Comparing How Two Texts Present Reef Information
Mrs. Lindqvist pairs two short texts for a Grade 4 informational unit. Text 1, 'How a Reef Is Built,' is 310 words and follows a sequence: free-swimming coral larvae settle on rock, secrete a limestone skeleton, and over decades pile into a reef. Text 2, 'Too Warm to Live,' is 280 words and names a problem first, that warming water drives out the algae coral needs, then describes a solution: scientists grow coral fragments in nurseries and replant them. The item asks, 'How do the two texts present information about coral reefs differently? Use details from both texts to support your answer.' The 0-2 rubric gives 2 for naming each text's structure and supporting it with a detail from each. Two responses are on the table. Response 1: 'Text 1 is about how coral grows. Text 2 is about how coral dies. Both texts are about coral reefs.' Response 2: 'Text 1 goes in order: first larvae settle, then they build skeletons, and after many years a reef forms. Text 2 starts with a problem, because warm water makes coral lose algae, and then gives a solution, coral nurseries.' Mrs. Lindqvist must decide whether the item is fair.
1. Score Response 1 and Response 2, and explain what each score rewards or penalizes.
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Response 1 earns 0, or at most 1 if the rubric separately credits accurate topic statements. It identifies the topic of each text correctly, but the item asks how the texts present information, and 'how coral grows' versus 'how coral dies' describes content, not structure. Response 2 earns 2. It names Text 1's sequence, with larvae settling, skeletons forming, and a reef appearing after many years, and it names Text 2's problem-then-solution pattern, giving a detail for each. Notice that Response 2 does not need to use the words 'chronological' or 'problem and solution' everywhere; it demonstrates the structure through the order of events and through 'starts with a problem... then gives a solution.' That is the level the item should reward, because the benchmark asks students to compare how texts are organized, not to recite labels.
2. Response 1 is factually accurate. Explain why accuracy alone does not earn 2, and restate the rubric in student-friendly language.
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Accuracy is necessary but not sufficient here. Response 1 shows that the student understood both texts, which is real comprehension, but the item's verb is 'compare how the texts present information,' and Response 1 never addresses presentation. A student can be right about content and still miss the target. Student-friendly rubric rows: 'I named how Text 1 is organized and proved it with a detail.' 'I named how Text 2 is organized and proved it with a detail.' 'I used a word or phrase that shows the difference between them.' That last row matters, because Response 2 succeeds partly through the contrast word 'then.' Students should also be told directly that retelling both texts in order is not the same as comparing them.
3. Mrs. Lindqvist worries the item is unfair to students who do not know the term 'problem and solution.' Explain how to keep the item while removing the vocabulary barrier.
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The worry is legitimate but does not require changing the item. The benchmark asks students to identify and compare structure, not to produce the label 'problem and solution.' A student who writes 'Text 2 starts by showing what is going wrong and then tells how scientists are fixing it' has met the requirement. To remove the vocabulary barrier without giving away the answer, post a word bank of structure phrases, such as in order with first, next, then; a problem and how it was solved; cause and effect; compare and contrast. Require students to choose one and defend it with a detail. Grade 4 students who can describe the pattern in their own words but cannot recall the label should score 2; students who write only a label with no supporting detail should not.