The online scholastic news puts out a few "tests" or something similar to that each year, which are somewhat similar. I also noticed Newsela just came out with a feature where you can have an article on the left hand side and then have a student write a response / answer various prompts on the right hand side - similar to the SBA. The SBA is going to be the best option right now, but I know there's a couple resources that we've talked about that I'm forgetting - if I remember, I'll let you know!
Thanks. You mean the fall and spring tests connected with Scholastic News, right? Those look like good ones. If they're the ones I'm thinking of, you need a subscription to Scholastic News, but I've got that covered. I will check out NewsELA too. It would be nice to have that format with the text side-by-side with questions. Considering how big of a deal is, it seems like there would be more out there. :unsure:
I am sure you know this, but just in case. You can create these with any document by opening 2 of them and rezizing them side by side.
Yes, those are the ones. The great thing about the NewsELA is that you'd just need to write a prompt, and then students would just need to sign into their account (granted, that would take some set-up, but it's also a wonderful site to use besides this!), and then the split screen would be all set up for them once they access it (like it will be on the SBA) instead of having to set everything up for every student (or getting them to) with documents...not to mention finding articles and setting up the documents. And I think there are more, I'm just blanking on what we had talked about when this came up. Not exactly the same with highlighting tools and all of that, but at least with the multi-screen / having to scroll to read and refer back to text, etc... There is a "writing to text" common core book that you might search for (4th grade is a red cover)...that is a resource that a couple of my colleagues have pulled from.
Yup And we talked about that too. But having the documents set with articles and teaching the kids to resize them and making sure it requires them to scroll...all of those little things added up to us wanting to look for other options, too!
All of these, including knowing how to scroll, log in, type... those are all the hidden tests embedded within the SBAC / online testing.
Ah! An e-mail reminded me. Do you have access to Accelerated Reader? If so, look into AR 360 (or talk to them about maybe getting a free trial) - it has articles where you can actually highlight and do many similar things to the SBA, and also allows students to respond online. Another possibility or something to look into...
Someone I know suggested I create my own Google Doc. Write a prompt, and then create a box that students can type into. You're right, there should be plenty of stuff out there to practice! Where is it???
