It's a good guess that by now you know
the poem "Birdfoot's Grampa"
so well you could teach it. Let's do that! You be
the teacher. You have three students in your class
and will score their writings in a short answer format.
Even if you aren't familiar with the poem from working
through Lessons 1-5, you can still use the
scoring criteria to evaluate these student answers.
The poem is linked to the book icon on the right for
you to use as a reference.
Compare the Old Man's attitude toward
the toads and the speaker's attitude toward the toads.
Include information from the poem in your answer.
As a teacher, remember to:
Know what the question is asking.
Teacher
thinks: Compare
attitudes of Old Man and speaker (Birdfoot) toward
the toads in the road.
Information
from the poem has to be in the answer.
Be very familiar with the poem
and know how the question should be answered.
Teacher
thinks: Write
a complete answer myself using the poem, so that you
have a good model to compare to the student writing.
Know the key elements needed
for a response to be complete.
Teacher
thinks: Attitude
of Old Man toward toads.
Attitude
of Birdfoot toward toads.
Proof
of attitudes of each from evidence in the poem.
Understand the scoring criteria.
Teacher
thinks:
Score
Criteria
2
points
analyzes appropriate information and makes thoughtful
connections between parts of text
develops thoughtful interpretations of text
uses sufficient, relevant evidence from text to
support claims
1
point
analyzes limited information and makes superficial
(light or surface) connections between parts of
text
develops average or simple interpretations of
text
attempts to use evidence from text to support
claims; support may be limited or irrelevant (not
make sense).
0
points
little or no understanding of the passage and
does not make connections between parts of the text
may answer "I don't know."
no evidence from text
Let's see how Student
1 answers this prompt. We will use this chart
to figure out this student's score:
Student 1 Answer:
The
man cares for the little animals around him.
The man said that the frogs have a place to
go just like we do.
Think about what score Student 1
earned for this response. Does the student include the
key elements?
Old Man's attitude
Yes: "cares
for the little animals around him."
Old Man evidence from poem
Yes: "man
said frogs have a place to go just like we do."
Birdfoot's attitude
Not included
Birdfoot evidence from poem
Not included
How does this chart compare to the scoring criteria?
As a teacher, what score would you assign to Student
1's response?
Student
1 Score
2
1
0
Let's score another response.
Student 2
Answer:
The
Old Man cares about the toads, because in the
poem it says, "The Old Man must have stopped
our car two dozen times to climb out and gather
into his hands the small toads blinded by our
lights . . " The speaker is impatient and
wants to go, because he says, "You can't
save them all, accept it, get in, we have places
to go."
Think about what score Student
2 earned for this response. Does the student
include the key elements?
Old Man's attitude
Yes: "cares
about the toads"
Old Man evidence from poem
Yes: "in
the poem it says, The Old Man must have stopped
our car two dozen times . . . . ."
Birdfoot's attitude
Yes: "speaker
is impatient and wants to go . . ."
Birdfoot evidence from poem
Yes: "he
says, 'You can't save them all, accept it, get in,
we have places to go.'"
How does this chart compare to the scoring
criteria? As a teacher, what score would you assign
to Student 2's response?
Student
1 Score
2
1
0
And one more response to score:
Student 3 Answer:
The
Old Man is in the poem but he doesn't tell the
story. The speaker tells the poem but he's not
in it. The speaker thinks he is the old man.
Think about what score Student
1 earned for this response. Does the student
include the key elements?
Old Man's attitude
Not included, just says he is in the poem
Old Man evidence from poem
Not included
Birdfoot's attitude
Not included, misunderstands the role of the speaker.
Student thinks speaker thinks he is the old man.
Confusing.
Birdfoot evidence from poem
Not included
How does this chart compare to the scoring
criteria? As a teacher, what score would you assign
to Student 3's response?
Student
1 Score
2
1
0
Does it help to see the writing of other students?
Which student matched your own answer to the question?
How would you help Student 3 understand the poem better?
Before we move to the practice exercises, you probably
want to see what a cause and effect question looks like.
OK, let's see!
