Using TEKS Resource System to Teach Drama

In the Year at a Glance, it's easy to get lost in the title of the unit and the list of TEKS. As if they are some kind of checklist. The KEY standard that guides all of them in this unit is 4A. All of the work you do with the rest of the standards hinges on this one: 

Students must look at dramatic conventions to understand, make inferences, draw conclusions, and provide text evidence about how these structures and elements enhance the text. 

The key part here is that the dramatic elements have a purpose: to enhance style, tone, and mood (2A, 2D, and to some extent 1B). More specifically, the standard gives us instances that help us know what kind of dramatic conventions we might consider: monologues, soliloquies, and dramatic irony. 

So our work with this standard can't really be boiled down to putting a single TEK on the board as the objective. It's more complicated and interwoven than that because we are working with author's purpose and craft and literary analysis. 

The performance assessment also has the opportunity to confound planning. If you're not careful, the way this assignment is presented can turn into a low rigor assessment that better fits the 6th grade TEK that asks student to compare how the setting influences plot. We are doing more than that here in 9th grade English. 

Notice that this performance assessment asks students to recreate a scene into a different time period. We can't leave out the tone and mood part either. But what is not mentioned here is that the whole point of our drama unit is to examine how writers, directors, or actors can communicate the theme, tone, and mood through the dramatic elements. 

This lesson can easily devolve into a simple retelling instead of a purposeful use of dramatic conventions. And the assessment can devolve into an activity or assignment if the teacher has not addressed the lessons about dramatic conventions during the reading phase of this process. 

So if we have read The Importance of Being Ernest, we are going to have to address the dramatic elements that are present in the text. I did a little research and found several categories of dramatic conventions: 

Dramatic Conventions
Rehearsal	Theatrical	Technical
hot seating	split focus	lighting
role on the wall	flashback	dialogue
still images	flashforward	monologue
	narration	set
	soliloquy	costuming
	spoken thought	entrance/exits
	aside
	song
	passing of time
	use of music

Since the standards suggest monologues and the play has several, let's just pick that one. 

How does Wilde use the monologues to communicate his theme? That has to be the focus of the modeling and gradual release of the analysis as students read the scenes and selected monologues.

Applying it to writing: 

When it's time to write for the assessment, the writers must first explore what theme they wish to convey. THEN they can write a scene where a monologue is used purposefully to convey the theme. Students can make decisions about what character would best deliver those lines and describe why. They can make decisions about how and why a character would compose and deliver those lines. They can lift particular lines and phrases from the monologue that best support the theme. 

Students could then trade their compositions and see if the other groups or teams could discern the theme and debate why the character was or was not the best choice to deliver the message. Students can discuss the evidence that was or was not effective in delivering the author's message. 

Our work here is NOT about adapting a play to a new setting. What are kids actually learning? They are learning how authors use the dramatic elements and conventions of drama to make meaning. And they are learning how to do them same for their own messages. 

Note: Students in English II could read the same play, but focus on the motifs and archetypes used by Wilde to communicate the themes. 

STAAR Lexiles and Passing Standards for Meets and Masters

WARNING: Facts and opinions ahead...

Good morning Shona,

Can you help me?  My director asked this question this morning:

“Can you tell me anything about crazy Lexile for reading STAAR grade 3 for Meets and Masters?”

I don’t know what she means by Meets and Masters as the students would all see the same passage.  I guess maybe she wants to know how the Lexile measure is determined for STAAR???

Can you help me with any of this?

Just the kind of question I like to geek out about! 

Two different "things" are at play here. Lexiles actually have nothing to do with the cut points for passing. Those cut points come from separate calculation. And Lexiles don't really tell you how hard something is to read either. It's a bunch of hooey, but don't tell anyone I said that. More on that at the end. 

Two Uses of Lexiles

1. So the passages go through a review process. Lexiles are only  one of the measures used to see if passages are at the right reading level. I wrote a blog post about that recently.These Lexiles for the passages are not reported by TEA. But you can cut and paste the released test text, put it through a Lexile calculator, and find out. You probably won't like the results. That's how we traditionally see Lexiles used - to measure the complexity of  a text. But that's not what we see above on the Scale Score conversion chart. 

2. 3rd -8th grade students will get a confidential student report after taking STAAR that also reports their Lexile level. The Lexile assigned to the student comes from some wonky psychometric stuff. Basically, TEA and Lexile folks did a research study. They gave kids another test and compared the results to how kids score (scale scores) on STAAR. This is supposed to tell us what level of books these kids are reading with ease. 

Lexile to Scale Score Study

Here's how TEA explains it: "TEA partnered with MetaMetrics to conduct a series of studies to examine the relationship between the Lexile® scale and the STAAR reading scale. Student participants were representative of Texas student population in reading ability and were similar to Texas student population in demographics such as gender, ethnicity, economic status, and ELL status. Students were given a paper/pencil Lexile® Linking Test that contained multiple-choice reading comprehension questions. Students´ results on the Lexile® Linking Test were examined in relation to the students’ results on the STAAR reading test. Researchers were able to establish a link between the STAAR reading scale and the Lexile® scale. Although no high-stakes was associated with the Lexile® measure on STAAR report card, it can be used as a resource for parents and educators. With Lexile® measures, parents and educators now have information that can be used to promote and encourage growth in reading."

On the confidential student report and on the scale score conversion chart, Lexiles from that study are reported.  They add that Lexile "link" from the research study to the Raw Score conversion table for grades 3-8. Lexiles aren't used in English I and II on the student report or the Raw Score conversion table. Because it doesn't work - especially with authentic vs engineered texts and for the qualitative features of text complexity - but that's my opinion. 

 Do Lexiles tell us who will meet or exceed STAAR passing expectations? 

The cut points between who does not meet, approaches, meets,  or masters the assessment have NOTHING to do with Lexiles. Who passes and by how much is calculated from THREE separate processes. 

• First, there is a process by which the state compares the current test to previous tests. In this way, they can see which tests are harder or easier and ensure that a passing score is fair even when the tests themselves differ somewhat. That's why you see the raw score for passing change by one or two questions each year. 
• Second, there is a process to determine where the cut points are for passing are made. The cut points for do not meet, approaches, meets, and masters are established AFTER the test results are all in. It's a separate mathematical magic than even the scale score conversion. 
• Third, there are graduated percentages of passing that rise each year for accountability purposes. 

The Lexiles are associated with the scale score and research study alone. They aren't connected to the cut point calculations or passing percentages. The reported numbers for student Lexiles are just where the numbers fall from the Lexile linking study.  

The hope is that by adding Lexiles to the confidential student report, teachers and parents can find books that are at the right reading levels for kids - stuff that's not at the frustration level - so they can grow. A reading sweet spot.

Are Lexiles Valid in Determining Text Complexity?

Now, whether or not Lexiles are an appropriate method to select reading levels is another argument. TEA uses the measure, but relies primarily on teacher judgement. I've written about that here: Click on the names of the reading level instruments in this presentation to see how Animal Farm stacks up with multiple forms of readability assessments. Lexiles used without teacher discretion are hogwash. 

Bottom Line? I wouldn't pay a bit of attention to what Lexiles match which levels of passing on STAAR. 

More Resource: 

Here's some more resources to help you understand how Lexiles are reported and used for STAAR.

https://tea.texas.gov/Student_Testing_and_Accountability/Testing/CSR/Annotated_STAAR_Report_Card/

http://www.texasassessment.com/families/literacy-and-lexiles/