Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea | EL Education Curriculum

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ELA 2019 G8:M1:U3:L2

Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea

In this Lesson

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Focus Standards: These are the standards the instruction addresses.

  • RI.8.1, RI.8.2, RI.8.4, L.8.4a, L.8.4c, L.8.4d

Supporting Standards: These are the standards that are incidental—no direct instruction in this lesson, but practice of these standards occurs as a result of addressing the focus standards.

  • RI.8.10, L.8.6
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Daily Learning Targets

  • I can determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through details in an informational text. (RI.8.1, RI.8.2)

Ongoing Assessment

  • Opening A: Entrance Ticket
  • Work Time A: Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea (RI.8.1, RI.8.2, RI.8.4, RI.8.10, L.8.4a, L.8.4c, L.8.4d)
  • Closing and Assessment A: Track Progress - Read, Understand, and Explain a New Text (RI.8.1, RI.8.4, RI.8.10, L.8.4)

Agenda

AgendaTeaching Notes

1. Opening

A. Return End of Unit 2 Assessments (5 minutes)

B. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

2. Work Time

A. Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea - RI.8.2 (20 minutes)

3. Closing and Assessment

A. Track Progress (15 minutes)

4. Homework

A. Independent Research Reading: Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

Alignment to Assessment Standards and Purpose of Lesson

  • Work Time A: Students will read an essay and identify main ideas and key details for the mid-unit assessment. Note that this assessment does not fully assess RI.8.2, as students do not write an objective summary. This standard will be assessed fully in later modules. (RI.8.1, RI.8.2, RI.8.4, RI.8.10, L.8.4a, L.8.4c, L.8.4d)

Opportunities to Extend Learning

  • Invite students to identify central ideas in their independent research reading book.

How It Builds on Previous Work

  • In the first half of this unit, students began reading Summer of the Mariposas, author’s note, determining main ideas and key details from the text. In today’s assessment, students read a new text and identify the main idea and key supporting details to build on those skills.

Support All Students

  • If students receive accommodations for assessments, communicate with the cooperating service providers regarding the practices of instruction in use during this study as well as the goals of the assessment.
  • Some students may need the text read aloud before they work on the questions. Invite students who require this to sit in a group away from the rest of the students, so as not to be distracting. ▲
  • For some students, this assessment may require more than the 30 minutes allotted. Provide time over multiple days if necessary.

Assessment Guidance

  • All assessment materials (student prompt and teacher checklist) are included in the Assessment download on this page.
  • When assessing and providing feedback on this assessment, use the answer key and sample student responses (see Assessment download on this page) to help complete students’ Track Progress recording form.
  • In this assessment, students are tracking progress toward anchor standards:
    • R.1: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
    • R.4: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
    • R.10: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
    • L.4: By the end of Grade 12, I will be able to: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

Down the Road

  • In the next lesson, students will continue to read Summer of the Mariposas and will look again at the model essay they saw on this assessment; they will analyze the model in order to prepare to write their own essay.
  • Students’ Mid-Unit 3 Assessments will be returned in Lesson 12 with feedback.

In Advance

  • Prepare the following:
    • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2 
    • End of Unit 2 Assessments with feedback
    • Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea (see Assessment download on this page)
    • Sticky notes
  • Gather Track Progress folders.
  • Ensure there is a copy of Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2 at each student's workspace.
  • Post the learning targets and applicable anchor charts (see Materials list).

Tech and Multimedia

  • Work Time A: For students who will benefit from hearing the texts read aloud multiple times, use a text-to-speech tool such as Natural Reader, SpeakIt! for Google Chrome, or the Safari reader. Note that to use a web-based text-to-speech tool like SpeakIt! or Safari reader, an online document containing the text will be needed—for example, a Google Doc. ▲
  • Closing and Assessment A: Students may track progress online—on a Google Form, for example.

Supporting English Language Learners

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards 8.I.B.6, 8.I.B.7, 8.I.B.8, 8.I.C.10, 8.I.C.11, 8.I.C.12, 8.II.A.1, and 8.II.C.7.

Important Points in the Lesson Itself

  • To support ELLs, this lesson creates an opportunity for students to display their deepening understanding of how to find main ideas and key details in texts on the Mid-Unit 3 Assessment and by encouraging students to take ownership of their learning by tracking progress. 
  • ELLs may find it challenging to understand assessment instructions, to navigate the informational reading on the assessment, and to self-assess accurately during the Track Progress activity. Boost confidence among students as they tackle the new reading on the assessment by reviewing the key strategies for navigating unfamiliar texts and new vocabulary that they have diligently applied in Units 1 and 2.

