3-5Percent accuracy
Pick the theme statement that fits a story
Theme and central idea
By the annual IEP review date, after reading or listening to a short instructional-level story, given four statements (a theme, a topic word, a plot event and an off-target lesson), the student will choose the statement that gives the story's lesson about life and point to one event that shows it independently with at least 80% accuracy on theme choice items, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
6-8Rubric score
Trace how a theme builds across a story
Theme and central idea
By the annual IEP review date, after reading an instructional-level short story, given a three-box beginning, middle and end organizer, the student will write a theme statement and a quoted detail from the beginning, middle and end that each show the theme growing independently, earning a score of at least 9 out of 12 on a 12-point theme development rubric, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly work samples, as measured by a defined scoring rubric collected every two weeks.
9-12Rubric score
Connect a symbol or conflict to the theme
Theme and central idea
By the annual IEP review date, after reading a class novel or play, given a theme statement and a list of key symbols and conflicts, the student will write a paragraph that explains how one symbol or conflict develops the theme, with two pieces of quoted evidence independently, earning a score of at least 12 out of 16 on a 16-point literary analysis paragraph rubric, on 3 of 4 consecutive monthly work samples, as measured by a defined scoring rubric collected monthly.
3-5Percent accuracy
Sort short texts by why they were written
Author's purpose
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 short texts (ads, recipes, letters, stories, how-to pages and news briefs) at the instructional level, the student will sort each text as written to persuade, inform, explain how, or entertain and underline one clue for each independently with at least 80% accuracy on short texts sorted by purpose, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
9-12Rubric score
Analyze how a speech's choices serve its purpose
Author's purpose
By the annual IEP review date, after reading or watching a historical or current speech with a transcript, the student will write or record an analysis that states the speaker's purpose and explains how two specific choices in the text serve it independently, earning a score of at least 9 out of 12 on a 12-point rhetorical analysis rubric, on 3 of 4 consecutive monthly work samples, as measured by a defined scoring rubric collected monthly.
3-5Percent accuracy
Label narration as first or third person
Point of view
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 short instructional-level passages, some told in first person and some in third person, the student will label each passage first person or third person and circle the pronoun that shows it independently with at least 90% accuracy on point-of-view passages, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
6-8Percent accuracy
Tell what a first-person narrator could not know
Point of view
By the annual IEP review date, after reading a first-person story or chapter, given 10 statements about events and characters' thoughts, the student will mark each statement as something the narrator could know or could not know and cite the sentence that shows it independently with at least 85% accuracy on narrator knowledge statements, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
3-5, 6-8Percent accuracy
Name the device in a figurative sentence
Figurative language and literary devices
By the annual IEP review date, given 12 sentences from instructional-level texts, each containing a simile, metaphor, personification or hyperbole, the student will name the device in each sentence and underline the words that make it independently with at least 80% accuracy on figurative language sentences, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
3-5Opportunities
Explain idioms met during a read-aloud
Figurative language and literary devices
By the annual IEP review date, during a class read-aloud, when the teacher pauses after an idiom in the text, the student will say what the idiom means in the story in their own words or with a picture choice before an adult prompt in at least 4 of 5 opportunities, on 3 of 4 consecutive weekly sessions, as measured by opportunity-by-opportunity data collected weekly.
6-8, 9-12Rubric score
Explain how imagery sets a passage's mood
Figurative language and literary devices
By the annual IEP review date, after reading a descriptive passage of one or two paragraphs from a class text, the student will write a response that names the mood, quotes three sensory details, and explains how each builds the mood independently, earning a score of at least 7 out of 9 on a 9-point imagery and mood rubric, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly work samples, as measured by a defined scoring rubric collected every two weeks.
3-5Percent accuracy
Sort passages into genres by their features
Genre features
By the annual IEP review date, given 10 short excerpts from poems, plays, fables, myths and informational texts, the student will name the genre of each excerpt and point to one feature that shows it independently with at least 80% accuracy on genre excerpts, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.
6-8, 3-5Percent accuracy
Find structure parts in poems and plays
Genre features
By the annual IEP review date, given a one-page scene from a play and 10 questions about its parts, the student will answer each question by locating the named part (cast list, stage direction, speaker, scene, stanza, line, rhyme or refrain) and marking it on the page independently with at least 85% accuracy on structure questions, on 3 of 4 consecutive biweekly probes, as measured by work-sample analysis collected every two weeks.