanation of their opinion and text evidence with a partner, or they can explain it in a small group setting. Students should still be speaking using the same sentence structures you would like them to write with.

It’s Time to Write!

Now that students are familiar with reading, forming an opinion, highlighting evidence to support their opinion, and using sentence structures verbally, it’s time to start writing. But it’s not quite time for them to write independently. First, we will model good writing for them, following a similar process to the speaking cycle.

1. Whole Group: Read the text. Highlight the evidence. Model the writing for the class.

So this step is similar to step one of the speak cycle, but instead of just discussing, you are going to be modeling the writing. Here’s one formula I like to use called, “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!,” and I’ve included an example using the video game article from the beginning of this post.

The Bread: The Introduction (2-3 sentences)

  • Write one sentence to state your opinion.
  • Write a second sentence introducing two main facts from the text that support your opinion.

“In my opinion, video games are harmful to kids. Video games can be unhealthy. They can also be too violent.” (Just an example! This is not necessarily reflective of my actual opinion on video games.)

The Peanut Butter: Paragraph 2 (2-3 sentences)

  • Write a few sentences to support the first fact.

“According to the text, video games can be unhealthy if children play them for too long and don’t move around or exercise. This can make kids overweight and have health issue.”

The Jelly: Paragraph 3 (2-3 sentences)

  • Write a few sentences to support the second fact.

“Sometimes, violence can make kids fight, and this can be harmful to friendships. Violence isn’t good for kids’ brains and can lead them to become bullies.”

The Bread: The Conclusion (2-3 sentences)

  • Say your opinion – again.
  • Say why your opinion is true – again.

“I believe that video games can be harmful to kids. Sitting for too long in front of the game can cause health problems and violence can lead to aggressive behavior. It’s better for kids to be active and be more positive and less violent.”

How to Create a Deliciously Argumentative Constructive Response

2. Partnered Writing: Students read the text together, highlight the evidence, and write with a partner.

It’s similar to the whole group exercise, except that students are practicing writing more independently with a writing partner/buddy. In this step, you can offer students graphic organizers or an outline template to help them remember all the elements of their argumentative writing. They can work together to write one essay or they can each write an essay and then review each other’s writing.

3. Independently: Read the text. Highlight the evidence. Write the essay.

At this stage, students are practicing writing on their own. They may or may not need supports like sentence starters, graphic organizers, checklists, and visuals to reference in the room. But the goal is for students to be able to produce writing that expresses their opinion in response to a text and provide text evidence to support that opinion.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

It takes a lot of time and a lot of repetitive practice. As Miguel Guhlin references in his article, Writing Strategies: Insights from a Twitter Chat, discussing, teaching sentence structures/vocabulary, and showing examples isn’t enough. Deliberate, repetitive practice, and time, are key to teaching writing.

Do you have other ideas, strategies, or resources that have worked well for you and your K-5 students when it comes to argumentative/opinion writing? Please share them with us in the chat! We’d love to hear what’s worked in your classroom.

Additional STAAR and TEKS Articles You May Find Useful

Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

The K-5 ELAR TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

The K-5 Math TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

A Practical Strategy for Teaching Editing Skills

A Powerful and Easy Strategy for Teaching Text Evidence

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writing strategies
Writing

Writing Strategies: Insights from a Twitter Chat

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Seventy-six percent of third and fourth grade teachers rated their college education to teach writing as low. Seventy-one percent of teachers say that they receive minimal to no preparation to teach writing. To address that, Natalie Wexler made some recommendations on how to deal with the problem. Let’s explore some of the insights and writing strategies Wexler shared in a January 11, 2023 Twitter chat.

Some Quick Background

Natalie Wexler, a co-author of “The Writing Revolution,” shared her insights in a January 11, 2023 Twitter chat. She was participating as a guest in the #BmoreEdChat on Twitter. Wexler has taken aim at teaching reading and writing. With Judith C. Hochman, she points out that teachers in K-12 schools lack a roadmap.

