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Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

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

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

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:

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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19 comments

Ashlee November 10, 2022 - 9:28 am

These are great!! Thanks for sharing. The RACES poster template links to the RACERR poster. I would love the RACES poster if that can be shared.

Reply
Emily Hopkins November 10, 2022 - 9:36 am

Hi Ashlee! So sorry for the wrong link. I’ve correct it now, so you should be able to access the template! Thanks so much for commenting so I could fix this. Really appreciate it!

Reply
Austin Posey November 17, 2022 - 10:13 am

How do you sign in to practice tests? It says link is broken.

Reply
Emily Hopkins November 17, 2022 - 10:23 am

Hi Austin! Thanks for your comment. Here is an updated link: https://login6.cambiumtds.com/student_core/V70/Pages/LoginShell.aspx?c=Texas_PT I’ve also corrected it in the post. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Reply
Veronica Flores-Hernandez April 12, 2023 - 12:38 pm

the link for the practice test is still not working.

Reply
Emily Horn April 12, 2023 - 1:00 pm

Hi Veronica! It should be working now in the article. So sorry about that! Here is the link for you.

Reply
Dalila Ochoa November 20, 2022 - 6:35 am

I like what you provided. I have a question: do you have something for the Spanish LA ? Thanks

Reply
Emily Hopkins November 21, 2022 - 1:45 pm

Hi Dalila! The practice tests are available in Spanish, and I linked to the Spanish TEA resources in the article. Let me know if there is anything specific you’re looking for! Everything should be applicable to the Spanish test.

Reply
Amber Montes November 28, 2022 - 11:25 am

On the RACERR diagram, it only has one body paragraph listed. Is this just to represent the checklist needed for each body paragraph, or is this because there is only one body paragraph? To clarify, is STAAR expecting a 5 paragraph essay? Just wondering what would be best to teach my students to do.

Reply
Emily Hopkins November 28, 2022 - 11:44 am

Hi Amber! I would recommend looking at the links to the linked “Scoring Guides with Exemplar Texts for Responses to Reading” for your grade level. These show you examples of scored writing and will give you an idea of exactly what it expected for your grade level.

Reply
Courtney Mullens January 19, 2023 - 7:53 am

Do you have a poster of the RACERR that’s not the checklist?

Reply
Emily Horn January 19, 2023 - 10:03 am

Courtney, I’ll make that and let you know when I’ve posted it! 👍🏻

Reply
Syrce Murillo Pagoaga January 26, 2023 - 2:36 pm

Hello, do you have by any chance RAPP and RACE check list in Spanish?

Thank you!

Reply
Emily Horn January 27, 2023 - 5:25 pm

At this time, I don’t. I’m so sorry! I am adding it to my list and will get it out to you as soon as possible.

Reply
Beth Cade March 26, 2023 - 9:00 am

Hi Emily,
Thank you for these beautifully produced resources. The links for the RAPP checklist and the RACES poster seemed to be duplicating one another at this time. Could you possibly check these, as I would love to have copies of them all. Thank you in advance.

Reply
Emily Horn March 27, 2023 - 12:28 pm

Beth, thank you so much for letting me know! This has been corrected. Please let me know if you have any trouble with it!

Reply
Melissa September 29, 2023 - 10:37 am

Hello! When I click on the link for the RAPP student checklist, it takes me to the RACE checklist.

Reply
Emily Horn October 2, 2023 - 9:33 am

Hi Melissa, thank you so much for letting me know. This has been fixed! So sorry about that.

Reply

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RACES and RAPP strategies can be applied to shorter or longer writing assignments. They will work well for any grade level and can be adapted. Give it a try! 

 

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