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Grade 3 - Claim 1 - Target 2

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English Language Arts

Target 2

Central Ideas

Identify or determine a central message, lesson or moral and explain how it is conveyed in the text through key details, key events, or the sequence of events.

Sample Item

Grade 3

Test

Claim 1

Reading

Students can read closely and analytically to comprehend a range of increasingly complex literary and informational texts.

Grade

Grade 3

Standards

RL-1RL-2

Standards

  • RL-1

    Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as...

  • RL-2

    Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or...

Clarifications

Items may assess any central message/main idea, lesson, or moral in the text. Items may assess the key details in the text that support a central idea/main idea, lesson or moral. All items should require students...

Range Achievement Level Descriptors

Evidence Required

  • 1

    The student will determine a central message/main idea, lesson or moral of a text using supporting evidence.

Item Guidelines

Depth of Knowledge

  • R-DOK2

    Level 2 includes the engagement of some mental processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response; it requires both comprehension and subsequent processing of text or portions of text. Intersentence analysis of inference is required. Some important concepts are covered but...

  • R-DOK3

    Deep knowledge becomes more of a focus at Level 3. Students are encouraged to go beyond the text; however, they are still required to show understanding of the ideas in the text. Students may be encouraged to explain, generalize, or...

Allowable Item Types

  • Multiple Choice, single correct response
  • Evidence-based Select Response, two-part multiple choice response (EBSR);
  • Hot Text, select text
  • Hot Text, reorder text (RE)
  • Short Text, constructed response (WR)

Stimuli

  • Passages

    Texts will develop one or more central messages/main idea, lessons or morals.
    Refer to Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: English Language Arts & Literacy Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) and Performance Task (PT) Stimulus Specifications for more information on literary text types.

  • Dual-Text Stimuli

    When a dual-text set contains one literary and one informational text, the literary text (text #1) is the primary focus, and the set of items must include items from the literary stimulus as well as items written across both...

Accessibility

Refer to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium: Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines for information on accessibility.

Task Models

Task Model 1

  • Item Types

    Multiple Choice, single correct response

  • Depth of Knowledge

    R-DOK2

Target Evidence Statement

  • The student will determine a central message/main idea, lesson or moral of a text using supporting evidence.

Task Description

The item stem will pose a question that requires the student to identify a central message/main idea, lesson or moral, or to identify how key details are conveyed in a text. The answer choices will...

Appropriate Stems

Which sentence best [tells/shows/describes] the [main idea/lesson/moral] of the passage? What is the [main idea/lesson/moral] of the passage? Which sentence best [tells/shows/describes] the [main idea/lesson/moral] [the narrator/character’s name] learns in the passage? Which sentence best [tells/shows/describes] [the...

Appropriate Stems for Dual-Stimuli

What message can be found in both [title text #1] and [title text #2]? NOTE: This stem can only be used with two literary passages. What main idea from [title text #1] is made more...

Scoring Rules

Correct response: 1 point; Incorrect response: 0 points