Did you eat the bear, or did the bear eat you? Three points were possible for this question. Check the answers -- in bold -- then read an explanation of how this question measures Common Core standards.
QUESTION 4: 8TH GRADE ENGLISH
Read the excerpt from "Call of the Wild" by Jack London, below, and answer these questions.
Part A: Which statement best reflects a theme of the excerpt from "Call of the Wild"?
- Survival is unlikely when one is new to an environment.
- Survival requires adapting to one's surroundings.
- One cannot rely on others when learning to survive.
- Advanced preparation is necessary for survival.
Part B: Which two details from the excerpt best support the answer in Part A?
- "Here and there savage dogs rushed upon him, but he bristled his neck-hair and snarled (for he was learning fast), and they let him go his way unmolested." (paragraph 1)
- "Again he wandered about through the great camp, looking for them, and again he returned." (paragraph 2)
- "He sprang back, bristling and snarling, fearful of the unseen and unknown." (paragraph 2)
- "Buck confidently selected a spot, and with much fuss and wasted effort proceeded to dig a hole for himself." (paragraph 3)
- "It was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears..." (paragraph 4)
- "... he saw the white camp spread out before him and knew where he was..." (paragraph 4)
What does this sample question illustrate? Keith Courville, executive director of the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, said these are parts C and D of the question we started Tuesday, and they show the progression in the new tests from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. We've condensed and edited his response.
This is pretty much how the English section works. Some of the questions are going to be five parts long, and Part E is going to be a writing exercise.
In Part A they're going to ask you about a word. In Part B they're going to ask you to justify yourself from the text. In Part C they're going to ask you deeper questions -- here, they're asking you about the theme from the excerpt. That's critical thinking. And Part D: Just think about it. If you randomly guessed the theme, how would you get Part D right?
Then, at the very end of the most difficult question, it's going to have students compare different pieces of literature and write about them. That's not only compare-contrast -- it's synthesis, it's comparing evidence from the text and it's good old-fashioned writing.
How is it different from the old Louisiana LEAP tests?
The first part of Thursday's question could be a question on the LEAP. It's asking "what's the theme." That's nothing that's out of the norm. What LEAP did not do, five years ago, was it didn't ask how you got that answer. PARCC tries to determine whether or not students truly know the material.
(To accommodate adult schedules, we decided not to give the second reading for eighth graders, or the essay section that brings the readings together.)
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Learn more about our Common Core quiz project and get ready for Question No. 5 at noon Friday.