The Open-Ended Response

Answer each question with a complete sentence!

The “old-school” way to answer a short answer question is actually similar to the Texas OER way!

1. Restate the question

2. Check for a complete and correct

answer.3. Use textual evidence.

Reasons for a 1 on an OER• The student does not understand what textual evidence

really is.• The student’s textual evidence does not support his answer.• The student provides many answers and not enough textual

evidence to support all of the answers.• The student gives partial textual evidence. This is called

“snippets.”• The answer is not explained completely or clearly.• The student introduces a new idea in the

commentary/explanation at the end.• The student’s answer is too vague – not specific enough.• The student’s answer relates to people/ideas outside the

text. He needs a clear idea and clear textual evidence.• The student’s textual evidence “echoes” the idea.

Cultivated from the ideas of Victoria Young, Director of Reading, Writing, & Social Studies Assessments TEA

Reasons for a 2 on an OER

• The student’s idea is not as strong as his textual evidence – “idea-light”

• The student’s textual evidence does not show a deep understanding – “text-light”

Cultivated from the ideas of Victoria Young, Director of Reading, Writing, & Social Studies Assessments TEA

Answer/Idea

+Textual Evidence

Answer & Textual Evidence

One of Adjoa’s major conflicts in “The Girl Who Can” is that she is afraid to say what is on her mind because of the responses she had received in the past. “And that, I think, is a very serious problem because it is always difficult to decide whether to keep quite and not say any of the things that come into my head, or say them and get laughed at”

Answer

Textual Evidence

Our Goals

• To teach them to know what the question is asking

• To teach them to find a correct answer and make it clear and complete

• To teach them to go back to the text for support

Scaffold!!!

Basic Response

Exemplary Response