Absent a roadmap, how does one know how to teach writing? What writing strategies are available? To clarify the path ahead, Hochman and Wexler suggest explicit writing instruction. This term accomplishes four actions:

  • Enables writers to identify gaps in their knowledge.
  • Boosts reading comprehension through construction of improved syntax in their own writing.
  • Enhances speaking as a result of more complex syntax and sentences.
  • Improves organizational and study skills, such as paraphrasing, note-taking, summarizing, and outlining.

Writers engage most of these actions with differing degrees of success. The Hochman Method suggests a series of exercises that target skills not mastered. Then, providing feedback that identifies mistakes and monitoring student progress. As you might imagine, sentences, grammar, and content are integral.

Natalie Wexler makes some observations in her tweets worth reviewing in more detail.

Observation #1: Content-Area Writing Works

“We need to weave writing instruction into content-area instruction,” Wexler says. She asserts that students will comprehend material better. And, this translates into long-term memory retention.

“When students write about what they’re learning in science, social studies, and math, they understand and retain material better. (source)

She refers readers to a meta-analysis supporting that assertion. It is “The Effects of Writing on Learning in Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics:”

…writing about content reliably enhanced learning (effect size = 0.30). It was equally effective at improving learning in science, social studies, and mathematics as well as the learning of elementary, middle, and high school students.

Source: Graham, S., Kiuhara, S. A., & MacKay, M. (2020)

Writing DOES improve learning in core content areas at all grade levels.

Why is writing effective? “Writing about content material facilitates learning by consolidating information in long-term memory,” explain Graham and his colleagues, describing a process known as the retrieval effect. As previous research has shown, information is quickly forgotten if it’s not reinforced, and writing helps to strengthen a student’s memories of the material they’re learning. (source)

Observation #2: Outlining Can Help

Cognitive load means your brain can handle only so much when processing new information. The key is to transfer as much as possible to long-term memory. In this way, working memory can be devoted to new information.

Writers are managing a lot of things when engaged in authoring a piece. They have to track “letter formation, spelling, word choice, and sentence structure” (source). One way to ease cognitive load involves creating “clear, linear outlines.” Outlining, you may recall, a well-established deep learning strategy:

Involves identifying the main ideas and rendering them in one’s own words. The core skill is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples.

Outlining assists students in building relationships between ideas and concepts. Outlines that students make of their writing and what they are trying to write about, enable students. Wexler says it assists students with:

  • organizing their thoughts,
  • avoiding repetition, and
  • staying on track.

The goal is to get more content and writing syntax into long-term memory. Another way to move information students need into long-term memory? Learning how to put sentences together.

Observation #3: Learn Syntax

Wexler doesn’t suggest we learn complex syntax of the written word for fun. Rather, the benefit gained includes improved comprehension. You can read the study she cites here. As a result, students engage in two writing activities. Those include:

  • Sentence combining. Put a few simple sentences together to make a complex sentence.
  • Sentence reduction. Break up a complex sentence into several simple sentences.

Wexler and Hochman have a wealth of suggestions in their book, “The Writing Revolution.” You can also find a website of the same name that’s worth a visit as well.

In the meantime, here are some more ideas for your consideration.

Strategy #1: Write with Students

If teachers feel ill-equipped to teach writing, one way to equip them is by getting them to write with their students. Freewrites and brainstorming sessions go much further than writing in a worksheet.

An approach that has worked well for the author? Find age appropriate text, including non-fiction, poetry, short fiction. Then, write with your students in that style so they can see it develop and improve, one word, one sentence at a time.

This guide from Kenneth Koch still works.

Strategy #2: Practice, Practice, Practice

Another key idea of writing workshop is not only providing feedback but also offering examples to lessen students’ cognitive load (source). You do that when you take these actions:

  • Teach sentence structures and vocabulary.
  • Provide exemplars that illustrate these things.
  • Lead discussions on the subject.

