Reading and Literature Scoring Guides

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Home > Teaching and Learning > Testing - Student Assessment > Accountability/Reporting > Scoring Guides > Reading and Literature Scoring Guides

A scoring guide is an assessment tool used to judge the quality of student performance in relation to content standards. As an assessment tool, scoring guides provide specific criteria to describe a range of possible student responses and a consistent set of guidelines to rate student work. Use of scoring guides to assess a student’s work can provide:

feedback about student progress toward meeting the benchmarks;
a common vocabulary for discussing the standards across grade levels and across districts throughout the state;
a vehicle for meaningful self-evaluation and self-reflection;
a focus for meaningful peer feedback among students.

Use of Scoring Guides
Teachers who are supporting students in meeting the state standards need to become very familiar with the Official Scoring Guides. The official guides must be used to assess all work samples for the grades 3-10 benchmarks. Since the scoring guide serves as the primary assessment tool to determine whether students have met the standards through a collection of work samples, teachers need to carefully align their classroom assessments to the criteria described on the scoring guide.

Official Scoring Guides

Grades K-3 Fluency 09/28/2006 (93.42 KB)

High School Literary Text Scoring Guide

English 09/06/2012 (211.81 KB)
Spanish 07/21/2010 (93.15 KB)

High School Informational Scoring Guide

English 09/06/2012 (268.36 KB)
Spanish 07/21/2010 (91.51 KB)

High School Scoring Guide Portrait 09/22/2011 (59.11 KB)

Student Language Scoring Guides
Teachers also need to develop ways for students to use the scoring guide effectively. The Official Scoring Guides have been translated into student language for this purpose. Some suggested practices to help students use these guides as learning tools include:

guiding students in grouping their ideas into categories that match the scoring guide;
having students write their own versions of the Official Scoring Guide (or even the student version);
creating colorful classroom posters with key words, phrases, and pictures or graphics for each dimension of the scoring guide (students may create these);
obtaining samples of student work to share with students, and teaching students to assess these using the scoring guide; applying the same process for peer feedback groups;
comparing and contrasting strong/weak examples to illustrate areas on the scoring guide;
developing mini-lessons on common problem areas;
having students track their own scores and track progress over time.