Vocabulary

  • N/A

Materials from Previous Lessons

Teacher

Student

  • End of Unit 2 Assessment: Write a Narrative (returned with feedback; from Unit 2, Lesson 11; one per student)
  • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 4, Opening B)
  • Academic word wall (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Opening A)
  • Domain-specific word wall (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 1, Work Time B)
  • Strategies to Answer Selected Response anchor chart (one for display; from Unit 1, Lesson 3, Opening B)
  • Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart (one for display; from Module 1, Unit 2, Lessons 4-5, Work Time D)
  • Track Progress folders (one per student; from Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 16, Closing and Assessment A)
  • Track Progress: Read, Understand, and Explain a New Text (one per student; from Module 1, Unit 2, Lessons 4-5, Closing and Assessment A)

New Materials

Teacher

Student

  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2 (answers for teacher reference)
  • Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea (answers for teacher reference; see Assessment download)
  • Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2 (one per student)
  • Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea (one per student; see Assessment download)
  • Sticky notes (three per student)

Assessment

Each unit in the 6-8 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize students' understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Download this Lesson’s Assessment

Opening

Opening

A. Return End of Unit 2 Assessments (5 minutes)

  • Return students’ End of Unit 2 Assessments with feedback.
  • Repeated routine: As students arrive, invite them to complete Entrance Ticket: Unit 3, Lesson 2.
  • Invite students to Turn and Talk:

“What is one star from your End of Unit 2 Assessment, and how can this help you on today’s assessment?” (Answers will vary.)

“What was a step from your End of Unit 2 Assessment, and how can this inform your work on today’s assessment?” (Answers will vary.)

  • Take time to review key common issues on the mid-unit assessment that are directly relevant to the writing students will do on the end of unit assessment. ELLs may find it particularly useful to discuss pervasive language errors that impede meaning and clarity, for example, word choice that changes the meaning of an idea, run-on sentences that make language incomprehensible, and source attribution conventions. ▲

B. Engage the Learner (5 minutes)

  • Repeated routine: Follow the same routine as the previous lessons to review learning targets and the purpose of the lesson, reminding students of any learning targets that are similar or the same as previous lessons.
  • With students, use the vocabulary strategies on the Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart to review the words main ideas (the main points the author wants the reader to understand and take away from reading), details (evidence that supports the main ideas), and summarize (to give a short explanation of something that has been read, viewed, or heard), as needed.

Work Time

Work TimeLevels of Support

A. Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea - RI.8.2 (20 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through details in an informational text."

  • Distribute Mid-Unit 3 Assessment: Determine a Central Idea.
  • Tell students that for this assessment, they will read a new essay and identify the main ideas and details of this essay.
  • Read the directions for each part of the assessment aloud as students to follow along, reading silently. Answer clarifying questions.
  • Direct students' attention to the following anchor charts:
    • Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart
    • Strategies to Answer Selected Response Questions anchor chart
  • Ask students to Think-Pair-Share about the following question:

"What strategies have you used to determine the central idea in chapters of Summer of the Mariposas?"

  • Remind students to refer to these anchor charts as they read the assessment text and answer the assessment questions.
  • Remind students that because this is an assessment, they should complete it independently in silence. Focus students on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart and review what perseverance looks and sounds like. Remind students that because they will be reading and answering questions independently for the assessment, they may need to practice perseverance.
  • Ask students to Think-Pair-Share once more, sharing goals they have for working with perseverance during this assessment.
  • Invite students to begin the assessment.
  • While they are taking the assessment, circulate to monitor and document their test-taking skills.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.

For Lighter Support

  • In Work Time A, provide students with individual photocopies of anchor charts for use during the assessment. Encourage students to make notes on these copies as needed. This may help some ELLs with coordinating the cognitive and linguistic knowledge and skills they will need to process in order to carry out the assessment tasks.

For Heavier Support

  • Before Work Time A, underline key vocabulary in the assessment directions and read aloud together as a class to ensure that students understand each task. Consider the type of tasks that students have experienced difficulty with in the past, and focus discussion on understanding directions for those portions of the assessment.

Closing & Assessments

ClosingLevels of Support

A. Track Progress (15 minutes)

  • Review appropriate learning target relevant to the work to be completed in this section of the lesson:

"I can determine a central idea and how it is conveyed through details in an informational text."

  • Give students specific, positive feedback on their completion of the Mid-Unit 3 Assessment.
  • Distribute Track Progress folders, Track Progress: Read, Understand, and Explain New Text, and sticky notes.
  • Distribute sticky notes. Tell students the sticky notes are for them to find evidence in their assessment work of the following criteria:
    • R.1
    • R.4
    • R.10
    • L.4
  • Guide students through completing the recording form.
  • Repeated routine: Invite students to reflect on their progress toward the relevant learning targets.
  • Invite students to reflect on the Work to Become Effective Learners anchor chart. Allow students time to Think-Pair-Share with a partner, discussing what went well and what could be improved next time for this habit of character.

For Lighter Support

  • If students seem unsure of how to respond to the open-ended questions on the Track Progress: Read, Understand, and Explain New Text, provide examples of statements that answer the questions about previous improvements and goals for future improvement that are directly connected to the criteria within the handout to help students create clear self-reflection and concrete, attainable personal targets (e.g., "I have improved at determining and clarifying the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words or phrases," "In the future, I will improve my writing by choosing stronger textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text says").

For Heavier Support

  • Support students in finding evidence in their assessment work that supports the criteria in RL8.1 and RL8.2 by providing questions in simplified language based on the standards on the sticky notes before distributing them (e.g., "Where have you cited evidence from the text?" "Where do you identify theme from the text?").

Homework

Homework

A. Independent Research Reading 

  • Students read for at least 20 minutes in their independent research reading text. Then they select a prompt and write a response in their independent reading journal.

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