The ACT Aspire Journey

What is ACT Aspire? ACT Aspire is a vertically articulated, standards-based system summative assessment linked to ACT College Readiness Benchmarks and aligned with CCSS that…

• has multiple question types: constructed response, selected response, and technology-enhanced.

• has an online delivery of assessments with traditional paper-and-pencil option (SC will have the paper-pencil this year).

• provides an ACT Readiness Benchmark score for grades 3-10 to determine if students are on track for readiness at the appropriate grade/subject levels.

How does ACT Aspire look?

What Can We Expect?

3rd Grade–Reflective Narrative Sample Question

You are going to write a story about a time when you tried something new.

Think about how you felt when you tried something new and what you learned about trying new things.

Here are some questions to help you think about your story and plan it.

• What do you try and did anyone help you?

• How did you feel while trying this thing?

• Did you ever start to give up?

• Will you try more new things in the future? Why or why not?

• How did this change the way you think about trying new things?

Now write a story that describes a time when you tried something new. Your story should tell your reader about what you learned about trying new things.

Writing- 3rd Grade

Reflective Narrative

rubric

Analytical Expository- 4th Grade Sample Question

You are going to write an essay to explain the qualities of a good friend.

Think about your best friend. Think about what makes this person a good friend.

Here are some questions to help you think about your essay and plan it.

• Who is this person and what do you like to do together?

• Why is this friend important to you?

• What makes this person your best friend/ Why not someone else?

• What kinds of things do all good friends have in common?

Now, write an essay in which you describe your best friend and explain the qualities of a good friend. Be sure to include reasons and details that help you reader understand what makes this person a good friend and what qualities all good friends have.

Persuasive/Argumentative Writing 5th Grade

You are going to write an essay in which you express and support your opinion.

Your principal wants to invite a special guest to speak to all the students about the value of hard work, and is trying to decide which person to bring in: a scientist or an athlete. Which speaker would you pick to come to your school to talk about the value of hard work, and why?

Write an essay in which you give reasons for your choice and explain why your choice is better than the other option. Be sure to include details and examples to support your reasons.

Scoring Writing

• Students can score up to 20 points in writing…a maximum of 5 points in each area of the rubric.

• Ideas and Analysis

• Development and Support

• Organization

• Language Use and Conventions

Knowing this…What can we do to prepare our students?

• Introduce students to the new writing rubrics

• Administer district-wide prompts and use as formative assessment: • January 8 • February 17 • March 19

• Practice for the writing prompt even without writing

Pitfalls to Avoid

• Only teaching one genre of writing

• Giving a multitude of timed prompts instead of teaching writing

• Not using timed writing prompts as formative assessments

32 Questions

Areas Measured on the ACT Aspire English Assessment

• Conventions of Standard English (15-20%)

• Punctuation and Usage Conventions (10-15%)

• Sentence Structure and Formation (20-25%)

• Topic Development (identifying purpose of parts of texts, determining whether a text has met its intended goal) (15-20%)

• Organization, Unity and Cohesion (Is the piece logically organized? Does it flow smoothly and have an effective introduction and conclusion?) (10-15%)

• Knowledge of Language (word choice) (15-20%)

Reading Comprehension 1 hour

• Questions may be multiple choice and constructed response (requires students to explain, justify, critique, create, propose, produce, design, etc.).

• Questions span a range of complexity levels.

• Passages include literary narratives (25%), social studies (25%), sciences (25%), and humanities (possibly memoirs or personal essays) (25%).

• 31 questions are included in each grade level.

Types of Reading Assessment Items • Constructed-response (scored by a rubric that gives students

varying amounts of credit for responses that are correct or partially correct)

Examples • Formulate a conclusion be making connections within a passage and provide

support using specific details from the text.

• Formulate a conclusion by making connections between a pair of passages and provide support using specific details from both texts.

• Identify cause and effect relationships within a passage and provide support using specific details from the text.

• Identify similarities and differences between the key idea of paired passages and provide support using specific details from both texts.

• Multiple Choice

To view exemplar ACT Aspire questions online, go to tn.actaspire.org and use the following usernames and passwords:

• Username: english

Password: actaspire

• Username: reading

Password: actaspire

• Username: writing5

Password: actaspire

• Username: writing4

Password: actaspire

• Username: writing3

Password: actaspire