APPENDIX D. ALIGNMENT ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY CONT’D Pieces of the Puzzle
D.10. Reading Descriptors for Depth of Knowledge (based on Karen Wixson Descriptors, 1999, NAEP Achievement Levels for Grades 4 and 8, 2002) Level 1 Level 1 requires students to receive or recite facts or to use simple skills or abilities to make sense of text. Level 1 tasks require students to comprehend text at an overall level, including making relatively obvious connections across parts of texts. Standards and items at this level require only a literal or superficial understanding of text and often ask students simply to locate information in text. Students’ thinking remains at the text level, without analysis or connections beyond the printed word. Some examples that represent, but do not constitute all of, Level 1 performance are:
Support ideas by reference to details in the text. Use a dictionary to find the meaning of words. Identify figurative language in a reading passage.
Level 2 Level 2 requires students to engage in some mental processing beyond recalling or locating and reproducing what is presented in the text; it requires both comprehension and subsequent processing of the text as a whole or making some connections across portions of text or to one’s own knowledge and experience. Inferences require thinking beyond the sentence level. Students can identify some important concepts, such as theme, but not in a deep or nuanced way. Standards and items at this level may include words such as ―summarize,‖ ―interpret,‖ ―infer,‖ ―classify,‖ ―organize,‖ ―collect,‖ ―display,‖ ―compare,‖ and ―determine‖ whether fact or opinion. Literal main ideas are stressed. A Level 2 assessment item may require students to apply some of the skills and concepts that are covered in Level 1 but to think about the text in a somewhat more sophisticated way. Some examples that represent, but do not constitute all of, Level 2 performance are:
Use context cues to identify the meaning of unfamiliar words. Predict a logical outcome based on information in a reading selection. Identify and summarize the major events in a narrative. Determine whether something is fact or opinion.
Level 3 Deep knowledge becomes more of a focus at Level 3. Using their understanding of the text as a base, students are encouraged to go beyond the actual words and ideas an author has explicitly stated. Students may be encouraged to explain, generalize, or connect ideas that appear in multiple parts of a text and even to draw upon their knowledge of other texts. Standards and items at Level 3 involve reasoning and planning. Students must be able to support their thinking. Items may involve abstract theme identification, inference across an entire passage, or students’ application of prior knowledge. Items may also involve more superficial connections between texts. Some examples that represent, but do not constitute all of, Level 3 performance are:
Determine the author’s purpose and describe how it affects the interpretation of a reading selection. Summarize information from multiple sources to address a specific topic. Analyze and describe the characteristics of various types of literature.
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Council of the Great City Schools and the American Institutes for Research
PIECES OF THE PUZZLE: FACTORS IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF URBAN SCHOOL DISTRICTS ON THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS