Prose Constructed Response (PCR)

1. Prose Constructed Response(PCR)

2. Topics to Explore • What is a PCR and where/when will students encounter it? • How a PCR gets developed • Rubrics & other tools • Student papers • Next steps

3. What is a PCR? A Prose Constructed Response (PCR) is a specific item type only found on the ELA/Literacy Performance Based Assessment in which students are required to produce written prose in response to a prompt after reading one or more texts.

4. When will a student encounter a PCR? Students will encounter a PCR three times on the Performance Based Assessment (PBA). It is always the last item in a set. • Narrative Task • Literary Analysis Task • Research Simulation Task

5. How does a PCR item get developed? • Passage/s are selected • Task model is selected • Standards/Evidence statements are selected • PCR prompt is written • The items that precede the PCR, to guide student thinking about the prompt, are written.

6. Not everything changes Students will still have access to paper and pencils so that they can plan, draft, and edit their PCR before typing in their final response.

7. Sample PCR responses

8. Third Grade PCR Sample Group 1 – Students were given general directions on how to locate the test site, where to find the passages on each page, and a reminder to write a rough draft prior to typing the PCR. Approximately 25% of students followed the direction about writing as rough draft first.

9. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 1 Student A – On the story The Princess and the Pea.The Princess sleeps uncomfortable.Then on The Land of Nod he sleeps comfortable.Thediffrents is one is a girl and one is a boy and the two storysinvalvesleeping Student B – The princess on the pea and The land of nod does not have a princess. Both have sleeping in them.

10. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 1 Student C – In both storys people were sleeping and they both happen at night.One had a good sleep while the other did not.One had drems and the other did not.One was a drem and the other was not.

11. Third Grade PCR Sample Group 2 – Students received the same general directions as with group 1 but were told they needed to show their rough draft to a teacher before beginning to type. Approximately 70% followed the direction. The teachers glanced at the rough draft before giving permission to type extended response but did not proofread or edit any work.

12. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 2 Student D – They sleep great and not so good sometimes.And they can't get the nightmares out of there heads.When you have dreams you fell good.

13. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 2 Student E – The story “the princess On the pea” and the poem “The Land of Nod” have many similarities and many ways they are different. They are similar because they both have sleeping. In “The land of Nod”, the narrater of the poem tells where he goes when he is asleep, what the place is like, and what he does there. In “The Princess On the Pea”, It tells about how the young lady (who was actullaly a princess) slept. They are also both unusual. It is strange for a person to be able to feel apea under 20 mattresses.

14. Third Grade PCR Sample Group 3 – This group received the same instruction as the previous groups but we also discussed test-taking strategies in a computer lab setting (moving the keyboard out of the way to write in their notebooks, expectations for length of writing, and the use of headphones to diminish noise or distractions). 100% of students wrote their rough draft and showed it to their teacher before proceeding.

15. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 3 Student F – The people from princess on the pea and the land of nod are the same and different because there was a princess and a prince who fell in love. And in the land of nod a there is a guy who is making a poem about his life and his name isn't in the poem, so no one knows what his name is. The storys are different because there is a palace in one story and in the other story it does not say anything about a house or a kingom or anything. And in princess on the pea, the young lady was a real princess.

16. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 3 Student G – The princess in the"Princess and The Pea",and the narrator in"The Land of Nod"are different. Their different because the narrator loves dreams as much as you and me like spending time with our family. But the princess on the other hand didn't even get one minute of sleep all night! They both are similer though because the princess and the narrator both want to sleep. For the princess she wants to get some sleep because she had a horrible day. For the narrator he or she just wants to sleep he or so she can dream. So i think that in some ways the princess, and the narrator are similer, and in some ways they are very different.

17. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 3 Student H– The Princess on the Pea is diffrent from The Land of Nod because the princess slept teribble and the boy from the Land of Nod slept very well. Something else that's diffrent is that in the Princess on the Pea the prince gets married, and in the Land of Nod, the little boy does not get married. How they are the same is that they both involve in sleeping and they both get lost. The boy from the Land of Nod gets lost by staying on the ship twardes The Land of Nod, and the princess gets lost in the pouring rain and sees the castle.

18. Third Grade PCR SampleGroup 3 Student I – The princess on the pea and the land of nodare both bedtime stories. The Land of Nod is similar to the Princess and the Pea because they are short. They are different because The Land of Nod is a poem and the princess and the pea is not. In the princess on the pea the princess slept dredfull. In the land of nod it was a poem about dreams. It was not dredfull because they had good dreams. It was the same because they both talked about sleeping. There both day and night. And there's different ways. In the story there's evidence about land and the princess and the prince. There was breakfast on the land of nod and the other one didn't.

19. PARCC Scoring of PCRs PARCC has developed draft generic rubrics for the scoring of the three PCR items. The language of these rubrics is aligned to the CCSS, the PARCC writing evidences, and the PARCC content specific performance-level descriptors at the given grade level.

20. PARCC Scoring of PCRs To ensure reliable scoring of each PCR, PARCC will create an item specific scoring guide that includes sample scored and annotated student writings produced in response to the specific item. Human scorers will be trained to use the item-specific scoring guides developed for each PCR, with reliability of scoring for each scorer checked carefully throughout the scoring process.

21. Rubrics

22. Next Steps • Have students interact with the practice test and sample items (Both PARCC and azed.gov) • Have students and teachers become more familiar with the language and scoring of the rubric. • Look at the suggested ways to use the rubric on the parcconline.org website. • Have students get accustomed to pulling evidence fromthe text to support their writing. • Have a positive attitude.

23. What students are saying