But providing these isn’t enough. Students need repeated practice with them. Natalie Wexler says in “Writing and Cognitive Load Theory,” that:

Students need more than direct instruction and worked examples to become competent writers. They need ‘deliberate practice’: repeated efforts to perform aspects of a complex task in a logical sequence, with a more experienced practitioner providing prompt and targeted feedback

Strategy #3: Give One-On-One Feedback

If teachers don’t know how to manage writing workshops in their classroom, they have a problem. They won’t be able to provide “prompt and targeted feedback” to writers in their care. As a writing workshop facilitator, a few words, one on one, can make a big difference.

Celebrating Success

“I notice you wrote the same sentence over and over to make a paragraph. Could you write another sentence that grows the idea in this first one?” That’s a paraphrase of the conversation I had in Spanish with one fifth grader. The young writer wanted to please, and in a few months, was writing “real” paragraphs. He had seen me writing and knew what he was doing was less. He didn’t know or have the vocabulary to do the same.

Additional Writing Strategies

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen,” says John Steinbeck. Any student sitting at a blank page soon finds out an ugly truth.

There’s no muse whispering in their ear, “Write this mellifluous sentence.” Instead, the muses paint the shape of text in our imagination.

The Single Paragraph Outline

From Single Paragraph Outlines, that “The Writing Revolution” suggests, to text structures – planning ahead is mission critical.

An excerpt from the brilliant Gretchen Bernabei. Catch her TCEA course, Kernel Essays for Writing and Reading.

With this in mind, encourage writers to:

  • Write in a paper notepad or journal (then transfer to a digital medium like a blog) to track “new to them” information and ideas.
  • Reflect on old writing and ideas. Revisit those old blog entries in that notepad to get fresh insights. The entries didn’t change, we did.
  • Juxtapose opposing ideas and try to mash them together. In doing so, you can get something fresh.
  • Identify the formula, or “text structure,” to any piece (e.g. The List Article).

As a writing teacher, I work to awaken students to what’s write-worthy. I encourage them to learn how to edit their own work. What are some ways you can make these strategies come alive in your classroom?

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author of The Single Paragraph Outline

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English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Writing

STAAR Prep: Spelling Strategies, Resources, and Downloadable Posters

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

There was a flutter of online activity after the RLA STAAR test post a few weeks ago. Teachers were discussing how spelling is included in the “conventions” section (2 points) of STAAR writing rubrics. It’s true – spelling is on the list! Let’s take a look at acceptable STAAR spelling accommodations, the STAAR Dictionary Policy, and a few spelling strategies with downloadable posters. We’ll end with a few curricular resources for teaching spelling. Here we go!

STAAR Spelling Assistance

Take a look at acceptable Spelling Assistance accommodations that do NOT require TEA approval for these spring 2023 STAAR tests:

  • grades 3-8 RLA
  • English 1, English 2
  • grades 3-5 Spanish RLA
  • grades 5 and 8 science and biology
  • grade 5 Spanish science
  • grade 8 social students and U.S. History.

Student Eligibility Criteria

A student may use this designated support if the student routinely, independently, and effectively uses this designated support during classroom instruction and classroom testing and meets the following criteria:

  • the student receives Section 504 or special education services; and
  • the student organizes and develops ideas and understands the basic function and use of written language conventions (e.g., sentence structures, irregular verbs) but has a disability that is so severe that the student cannot apply basic spelling rules or word patterns (e.g., prefixes, suffixes) to written responses.

STAAR Dictionary Policy

Dictionaries are required to be provided for students for these tests: grades 3-8 RLA, grades 3-5 STAAR Spanish RLA, and the STAAR English 1 and 2 tests. Here are some key highlights of the Dictionary Policy:

  • The minimum number of dictionaries should be “one for every five students testing,” but the recommendation is actually one for every three students.
  • Thesauruses are permitted (but not required) for the listed tests, and the recommendation (if provided) is one per five students.
  • Electronic dictionaries (including apps) are acceptable as long as TEA’s technology guidelines are followed.
  • The dictionaries provided should be what students are used to using during instruction and testing in the classroom.
  • Any student- or teacher-created dictionaries, subject-specific, and slang dictionaries are not allowed (see the policy for the list of acceptable dictionaries).
  • You can provide a dictionary in the language that’s best for the student.

