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Grade 6 - Claim 1 - Target 2

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English Language Arts

Target 2

Central Ideas

Determine a theme or central idea from details in the text, or provide a summary distinct from personal opinions or judgment.

Sample Item

Grade 6

Test

Claim 1

Reading

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

Grade

Grade 6

Standards

RL-1RL-2

Standards

  • RL-1

    Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences...

  • RL-2

    Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular...

Clarifications

Items may assess a theme or central idea/main idea in the text. Items will not ask students to summarize the entire text; students will summarize a key event(s) or idea(s). Items may assess the key details...

Range Achievement Level Descriptors

Evidence Required

  • 1

    The student will determine a theme or central idea 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
  • Multi-Select, multiple correct response
  • Evidence-based Select Response, two-part multiple choice response (EBSR);
  • Hot Text, select text
  • Short Text, constructed response (WR)

Stimuli

  • Passages

    Texts will contain one or more themes, central ideas, and/or key events.
    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 texts....

Accessibility

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

Development Notes

Short Text (Constructed Response) will always be DOK 3.

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 theme or central idea of a text using supporting evidence.

Task Description

The item stem will pose a question that requires the student to 1) determine a theme or central idea, 2) identify a key event or idea that supports a theme or central idea, 3)...

Appropriate Stems

Which [sentence/statement] best [identifies/expresses/shows] the [theme/central idea] of the text? Which [sentence/statement] best [identifies/expresses/shows] the [theme/central idea] of the [story/poem] told by the [narrator/speaker]? Which [sentence/statement] best [identifies/expresses/shows] [the author’s/character’s name’s] message about [provide theme/central idea]? Read...

Appropriate Stems for Dual-Stimuli

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

Scoring Rules

Correct response: 1 point; Incorrect response: 0 points