Good Morning Kelly,
Two NYSAA questions for you:
3rd grade ELA AGLI # 12108
The task states “The student will recognize a picture that reflects character (s) in a story, by selecting the appropriate choice and marking it with a bingo stamper.”
The worksheet has two pictures to choose from, one is a picture of one animal and the other picture has multiple animals. The correct picture is the one with multiple animals. Is there an issue with this? Some discussion has been about whether or not both pictures should have multiple characters or both should only have one.
RESPONSE: Either way sounds acceptable, however it is hard to make a clear determination without seeing the actual evidence. It sounds like you are questioning if the response choices appear to be guiding the student to the correct answer and there are multiple things to consider with this. The first consideration and most important is the student—for this student does have only one animal in a one response choice and multiple animals in the other response choice really guiding the student to the answer. The second consideration is the story itself—what/how are the characters presented in the story. If you are questioning it, then maybe something should be adjusted to make it clearer to an outside person that the choices presented do not guide the student to the correct answer.
In addition, when using a “strategy” in Math AGLI’s, a teacher chose to use Touch Math as the strategy. In her notation she calls it “Touch Point”. Should her notation be changed to say Touch Math or would they be considered interchangeable? Also, some students using Touch Math mark each number with the appropriate marks and some simply point with the pencil and don’t leave a mark. Should there be a notation about this so the scorer knows that the student did in fact use the strategy?
RESPONSE: We have seen the word “Touch Math” and “Touch Point” used interchangeably. As long as it is clear it is fine to use either word for the strategy. NYSAA does not have a requirement that the student put marks on the points/circles/dots when using Touch Math. In most instances that we have seen, there have not been any student marks on the points/circles/dots. It is up to the teacher in how he/she is teaching the student to use the strategy. As outlined in the Administration Manual, notation are useful to clarify to an outside person, how the activity took place, how the percentages were calculated, etc. Notations are helpful but are not required. If the teacher feels a notation would clarify the evidence then he/she should include one.
Thanks for your help,
Miranda