Spelling Strategies for Elementary Students

Here are a few strategies that can help set students up for success when it comes to spelling in general. For each strategy, there is a visual. In addition to your word wall and phonics rules, you can hang these up in the classroom as you teach each strategy so that, eventually, students will independently choose from the strategies when writing.

When taking the STAAR test, students can use some of these with scratch paper and pencils/pens. They won’t be able to use all these strategies when taking the test, but practicing the strategies during class will help them remember to spell words correctly since the student is taking ownership of spelling rather than being given spelling by the teacher. In other words, it encourages productive struggle.

Spelling Strategy: Ask a friend to help you!
Spelling Strategy: Look it up in a dictionary.
Spelling Strategy: Chop it up!
Spelling Strategy: Stretch it out!
Spelling Strategy: Try writing it 3 different ways. Which one looks right?
Spelling Strategy: Think of a rhyming word to help you!
Spelling Strategy: Look for the word around your classroom or in your notebooks.

Click here for the editable poster templates!

Additional Spelling Resources

Scientific Spelling. This is by far my favorite curriculum for a few reasons. It’s great for students with dyslexia, and it’s backed by research, so that means it’s great for every student. Additionally, it’s cost-efficient with full teaching manuals for grades 1-8 costing just $65. Neuhaus also offers affordable training for the program either virtually, on demand, or on site. In the classroom, it is a very systematic program focusing on phonology, regular words, rule words, irregular words, and procedures. It takes about 10-15 minutes per day. On their website, they offer a lot of free resources, too. Can you tell I love this program? I love this program.

List of Top 10 Spelling Apps. Take a look at this “Top Picks” list of apps from Common Sense Education. These apps will reinforce spelling for students of all ages. Using games, quizzes, and more, students can explore new words, word construction, and take quizzes (premade or customized).

VocabularySpellingCity Beginning Spelling Curriculum. While I did use Spelling City quizzes and games for reinforcement with my students (since you can create your own lists), I’m not very familiar with their curriculum; however, I’ve spoken with several teachers who really like it. Spelling City offers K-3 and K-2 options. The K-3 Grade-Specific program gives a spelling pattern each week and includes high-frequency word lists. One thing to note – it is aligned with Fountas and Pinnell’s “The Continuum of Literacy Learning: Grades PreK-8.” The K-2 Classic program contains five-week units in which the first three weeks introduce regular patterns, the fourth week focuses on high-frequency words, and the fifth week reviews the previous weeks. In order for your students to access everything at school and at home, I do believe you must have a Vocabulary A-Z account.

Top 10 Resources for Spelling and Word Study by Reading Rockets. Here is a list of resources on how to approach spelling in a way that supports reading and all readers. They offer information on dyslexia and dysgraphia, word lists, phonological awareness, and instructional methods.

What resources and strategies would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments!

Additional STAAR and TEKS Articles You May Find Useful

Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

The K-5 ELAR TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

The K-5 Math TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

A Practical Strategy for Teaching Editing Skills

A Powerful and Easy Strategy for Teaching Text Evidence

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ReadingSTAARTestingWriting

Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

As Texas teachers are well aware, the Reading Language Arts (RLA) STAAR test has new items for writing on this year’s 2022-2023 test including editing, revising, and constructed response. I highly recommend logging in to the practice test (if you’ve not already) and working through some of these. You can log in as a guest and access many different practice tests at every grade level just by clicking “Sign In.” Also, you may have seen some of the new STAAR resources I’m sharing already, but I’m going to share them here for context. And here is the Accompanying Guide to New Question Type Samples for RLA. All that said, let’s get going!

Click Sign In to log in as a guest for STAAR practice tests.

Student Typing: Stop the Pecking

Ok, so maybe we can’t actually teach typing. But if students can start off the year in a typing program that increases their speed, accuracy, and efficiency (in hopes of forever bidding adieu to the one-finger keyboard pecking) it will inevitably help them on the online STAAR. Learning to type will be beneficial when it comes to completing the new written response answers. Also, students can’t copy and paste text to revise it. They will have to retype it. Here are Seven Keyboarding Tutorials from Miguel Guhlin with some suggestions for typing programs, and here are 25+ Typing Apps from We Are Teachers for you to check out.

