Assessment Spotlight, Issue 224
California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) email update, March 10, 2023.Focusing on the CAASPP System and English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC)—and including, when timely, updates on California’s other statewide assessments. For questions related to test administration, coordination, and trainings, visit the CAASPP website
and the ELPAC website
.
March’s Featured Resource in Tools for Teachers—Ants are Superorganisms
High school teachers can use this month’s Tools for Teachers science instructional resource, Ants are Superorganisms
(account required), to help their students engage and understand the effect of group behavior on ant species’ ability to survive and reproduce. This phenomenon-based lesson, aligned with the California Next Generation Science Standards, focuses on the Science and Engineering Practice: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information.
In this lesson, students will evaluate the strength of evidence to support a claim that collective behavior in ants causes an increase in species survival. Through engaging visuals of ant behavior and factual evidence materials, students will develop their ability to analyze data and scientific arguments in determining the validity of the claim. All students will engage in the learning through Notice/Wonder, Think-Pair-Share, Strategic Questioning, and other strategies to assist student access and engagement with the content. This lesson will provide students with the ability to sharpen their metacognitive and questioning skills while engaging in a familiar scene. Students will not see ants the same way again.
To view this and other instructional resources, local educational agency (LEA) staff need a Tools for Teachers account, which can be obtained either through self-registration, described in the flyer How to Self-Register for Tools for Teachers (PDF), or through their LEA CAASPP coordinator.
Please share this email with any educators in your LEA who would be interested in or benefit from this information. To join the email list, send a blank email message to subscribe-caaspp@mlist.cde.ca.gov. Are you a new subscriber? Visit the California Department of Education Assessment Spotlight web page to find previous issues.