The Highlighter: Your Students’ Best Friend

I will tell you, and this is my personal opinion, that the tools on the online STAAR test are not great for elementary students. They are clunky and don’t make it easy for them to annotate text or take notes. And there is no pencil/annotation tool outside of sticky notes to type on. So, there’s that. The easiest tool for them will likely be the highlighter. You can practice using other digital tools with highlighters, like Edji, outside the test to help students prepare to use it on the test itself. I’d also recommend using the practice test with students to familiarize them with tools.

To use the highlighter on the test, students will need to first select all the text they want to be highlighted with their mouse, right-click on top of the text, and choose a highlighter color. Once they click the color, the text will highlight. To reset the text, they can right-click on the highlighted text and choose “Reset Highlighting.”

highlighter tool in STAAR online test

The Highlighter for Editing and Revision Questions

When STAAR test questions refer to specific sentences that have errors, when students are asked to rewrite a specific sentence or sentences, and when they are asked to change a word in a sentence, the highlighter can help them see the sentence as a whole. As you can see, the questions break up sentences with a drop-down menu and don’t restate the sentence(s) for students.

STAAR test sample question for grade 3
Grade 3 example of highlighting text that needs a word replaced.
STAAR test sample question for grade 4
Grade 4 example of highlighting text to correct an error.
STAAR test sample question for grade 5
Grade 5 example of highlighting text that needs to be rewritten.

STAAR Written Response Resources

Short Constructed Response – Reading

Scoring Guides with Exemplar Texts for Responses to Reading

*Updated October 7, 2022

In grades 3-8, students will be asked to write short responses to reading (worth two points) to demonstrate understanding of the content. I’d recommend taking a look at the rubrics and the scoring guides with exemplar texts to see exactly what they are looking for in these responses.

For these questions, I really like the RACES and RAPP strategies which can be applied to shorter or longer writing assignments. They will work well for any grade level and can be adapted! Use color coding when you’re practicing with students to help them recognize and check the different parts of their responses. For example, have students highlight the section restating the question in green, the answer in yellow, the text evidence in orange, etc. Here are some templates for you to download and/or edit to your heart’s content!

Short Constructed Response – Writing

Editing and Revising Sample Items

Also in grades 3-8, will be short and extended constructed responses for writing. Short responses (worth one point) are meant to assess specific skills in editing and revision. Students may be asked to write a new sentence, rewrite a sentence, or make an inline choice (choose a correct response from a drop-down style menu).

Extended Constructed Response – Writing

STAAR Writing Rubrics

*Updated October 18, 2022.

Extended responses (worth up to ten points; five-point rubric scored by two scorers) are more complex and are meant to assess a student’s ability to analyze, explain, and evaluate the information given to them in a text. For the extended response, you can use and/or adapt the RAPP or RACE checklists above to help students practice. But here is a RACERR checklist that I created which has been adapted for extended writing based on the writing rubric:

Get All the Templates!

Additional STAAR Test Redesign Resources

I hope you find this information and these resources helpful. What do you want to know about STAAR testing? What would be helpful to you? Let us know in the comments or send me an email!

Additional STAAR and TEKS Articles You May Find Useful

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

STAAR Prep: Spelling Strategies, Resources, and Downloadable Posters

The K-5 ELAR TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

The K-5 Math TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

A Practical Strategy for Teaching Editing Skills

A Powerful and Easy Strategy for Teaching Text Evidence

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English Language Arts Reading (ELAR)Higher EdWriting

Six Tips to Prepare Students for College Writing Courses

by John Hansen
written by John Hansen

Many students, often with different majors outside the humanities, end up taking a required sequence of first-year college composition courses during their first year in college. Much of the time, students feel a sense of dread or apathy towards writing in general. A majority of my students in their diagnostic essays (about their strengths and weaknesses) tell me that the act of sitting down at a computer for several hours and trying to come up with the right words and sentences can be a daunting task. Here are a few helpful tips I would give to students preparing for first-year composition. If you teach high school writing, these tips would be helpful to practice early on with students to prepare them for these first-year composition courses. 

Change your thinking, mindset, and routine. 

Don’t fear writing. Instead, think of a composition class as an opportunity to improve your reading comprehension, critical thinking, and writing ability in both an academic and professional setting. These skills benefit you no matter your field of interest. Once you see its value, are you then willing to work hard and do everything you can to meet your goals? Can you allow yourself to make mistakes but see how those mistakes can help refine your writing with more practice and experience? Adjust your approach. Look at things with an open mind. Will you ask for help when needed? Are you actively seeking out every possible resource that your school has to offer (success center, resource center, library services, online tutoring, student services)? Make choices that put you in the best position to thrive. Does this mean sacrificing time with friends and family? Does it mean scheduling some time at the writing center or with an online tutor? Or does it mean sending your instructor an e-mail about your writing concerns? If you want to give yourself the best chance to succeed, then the answer to these questions is an emphatic “Yes!”

Read the course syllabus. 

Reread it again if you must. No, seriously. Please read it a few times. More often than not, a question you may have about the course (especially within the first week or so) can be found here. Have the syllabus close by for reference and highlight specific parts or lines that are important. This may include your instructor’s contact information (e-mail, phone number, office/virtual hours), course policies (late work, plagiarism, formatting requirements), course materials (textbooks, workbooks, login/access codes, and links), weekly course schedules (assignments and due dates), and specific directions for assignments (requirements and style).

Do all of the required reading and homework assignments. 

Block off some time each day—or whenever your schedule allows—to work on your course assignments (write down due dates in a planner). Allow yourself enough time to thoroughly review, comprehend, and complete the coursework. This isn’t just to get a good grade. Writing is recursive. Each assignment in a course is scaffolded and builds upon each other. For example, you might not be able to master the end-of-module summative assessment (high stakes) such as a three-to-four-page descriptive essay, unless you are doing the formative assessments (low stakes) each week in order to understand and practice implementing the five senses into your writing. Be an active learner and ask questions to yourself, your instructor, or your classmates about the course materials. Treat school and these assignments as a full-time job. Put the time and effort into every reading and writing assignment.

college writing

Know the intent of each assignment. 

Carefully review the directions on the assignment sheet (pay close attention to action words, keywords, and rules), and sometimes a posted writing sample of what the instructor is looking for in a particular assignment. Are you clear about the assignment’s expectations? Be sure you have a well-developed plan that answers what the assignment is asking of you. For instance, there are usually several questions (and subset questions) listed on the assignment sheet. They are there for a reason and should be clearly addressed in your writing. The questions will allow you to often consider content, rhetorical elements, situation, audience, purpose, point of view, organization, style, and theme.

Prepare a rough draft for all major essays, even if it isn’t required. 

This might take some extra time and effort, but you can receive really valuable feedback from your instructor, success/writing center, study group, or online tutoring service. The more eyes that review your essay, the better. This can help you identify issues with content, organization, and style. If you address these problems for the final essay, you are most likely going to see a higher grade because your final product is more polished. Good writing doesn’t happen in an instant, it usually takes some time to mature as a writer. Writing one, two, or even three rough drafts before the final draft is due is a great way to practice and enhance your skills.

college writing

Reach out to your instructor. 

E-mail, Zoom, or a learning management system message are all ways you can get in contact with your instructor. Always keep them informed of any problems you are having that might affect your performance in the class. Such issues might include asking to turn in a late assignment, illness, not understanding an assignment, or an inability to begin the writing process. Instructors have issues come up as well and are most likely open to working with you. If you don’t immediately notify your instructor of an issue, there might not be enough time to make arrangements, and it could end up hurting your overall grade in the class. It never hurts to simply ask.

These tips will set any student up for success in their first year of college. But they do require students to take initiative, ownership, and responsibility for their learning– which takes practice and support to reach autonomy. The more practice students can get with these tips before entering their college writing courses, the better prepared and more successful they will be. 

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